Anyway, I finally figured it out when I started to think about my fallback options. Normally, I would just go with the team that has more Volunteers on it, which this year would be the Patriots with Jerod Mayo and Shaun Ellis. But then I’d be rooting for the Patriots and that instantly made me feel like a douchebag. And that gave me my answer. Of course I can’t root for the Patriots. That would mean I’d be rooting for the Patriots. And holy shit I’m tired of the Patriots. Yes, we know. They’re always in the running, they’re always good and every year they break more records. They’re the team of the decade and I’m sick to death of them. I’m sure Tom Brady is a great guy, but if he was crushed by a rogue meteor in the middle of Boston Common, that’d be just fine with me. How can Bill Belichick possibly push that underdog mentality when his team has done nothing but win for ten straight years? They just need to go the fuck away. I don’t even need the Bucs to replace them — anyone will do. Is the next decade the decade of the Jaguars or the Bills or the Browns? Fine, whatever. Just get these goony, arrogant pricks off my screen.

So, yes, I will be a Giants fan on Sunday. Feel free to enjoy the chat room or the message board or this entry’s comments for your smack talking pleasure this weekend.

JoeBucsFan: Your thoughts on the Bucs hiring Greg Schiano as their new coach?

Gil Brandt: From what I know of him, I think it’s a good thing. I talked to [Bucs defensive tackle] Gerald McCoy who is here today and I told him I thought [Schiano's hiring] was a good thing and he said, “I just hope he is organized.”

If that’s the one quality that McCoy feels like Schiano must have, it’s probably the thing that was most missing last season. And that’s the trouble with being your own coordinator. Coordinators worry about the Xs and Os of the game while the head coach provides an overall structure and tone. Especially a first-time head coach as young as Raheem Morris is. He needed someone to take some responsibility off his plate. Without that you’ve got… well, the Bucs.

All indications are that Greg Schiano is super-orgainzed and disciplined. And he’s been a head coach for a while, so this isn’t the gig where he gets all the kinks out. That’s always nice.

Anyway, Dominik didn’t reveal everything they told him. But he did share what some of those guys thought of the defensive line.

“I think a lot of people, including ourselves, (wonder),” Dominik said. “Let’s be candid and honest: Gerald McCoy hasn’t played a lot of football in the past two years. Da’Quan Bowers played at the end of the year. (Adrian) Clayborn’s played one year and (Brian) Price has been off and on. There’s a nucleus of defensive linemen that we’re still trying to figure out, myself included. But as we talked to people about the defensive front four and the quarterback and the pieces around them, they were intriguing for coaches.”

We were all pretty sure that the quarterback and defensive line were the strengths of this team, but at least now we have Mike Sherman‘s validation, which is worth exactly as much as it sounds. And I don’t think Dominik would have told us that coaches reamed him over draft picks and told him that his linebackers suck platypus dong, so who knows to what extent they gave their criticisms of the team. But it’s nice to hear something besides “follow the plan” or “stay the course” or whatever else they were saying that made it sound like they thought everything was A-OK.

BUCS FREE AGENTS: Pat Yasinskas has a list of Bucs who will be free agents next month, and it should go without saying that Connor Barth is the top priority to get re-signed. He was the most consistent and dependable player on the team and the Bucs totally lucked out by being able to sign him after the Mike Nugent debacle.

I’d lay odds that Ronde Barber sticks around for one more year. Greg Schiano is a top recruiter and he can get Ronde excited about the new direction of the team. And Schiano isn’t letting Jeremy Zuttah get away. I think there’s some loyalty there. Even though Earnest Graham is getting older and ended the season on injured reserve, the Bucs should keep him around one more year. It wasn’t a coincidence that the Bucs didn’t win a game after he got hurt. And Corey Lynch should be re-signed if for no other reason than his special teams abilities. All the other unrestricted guys I could take or leave. Any of them could definitely be improved upon.

BUCS REALLY WANT MCNULTY: There was a rumor that the Bucs were trying to get permission to interview John McNulty, currently the Cardinals’ receivers coach, for offensive coordinator. The Cardinals denied the request, but the Bucs haven’t stopped nagging them.

Because it’s such an important hire, the Bucs still are working behind the scenes to acquire McNulty, the Times confirmed. The effort may include an appeal directly to Cardinals owner Bill Bidwell. But it’s hard to imagine the Cardinals reversing course at this point.

McNulty was Schiano’s offensive coordinator at Rutgers for a few years, so that’s why there’s a big push to get him. But I don’t think the Bucs saying “pretty please” is going to make a difference. And you can’t trade draft picks or cash for coaching rights anymore, so I’m not sure what else the Bucs thinks they can do to persuade the Cardinals to let him go. Maybe my buddy Nicky Santoro has an idea.

DEUCE GRUDEN WILL PLAY COLLEGE BALL: Deuce Gruden, Jon Gruden‘s son, kicked off National Signing Day today when he committed to Lafayette College.

“He’s put in a lot of hard work and he’s had a lot of help from his coaches and teammates along the way but this just puts an exclamation point on a great career here at CDS,” Jon Gruden said. “I knew Deuce wanted to (play college football) when he was 5 or 6. He’s had that ambition, that desire for a long time and that’s why this is such a great day.”

Shoulda been a walk-on at Tennessee, Deuce.

Sapp sent out some tweets that blasted Sherman and general manager Mark Dominik, who use the same agent. Sherman had interviewed with the Bucs early in the process and again last week.

Butler claims that Sapp’s tweets influenced the Glazers to pass on Sherman and hire Greg Schiano away from Rutgers.

Yasinskas mostly dismisses this theory although he does leave a little wiggle room by saying he’d “like to think” it’s not true. Well of course it’s not true. Sapp is a welcome guest at One Buc Place and will soon have his name in the Ring of Honor as well as the Hall of Fame, but they’re not going to turn to the guy for hiring decisions. If that were the case, they’d have hired Rod Marinelli, who Sapp absolutely loves. The Glazers know why Sapp doesn’t like Sherman and it’s not a valid reason to remove him from consideration for the job. A player who last was with the team nine years ago having a personal grudge against a coach isn’t going to influence businessmen like the Glazers. If they really took a player’s legacy into account when they made their decisions, the whole Derrick Brooks thing would have gone down a lot differently.

I saw guys on Twitter and message boards who were saying that being pro-Sherman is tantamount to being anti-Sapp and that’s complete bullshit. Why do I need to give a shit about who Sapp has a personal beef with in order to root for a particular coach to get the job? I kind of liked the fact that Sherman was willing to stick up for a player that he believed got cheapshotted (even though I am on Sapp’s side that it wasn’t really that cheap). I like a little fire in a coach. Being a fan of a team or a player doesn’t mean you automatically align yourself with their rivalries or biases or anything else. People need to stop being such fucking sheep.

Two players who allegedly deserve some criticism for not working hard enough are running back LeGarrette Blount and wide receiver Mike Williams. Sources said both players were not spending the right amount of time preparing their bodies for Sunday. Neither one was hitting the weight room or training room as they should. Former coaches said both players needed to spend regular time in the cold tub and build their bodies in the weight room to play better on Sundays.

And there are no more reliable sources than recently fired and probably bitter ex-coaches who throw their former players under busses anonymously and have nothing to lose by taking out their frustrations on them publicly.

Former team staff said Williams in particular was a mess. In the beginning of the season, Williams was struggling to get separation from defensive backs. He thought he was too heavy, so he started losing weight, and by the end of the season, sources said that Williams was too frail and didn’t have the strength to fight off jams and re-routes. Williams also was said to be partying a lot at night, and as a result, he was falling asleep during meetings.

The part about Williams not getting separation is true. The rest of that story makes him sound like Karen Carpenter. Raheem Morris may have gotten overly permissive in his last season, but I’m going to say that if he saw that one of this players was getting “frail” that he would have been on it. You can’t hide a cornerback jamming you off your route and if that was what was happening, Raheem would have done something about it, especially in those last several weeks when he started turning up the heat.

This isn’t to say that the story is completely untrue. Williams’s workout and practice habits probably went to shit, and that would explain a lot. But “frail” is a bit much. This is the Star Magazine of football.

One coach said that if Williams doesn’t wake up and turn things around, he will have another down year.

Really? If Williams continues to do the things that produced a bad year, he’ll have another bad year? Someone give this man a degree in physics!

I think one of the first things Greg Schiano does is lay down the law for practice and training habits. Schiano won’t have any problem benching a player who isn’t ready to go out and compete. And Schiano doesn’t have any loyalty to any of the current players (except possibly Jeremy Zuttah) so no one will be immune, including Williams or Blount.

Peter King is saying in this week’s MMQB that Greg Schiano may be eyeing Butch Davis for his defensive coordinator. I know, can you believe it? The Patriots are in the Super Bowl and King managed to write a paragraph that doesn’t mention Tom Brady. I blame coffee poisoning.

Not sure whether Davis would be defensive coordinator or an assistant head coach, but Schiano’s interested in adding him to the staff at Tampa Bay. Schiano was Davis’ defensive coordinator at the University of Miami in 1999 and 2000, and they have remained close. Davis hasn’t coached in the NFL since he was dismissed by the Browns after the 2004 season. He’d be a good sounding board for Schiano.

New Jersey is one of the 26 places King considers home, and I have no doubt he has some connections with Schiano or the Rutgers program or someone who may know this, so I’m pretty sure Schiano is at least considering it. And of course he’d be the defensive coordinator. Teams don’t have assistant head coaches without other titles and what else would Davis be?

Davis’s key claim to fame is the Cowboys’ defense during their rebuild and first two Super Bowls of the 90s. In 1994, Davis’s last year in Dallas, the Cowboys had the #1 overall defense. And it’s not like that team was overflowing with Hall of Famers, either. They had Charles Haley and Darren Woodson and a couple others that were very good, but you have to think that Davis got the most out of them. Davis’s time with the Browns was ultimately disappointing, but he did get that team to the playoffs one year, which is no small feat. I mean, it’s Cleveland.

Schiano prides himself on having an attacking mentality on defense and he’d want Davis to do the same. I think he would come in with a clear plan of how he wanted to construct the defense, how he wanted each position played, and what everyone’s role is. And I think that was missing from Raheem Morris‘s defense. Morris wanted to have this hybrid thing and no one really got good at their position. If Davis is the guy, I think all the guesswork is over and guys can concentrate on executing.

Is seems that along with a new head coach comes a new philosophy on how the Bucs will be built.

“We’re going to do it in free agency,” Mark Dominik said. “I don’t want people to be worried we’re not going to spend in free agency.”

This isn’t some throwaway statement Dominik is making. “Building through the draft” was the mantra during Raheem Morris‘s tenure, and they stuck to it pretty strictly. And when 2010 was successful with several rookies and undrafted guys, the philosophy went unquestioned. But when 2011 fell into the toilet with a ten game losing streak, it became evident that the team didn’t have the experience or maturity to deal with adversity and that building only through the draft wasn’t going to work when they had no veterans to fall back on. The Glazers were maligned as cheap and unwilling to spend cash on the team, but I really think it was more an unreasonable adherence to the plan. Dominik’s statement is a revelation. “We’re going to do it in free agency” means another lesson was learned.

Just like Greg Schiano‘s hiring, most Bucs fans will greet this statement with a “we’ll see” attitude, and that’s fair. But I’d ask the most cynical fans — the ones who will dismiss this statement as a promise that won’t be delivered on — to suspend your disbelief for a few months and give them a chance to fulfill it. Free agency isn’t too far off and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at some of the aggressive moves they make.

REACTIONS TO SCHIANO: The Times mad some calls and spoke with some people who had a background with Greg Schiano to get their reactions to his hiring by the Bucs. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:

“I think with the attention to detail and doing things the right way, players know he’s tough. But you know he cares, too.”

“Guys are going to love playing for him. He’ll be hard on you. But you’re going to love him for it because he does it for the right reasons.”

“He’ll have command when he stands in front of that team. He’ll have instant respect from those guys. And I know he’ll have a plan and he’ll stick to that plan. He’s not going to deviate.”

Go back and read comments about Raheem Morris. They’re very similar — the whole “tough but caring” vibe is Raheem’s stock in trade. Players really did love him. But the difference here is that Schiano also has 11 years of experience head coaching a football team. So if you can add experience to the ability to make players play hard for you, you might have a winning combination. Or you might still have a disaster. What am I, psychic?

Also, I forgot Jeremy Zuttah went to Rutgers and played his entire college career under Schiano. There are some quotes from him in the article above, and he also did a radio interview about his new coach here (link via JBF).

CHAMPIONSHIP PROMISES: I wouldn’t have mentioned this if it hadn’t come up a few different times, but while I was reading different quotes about Schiano, I came across multiple references to Schiano promising to take Rutgers to a championship and reminders that he never did.

The first real paragraph of the nj.com article that announced Schiano’s departure:

Greg Schiano, who returned Rutgers to respectability but never delivered the championships he repeatedly promised during his 11 years on the job, has abruptly left the school — at the height of recruiting — to become the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers…

That part about recruiting is not insignificant. National Signing Day is next Wednesday. You can bet the vultures are going to come out and try to pull Rutgers commits to different schools now that Schiano left. It’s kind of a shitty time to leave, not that Schiano could have done much about it since the Glazers took so long.

From the Rutgers AD, Tim Pernetti:

“Those championships (Schiano promised) are down the road.”

That’s in the middle of a paragraph of praise for Schiano, so I don’t want it to come across as Pernetti dogging Schiano. But it would have been easier to not mention the promised championships. He did, and probably to emphasize that Schiano didn’t deliver. Just a little dig, but there’s still some bitterness there.

I’m sure when Schiano promised those championships, he meant Big East championships, which seems like a reasonable goal given how much he improved the Rutgers program and how shitty the Big East is overall. But still, leaving and never having delivered makes him look like college football’s Rex Ryan, minus the foot thing. Jon Gruden came in a promised nothing more than “a lot of hard work and effort”, kept expectations relatively low and produced a championship that year. We’ll see how much Schiano promises in Tampa and how loud the bravado gets.

KELLEN WANTED CHUD: Kellen Winslow was one of the most vocal supporters of Raheem Morris, going so far as to say that he didn’t want to play for anyone else. But no one asked Winslow his opinion before the Bucs canned Raheem, so unless he retires, he’s playing for someone else. He doesn’t mind Schiano, but he really wanted Rob Chudzinski.

“I was really hoping for Coach Chudzinski who I was with at Miami and Cleveland,” Winslow said. “But, you know, we got another guy in Greg Schiano who I know and heard he’s one of the best coaches people have been around. And he’s got a lot of enthusiasm and [is] real energetic so I’m excited, man.”

No, he’s not excited. When asked what Chud would have brought to the table:

“Just a guy that could come in and take over and get this offense going,” Winslow said. “And, you know, I mean, he’s been top of the league past seasons, Chud I’m talking about. You got Cam Newton going over there and their offense rolling over there and they’re a much better team for it. Just past connections and I know what offense he runs and love his offense obviously.”

Kellen wanted an offensive guy, which is no surprise. And we’ll see what kind of OC Schiano brings in. It will be interesting to see how Winslow reacts if it isn’t someone he really likes or gives him a lot of touches. Was Winslow’s maturity and work ethic his own doing, or was it because he respected Raheem so much and didn’t want to let him down?

Oh, and congratulations to PFT for bringing up the soldier comment again. Very relevant. Say, how’s Terry Bradshaw doing these days?

I don’t know who Greg Schiano is and if you say you do you’re a liar. All I know is he is the head coach of Rutgers and has a 68-67 record there. I don’t keep up with much of what happens in the Big East. Although I have a passing interest in what happens with USF, it’s really not enough to translate into bothering to know anything about their fellow conference members. Ray Rice went to Rutgers, right? I remember 2006 was a big deal for them — the only year they were ranked. And now it looks like he’ll be the next head coach of the Buccaneers. Because, really, why the fuck not?

According to multiple reports, the Bucs plan to hire Rutgers coach Greg Schiano if terms of a contract can be reached.

Chip Kelly had leverage because he’s a rock star college coach now. Schiano, on the other hand, is coming from New Jersey, so the fact that he can see the sun in Tampa would be compensation enough for him to take the job. Nothing is completed yet, but if the Glazers really want him, it’s going to happen.

Schiano is a defensive coach, but I honestly don’t know anything about his scheme. I’ll look into it. I also haven’t heard about who he’d bring in as coordinators, but I can’t imagine he has the influence to bring in any big names. He has endorsements from Bill Belichick, so that’s nice. But then again, so did Josh Daniels. Soooo…. are you excited yet?

UPDATE: It’s official now. To make yourselves feel better, try to keep in mind all those college coaches that went on to successful careers in the pros. Jimmy Johnson, umm…. is it too early to count Jim Harbaugh? So there’s two. Hooray!