Buccaneers Coaching Candidate: Marty Schottenheimer

TAMPA — The Buccaneers are in the midsts of a massive coaching search and the names of candidates and their rumored involvement with the team is mounting.

The Bucs interviewed former Packers and Texas A&M Coach Mike Sherman on Thursday and have scheduled an interview with Titans Jerry Gray.  But there is one name that very one seems to be overlooking.

As listed in a special edition of The Pewter Plank Recap, names like Jeff Fischer, Rob Chudzinski and Brian Billick are being rattled off, but if the Bucs are looking or an mature minded winner there is one guy out there no one seems to be calling that knows those things.

I bare balme for grossly overlooking this name, but Marty Schottenheimer,  a guy who has won with numerous teams in the NFL, is still looking for a job.

Well maybe he’s not looking but the job should be looking for him. Specifically the job in Tampa Bay.

Ponder it for a moment: the Buccaneers want a winner. And Schottenheimer has only posted two losing seasons in his 21 seasons as an NFL head coach. Schottenheimer has only had a team finish below second place five times in his entire career.

The down side of course is Marty’s age, he’s 68 in a young man’s game. But the Bucs, as David Moulton points out, just fired the youngest coach in the NFL. Tampa hasn’t made it a secret they’re looking to go the opposite direction of what Morris represented and Schottenheimer is exactly that.

He’s mature. He’s dsclinpned, he’s a winner.

Of course the major gripe the greater NFL community has with Marty is he’s a winner despite being a loser. Schottenheimer is 0-3 in AFC Championship games and is 5-13. But let’s break that down and look at it glass half full: Schottenheimer has taken his team to the

playoffs 13 times and coached in 18 playoff games.

Tampa Bay has been to the post season 10 times in franchise history.

Along with the issue of Schottenheimer’s age along with his losing playoff luck, is how his coaching career ended. After doing as well as he did in his career, he had some of his worst finishes in his last stretch with the Chargers. Although he got fired after posting his best coaching record of his career (he finished 2006 14-12 in San Diego), it came after a third place finish and came two years removed from a 4-12 season.

But the case for hiring Schottenheimer is this: his reputation as a regular season winner is undeniable and his ability to assemble great coaching staffs is a great plan for the future. When he was abruptly fired in San Diego, the Chargers did it thinking the ‘fine coaching staff’ would remain put.

Shottenheimer is the father coach of such coaching success like Herm Edwards, Bill Cower and Tony Dungy. If he wants to coach in the NFL, the Bucs need to give him a call.

They should actually call him regardless because if they want to win they need a guy that knows how to do it. Shottenheimer has proven with his 200 career wins and the fact just over 60 percent of his seasons as a head coach need in playoff berths he knows how to win. Besides with his ability to craft masterful staffs, when Shottenheimer calls it quits, chances are there will be a pretty competent in0house coach to be the successor.

If you’re not sold on Shottenheimer as the Bucs next head coach, think of this: not once has Marty taken a job and not won. From Cleveland to San Diego and even his one season in Washington where he finished in second place, Shottenheimer has never made a team worse in his first season as a head coach. He transforms teams into winners and keeps them at that level, and that fits the exact needs this Tampa Bay team is desperate for.