The Tampa Bay Buccaneers can take solace in the fact that they appear to have left their chaotic, losing-filled days in the past after the success they've seen in the last half-decade. The days of Greg Schiano were some of the bleakest in a franchise that has plenty of bleak times to choose from.
Schiano was unable to replicate the same formula for success he had at a Rutgers program that was spinning their tires. What followed after he was hired was nothing short of misery, so much so that some believe only a few coaches hired in the last 25 years are worse.
In CBS Sports' ranking of the worst coaches of the current century, Schiano ranked as the 18th-worst in the league. His win-loss record might not have been as bad as many ranked above him, but his attitude is as bad as it could possibly get.
Former Buccaneers coach Greg Schiano ranked as 18th-worst coach of last 25 years
Schiano made Rutgers a winner, but he only had one season out of 10 in which the Scarlet Knights won more than 10 games. That isn't the type of production one might expect from a coach who was making the jump from the college level to the pros.
Schiano becoming perhaps the tightest-wound human being in the league didn't help matters. Between beefing with Tom Coughlin one month into his career, alienating starting quarterback Josh Freeman for no reason, and never adjusting his schematic tendencies, Schiano's 7-9 debut was a high point.
Schiano's second season ended in a 4-12 nightmare that featured a 0-8 start and even more bad vibes emanating from Tampa Bay's facility. With one player comparing Schiano's teams to playing in Cuba, his decision to angrily treat his NFL players like the college kids he coached in New Jersey was what brought Schiano down.
Schiano has since returned to the college ranks at his old stomping ground in Piscataway, helping take the Scarlet Knights from as dead as a program can be to somewhat respectable. Schiano realized he wasn't geared to coach in the pros, though it took a ruined era of Bucs football for him to come to that conclusion.
It could always get worse than Todd Bowles.