“He Grasped The Team When He First Got There As Offensive Coordinator”
June 13th, 2016
Lavonte David speaks
Interesting choice of words by one of the Buccaneers’ premier defensive players.
Lavonte David joined SiriusXM NFL Radio last week. When asked how long it took him to get over Lovie Smith getting fired, David rolled into explaining it was a rush of upsetting emotions for him but he quickly moved past them.
David then offered how Dirk Koetter commanded the roster’s respect soon after arriving in 2015. “He grasped the team when he first got there as offensive coordinator,” David said.
That phrasing rang a bell in Joe’s head (not the endless Engine 15 Double Brown Ale that Joe mowed down yesterday). When Lovie was fired, Bucs tight end Brandon Myers quickly Twittered the following: “Dirk has been the man since he walked in the door.”
Similar theming in the commentary of Myers and David. Interesting.
Of course, Koetter’s leadership image was enhanced by taking over the offense from ill-suited Marcus Arroyo. Joe can only liken that to Bill Parcells grabbing the reins of the one-win, 1996 Jets, led by head coach Rich Kotite. Parcells won nine games the following season with Neil O’Donnell at quarterback.
That analogy warms Joe’s heart, as it is very possible to quickly turn around a struggling franchise, which is why the Bucs have a new head coach.
June 13th, 2016 at 10:37 am
I tried to warn the sheep that this was coming!!!! Its like they always say, The cream rises to the top, while incompetence sinks to the basement!!! or fighting Illi in this case!!!! The players already know what an upgrade in Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator and overall coaching altogether!!!!! It was so obvious to see the players did not trust the coaching last year, and new that the scheme was antiquated!!!!
Like the players on the roster, I to feel the excitement and feel the rejuvenation that is spreading all over buc land!!!! Let the excitement turn into exciting football once again!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!
June 13th, 2016 at 10:45 am
A professionally incompetent coach that you like personally and share some of the same interests or an intelligent and successful career coach that cares more about winning and scoring points than foul language, handing out jobs as personal favors and nepotism.
Don’t let the door hit ya LovieDovie!
June 13th, 2016 at 10:52 am
@realist…..you just cant get enough of lovie…..lol….what else was david suppose to say…..Im still pissed at the fact that lovie got canned, now we have to endure a rookie hc that has no idea of what he’s doing….yeah right…david and many others on this team are professionals….they will never tell the media what they actually feel…they would rather keep everything in the locker room and rally around the situation….he was able to graps the team as a oc because we had no oc before he arrived….dude get a clue….GO BUCS!!!!
June 13th, 2016 at 10:56 am
LD is a professional football player, he let us know his disgust at the decision to fire LOVIE then showed leadership thru is professionalism to quickly move on. If you see anything more than that then your delusional!!
June 13th, 2016 at 11:10 am
Anyone that refuses to acknowledge just how painfully incompetent Lovie Smith was as the Bucaneers HC most decidedly can be said to be delusional.
Delusional: maintaining fixed false beliefs even when confronted with facts, usually as a result of mental illness
June 13th, 2016 at 11:14 am
Koetter was an upgrade the moment he stepped through the door as OC. He brought in an experienced DC and former HC in Smith. I’m hopeful that the combination will bring us some more victories.
It’s not like we didn’t have experienced coaching before though. We’ll see.
Go Bucs!
June 13th, 2016 at 11:26 am
One of the reasons Grimes liked about Mike Smith was the defense was always prepared…
Our former Lovie dovie told ABJ he was going to start during the national anthem
June 13th, 2016 at 11:46 am
813,…you must be kidding! I said from day one that Lovie was over his head…that he shouldn’t been hired…that he wouldn’t be successful here. All you had to do is watch Bears games…his inability to take an incredibly talented group of Defensive players forward, but instead drive them into a ditch as they aged. His inability to make game adjustments and game planning…his inability to make good decisions consistently during games. He was dumped by Chicago…for good reason… he sat on the sofa for a year….no one else was interested in him. It was as big a mistake as Perkins, Williamson, Morris….deal with it…it is the truth. If you want to look at a firing mistake, look no further than Gruden. He should have been forced to work with the best GM we could hire, rather than a salary cap lawyer. Give Gruden average NFL talent, and we would have had many more winning seasons than we had.
June 13th, 2016 at 11:48 am
Win some games first then I will get excited. Win the division then I will applaud. Win a playoffs game then I will beam with confidence. Win us a superbowl then I’ll do a gig. Until Then? I’ll just wait..and be..cautiously optimistic and not wet my pants like Buc Realist.
June 13th, 2016 at 11:56 am
@mark…..now that was funny….lovie had rex grossman as a qb….nuff said…gruden had a very talented team with one of the best defenses of all time that he inherited….defense wins championships….gruden did nothing to the defense when he took over which won us our only trophy….when he tried to build his own team he failed and got canned…and he deserved it….deal with the facts buddy…that’s the truth…..GO BUCS!!!!
June 13th, 2016 at 12:07 pm
Ever think that a bot could fill the role of some posters?
One guy bashes old coach.
Other guy thinks old coach was stabbed in back.
Other guy expect a certain amount of wins, or the new coach should get axed. “Prove it!”
Other guy thinks GM is not good, and points to a draft just 2 years ago as example.
You guys could just program a message in your F-keys and save yourself some time. Or, maybe, you ARE bots?
June 13th, 2016 at 12:26 pm
That——does——not——–compute!
Interesting! There does seem to be a bit of a theme with these!
June 13th, 2016 at 3:04 pm
A difference of opinion is not a rare occasion on this site, I say with a strong mind LOVIE was BACK/STABBED, some of you act like you never heard of the term…..I’m about to go there, but I better not. I’m just a little taken aback with all this senseless killing going on! PRAYING FOR UNDERSTANDING!!
June 13th, 2016 at 3:56 pm
@ DallasBuc: the only fact I see and I continue to say is that he didn’t win enough games to continue being head coach, fact #2 he didn’t have the defensive draft picks needed to turn this club around those are the facts, gain whatever you want from them!
June 13th, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Big Hayes he got who he wanted in FA with hand picked guys familiar with his scheme. The biggest indictment was him taking over as D coordinator and the entire defense completely regressing from the prior year. He started guys in Jennings/Jenkins over younger more promising talent with dreadful results. He had no one to blame but himself. He talked a lot of sh1t when he arrived about the team he inherited being 4-12 and that being unacceptable. Then he averaged that very same record lol
June 13th, 2016 at 5:53 pm
While a few attack Realist for his Lovie-bash.
Has anyone here EVER seen him this excited for a season to start?
Not me.
June 13th, 2016 at 8:30 pm
Its funny you posted this today. I was just thinking how this year does not feel like a year we have a new head coach. It feels like we just got rid of a bad d-coordinator.
June 13th, 2016 at 9:07 pm
There’s a big difference between getting stabbed in the back and falling backwards onto one. Lovie’s record and his demeanor to both fans and the press
make him appear less a victim. The former is more than enough to get run the
later virtually guaranteed nobody would be there to catch his fall.
June 14th, 2016 at 6:48 am
Very well said Duke.
June 14th, 2016 at 8:41 am
I know I should just keep my mouth shut, but I am tired of the “I told you so”‘s that would be a bad coach. I say many of you are full of BS. I went back and read the archives. I read ppl questioning Lovie’s ability to coach the offense, that Lovie was given too much power since he was hired before Licht, etc. Some who now claim you warned us, please post these warnings here.
I was excited about the Lovie hire, and I was wrong. But I would rather admit that then be a fraud. Best 2014 analysis I found came from long time OBD:
“Oil Derrick Brooks Says:
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:21 am
Or, instead of billionaires who don’t know football better than you or I, they could have hired an executive VP to make the hire. When have the Glazer sons ever shown the ability to make a good football hire?
The boys probably have Malcolm locked up in a room on a ventilator somewhere. Malcolm is the only Glazer who knew anything.
Tell me one time where trying to recreate something worked. Joe Gibbs?….”
Great Job OBD!!!
June 14th, 2016 at 8:47 am
^^^Correction: “…that LOVIE would be a bad coach”
June 14th, 2016 at 8:51 pm
You guys make me laugh…Rex Grossman? Who do you think gave him the starting job in Chicago…and McCown the starting job here? And let’s not forget his stamp on Cutler. Smith was a poor choice…as was Raheem…as was Schiano.
Gruden helped rebuild the Offensive side of the ball…Ask any of the players…they will give Gruden his due for getting the team over the hump. Many great players never reach the “promised land”….don’t demean the entire teams accomplishment that year….the players and coaches.
And don’t you wonder why he is out of the league now? And that he was “out of the league” for a year before we hired him? He may be a great guy…but he is lost in time….and will likely never see another HC opportunity.
And yes…I did say it from day one. If you can’t find it, that is your problem. But frankly, I wasn’t alone.