Mangurian Firing “About Personality”
January 22nd, 2011
"You da man, Olie. It's all good. We're getting that thorn out of your ass."
It seems Greg Olson and Pete Mangurian were oil and water in a big way.
The tag team of St. Pete Times beat writers, good guy Stephen Holder and his sidekick Rick Stroud, gave their takes on the Pete Mangurian firing over the past two days and painted a picture of Olson eager to hand Mangurian a big fat pink slip.
Stroud, speaking to J.P. Peterson on 1010 AM on Friday, said Mangurian and Olson were a bad match personally.
“I think there was a disconnect between him and the offensive cooridnator. … I think it goes beyond the Xs and Os,” Stroud said. “[Considering Mangurian was signed for 2011,] it’s not so much about production. It’s about personality.”
Talking to The Commish, Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620 on Saturday, Holder said Olson has done enough to wield more power at One Buc Palace, hence the firing on the heels of Raheem Morris telling the world he wanted his coaches back.
“Olson never had an impact of who his staff would be,” Holder said. “Now that Greg has established himself as a legitimate offensive coordinator, he’s in a position to make demands.”
Holder went on to say Olson and Mangurian were not on the same page, but the effect of that was not necessarily seen on Sundays.
As Joe has written, clearly something ugly happened. Jettisoning a successful assistant coach that was under contract and a longtime friend of the head coach doesn’t happen every day.
Both Holder and Stroud are pimping former Vikings O-line coach Pat Morris as the likely candidate to replace Mangurian. Olson worked with him in Detroit on Steve Mariucci’s staff, back when Olson was Jeff Garcia’s QB coach with the Lions.
Some day the truth will come out on the Mangurian firing. Joe wonders where Mangurian and Olson stood on the Keydrick Vincent-Jeremy Zuttah competition last summer.
January 22nd, 2011 at 3:08 pm
I think he did an excellent job with the revolving door of linemen. I wish we hadn’t let him go. I don’t care about personality differences as long as the end product is a W. I hope we don’t see a dropoff next year.
January 22nd, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Bucs hired Pat Morris for o-line. just heard it on the animal.
January 22nd, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Great reason to fire an experienced and successful coach.
January 22nd, 2011 at 5:46 pm
Espo- last year the line was horrible. This year, our high draft pick veterans, who have 2 years with Pete M, were outperformed by every undrafted rookie free agent that took their spot. Line regressed 3 straight years. Time for a change. Dominick and Raheem are quick to make changes, and they have proven to be for the better. Have faith. We are ahead of schedule, and every article I’ve read so far call this team a legitimate Super bowl contender! Haven’t heard that said since Dungy’s last/Gruden’s first year. Sounds real good!
January 22nd, 2011 at 5:56 pm
troubling pattern……
January 22nd, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Winning / Contending teams have more options than this team did when we hired these guys. Upgrading staff is another benefit of having a franchise QB. More playoff money! Don’t kid yourself, neither line played well this year. Wouldn’t be real surprised to see LB coach sweating. They were a disappointment also!
January 23rd, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I feel a bit better after this hire.
January 23rd, 2011 at 11:10 pm
One of my best employees, I can’t stand personally. The feeling is mutual, but he is one of my best roof cleaners. He is overtly religious and bleeding heart liberal, I am none of the above. He never misses work, and I never get call backs from unhappy customers. So, we coexist. Me liking someone is not a prerequisite for employment. But, my employee does not cuss like Pete did. Perhaps that was the deal breaker ? I wish Pete well. Tampa was 10 and 6 and Blount ran all over with backups on the O Line.