Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Tags
BY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished with a 4-12 record during this NFL season, and reports are saying that they’ve settled on a new coach who knows something about rebuilding. That would be Greg Schiano of Rutgers.
ESPN reports that Schiano and the Bucs had their second meeting on Wednesday, and spent a number of hours attempting to finalize a contract. Tampa Bay fired Raheem Morris after the season.
The Daily Targum reported that Schiano joined Rutgers in 2000, after he had been defensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes for two years. His last NFL experience was in coaching the Chicago Bears secondary between 1996 and 1998.
According to ESPN, Schiano has a career record of 68-67 at Rutgers, but had records of 2-9 in 2001 in his first year, and 1-11 in 2002. But Rutgers was 8-5 in 2007 and 2008, and posted 9-4 records in two of the past three seasons. Schiano’s most successful season was 2006, when the Scarlet Knights were 11-2.
Oregon coach Chip Kelly had been the Buccaneers’ first choice for coach, but he pulled his name from consideration on Monday. The team has also interviewed former Green Bay Packers and Texas A&M coach Bill Sherman two times.
Mike Freeman of CBS Sports calls the hiring of Schiano a “panic move” by the Buccaneers. He says Schiano is a good man, and hiring young and unproven is fine, but great college coaches with limited or no professional coaching experience have failed miserably in the NFL in the past.
Schiano has a contract with Rutgers paying him about $2.35 million a year that lasts through 2016.
