Lovie Smith
In an extremely surprising move last Wednesday night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to fire head coach Lovie Smith. In two seasons as the Buccaneers head coach, Smith had a record of 8-24, but this was a team that was on the rise. Smith inherited a very young team that went 2-14 under him in 2014. The Bucs would finish with worst record in the National Football League which earned them the first overall pick in the draft last April. The Buccaneers would select quarterback Jameis Winston as they looked to him as a building block for their franchise. Winston just finished up a solid rookie campaign as he passed for 4,042 yards while throwing 22 touchdown passes and 15 interceptions as he appears to be the front runner to be named as the NFL’s Rookie of the Year. Even at the of 22, Winston was beginning to emerge as a leader for the Buccaneers. And due to Smith’s guidance, the youngster appeared to be putting his off-the-field issues in college behind him; which made it surprising when the announcement was made that Tampa Bay was going in another direction.
Under Smith, Tampa Bay finished the 2015 NFL season with a record of 6-10, and they were showing signs of improvement. After 12 games, the Buccaneers were 6-6 before losing their final four games of the season. The Bucs lost four games this season by eight points or less, but they appeared to building towards something. Tampa Bay was fifth in total offense and tenth in total defense this past season which added to the surprise in the firing of Smith.
Joel Glazer
All season long there were never any reports coming out of Tampa that Smith’s job security was in jeopardy, and he recently met with his coaching staff to discuss their plans for next season as the Buccaneers appeared to be just a defensive leader away from being a solid playoff contender. But Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer saw things a little bit differently and thus he decided to make a change. And to make matters worse, Glazer never met with Smith face-to-face as the head coach was fired via phone. The Buccaneers have attempted to spin the issue around claiming that Smith was informed Wednesday via phone from team general manager Jason Licht that Glazer wanted to meet with him Thursday morning. Smith picked up on the vibe and declined the face-to-face because he knew what was coming.
The departure of Smith has already rankled some Buccaneer players such as veteran defensive tackle Gerald McCoy who found out about the firing while he was putting gas in his car last Wednesday night. Smith’s firing will mean that the Buccaneers will now have to hire their fifth different head coach since 2008 and it shouldn’t be a shock that over this stretch, the organization has only been able to enjoy two winning seasons with no trips to the postseason. But Glazer and Licht are going to have themselves a very tough selling job ahead of them when they hire their next coach due to the fact that their last two head coaches (Greg Schiano, and Smith) were each only able to get two seasons at the helm before they were fired in Tampa as building a winner in the National Football League takes some time.
Smith was in the process of changing the culture in Tampa Bay and he has a proven track record of doing so. In 2001, Smith became the defensive coordinator of St. Louis Rams and he took over a unit that finished last in the National Football League in the previous season in total defense. And in Smith’s first year with the Rams, St. Louis would have the seventh ranked defense in the NFL as they won the NFC Championship. From 2004-2012, Smith was the head coach of the Chicago Bears. When Smith took over the Bears, they were coming off of a string of seven losing campaigns over an eight-year stretch. The Bears did go 5-11 in Smith’s first year in Chicago, but but by 2005, they won their division for the first time since 2001. Under Smith, the Bears would make the Super Bowl for just the second time in franchise history and they were always a playoff contender.
The Buccaneers simply gave up on Smith and in the process, they didn’t do themselves any favors of how they handled everything. Smith is a man of class and dignity, but the Glazer Family failed to treat him accordingly. Now the Bucs must start the process over of attempting to find another head coach which could slow down the maturation process of Winston. On top of that, a new head coach could potentially bring in a new defensive scheme which could take away from the “Cover 2” defense that Smith had employed which was beginning to produce some positive results.
But firing of Smith really shouldn’t be that much of a surprise if you’ve followed the Buccaneers franchise throughout their 40 years of existence. After helping the Buccaneers reach the postseason from 1979-1982, quarterback Doug Williams was given the cold shoulder by former team owner Hue Culverhouse which led the quarterback to leaving for the United States Football League. After 1982, the Bucs would endure 14 consecutive losing seasons while Williams would join the Washington Redskins in 1986, and he helped them to win Super Bowl 22. In 1996, Tony Dungy became the head coach of the Bucs and by 1997, he had Tampa Bay in the postseason. But after consecutive first-round losses by the Buccaneers in 2000 and 2001, Dungy was fired.
Dirk Koetter
Rumors have surfaced the current Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter is the prime candidate to replace Smith as the organization was fearful of losing him to another team in the National Football League that currently has a head coaching vacancy. The Bucs don’t want Winston to start over with another offensive voice in the room, but in doing so they’ve parted with a leader in Smith. But regardless of who will the Buccaneers head coach in 2016, he will have a tough sell job on his hands as he’ll be taking over a locker room that was committed to Smith.
There is only one championship that is handed out each year in the National Football League as it is truly the great organizations that win. And by the looks of things, the Bucs have long way to go before they can claim another Super Bowl Title as they are the circus of West Florida.
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