Midnight Cleaning
January 14th, 2016
Lovie’s final act.
In sort of a depressing tale of the final moments of Lovie Smith’s tenure as Bucs coach, he and his family resorted to, in a sense, custodian duties in the middle of the night.
That’s the picture painted by the Custodian of Canton himself, eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.
As is his weekly duties during the football season, Kaufman appeared with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo Wednesday on “Mad Dog Radio,” one of the family sports channels heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio, to discuss the Lovie firing and what is going on with offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter.
“Chris, who fires a coach at 10:30 at night on a Wednesday?” Kaufman said, then relayed the information that at midnight last Wednesday, Lovie and his family showed up to One Buc Palace to clean out his office.
Kaufman firmly believes it was Lovie’s defense, specifically the final month of the season, that did him in.
“The defense stunk and they were going nowhere,” Kaufman said. “Another last place finish in the NFC South. That (0-4) finish demoralized the general manager and made ownerhip look twice at Lovie Smith. …
“They folded their tent in the last month. You couldn’t defend Smith at that point. They weren’t competitive against Carolina [in the final game]. It was a joke. Boys against men. Game was out of hand at halftime. They were not competitive the last four weeks and that really got attention of the owners.”
As for the opening, Kaufman believed last week — and yesterday — it is Koetter’s job if he wants it and he should receive it. Kaufman stated a resolution should come within hours.
“I think it is Dirk Koetter, Chris,” Kaufman said. “I thought Dirk Koetter was the guy from the first minute. I don’t know what the hold-up is. I expect [an announcement] by the end of the week.”
January 14th, 2016 at 1:04 pm
It was Lovie’s choice. Again we have too much sympathy when this type of stuff happens. We don’t get treated nicely when we lose jobs. Who cares how it went down…. I only agree with Donald Trump on 1 thing. The NFL is going soft.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:10 pm
!0:30 was when Lovie decided not to go to a meeting where he would likely be fired rather than go and fight for his job…..sort of like not trying to score for fear something bad could happen.
Listen, It was Licht that created the 10:30 situation….not really the Glazers….they were meeting with him on Thursday during the day….Lovie declined….
No, I don’t feel sorry for Lovie…..but I do empathize with him or anyone else who fails….it’s not a good feeling.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
Lovie talked a biiiiiig game at 6-6 with the playoffs within reach… We truly were a 6-10 team under him, rather than respect the process he fanned the flames with rhetoric! “December is real football”, “Tampa bay is relevant again”, “last two games are for the 2016 season”…. Dude you can’t talk like that and have the worst 4 games of the season, proving regression in the defense and in #3’s production… Imo Lovie talked his way out of town!!!
January 14th, 2016 at 1:17 pm
Lovies family and friends plan on defense did not work. Pretty simple. Time to move on.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:19 pm
We already know what happened. This is last weeks news.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:35 pm
Call me crazy but maybe there waiting to announce Keotter the head coach until he can walk without a cane…. Seriously maybe they don’t want our next head coach walking to the podium with a cane?….Joe? What do u think?
January 14th, 2016 at 1:41 pm
He told lies to start with. From win now, Glennon is our QB of the future, etc… Lied at the end. So move on. Enjoy your 10 Mil. Back to the basement and maybe someone will beat your door down to coach again. But I don’t think so.
January 14th, 2016 at 1:51 pm
Lovie Smith’s attitude was arrogant as he coached as if he was safe and unfirable. Glazers picked up on that and decided he was coasting instead of coaching the last four weeks.
You don’t stay employed in this country very long if you are in a competitive position and coasting.
Later LovieDovie
January 14th, 2016 at 2:17 pm
I’m not sold on koetter. He has no prior hc experience. Hasn’t really proven he can run a team. I don’t see a lot of candidates. I’d take coughing but he’s so old.. Yikes. Just cause your a good oc doesn’t necessarily translate to hc.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:24 pm
They could be waiting to hire Koetter to make it look like they were considering other coaches. On the other hand, he may not really be the guy and they didn’t figure that out til this week.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:27 pm
You’re right Joe, kind of depressing. But as R.O commented “It was Lovie’s choice.”
January 14th, 2016 at 2:33 pm
Is there any need to keep piling on?! Seriously?!
We all pretty much know or have widely speculated the reasons he’s gone. Even after we have a new HC, we’re still not going to know what this defense is going to look like. Heck, it could get worse before it gets better.
January 14th, 2016 at 2:39 pm
How is this exactly “piling on?”
Would it also be “piling on” if Joe wrote about Lovie interviewing with another team? (Funny, to Joe’s knowledge, that hasn’t happened yet. But if Joe wanted to keep “piling on,” he surely could with that nugget.)
January 14th, 2016 at 2:53 pm
He’s getting paid 10 million to not show up to work…..no depression here!
January 14th, 2016 at 2:55 pm
So joe answers a post saying that he isnt piling on, but then proceeds to pile on. stay classy Joe. Lol
January 14th, 2016 at 3:00 pm
Lovie was just to lax, no fire no grit, emotional less stare on the sidelines. I hate coaches who have zero emotion on Sunday’s.
January 14th, 2016 at 3:16 pm
I am still waiting!!!!
Speaking of class!!! I waited for days to hear something from Lovie!!! When Coach Schiano was fired, first thing he did was to rent out and held a press conference at a hotel down the steeet!!! Thanking the Fans and giving thanks for the opportunity!!!
January 14th, 2016 at 3:21 pm
For once DallasBuc I do agree with you on that. Bucfan20 you’re way off base man. To call him a liar without you knowing what was in his head is plain stupid. The free agent moves proved he was pushing for a winner right away. Things simply fell apart from the jump off. Glennon would have been the future but once we were in the running for Fameis all bets were off. I’m glad we got Jameis and not unhappy Lovie is gone. Schiano only got two years and that’s all Lovie deserved
January 14th, 2016 at 3:24 pm
Ms Realist please shut up about that sheez! You must really troll around for Lovie. If it bothers you so much why don’t you just take a jump off the Skyway Bridge?
January 14th, 2016 at 3:29 pm
So at 6-8 and now eliminated from the playoffs Lovie states that the next two games are the start of the next season and they will define the future of the team.
So I believe it was clear from those last two games just exactly what we could expect for next year and why lovie is gone.
Now before we all get on the Koetter train why don’t some of you look at the first half offensive statistics vs total yards for the game which uses all of the yards piled on in the 4th quarter when the games are out of hand in what we call garbage time. I certainly did not see the offense moving the ball in the first half – in fact there were a few games where not so famous jameis had less than 70 yards passing at the half. I don’t think Koetter is going to do any better than the last three.
January 14th, 2016 at 3:40 pm
“…Joe wrote about Lovie interviewing with another team…” – you heard it here first!
(See, you can take almost anything out of context and go trolling.)
January 14th, 2016 at 4:10 pm
Joe has a hunch you will have a long wait. Lovie may break down and talk to Ira or someone individually. Press conference? Not likely.
January 14th, 2016 at 4:16 pm
@ DavidbigBucsFan
What ever you think man. He brought in McClown after he said Glennon was the future and had nothing to due with Winston. He also said Revis had a place on the team and then got rid of him.
January 14th, 2016 at 4:42 pm
Ok BucFan20 that still does not prove Glennon wasn’t the future because everybody and their mama new Lukewarm McClown was only a stop gap. He had more starting experience than Glennon that’s why he started him instead. Glennon was only 5-13 and McClown had a decent year the season he started for Lovie in Chicago. Hence the win now philosophy. As with Revis yeah now it’s a bad decision but the explanation given at that time made sense, get 3 good players for the price of one. If it had worked most people except that old whiny woman realist would have called Lovie a genius.
January 14th, 2016 at 4:55 pm
If Glennon was the future he would have done just like he did Winston. Start him. Quit being in denial. He did not keep or bring in anyone in as a stop gap to teach Winston. And he KNEW he better win this year.
January 14th, 2016 at 5:09 pm
I..sure hope you fans, TB media, and the glazers are right about Koetter for the teams sake. The man has no Head coaching experience in the NFL. Would seem like we would hire a guy who has been there before. But then again, We are Tampa Bay. Sometimes when you wish upon an upcoming star, your dreams will not take you very far. I’ve told you all..Be careful what you wish for. Koetter has to prove he is worthy. I hope he can. Until then, I have no confidence in his selection.
January 14th, 2016 at 5:32 pm
michiganrossi Says:
January 14th, 2016 at 3:29 pm
………… look at the first half offensive statistics vs total yards for the game which uses all of the yards piled on in the 4th quarter when the games are out of hand in what we call garbage time. I certainly did not see the offense moving the ball in the first half – in fact there were a few games where not so famous jameis had less than 70 yards passing at the half.
—————————————————————————————
You don’t mean like two TD passes to ASJ against Tenn when the score was like 35-0 and 42-7 do you?
Or like being down 28-6 against StL., and then scoring 17 in the 4th Qtr.
Or how about the Bears game, where we scored 21 points on a 3 yd run after a blocked kick. And Joe’s favorite play, having a defensive lineman covering Charles Sims on a broken play for a TD. And finally a “Hail Mary” to ASJ as time runs out.
Those kind of “garbage time” plays????
That can’t be true because we were an offensive juggernaut ranked in the top ten or something,right?
Just in case you can’t tell, I agree with you.
tickrdr
January 14th, 2016 at 7:43 pm
Dude picked up a 10 million dollar check on his way out the door. Im surprised he waited until around midnight to get his stuff. I would have thought he would have been there at 10:45.
January 14th, 2016 at 8:07 pm
And where do you think most coaches come from? They were offensive or defensive coordinators at some point in their coaching, with no NFL head coaching.
January 15th, 2016 at 4:43 am
Didn’t most people hear about this story, the one about the speech Sheppard was giving the team before the Saints game/? Sheppard had the team all fired up for the biggest game of the year when Lovie interrupted Sheppard because he was cursing? The speech was over and their were a lot of players who took offense to Lovie making Sheppard look bad. From that point on, the team was flat during that game and the last four. If players on the team use profanity to get themselves fired up, so be it. Lovie just had no skills to get his team emotionally prepared for games.
January 15th, 2016 at 6:17 am
Shame on Kaufman for perpetuating that “fired at 10:30” nonsense. Doesn’t feel like accurate or unbiased reporting.