Glazers’ Hand Not Forced
January 7th, 2016
Teams inquiring about Bucs’ OC Dirk Koetter did not force Lovie Smith out, GM Jason Licht said.
It stands to reason that Lovie Smith was fired last night because ownership and management were scared that Bucs’ offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter would bolt for a head coaching gig elsewhere, leaving Team Glazer and America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, at the altar.
In fact, Joe wrote last week that if Koetter ran off to greener pastures, then Lovie would lose his security blanket. What was the point of keeping Lovie if the goal was continuity for Jameis and the offensive coordinator was gone?
Speculation the past 24 hours supports this notion. Koetter has received feelers from three different teams and, depending on whom you believe, Miami was hot after him.
But this premise is too simple, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht said today while detailed the nuts and bolts of how Team Glazer decided to jettison Lovie.
“The decision was made — our ownership, I commend them on [the way] they take their time, they think things through,” Licht said. “They don’t make emotional decisions. They don’t make in-season decisions. They take in all the information. As a general manager, one of my jobs is to give them my analysis, weekly [and] at the end of the season of the scouting, of the couching, the strengths, the weaknesses.
“They take that information and they presented to me what their recommendation was.”
So this move, Licht stated, was made after weeks of fact gathering, not a knee-jerk reaction to possibly losing Koetter to another team, even though that’s what it looks like from the outside.
January 7th, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Sounds like They saw what the real fans saw as well!! Kudos to those who saw this over a year ago and stood fast with what they saw!!!
either that or they are racist like the rest of us were called!!!
January 7th, 2016 at 4:00 pm
This I like. People need to quit with comparisons to the Browns organization. That’s just ignorant. Straight up ignorant.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:04 pm
I think it was a combination of things and Koetter leaving was a part of the mix.
My suspicion is that Licht recommended that wholesale changes be made to the defensive coaching staff….including the hiring of a strong DC…..either Lovie objected to that or….the Glazers & Licht thought he would from previous knowledge….
So, if they wanted to make a change….Lovie had to go.
Where Koetter comes in is that they knew they had a strong, acceptable candidate in house……this has not been the case before with previous coaches.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:06 pm
Press conferences are full of BS. They’re not telling the truth now, but it will come out. I still think that everyone could see that the offense is working, and Jameis didn’t want to lose a coach who made him one of the most successful rookie QB’s ever, and Koetter’s name was coming up way too often, so the made a move to guarantee he’d stay.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:12 pm
I feel better after the press conference. They didn’t fire by phone and reading between the lines, Dirk is going to be the coach.
I still think Lovie deserved 1 more year, I think every coach deserves 3-4 years.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:14 pm
Fire Lovie!!!
Just had to get that out of my system….
January 7th, 2016 at 4:17 pm
The Glazers have hired Minorities with 3 out of 5 of their last HC……4 out of 5 if you count Italians……I think they should get a waiver on the Rooney Rule….
January 7th, 2016 at 4:19 pm
Fire Dirk!!!
Wanted to be the first…….I beat Realist to it.
I’m sure that chorus will begin sooner than we like….
January 7th, 2016 at 4:20 pm
Has anyone heard from GMC?
January 7th, 2016 at 4:21 pm
If one looks at the last 2 years entire “body of work” with an objective eye…this decision was clearly the right one. I wanted Lovie to do well…but when he started to really stink up the joint the last month of the season…this was the correct call. I hated the thought that 2016 would be yet another “throw away” season. Now….hope and intrigue are in front of us.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:22 pm
I think koetter did a good job with winston and this offense. And granted it was only 1 year with a rookie qb, but i didnt see enough great play calling. We have a heck of a 3rd down back and most of the season we wouldn’t run a single screen pass during the games. Idk how that is possible. Winston would be getting tons of pressure, but the play calling continued to set up down field long developing plays. It made no sense. Im not 100% behind koetter as the HC. I didnt see his play calling or decision making as anything great. Maybe average to above average. A 5 or 6 out of 10.
Imo there are better coaches out there. And the bucs need to find them. We need a game changer. Coughlin imo is that guy. The more i think this through i really only want coughlin. You talk about a head coach. Coughlin is a head coach. Koetter is an OC who wants to be an OC. But he is still an OC. These guys rarely work out. I could be wrong. But i dont like my HC calling plays or running just one side of the ball. Thats not what a HC should do. A head coach should know everything about football. Offense, defense, ST. And let his coordinators do their job. I’ll take a multiple super bowl winning coach over some OC that is only going to focus his time on the offense.
Look at the best programs and head coaches and hey have no hand in their offense or defense. Patriots, Bengals, Steelers being the big 3 with long standing Head Coaches. They stay in that position because if the offense fails, fire the OC. If the defense fails, fire the DC. If your HC is also your OC then he better have one of the best offenses in the league. Because if that offense falters at all, he is gone. And to put that pressure on a HC that he has to have a great offense because it is his offense, then the rest of the team get left out in the cold.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Actually, I want to believe this. I know many of us want Dirk, however, firing Lovie to keep Koetter from bolting smacks of panic, which is never a good thing. Certainly canning Gruden for Rah set the franchise back a long ways.
Licht said something interesting twice – that he had received plenty of interest in the job. Think about that. Who would be reaching out to him from outside the organization? Could it be Nick Saban and Urban Meyer from the college ranks. With Pagano and Payton off the table, could it be Josh McDaniel and Tom Coughlin? Who else?
Frankly, I want them to conduct a thorough, comprehensive search. If Dirk is the best possible coach then so be it.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Come on now…we know this was all about Koetter. Rightfully so. We cannot risk losing him.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:23 pm
Actually their hand was forced by the putrid play of the Bucs and Lovie Dovies “well we just need to play better response.” Reminds me of another nice guy coach who the Bucs fired who used to say “we just were not in sync”.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:24 pm
If it wasn’t about Koetter, why not fire him too? Because he’s good enough to keep. Which means they want him to stay. THAT’s why they fire Lovie. Either – or.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:25 pm
Bucs Believer Says:
“…and Lovie Dovies “well we just need to play better response.”
Name one coach that doesn’t say that after a loss.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:30 pm
I don’t know what else Licht could have said. I certainly wouldn’t expect him to say, “yeah we fired Lovie because we were scared to lose Koetter”. He still has to hire a few candidates (at least one minority candidate), so saying that would make those interviews an obvious sham. He said what he has to say, and I expect that to continue until the day we hire a new coach. I really believe all signs point to Koetter, but you really do never know.
January 7th, 2016 at 4:35 pm
shows to all that our ownership is so heavily involved in decisions, fire Gruden, fire Morris, fire Schiano, fire Lovie. I wonder how much influence they have had in coordinators, free agency and the draft?!? Who really deserves the credit and the blame?
January 7th, 2016 at 4:47 pm
What if the Glazers want to bring back Schiano….he’s still being paid…..
Naah!!!
January 7th, 2016 at 4:48 pm
Here is a question to all HC candidates…..”Do you have any children you’d like to make assistants?”
January 7th, 2016 at 4:56 pm
Hawaiian Buc Says:
January 7th, 2016 at 4:30 pm
I don’t know what else Licht could have said. I certainly wouldn’t expect him to say, “yeah we fired Lovie because we were scared to lose Koetter”. He still has to hire a few candidates (at least one minority candidate), so saying that would make those interviews an obvious sham.
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As opposed to the mostly obvious sham they currently are? Maybe the stupid rule had a purpose at one point, but not anymore.
January 7th, 2016 at 5:40 pm
Of course they won’t say but obviously they chose Koetter over Lovie.
January 7th, 2016 at 7:10 pm
If that were the case… Why wait til Thursday? You’re behind at that point
January 7th, 2016 at 8:25 pm
@Tampabaybucfan
Hahahahahahahahahah rotflmao
January 7th, 2016 at 8:39 pm
As opposed to the mostly obvious sham they currently are? Maybe the stupid rule had a purpose at one point, but not anymore.
I agreed with that last night when TBBF asked the question as to why we still do them.
But upon second thought there is another reason. Simply going through the process can be very good for the coach even if he never had a chance. First the PR is great…it makes him look like a hot commodity just because he’s getting interviewed…those who still support this would also add that the young black coaches going through the process benefit greatly just from the experience and practice of interviewing and that eventually that may help that get that job.
While seeing both sides of this debate I do think there is at least one exception to the Rooney rule that could be embraced next year and still be fair to all concerned. If the new hire is someone currently on staff and it’s a simple promotion a team should simply be free to hire him. IE The Bucs should have the right to simply say we are going to promote from within and thats it.
Now if the Bucs decided to interview others as well as Koetter then the rule could apply again.