What Coach Was Being Outed?
December 17th, 2012
Was the brave solider who outed the Bucs rookie coaches from college aiming his ire at former LSU coach and current Bucs defensive backs coach Ron Cooper?
The brave soul in the Bucs locker room who wouldn’t offer his name but blew the whistle on a Bucs coach(es) to Mike Florio, the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com, claimed the (former) college coaches of the Bucs need to go back to college, so Joe wonders who exactly this stand-up, unnamed knight (sarcasm) was referring to.
So Joe will do a little snooping from his keyboard and see if he can connect the dots.
Greg Schiano: Very likely said player was referring to the New Schiano Order in general, and in particular, head coach Greg Schiano and his hard-nosed ways. To this, Joe says, “Wah. If the NFL is too tough, maybe said player would prefer volleyball or gymnastics.” The NFL is a sport for men, not spoiled children.
Bob Bostad: No Bucs coach, short of perhaps Bryan Cox, has done a better job than Bostad, the offensive line coach who came from Wisconsin. Bostad has proven himself to be one of football’s best offensive line coaches, NFL or college.
Jay Butler: The strength and conditioning coach from Rutgers, well, Joe has not heard a bad word about him.
Ron Cooper: There is no way to describe Cooper’s work with a straight face other than to suggest the Bucs defensive backs coach from LSU has done an atrocious job. The Bucs are on pace to set a franchise-worst record for pass defense and could set an NFL mark for the same. Even when he had the Adderall Twins, Aqib Talib and Eric Wright, the Bucs secondary was getting fried worse than an Artie Lange relapse. Joe has no earthly idea how Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik or Schiano can sell to paying customers and Bucs loyalists a Cooper return in 2013. The job (?) Cooper has done this season reinforces the notion that to win in college, all you need to do is recruit.
P.J. Fleck: Joe has spoken with virtually all the Bucs receivers on a regular basis and not one of them has had a remotely unkind word about the Bucs high-strung, high-energy wide receivers coach. In fact, Bucs receivers regularly laud Fleck in glowing terms.
Bob Fraser: Perhaps the unit that has had the best turnaround since last year is the linebackers, led by their position coach who came from Rutgers. Fraser had done as good of a job as Bostad and/or Cox. If anything, Fraser deserves a promotion.
Phil Galiano: Not much of a feel on the Bucs’ assistant special teams coach, who hailed from Rutgers, either way. The Bucs’ special teams have been average.
Bob Gilmartin: Another assistant strength and conditioning coach, also from Rutgers, is often lauded by Schiano. As with Galiano, Joe has no feel for Gilmartin either way.
Jeff Hafley: From Rutgers, the Bucs assistant defensive backs coach is guilty by association. If you work in waste management, you generally smell like trash. Given the horrendous play of the secondary, it doesn’t bode well for Hafley’s job security, nor should it.
Tem Lukabu: Listed as a generic “defensive assistant,” Lukabu, from Rutgers, may slide depending on where he is working. If he’s working with the linebackers or front line, he is on solid footing. If he works with the defensive backs, welp…
Joe Vaughn: Another assistant strength and conditioning coach, he hails from Kansas. Again, Schiano often lauds this group for their work and Joe has no feel yah or nay on these assistants.
Just judging by the resumes of the aforementioned coaches and the pathetic job the secondary has performed this season, Joe’s just going to guess — nothing more than a guess — that the courageous man who outed coaches to Florio was a member of the Bucs secondary.
Again, just a hunch. Nothing more. Just reading the tea leaves.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
And the purpose for this article is…?
December 17th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
kaymbee:
Try reading it. I know, it’s a novel concept, reading.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:22 pm
Joe, you should try asking these coaches what they think of the rockstar GM. The Guy who is has assembled these nfl talents.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
If the cowardly player who said this is from the secondary Joe, I think it would be D.Gorrer or L.Lewis.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Adding evidence to Joe’s guess is the fact that said player used the term “coaches”. Plural, not singular. Since there are two college guys coaching the secondary I believe this lends credence to Joe’s educated guess. I’d put money on the guess that this player was referring to Cooper and Hafley. These DBs obviously don’t trust in their coaching. A blind man could see it.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:26 pm
realist:
1. Media types are kept away from all coaches at all times except for the coordinators once a week.
2. Yeah, Joe is sure the coordinators, standing at a mic at One Buc Palace with their press conferences piped in live on Buccaneers.com, will be happy to blast Dominik to make a couple of fans happy. Of course, those fans won’t be looking for a job and trying to sell a house and move their families next week either. :/
December 17th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
Well, considering there isn’t a Bucs cornerback playing right now that is NFL caliber, they should follow the coaches back to college!
December 17th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
Only thing I disagree with is your take on Cooper. You laud Bostad for doing a good job with a bunch of back ups (O-line is decent right now when there is no blitz. When there is a blitz its awful). But you imply Copper should be fired because he hasent done much with a bunch of scrubs? I think you have to give him a little bit of talent to work with before you can fairly judge him.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
@Lightningbuc
L.Johnson is NFL caliber, he’s obviously making rookie mistakes this year but the future is bright for that kid. He should work very hard in the offseason on trying to improve is speed. Biggers as a 3rd or 4th DB on a team is NFL caliber. Yes, he is definetely not starting caliber, but because of our ex-thug and our waste of millions of dollars, or our adderrall fiends, Biggers has been thrusted into the starting line up where he should not be. IMO Gaitor is not all too bad either. Now L.Lewis, D.Gorrerr, and McDonald.. those guys need to go, simply just not talented enough.
I think for next year, the only CB’s we should keep from our roster this year is Johnson, Biggers, Gaitor. Aquire 2 new talented starting CB’s, then draft a CB in the 6th or 7th round just to finish out our CB squad.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:44 pm
Anyone could have made this quote. In fact it’s more likely it came from someone not in the secondary who is sick and tired of watching the DBs fail to help the team week in and week out.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Silence:
How was the pass defense when the Bucs had Talib and Wright, as Joe pointed out in the article?
Hard to justify job security when your unit may set a franchise-worst record much less a potential NFL mark for futility. I mean, even Joe could do that.
Comparing Bostad and Cooper is apples and oranges, an absolute stretch. Bostad has worked miracles with scrubs.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Flyboy you can’t coach blind men! That’s what Cooper is trying to do. The Bucs tertiary – can’t be called a secondary is a lost cause. Cooper deserves a medal for even attempting to herd this group of cats!
December 17th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
You can read the tea leaves and assume that it is Cooper and company – DB coaches – and that they are doing a terrible job. However, sometimes 7th round picks and undrafted FA’s actually play like 7th round picks and undrafted FA’s.
Yes the secondary sucks – BIG time. But what kind of talent do we really have? It’s like buying a Yugo and tuning the engine to drive at Porsche speeds…in the end, it’s still a Yugo.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:52 pm
bucfanjeff:
Once again, how was the Bucs secondary when Cooper had both Talib and Wright?
Good coaches will get players to play better, no matter how much garbage he has to work with. Can anyone say with a straight face any of the Bucs corners have improved even slightly? Maybe E.J. Biggers but that would be it and 90 percent of Bucs fans would shoot Biggers in public if they could get away with it.
IMPOSSIBLE to get job security if your unit may set an NFL record for futility. Or it should be impossible.
December 17th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
I’ve even calling the Bucs’ performance gutless for 3 weeks now. A comment like that just cemented it for me. Gutless.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:00 pm
This is really disappointing that a member of the team would say this to the media. You know guys talk and this has to be causing an issue with the team. I can’t believe it would be a member of the secondary though. The guys that are actually playing are young guys and they’ve been playing so poorly they should be asking for help, staying after practice, working harder. I have a feeling this was a direct shot at the head coach.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
I can agree that with Talib and Wright we were still awful. However he only had them for what a whole 5 or 6 games? It’s not like he had them all year long to work with. If you are going to fire someone it should be the D-Coordinator. The scheme isnt playing to our benefit at all. But then again I dont think to highly of Talib and so far Wright hasent been all that great either.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:07 pm
THIS is absolute foolishness. I’d be willing to bet it all that this “quote” is not even valid. Just another anonymous source trying to stir up things… What’s that? Just got a tip from a source that Vince Lombardi is rising up from the dead to coach the Bucs starting tomorrow! (C’mon, it’s way too obvious this is false.)
December 17th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
@Joe
Doesn’t matter if Cooper had Talib and Wright, he isn’t in charge of defensive calls. All he can do is teach/preach technique. This man fielded one of the best secondaries in college, he comes here and is handed subpar talent and guys reputation is hurt. At the end of the day NONE OF US know the reason for the defense failures. Is it Sheridan, or is he just following Schiano orders, maybe Cooper is teaching bad techniques… we will never know.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:12 pm
Sorry Joe, but if you’re going to throw Cooper under the bus for the debacle in the secondary, then save room under there for the GM formerly known as the Rockstar. Dominik is responsible for this Wright debacle as well as the lack of depth in the secondary. Wright was no where near as good as the contract he was given, and he’s proven it.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Really Joe.. you’re going to talk about bucs fans shooting Biggers in public after what happened in Newtown recently? thats pathetic, you shouldn’t even be joking about after what has happened. I’m not even American and im still disgusted about you joking around like that. I dont care if it was sarcasm or not, dont joke around about shooting innocent people. As for you’re buddy Florio, I dont understand why you like him. If you are truly a big Bucs fan Joe, then you should HATE Florio with a passion, cause all he ever wants to do when talking about the Bucs is BASH us and say anything negative that he can come up with. I could also see how you guys could get along though, both of you guys can be D-Bags are certain times.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Was Freeman talking about Ron Turner?
December 17th, 2012 at 4:29 pm
@joe,
I would do no harm to Biggers. In light of what’s happened recently, it’s tough to even take a shameful Bucs lost hard. There are bigger tragedies in life. Chill out bro
December 17th, 2012 at 4:45 pm
Wright has been hurt and tough to judge and Talib was always the gambler and getting burned..and still is in NE.
I see your point Joe, but you can only coach up what you have. You’re not going to turn Leonard Johnson into Charles Woodson.
December 17th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
The worst pass defense in league history can’t be the work of one man.
It took a concerted effort of ineptness, starting with the GM, then the HC, then the DC, and the position coach.
Lots of fingerprints on the fiasco.
Prediction: someone with a name other than Dominik will be the scapegoat.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Honestly I think everyone on the defensive side should be accountable. The db’s and their coaches were laughable, the pass rush from the d line was non existent until a blitz was called and when it was, it’s a deep pass downfield that can’t be defensed by the practice squad players we had suited up. However the offense is not without fail, QB coach should have been fired some time ago. And whoever keeps calling the play to run Doug Martin up the middle time and time again and the overly predictable offense should be shown the door as well. Finally this rock star??! He has Mis managed and shipped veterans away (see Ruud) and put an absolutely unacceptable product on the field for years now. However the Glazers that do ridiculous stunts like fire Super Bowl winning coaches probably like this mess. I would not be surprised to hear Tampa in the running to be sold to LA, they have run this team into the ground and seem not to care about 6 game to 10 game losing streaks. That’s my angry season ticket holder rant!
December 17th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
At what point is “more than 15%” of the blame placed on Mark Dominick?
His draft picks suck. Our roster is deficient of NFL talent because of his works.
We blamed the old coach, got rid of some bad players, now it is time to swing the hammer on Dom. He is not a rockstar, can’t even get past medium on Guitar Hero….
Our roster lacks talent and depth at multiple positions, and I am calling Mark Dominick out. He needs to go, not a rock star.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Joe, Joe Says:
December 17th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Silence:
I think you have to give him a little bit of talent to work with before you can fairly judge him.
**How was the pass defense when the Bucs had Talib and Wright, as Joe pointed out in the article?**
With Talib and Wright we still SUCK. Even when they were cheating with adderall, we still stink. Dom is the problem, plain and simple. He had a chance to sign some FA’s and passed.
Dom has no probowlers drafted, awful awful GM.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
We have changed coaches and players.
What about the guy picking the players? Dom and Freeman can hit the road.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
one brilliant move will put us on the road to vastly improved defense.
Hire Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator. The guy in Pittsburgh is testament to the fact coordinators can coach many years.
Let him pick his own staff.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:43 pm
To be fair how many games did he have both Talib and Wright on the field together? To add to that, when that was the case it was extremely early on in the season when the players are usually learning their systems and coaches implemting/tweaking. Now, that can’t be said but at that time, it could.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
My god, man, pick a wimpier sport than gymnastics…those guys & girls are freaks. Soccer? Badminton maybe?
December 17th, 2012 at 6:19 pm
Even with poor talent, good coaching ought to be able to get them to play to middle-of-the-pack… This secondary is going to set an NFL record for passing yardage given up… There must be a coaching element at play as well.
I don’t think Cooper or Sheridan should be secure heading into the offseason.
December 17th, 2012 at 7:04 pm
It can’t be a rookie because all they know is college coaching.That really narrow’s it down Bigger’s,Barber Lewis.I know I was emotional after that loss and said some thing’s like cut Freeman.So it is to be expected except I’m a fan and I won’t lose my job over it.Or get labeled a cancer in the locker room.Hayword won’t play another down in the nfl.Who want’s a special teamer that pushes a coach.He’s lucky Cox didn’t ragdoll him.He was a beast of a player.
December 17th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
@ 76buc76
uh, you do know that Hayward is our starting strongside linebacker for the next game right. lol.
December 17th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Hayward will play many I’m sure. He is an outstanding special teamer. On top of that the confrontation was far less serious than its made out to be. No doubt both player and coach had it out of their mind at game end. There’s have been far worse that has happened where the player continued to play after.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Joe, I think you took too much of a logical approach to figure this out. From my previous coaching experience (basketball, not football), I found that usually the cowards that whined anonymously were the players with the least ability, who thought their only real deficiency was the coaches who were holding them back/or not playing them. Based on this theory, it would still point to the DBs, since the suck so bad they WILL set an NFL record for passing yards allowed. But at the same time, due to the lack of quality depth at almost every position, it could be any 2nd or 3rd string player who is unhappy the coaches haven’t recognized his All Pro ability.
Thanks for all your work. Joe is my favorite site for Bucs news!
December 17th, 2012 at 9:20 pm
@ Joe
“The brave soul in the Bucs locker room who wouldn’t offer his name but blew the whistle on a Bucs coach(es”
the fact that he did not offer up his name and chose to remain anonymous makes him a coward, not a brave soul.
December 17th, 2012 at 9:48 pm
Amen Andrew
December 17th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Andrew:
Sarcasm, man. Sarcasm.
December 17th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
@ Joe
O. sometimes its difficult for me to read into sarcasm when its written. my bad. I applaud the attempt at humor then.
December 17th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
The only one in the Dbackfield who could talk about the coaches going back to the college ranks is Ronde.
December 18th, 2012 at 12:15 am
Thanks for the kind words Harry.
December 18th, 2012 at 12:39 am
what does welp mean?
December 18th, 2012 at 1:54 am
Florio is only going to be talking to a veteran. A Buc who has been here for a few years. That narrows is down to Ronde on defense and Penn or Freeman on offense.
Why is it cowardice to speak the truth? Someone sat Schiano down during the bye week and had an intervention. They came out of the bye week looking more like professional coaches. Schiano put away his little fine notebook and started paying attention to the game. Sullivan took the shackles off Freeman and that loosened up things for Dougie. A little truth went along way.
These rookie college coaches have hit the wall.
“Can we send these coaches back to college?” one player privately said after the game.”
That’s a pretty mild statement after a 41-0 crushing embarrassment against a division rival. Maybe it was, “CAN SOMEONE SEND THESE MOTHERF****** COACHES BACK TO F***ING COLLEGE WHERE THEY F***ING BELONG!!!!!!!!!!” Punctuated by slamming his helmet against the locker.
Florio just cleaned it up a little for public consumption.
I take it back, it couldn’t have been Freeman, he doesn’t have the cojones.
December 18th, 2012 at 2:24 am
He’s a coward because he wasn’t bold enough to speak that truth without being a man about it. If your gonna speak the truth have the cojones and man up, don’t hide ur identity cause ur scared of the consequences
December 18th, 2012 at 2:25 am
With*
December 18th, 2012 at 11:39 am
Joe,
Maybe you should give volleyball or gymnastics a try, then come back and comment on how they are sports for spoled children. Who knows, maybe you could dig a ball out of the sand, pick yourself up, take two steps, and then leap into the air to spike a ball. Then again maybe not.