Rondé Barber Still Impressed By Things He Learned From Greg Schiano
April 11th, 2023
Once upon a time, former stud Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy spoke openly about how then-Bucs head coach Greg Schiano taught him how to tackle.
It was quite a stunning statement from a third-year player who was the No. 3 overall pick in the NFL Draft. McCoy also had just spent two seasons under Monte Kiffin-disciple Raheem Morris.
Of course, the Schiano regime (2012-2013) didn’t last long, but some of those Schiano lessons are still felt today.
Joe was surprised to hear a recent Salty Dogs podcast featuring Hall of Fame cornerback Rondé Barber dive into a moment of Schiano love. Barber explained that he’s still somewhat in awe of things he learned from Schiano.
“I learned more about football [from Greg Schiano], and probably because I was hearing it from a different prism than all of my other years … I have notes still that I took in some of his meetings, stuff that I had never heard come out of a head coach’s mouth,” Barber said. “He had his quirks and he was my last coach, but I did come away with a little bit better understanding of football.”
Barber added that he appreciated Schiano moving him to safety but was unhappy Schiano didn’t give him more opportunities to blitz so he could get his career sacks total to 30. Barber’s career ended with 28 sacks.
Todd Bowles’ oldest son, a defensive back, plays for Schiano at Rutgers, which Joe doesn’t believe is a coincidence.
The Schiano appreciation is just further evidence of how great NFL teachers and coordinators aren’t necessarily good head coaches.
April 11th, 2023 at 12:21 am
Schiano’s biggest problem was he inherited a team with an average offense. If he, as a defensive minded coach, came in to fix the defense with a strong incumbent offense, the story may have ended differently.
I would be hard pressed to call him a failure. Sometimes things need time to develop.
April 11th, 2023 at 12:25 am
What are the odds we draft Bowles’ kid? Has the son of a NFL head coach ever played for their father before?
April 11th, 2023 at 12:37 am
John McKay’s kid played for him here in Tampa
April 11th, 2023 at 12:48 am
Schiano failed because he couldn’t treat the players as men and instead treated them like college age children. You cannot professionally respect someone who doesn’t respect you. He was a great coach. He was a terrible leader of men.
April 11th, 2023 at 12:52 am
Let’s hear all of the negative Nancies talk about how Ronde knows nothing and how clueless Schiano was in 3….2….1!
April 11th, 2023 at 1:55 am
Schiano and Rah Rah were both doomed because their GM was Mark Cameron-Jordan-talked-too-much-so-I-didnt-draft-him Dominik.
(Although to be fair to Dominik, Jordan really is a loud mouth who needs to STFU. But the lost decade sure would have looked a lot different with him at DE all those years when we never had anyone.)
April 11th, 2023 at 2:07 am
I was always a fan of Schiano not withstanding his quirks. I thought his biggest mistakes were that he had the wrong coordinators and having the franchise trying to emulate the NY Giants. He hired Giants coaches for his OC and DC. His first choice for OC wasn’t released by the Cardinals. He kept his coordinators around way too long. He was right about Freeman, but waited too long to pull the plug. His defenses were pretty good. Just couldn’t get the offense right.
April 11th, 2023 at 2:35 am
The problem with Schiano is that the 5th estate including our own pen and mic club didn’t like him. He got a bad rap from media types.
April 11th, 2023 at 2:40 am
Remember the insulting billboard? I don’t think we ever found out who paid for that.
April 11th, 2023 at 2:44 am
Google said Jenna Laine reported that radio station 102.5 The Bone is responsible for billboard
April 11th, 2023 at 3:32 am
He was a leader, that’s the problem with the spoiled brats in the NFL today….
April 11th, 2023 at 6:09 am
Mort nailed it!
April 11th, 2023 at 6:58 am
Schiano was a control freak who set this team back years…
Trading guys like Talib and Blount for basically nothing; and letting Michael Bennett walk when we could have signed him for peanuts at the time was just asinine…Dominic and Schiano was a terrible combination… Ironically, Raheem was probably the best players coach we had post Gruden/pre Arians…Getting 10 wins out of that team he had with Josh Freeman and Mike Williams and Co. was pretty impressive in hindsight…
April 11th, 2023 at 7:01 am
@Mort… I think you first have to act like a man to be treated like one in “some” cases. Under Raheem this team turned into a very undisciplined team, and by Rah’s last season, which by the way, talk about the optimism after turning over a 10-6 record the previous season, the patients appeared to be running the insane asylum and not Rah…it was terrible that last season, and the guy still hasn’t gotten a shot as a head coach ANY WHERE.
Schiano was given the task to right the ship and bring back the discipline where the youngry had taken over. And he wasn’t their first choice, so he was hired late, behind the curve from day 1 and being an unknown comity in the pro-ranks, we ended up with guys like Sheridan to coach the defense, and Butch Davis. Actually, he did grow one solid disciple in PJ Fleck. The QB situation turned into a laughing mess. The one thing you can say is that Josh Freeman could have been his greatest disaster if he would have left us to a better football and won, instead he remained just meh until the day he retired. Schiano’s Buc team had several fun games as I recall, that first one with the Giants, and the heart breaker in Seattle. I didn’t hate Schiano, perhaps he was bit too military for some of the “men” in this league, he might not have been much different then one of his mentors, i.e. Belichick, especially how players have talked about the challenges of playing in his system, but he’s a proven winner. and Schiano wasn’t… my question is whether Schiano has ever had another cup coffee to coach in the NFL… I think the Patriots were going to add him to their staff, but he choose to stay in college ranks.
April 11th, 2023 at 7:19 am
Zoocomics, that’s a very well written list of excuses, sounds like you are his agent or mommy or something. I don’t see any NFL teams lining up to hire Schiano. He was a flat out a terrible head coach.
April 11th, 2023 at 9:06 am
Schiano was all in. I do think he was attempting to change culture in short fashion. It was needed. I think he got a bad rap. Media was definitely not his ally.
April 11th, 2023 at 9:13 am
I liked Shiano. He had bad luck, tho.
April 11th, 2023 at 9:31 am
Schiano’s biggest issues were his coordinators were trash. I think Mike Sullivan was his OC… he was awful. But the real stinker was the DC, Bill Sheridan. He was fired by the Giants a few years earlier for his porous crappy defense, this was the season AFTER the Giants had a great D and won the Super Bowl. Then when he got fired, the D went back to being good. Our D was terrible BECAUSE of him. He was intent on running a Gregg Williams type D with Cover ZERO and crazy blitz packages but had no idea what he was doing. He was an absolute loser. Mike Sullivan was hot garbage as well.
April 11th, 2023 at 9:32 am
Too bad SchiaNo couldn’t teach McCoy how to tackle in the 4th quarter. Another Dandy for Dumbassnik!
April 11th, 2023 at 9:44 am
Sullivan might still be in the league. Not long ago pretty sure he was with the Steelers.
Oh, that guy. Will never forget him grandstanding at the podium saying he’d be happy to sit down with Bucs fans early in the morning to go over film and he would explain to them why he crafts a certain defense. Even said the Bucs would provide free Cokes.
The next day, fans were waiting at One Buc and he rolls down the window and waves at them and keeps going. What a f’ing d!ck move!
April 11th, 2023 at 11:17 am
I remember clearly all the excitement Bucs fans had for the Schiano hire! The coaches that were winning super bowls at that time where Belichick and Tom Coughlin, both over the top military “do your job” head coaches! Belichick gave a 100% backing of Schiano to the Glazers! Then the stories came out about room temp and then the Busch league play of Bum rushing the victory formation.
I still have my Buccaneers dtv remote that found its way into a new flat screen TV. Makes me laugh when newer Bucs fans complain about our coaches now….
April 11th, 2023 at 1:00 pm
I like Ronde, but give me a break, you were already the best tackling corner in the NFL long before the Jersey Trash Schiano got here.
April 11th, 2023 at 3:13 pm
Oh man, I repressed all the memories of Bill Sheridan…
Still not ready to open those wounds lol
April 11th, 2023 at 4:32 pm
It was reported that Dom and Schiano were not on the same page a lot of the times. I think if Schiano had won that battle and Dom was gotten rid of with Schiano staying, he could have turned thing around with more time. Instead we wasted 2 years with Lovie.
April 11th, 2023 at 4:46 pm
Schiano was a low class Jersey jerk who not ruined Josh Freeman’s career, but almost ruined his life. But at least he got rid of K2.
April 11th, 2023 at 6:30 pm
Schiano could be a ( was) a great head coach , he just needed an experienced GM to take charge of a few things to hone his direction . GM ,,Hey Greg things are Great I do want us to cease or alter doing a couple of things . Bill Parcels listened to Pepper Johnson and some others , Schiano was too new and weakly led to listen to anyone…..Simple Math !! Schiano doesn’t pull all the lil stunts that he used to in Tampa and he would have dropped it in Tampa with great leadership above him .
April 11th, 2023 at 8:08 pm
My screen name should tell you i liked Schiano and was hoping he’d succeed in Tampa. Agree with other posters that the media (Tampa as well as national) definitely seemed to have had a beef with him. I still remember the crying from the NY media (print and sports shows) collectively crying over the team busting up the victory formation vs the Giants when the team was only one score+conversion down (yet were silent when Belechick’s team did something similar vs the Bengals IIRC).
April 12th, 2023 at 7:20 am
Shiano sucked this is the same guy who got rid of our top defensive players! This guy was the one who set our defense back and some of yall giving this guy credit lol 🤣🤣? Ok !!
April 12th, 2023 at 10:30 am
The defense was #1 vs the run (but obviously sucked vs pass since they sold out to stop the run and Revis was no longer the shutdown corner they were hoping he’d be after the knee issue). As for getting rid of top defensive players the only really productive guys I remember them moving on were Talib (who was too often in legal trouble during his stay in Tampa and seemed was always one angry gun threat away from missing playing time), and was traded so we at least got something in return, and Bennett, whom I’m still not certain if that wasn’t more a move Dominick wanted in order for his 2nd round bust out of South Carolina a chance to shine (oops).