Yesterday, when it was learned that Team Glazer found its man, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, the move was mostly met with positive reviews, including from the likes of Bill Belicheat and Peter King. Even Joe was impressed.

But Michael Rosenberg, King’s colleague at SI.com was anything but impressed. He put fingers to keyboard and took apart both the Bucs for hiring Schiano and Schiano himself.

It’s true that Schiano built the Rutgers program from nothing. The question is: from nothing to what? He was 28-48 in the Big East, which is not a major conference by any reasonable measure except the one used by the Bowl Championship Series (which, of course, is not reasonable).

In the last three years, Schiano’s Big East record was 8-13. He never won the Big East. He is considered a good guy, and his graduation rate was very high, but he could be a saint and the Saints wouldn’t care.

Schiano is also known for discipline and organization — you’ll hear a lot about that before next season, because it’s his strength and Morris lost the team. But he did not go 8-13 in his league the last three years by accident. There is a reason he never won the Big East.

Fair points, but let’s be honest. We’re talking Rutgers here. Rutgers! That program was a complete toilet when Schiano took it over.

Why didn’t he win the Big East? Joe thinks that question could be better directed at Jim Leavitt than Schiano, who seems to be doing OK for himself as a linebackers coach at San Francisco this past season.

Rutgers is not Penn State, which has top-flight facilities and a bulging river of cash flowing into the program to help bankroll massive recruiting budgets.

Rutgers is not Miami, which sits in the middle of an absolute treasure trove of high school football talent where coaches can roll out of the rack in the morning and be within reach of dozens of high schools stocked with four- and five-star talent, and be back home for lunch.

We’re talking Rutgers here. Rutgers! The job that Schiano did in Piscataway is simply amazing. That takes organizational skills and supreme discipline, something that has been sorely lacking in recent years at One Buc Palace.

Joe stares at the juicy, giant mini Shorty Burgers in this video from his friends at Pete & Shorty’s and Joe can barely contain himself.

And you can take home a giant box of 24 Shorty Burgers for $20 now through Super Bowl Sunday? That’s almost as a good as a Hooters Calendar model knocking on Joe’s door asking him to gently spray her buttocks with water at the next photo shoot.

There’s no doubt Joe will have a couple of 24-packs of Shorty Burgers in hand every day through Feb. 5. Please watch the video.

Pete and Shorty’s Shorty Burgers 2-GO! from 3 Square Studios on Vimeo.

Can new Bucs coach Greg Schiano get Tanard Jackson back to tackling again, and back to consideration as a top safety in the NFL?

Football is hardly a huge passion on the campus of Rutgers University, located in the armpit of the nation, better known as central New Jersey. Games don’t sell out despite a big campus, a massive surrounding population to draw from, and no other big football program nearby.

That’s one factor in what led Rutgers to be a true bottom-feeder of college football when new Bucs head coach Greg Schiano showed up there 11 years ago to lead a turnaround. Tyler Barto, of the campus Daily Targum newspaper, chronicled Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti’s take on Schiano’s legacy yesterday.

Pernetti can attest to the depleted circumstances in 2000, when Schiano took the job. Pernetti called it the “worst program” in the nation 11 years ago, when the Scarlet Knights were Big East afterthoughts.

The Knights never won the conference championship Schiano once promised, but the foundation Schiano implemented remains.

“This program is not a rebuild,” Pernetti said. “This is a move forward. This thing is priced to move in every way.”

Pernetti said he learned of the Buccaneers’ interest in Schiano a week ago, days before Oregon head coach Chip Kelly reportedly declined the Buccaneers’ offer. But talks between Schiano and Tampa Bay intensified during the last two days, Pernetti said, culminating with yesterday morning’s reports of the head coach’s hire.

So Schiano saved Rutgers and sent streams of quality players to the NFL, four on the current Super Bowl–bound Patriots roster. But Joe knows those accomplishments don’t mean much now and are hardly any guarantee of his NFL success.

Can Schiano convince Ronde Barber to return? Can Schiano, a former college tackling machine linebacker himself, develop Mason Foster and get something good out of Quincy Black? (No. Joe doesn’t believe the Bucs will cut ties with Black owing him a pile of money.) Can Schiano get Tanard Jackson playing like a Pro Bowler again? Will Schiano hire the right defensive line coach(es) to mold the pile of talent on the line?

These are just a small handful of the many questions Schiano will answer in 2012. Joe doesn’t think it will take much to rescue the Bucs from the cellar of the NFC South, but it will require Schiano to be damn good at his job.

Rockstar Bucs general manager Mark Dominik previously has talked publicly about how he’s a defense-first guy. So when the Bucs offered offensive guru Chip Kelly a pile of cash, Joe wondered how Kelly might have wowed Dominik with his defensive plan for the Bucs.

Or perhaps Kelly wasn’t Dominik’s first choice? And that’s where Joe’s money would go now if Joe were to wager on the question.

Speaking today on The Dan Sileo Show on WDAE-AM 620, Dominik shared lots of thoughts on the Schiano hire, including calling himself a “defensive fundamentalist” and explaining that even in the high-flying NFL he believes defense is still king.

“I’m a “defensive fundamentalist” always have been and it’s because I’ve been around the likes of Marty Schottenheimer, Monte Kiffin and Tony Dungy. And that’s all just made sense to me,” Dominik said. “That’s how you get there.That’s how the Baltimore Ravens, you know, get to be a consistent football team. That’s how the Giants are in the Super Bowl again. I just see that that’s the way it works.”

For those unaware, Schiano is a defensive guy. In fact, Dominik called Schiano “a 4-3 fundamentalist” who has a lot of Dick LeBeau and Monte Kiffin in him.

So did Dominik really want Schiano? Keep in mind the Bucs met with Schiano before they offered a job to Kelly and this was Dominik’s first impression of the former Rutgers head coach.

 ”The first initial meeting with him there was a presence right away when you walked in. The first thing I thought, ‘this guy’s a football coach,’” Dominik said. “I had never met him officially before. But the only thing I felt was, ‘Gosh, this guy, this guy’s a football coach.’ And I love that. And it just felt so right to have a guy with his kind of demeanor and serious attitude, and then knowing how bad he wants to coach back in the National Football League made this a great hire I think for our football team right now.”

Goodness, Joe almost felt like he was listening to the makings of a country song when Dominik shared that moment.

So who’s going to run the offense and lead Josh Freeman? Dominik said the Bucs will take their time hiring assistants. Dominik emphasized that there’s less time pressure with the free agency period starting later this season.

The Bucs are forking over $15 million+ over five years to Greg Schiano

A report from Tom Luicci of the Star-Ledger in New Jersey says Greg Schiano signed a $15 million + contract to coach the Bucs over the next five years. If correct, that represents a sold raise for Schiano, whose Rutgers deal was for $2.3 million annually, per the newspaper.

But Schiano didn’t jump ship to the Bucs to score more cash, so claims NFL.com.

The 45-year old coach said his decision was not driven by financial aspirations.

“That’s not why I coach, that’ll never be why I coach.

“I’ve had several opportunities over the years — some of them you know about, some of them you don’t know about — and none of them felt right,” Schiano added. “This time, this one felt right.”

 Joe’s glad Schiano feels all tingly about the Bucs job, “vibing,” as Raheem Morris would have called it.

One thing Joe’s interested in seeing evolve is how the old Bucs from the blended Dungy-Gruden-Morris era interact, if it all, with Schiano and his regime. It truly was the end of a long era when Raheem got his pink slip.

Will Warren Sapp make his annual trip to training camp? Will Schiano want players seeking out Derrick Brooks for guidance, as many do? Joe’s really not sure how that will all go down.

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The more Joe researches new Bucs head coach Greg Schiano, the more Joe is finding that the man is probably the anti-Raheem.

When Raheem Morris took over the Bucs, he was preaching at his opening news conference that the Bucs would “stay the course,” and Raheem offered absolutely no insight into what a Raheem team would look like.

Expect no such nonsense from Schiano today.

Here’s his former college coach’s reaction to Schiano taking the Bucs job yesterday. Joe Susan also worked under Schiano at Rutgers before returning to coach the Bison of Bucknell University.

“The hiring of Greg Schiano is an outstanding move by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,” said Susan. “I am certain he did a lot of research into making this decision and came to the conclusion that at this time in his career it is best for him and his family. He is someone who will bring great discipline and organization to the team. He is a great evaluator of talent and utilizes the skill set of the people in his program to their maximum efficiency. Beyond that, he is passionate about coaching the game of football. That is what he does best.”

What? Schiano “utilizes the skill set of the people in his program to their maximum efficiency?” Imagine that concept.

Joe thinks this bodes well for LeGarrette Blount, the Bucs’ most dangerous weapon that Raheem and Greg Olson never figured out how to use. And Joe suspects Schiano won’t tolerate a gameplan that has Arrellious Benn as an afterthought.

As Bucs fans wait until this afternoon to hear from new Bucs head coach Greg Schiano, rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and, likely, Team Glazer, Joe has for you Dominik’s words to the Movin’ The Chains crew on Sirius NFL Radio yesterday after the Schiano hiring was announced.

Mark Dominik: We feel really good with where we are, our final result with a football coach that we really feel is an excellent for our football team. Having spent a lot of time now with Coach Schiano over the last couple of days, it’s been a good match, and looking forward to getting him down here and starting to see the facilities, meet the team, and get this thing going in the right direction.

Tim Ryan: Talk about the process. And then what finally led you to the conclusion that Schiano was the guy for you.

Dominik: Well, we talked about it right once we started the search. And alot of time was spent with ownership just kind of designing exactly the way approach ‘how do you find the right head coach for your football team?’ And our mentality, you know, we did it in phases, we first talked to a bunch of really quality coaches that have coached in the National Football League before and had success. You know, when you talk about Mike Shermans and certainly Marty Schottenheimer, and it was really great to spend time with Coach Schottenheimer. And Brad Childress and his success with Minnesota, getting them on the brink of the Super Bowl. We spent time there. Then we went to quality coordinators, maybe guys that hadn’t had that opportunity, Mike Zimmers and Jerry Grays, and Chudzinskis, a lot of other guys. And then we also, of course, you know we talked to Joe Philbin and Tom Clements. So we really tried to circle it all the way around in terms of finding different characteristics, different levels of guys, each at a different time. Then we went and really researched college guys, too. Because the reality is there are great football coaches in college. Having been at the Bucs for so long, I can remember when Monte Kiffin came in here and hired his first staff and it was Lovie Smith and Rod Marinelli. We got Herm Edwards in here, and then he ended up hiring Mike Tomlin and then Raheem Morris. Monte did a great job finding great college football coaches.  We got to here more about Greg Schiano, learn more about Greg Schiano, then finally meet Greg Schiano. And the more we spent time with him the more we realized this is the right man.

Pat Kirwan: On getting coordinators, tell me about that discussion. How deep do you go into that discussion, Mark, when you’re trying to hire [Schiano] and recognizing that he needs some time to learn this NFL thing?

Dominik: The important thing with Coach Schiano is No. 1 he’s been in the league before as you guys know with the Bears. And then running a program, being the head coach and running a program at Rutgers. And the guys that come out of Rutgers I think everybody admits in the pro game, that those are Rutgers men as he calls it,  but guys that are ready to go play in the National Football League. You know, when you think of a lot of the players that have come out, certainly a Ray Rice jumps to mind that he jumps to the league and plays good, or the McCourty brothers. They just jump in the league and play good because they’re ready-made guys. It’s an NFL program at the college level, which I think was something that was very intriguing for us. In terms of coordinators with coach, we didn’t go too deep into it because obviously he hadn’t made a commitment yet to us and we hadn’t made a commitment yet to him. You know, as a college coach, that’s very tricky right now with National Signing Day around the corner. We kept it very quiet. We shared a little bit of time [Wednesday night]. We have some similar names and we’ll get to work on that right away. But I feel very confident in some of the names that we’ve already discussed.

Start your day with the Morning Cup of Joe from HootersCalendar.com. And don’t forget to visit HootersCalendar.com for amazing videos, pictures and cool gifts. It’s Joe’s second favorite website.

Bucs news forthcoming.

Jim Irsay and Peyton Manning are involved in a very public pillow fight. [IndyStar]

Todd Haley is getting stiffed by the Chiefs. [Twitter]

Captain Lou Albano claims he wasn’t aware of any problems in the Jets locker room. [New York Daily News]

College football is tied with baseball for America’s second-most popular sport. Also, liberals hate NASCAR. [Harris Interactive]

Guest which Rays player is rated as the No. 1 prospect in baseball? [RaysIndex]

Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski was geeked this morning when he learned that Rutgers coach Greg Schiano was hired by Team Glazer and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to replace jettisoned Raheem Morris.

Few locals have their thumb on the pulse of Big East football like Justin, who is the pregame and postgame radio voice of USF Football, and he has always been impressed with Schiano.

Given his experience with big time programs at their height, Penn State in the early 1990s and Miami in 1999 and 2000, Justin understands that Schiano knows what it takes to play football at its top level, and how to play disciplined football.

Justin explains in detail on his blog, CommishOnline.com.

With my work on the USF Bulls radio broadcasts, I’ve had a chance to follow what Greg Schiano has done with the Rutgers program. Unfortunately, most fans are so naive to look at his total record with the program, but they forget to take into account how bad the Rutgers program was before Schiano got there. This was a Rutgers program that struggled to win one or two games a season. Schiano not only turned Rutgers into a contender in the Big East, but also developed some excellent NFL talent while he was there.

Schiano’s intensity and energy will also resonate throughout One Buc Place. Yes, Raheem Morris had energy, but while Raheem’s energy was more “rah rah,” Schiano’s energy is genuine and comes with an idea that he’s going to kick someone’s ass. He’s aggressive and commands a presence.

Justin believes that Schiano’s hire may just open the door for linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who Schiano coached at Miami, and running back Ray Rice, who played for Schiano at Rutgers.

Imagine Vilma with the Bucs, who Dominik has coveted before? Buh-bye Quincy Black.

Imagine teaming Rice with LeGarrette Blount? Smashmouth football at its finest.

This is enough for Joe to pry open a cold bottle of Yuengling.

Soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Bucs guard Jeremy Zuttah sat in with the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, this afternoon on WDAE-AM 620 to talk all things Greg Schiano.

Why Zuttah? Well, his college career was spent under new Bucs coach Schiano at Rutgers before Zuttah was drafted by the Bucs in the third round in 2008. You can listen to the full interview by clicking the link above.

On Schiano, Zuttah said, “he cares most importantly about doing everything the right way. That’s going to be big for a lot of the [Bucs] players. That’s what he’s going to harp on.”

Now Joe, of course, has no clue about the granular details of Greg Schiano’s head coaching contract with the Buccaneers. There could be more fancy clauses than a family reunion at the North Pole.

But BSPN is reporting Schiano has a five-year deal done and is, in fact, hired. Five Years!

That’s a big commitment from Team Glazer, especially when you consider Raheem Morris, already a member of the Bucs’ family when he got the head coaching job, only was granted a two-year deal with a team option for two more.