Says animated coach not needed.

Joe doesn’t think it is a stretch to suggest the vast majority of Bucs fans look forward to one thing before they can enjoy Bucs games again.

That would be when Bucs coach Todd Bowles has to clean out his office.

Bowles, wildly unpopular with the rank and file Bucs fans, takes all sorts of potshots from fans who can’t wait for the Bowles era of Bucs football to come to an end.

Most of these gripes, Joe admits, are valid. However, perhaps the most commonly-heard critique of Bowles, well, Joe thinks is complete BS.

Basically, fans want a cartoon character on the sidelines. You know, like the Tasmanian Devil. Think Chucky. Never mind, Chucky demonstrates almost daily he’s stuck in the 1990s when it comes to offense — but, by golly, he gets fired up!

For most NFL fans, the NFL is a TV show. Entertainment! Drama! Suspense! Without juice, you basically have Booknotes with Brian Lamb.

And you know what? One reason Joe became a fan of Indiana basketball was because of Bobby Knight. Dude was completely Fruit Loops on the bench. Had no idea what he was going to do or what he was going to say but you knew you’d be entertained, in a WWE/Frank the Tank kind of way.

Anyone can act the fool but very, very few people could or did out-coach Knight. Behind that nutso personality and frustrated comedian front lay a basketball genius.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if a coach is dancing with himself on the sideline or has the charisma of a utility pole. It’s what the guy does in practices and his constant in-game decisions and talent evaluation are what make a coach.

Some of the greatest coaches in NFL history had the personality of a stale loaf of bread. Paul Brown, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Mike Shanahan … Joe could go on. Defending Super Bowl champion Mike Macdonald isn’t exactly doing cartwheels during games. He wins.

Appearing on the “Pat and Aaron Show” heard on WDAE-AM 620/WDAE-FM 95.7 yesterday, newly re-signed Bucs tight end Ko Kieft pretty much echoed a famous Bill Parcells line: If players need a coach to motivate them, they’re in the wrong business.

“I think — dude, if you don’t have enough fire as a player yourself, if you need a coach to come and hype you up before every game, before every practice, to fire you up, I don’t think you should be in the NFL,” Kieft said.

Joe has heard it from many assistants, past and present, and with players that Bowles’ even keel demeanor is actually a good thing. Sometimes, an extrovert coach who constantly hollers and yells, the message grows thin and who knows what may or may not set him off, and when.

Now to be fair to Kieft, does anyone expect Kieft, fresh off a new contract, to get on a blowtorch AM and FM signal that can be heard up and down the west coast of the east coast and trash his head coach? Of course not.

Again, Joe understands why folks want a cartoon character on the sidelines. But as far as Joe is concerned, a guy’s personality doesn’t amount to a hill of beans whether he can coach or not.

Sure, watching Bucco Bruce Arians tear into people and cuss up a storm and run on the field and slap a player in the helmet or get into a hassle with currently unemployed clown Marshon Lattimore was fun to watch. At the end of the day, Arians knew what he was doing with X’s and O’s better than most.

No one outside of Chucky hollered and screamed like former Bucs commander Greg Schiano. How’d that work out? Raheem Morris would chestbump defensive dudes coming off the field after allowing a field goal. That didn’t work out so well, did it?

There are many valid reasons for Bucs fans to be upset with Bowles. We could sit at Hooters all afternoon and list them. The fact he’s not a maniac on the sidelines isn’t one of them.