Greg Schiano, new Head Coach for Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are about to be relevant again. After a terribly disappointing 2011 season, where the team finished 4-12 and ended the year on a 10 game losing streak, change was needed. The team that came into the year with so much potential seemed to play without any sort of purpose, and rolled over in front of every single team they played down the stretch. Raheem Morris was ousted at the end of the regular season and Tampa Bay brought in Rutgers’ Head Coach Greg Schiano to fill his shoes. Schiano is the perfect man for the job.
As a Giants fan, I know first-hand how much of a difference a strong presence at head coach can make. Tom Coughlin inherited a team from Jim Fassel that lacked discipline and motivation, and managed to instill those values into his team. There was definitely a fair share of growing pains – as there will be with Schiano – but the results are there.
In his stint at Rutgers from 2001 to the end of 2011, Schiano undoubtedly instilled discipline into his group of players and played the part of the alpha-male as he made the Scarlet Knights relevant again. He has the skill set and the mindset that a successful NFL Head Coach must have, and no team could benefit more from what he brings to the table than the Bucs.
The talent to win games is there: QB Josh Freeman has all the tools to be great, RB Lagarrette Blount is an absolute force, Kellen Winslow Jr. is a viable tight end option, not to mention Aqib Talib and the staggeringly long list of underachieving athletes on the defensive side of the ball.
Defense is the one area that I am sure will improve under Schiano. Coach Schiano has proven that he knows how manage a defense throughout his career, dating all the way back to his job as assistant coach with the Chicago Bears from ’96 to ’98. It may take a few games for the team to gel, but I can see this group being a force to be reckoned with in the 2012 season. Unless Schiano completely lays an egg – which has happened before when a team brings in a college coach – I believe that Tampa Bay will give the other teams in the NFC South some trouble.
Who knows, maybe his tough demeanor won’t mesh with the group and he’ll fall on his face like his predecessors have. But my money says that this guy will come in and change the atmosphere in Tampa, and we will see a completely different team than the one that was getting slapped around in this past season. The parts to build a successful franchise are there, and I feel like Greg Schiano can put them together and make them work in ways that Raheem Morris could not. Maybe he could even achieve the impossible and inspire Albert Haynesworth to run sprints and take the field on a regular basis, but it would be just plain silly to expect something like that.
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