Bucs/Cowher Conversation Confirmed

December 27, 2009 at 03:23pm by Scott   •  3 Comments »

Jason LaCanfora confirmed the rumor that the Buccaneers have at least had a conversation with Bill Cowher about taking over the head coaching duties.

The Bucs have tried to gauge Cowher’s interest should they decide to make a move regarding Raheem Morris, who has endured a difficult first season as head coach. But Cowher’s stance through this season has been clear: He will not interview for any jobs during the season and will not talk about any positions that aren’t already vacant.

That’s a pretty cool position for Cowher to take. As a head coach himself, he doesn’t want to show that kind of disrespect to another head coach who still has a job to do. But as I write this, the Bucs are down 17-3 to the Saints, backed up against their own endzone and have not shown anything that could be confused with improvement from last week’s game in Seattle. If they’re in this same position next week, it’s entirely possible that the Tampa Bay head coaching position will be suddenly vacant. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the Glazers are pretty slow on the draw when it comes to changing head coaches. The competition for Cowher is going to happen quick, so if the Bucs want to be in the running, they have to fire Morris while the players are still wiping the sweat off themselves next Sunday in order to meet Cowher’s requirement of the position being open.

Some within the organization believe that former Super Bowl-winning coach Tony Dungy, who used to coach the Bucs and still resides in Tampa, ultimately could be asked to return in a team president-type role in the vein of Bill Parcells (Miami Dolphins) or Mike Holmgren (Cleveland Browns). However, Dungy has said he is content with his ministry work and broadcasting career after he retired from his job as the Indianapolis Colts’ coach following the 2008 season.

LaCanfora mentioned this a couple weeks ago and it sounded just as dumb then. Dungy strikes me as the kind of guy who means what he says and doesn’t say things in the media just to increase leverage for negotiations. He said he’s happy doing what he’s doing and I’ve got to believe that he’s going to get more out of helping young men in prison than he would being the football czar for the family that fired him eight years ago.

UPDATE: The Bucs scored on a 98-yard drive and just got the ball back on a fumble recovery. So this may not be as big a runaway as I thought when I first started this entry.

UPDATE 2: Adam Schefter has his own take on the story here. It includes this bit, which is buried surprisingly deep without any expansion on it:

Over the past year, Tampa Bay has undergone more changes than any NFL team. More are coming. At the very least, their associate head coach/special teams coach Rich Bisaccia is on his way to join the University of Tennessee coaching staff.

I can’t get a hold of any of my Volunteer sources to confirm this, but Schefter is the only one reporting it and he doesn’t cite anyone, so I’m not believing it yet.