If South Florida's Jim Leavitt had a better record against Greg Schiano, would Joel Glazer have shook someone else's hand Friday?

Now this is interesting.

When new Bucs coach Greg Schiano was with Rutgers, he pretty much owned South Florida when Jim Leavitt stomped up and down the sidelines.

It seemed, per Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald, that whenever USF seemed to be inching toward entrance into the nation’s elite programs, Schiano was always there to put Leavitt and the Bulls in their place.

If not for Schiano, Dell wonders in words whether a different guy would have been introduced to the Bucs press corps as the ninth coach in franchise history, Leavitt.

Schiano went on to become Leavitt’s personal nightmare. He beat him four times in five games and more than any other coach figured out how to slow down quarterback Matt Grothe, USF’s career total offensive leader.

You could see that cockiness in Schiano. His success seemed to destroy a part of Leavitt, sending him into a surly funk.

Now Leavitt is an assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers, and you can’t help but wonder whether he would’ve been the guy introduced as the Bucs’ new coach if he fared better against Schiano.

So Dell seems to be implying that had not Schiano drubbed Leavitt virtually each year, had USF won a few of those matchups, Leavitt wouldn’t have gone all MMA on a player and would have become the head coach to succeed Raheem Morris?

Very interesting. Well, at least Joe is content with Schiano and Joe believes Leavitt, unless he has a serious personality change, would melt down in the NFL. It’s one thing to constantly browbeat one reporter, Brett McMurphy, on a daily basis. That wouldn’t last very long with NFL scribes.

Well, sooner or later — preferably, sooner — new Bucs coach Greg Schiano is going to have to build a staff. Per Peter King of SI.com, in his must-read “Monday Morning Quarterback,” it appears Butch Davis will rejoin Schiano in Tampa Bay.

Greg Schiano wants Butch Davis on his staff.

Not sure whether Davis would be defensive coordinator or an assistant head coach, but Schiano’s interested in adding him to the staff at Tampa Bay. Schiano was Davis’ defensive coordinator at the University of Miami in 1999 and 2000, and they have remained close. Davis hasn’t coached in the NFL since he was dismissed by the Browns after the 2004 season. He’d be a good sounding board for Schiano.

That would be a very good hire. Davis is a solid defensive coach, a 4-3 defensive coach — and we know Schiano is a “4-3 fundamentalist,” so rockstar general manager Mark Dominik called him. And as King suggested, Davis could add experience to the staff since he was a head coach in the NFL.

Now since we’re speculating here — the above information Joe’s sure King got from Schiano since the two talked — Joe’s going to throw a name out that Joe has mentioned before: Tom Bradley.

Ben Jone of StateCollege.com, a longtime beat writer/columnist covering Penn State, had this missive on Twitter the day of Joe Paterno’s memorial:

@Ben_Jones88: Tom Bradley’s name popping up with Tampa Bay and Rutgers. As someone who stood next to him today, I assure you his job wasn’t on his mind

Ironically, Schiano succeeded Bradley as Penn State’s secondary coach when Bradley moved to coach linebackers. Joe, is giddy at the thought of Bradley possibly coming here. As Penn State’s defensive coordinator, there were few better and no team year in and year out played with better fundamentals than Penn State’s defense. That’s a trait sorely missed here.

With Davis as the defensive coordinator and perhaps Bradley as the linebackers coach or secondary coach, the Bucs would have the makings of a damned fine defensive staff.

Joe’s been surfing the net to see if there are any interesting nuggets concerning Team Glazer hiring Rutgers coach Greg Schiano.

In grading all the new NFL head coaches, Chris Burke of SI.com torched Team Glazer and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik for selecting Schiano.

7. Greg Schiano, Buccaneers: The thing about Schiano (one that supporters of this move are citing already) is that he ran a very NFL-style system at Rutgers. That professional approach helped turn a dormant program into a moderate success — Rutgers had six winning seasons in the past seven years and currently holds a five-game bowl win streak.

Schiano, though, has not been a coach in the NFL since 1998 (defensive assistant in Chicago) and has a reputation for being a poor in-game decision maker.

This is a complete 180 from last week’s Tampa Bay courtship of Chip Kelly, which is both a good thing and a bad thing for the Bucs. Unlike some of these other hires, Schiano won’t do anything to excite the local fan base. He faces a long, tough road ahead. GRADE: D

Joe doesn’t get the “excite the fanbase” schtick. What, the Bucs should have instead hired a guy who had only an embarrassing six winning seasons in 17 years just because Bucs fans recognized his name, really?

What, the Bucs were supposed to hire a guy who ran a gimmicky offense in college that has rarely has worked in the NFL, seriously?

Winning games excites the fanbase, simple as that. Father Dungy’s teams were boring as could be offensively, but the stadium was packed week after week. Why? Wins.

Has fantasy football really rendered NFL fans that desperate and shallow?

As Joe’s written many times before in many different ways, Joe slaps the majority of blame for the heinous Bucs collapse last season on poor coaching.

Raheem Morris, Greg Olson and friends did not get anywhere close to the most out of their talent — the essence of coaching. Some players mailed it in, and treasured young Bucs failed to improve or regressed. After a 4-2 start, including wins against playoff teams, that’s not the fault of upper management.

ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas seems to agree with Joe, lumping a pile of blame for Josh Freeman’s struggles on his coaching in a recent feature about Freeman and new head coach Greg Schiano.

I think he simply got dragged down by the total lack of leadership and direction from the previous coaching staff. A lot of players ran wild and there was no accountability and not nearly enough leadership from other corners of the locker room. The Bucs were a ship out of control. 

Obviously, Freeman’s regression was caused by a complex group of factors. But given that Freeman performed at an elite level in 2010, it’s at least reasonable to assume that a better coaching staff and a couple more weapons can return No. 5 to greatness quickly. That alone would make the Bucs competitive again from the first snap on opening day.

A Greg Schiano offense loves to run the ball and take calculated shots down the field, so the Bucs’ new head coach told the masses Friday.

The Bucs only have one quality, healthy running back. And the Bucs need a dynamic third down back and a complement to LeGarrette Blount. (Sorry, Lumpkin lovers, if there are any.)

The very likely solution is Alabama stud running back Trent Richardson, says Tampa Tribune scribe Woody Cummings. In fact, Cummings is so set in his belief the Bucs will draft Richardson that yesterday he told WDAE-AM 620 host Darek Sharp that he’s “90 percent” certain the Bucs draft him with the No. 5 overall pick.

Cummings expounded and said the Bucs will make splash plays in free agency on the defensive side of the ball and look for Baylor WR Kendall Wright, if he’s available in the second round.

These are bold words from Cummings — in January. Joe appreciates Cummings having the testicular fortitude to get on the record early with a draft call.

As for Richardson, if the Bucs are going to draft a running back that early, they better be damn sure the guy is a superstar by his second year. You’ve wasted the No. 5 pick if he’s not; good running backs are too easy to find in later rounds. That written, Blount and Richardson in the Bucs backfield will bring the competition at the position that Schiano covets. But the Bucs better have an offensive coordinator a heck of a lot better than Greg Olson to figure out how to use those two.

On defense, Joe is in complete agreement that the Bucs will dive into free agency. 

Rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s grand master plan always called for free agents to fill holes left by failures in the draft. On that front, the Bucs need serious help at linebacker, and with all the question marks in the secondary (Ronde Barber, Aqib Talib, Tanard Jackson, Cody Grimm, Myron Lewis, Sean Jones), Joe expects the Bucs will make a move to solidify the unit.

As first suggested by eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, new Bucs coach Greg Schiano was eyeing some of his former Rutgers assistants to join his staff in Tampa Bay.

Initially, as Kaufman typed yesterday, Schiano was targeting Arizona Cardinals wide receivers coach John McNulty, who was his offensive coordinator at Piscataway.

That will not happen claimed NFL.com’s Jason La Canfora on his Twitter feed; the Cardinals have blocked the Bucs from talking to him.

@JasonLaCanfora: Tampa Coach Greg Schiano wanted to hire former OC John McNulty as Bucs OC. But the Cards blocked (McNulty is their WR coach) … McNulty was Schiano’s right-hand man at Rutgers. Rules very prohibitive for position coaches. Tough to build staff this late in the game.

This is one of the issues with naming a coach so late in the game. Still, Joe believes this is a chickens(p)it rule, to deny a coach a chance at a promotion. Jumping from wide receivers coach to offensive coordinator is a big jump, both in pay and responsibility.

McNulty being blocked by the Cardinals (don’tcha’ just love Bill Bidwill?) tells Joe it probably means Schiano is going to lean heavily on college coaches to build his staff.

Somebody’s fudging the truth.

Reports high, low, far and wide had Oregon Ducks coach Chip Kelly accepting the Bucs’ head coaching job last weekend and then changing his mind less than 24 hours later. Hell, a prominent member of the Oregon media said the Ducks job was even given away to their offensive coordinator after Kelly took the Bucs gig.

But Kelly checked in this week with Oregon radio host Steve Tannen of 95.3 FM and claimed BS on the media reports of him agreeing to become the Bucs’ ninth head coach.

“And the only decision I ever made was to not accept the [Bucs] job,” Kelly said. “I never changed my mind. I never committed to the job and then flip flopped and went the way back. I had all my information and I made a decision.”

Kelly went on to crack a joke about if he earned $100 for every bogus newspaper report he’d bankrupt the University of Oregon. (Funny how Kelly didn’t claim BS on any reports in the statement he released early this week.)

As for his time being courted by the Bucs, Kelly explained they were his lone suitor and talked about the process. 

“It’s the only NFL team I ever talked to, Kelly said of the Buccaneers. “I interviewed on Wednesday [Jan. 18]. Interviewed again on Friday. Understood where Tampa Bay was coming from. Had to find out where Oregon was coming from. So I had all my information. When I finally got all my information, I made a decision. It was as simple as that. …

“It obviously wasn’t financial because I turned it down and [the Bucs’ offer] was more than I got paid. It wasn’t a leverage deal. I’ve never asked to have my contract renegotiated. I never did that. I want nothing to do with that. All those reports are erroneus. I kept thinking of Vince Vaughan in Wedding Crashers when I kept hearing more information about this thing. Just screaming, ‘Erroneus. Erroneus.’

“That’s all did was just try to find out more about it. I met with Bryan Glazer and Ed Glazer and Joel Glazer and Mark Dominik and was really impressed with those four guys. They kind of presented to me what their plan was with Tampa Bay, it was extremely attractive. But at the end of the day once I got all the information from Tampa Bay, I got all the information from Oregon, to me it was a human decision. I got into coaching because of the relationships. And the relationships I have with the current coaches on our staff and the players that I have right now was the underlying reason I came back.”

Joe doesn’t believe Kelly. Joe hates to call a guy a liar, but this stuff doesn’t add up.

Kelly said he “got all the information from Oregon” after meeting with the Bucs. And he said he had to “find out where Oregon was coming from,” before making a decision. Well, what “information” did he need from the employer that has him under contract for several more years?

It’s ancient history at this point, but Joe’s glad Kelly didn’t land in Tampa. Joe suspects he wouldn’t measure up to Greg Schiano’s core beliefs: “trust, belief and accountability.”

Joe can’t imagine a reason why Greg Schiano wouldn’t want Ronde Barber on his roster.

Schiano told the world yesterday that he craves and values competition on his team. The man wants to compete in “every drill.” And Bucs fans know Barber doesn’t miss practice and has long been motivated by defending his starting role and fighting back his detractors. Schiano also talked about earning fans trust and winning back fans.

Given those factors, Joe sees Schiano getting Barber to return for the 2012 season as a big early step in his regime. Barber can still play, and his return surely would serve as a great endorsement of the Schiano regime to fans.

Of course, Barber might not want to play football anymore — something totally out of Schiano’s control — but Joe highly doubts that’s the case.

Joe assumes Barber will wait for his broken arm to heal fully before he makes a call on his future, but Joe hopes Schiano gets Barber one-on-one at One Buc Palace in a matter of hours.

The big cover photo on today’s Tampa Bay Times front page is one of LeGarrette Blount talking at One Buc Palace with new head coach Greg Schiano.

This warmed Joe’s heart and actually got him a little fired up for Bucs football again. Joe suspects Schiano won’t screw up opening day like the last head coach — opening day — and only run Blount five times and say after the game that “we got away from the run too early.”

Surely Schiano can see that Blount is a massive weapon that the Raheem regime couldn’t figure out how to maximize.

Joe, also, was somewhat impressed that Blount was in attendance at the news conference to introduce the head coach. That’s a nice show of dedication. Joe surely can’t fault any Buccaneer for not being there, considering there was only 24 hours notice and players could be anywhere in the world. But Blount wasn’t the only player sizing up the new boss in person.

Joe has confirmed that Arrelious Benn, George Johnson, Josh Freeman, Cody Grimm, Luke Stocker and Jeff Faine also showed up. (Imagine that. Jeff Faine seeing the value in bonding with his teammates without actually blocking anyone.) Bucs icon Mike Alstott also came to hear the new ball coach.

Speaking of icons, yesterday Schiano talked briefly about coaching against Derrick Brooks, John Lynch and Warren Sapp when he was a Bears coach, and about how important it is to embrace the greats in team history.

Now Joe is as content as the next Bucs fan that Team Glazer and rock star general manager Mark Dominik hired Rutgers coach Greg Schiano.

If ever an NFL team needed discipline and guidance the way Schiano can provide, it is the Bucs.

But Schiano leaving New Jersey is proving to be pricey. Bloomberg suggests that Schiano, by leaving the Garden State, owes Rutgers some $800,000.

Schiano, who was head coach at the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based school for 11 seasons, is obligated to pay a $500,000 buyout plus the $300,000 remaining on a home loan contained in his most recent contract in 2007, Jason Baum, a Rutgers athletic department spokesman, said in an e-mail.

The loan, originally $800,000, was forgiven $100,000 for every year he stayed with the team. He made $2.03 million including bonuses in the fiscal year ended in June.

Whew. That’s a lot of dough. This tells Joe Schiano really, really, really wanted to take over the Bucs.

The dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, of WDAE-AM 620, made it a point today, several times, to share rockstar general manager Mark Dominik’s words to him delivered during a brief break in his show.

Duemig said Dominik called him to ask him to please inform his audience that Greg Schiano will be picking his staff and Dominik will simply be working on their contracts, as well as tossing names at Schiano if he’s looking for referrals during the process.

Of course, Joe knows many fans think Dominik has fresh new marionette strings for Schiano and this new era is nothing more than Dominik’s second puppet regime.

Joe, however, doesn’t buy into that nonsense. Joe believes Schiano will control selection of his staff.

As for Schiano filling holes in free agency in 2012, Joe’s not so sure how that will go down. All Joe can say is the cash question flies out the window in 2013, when every NFL team will be forced to spend nearly the same amount on player salaries.

The Bucs’ new head coach, Greg Schiano, took the podium at One Buc Palace this afternoon and talked about his philosophy and fielded questions from a gallery of media.

Here are the highlights:

*Schiano said Mark Dominik “was a huge reason I felt comfortable this was the place.” He cited their comfortable communication through the interview process, hiring and post-hiring processes.

*On why he bonded with Team Glazer and Dominik: “I learned how important family is to them. No. 2, I learned how committed they are to be the very best. That’s me.”

*Schiano said, “Our team will be built around a humble unselfish attitude of sacrifice. It’s hard to find that in today’s world. …That’s who we’ll be. … [Our staff] will collectively teach, as a staff there will be one common message.”

*So what are the new core beliefs?: Trust. Belief. Accountability.

*Schiano clearly is skilled at dodging direct answers to direct questions. Joe has no problem with that. Raheem Morris was one of a kind in his open style. Schiano clearly didn’t want to name names of Buccaneers that impressed him.

*”There is going to be a Buccaneer way. You gotta believe in that, or this isn’t the place,” Schiano said.

*What will the new Buccaneers look like, Coach? “Great defense, win the special teams battle, and be a physical offensive football team that takes shots down the field.”

*Schiano said multiple times that he’s impressed by the Bucs’ “young and talented core” of players, from his own observations and from those of his contacts in the NFL.

*”I understand we gotta reconnect with our fan base,” Schiano said.  He said he knows the Bucs have to “earn their trust.”

*Schiano said he “grew up in the coaching system of Joe Paterno. That’s where I really cut my teeth.” The Paterno way instilled in him is about efficiency, and he’s all about efficiency. “Time is our enemy,” Schiano said, referencing a common refrain of Paterno.

*The Bucs’ new head coach loves “competition. ” That’s what makes everybody rise to the top,” Schiano said. “We’re going to compete in every drill. 

*Schiano said he’s not concerned about where his assistants come from — NFL or college. He’ll be hiring “great teachers and great communicators. The key is hiring the right people. Whatever gets the desired result, I’m not that concerned [where they come from.]”

Popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, beer-chugging Peter King of Sports Illustrated, and some exotic looking babe named Maggie Gray talk about the Greg Schiano hire in the SI.com video.

King seems to think Bill Belicheat’s endorsement weighed very heavily on the Bucs’ heirarchy. King also tries offer sage-like wisdom on this year’s coaching hires across the NFL.

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.

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.

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.

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.

New England coach Bill Belicheat is sort of looked about as the Yoda of NFL coaches. If he says something, it must be true.

That tends to be the case when your trophy case is chock-full of Vince Lombardi trophies.

With the Super Bowl nearing between New England and the New York Giants, Belicheat is being tailed by many New York scribes. So Belicheat was pested for a reaction to the Bucs hiring Greg Schiano as the ninth coach in franchise history.

Here is what Kimberly A. Martin of Newsweek documented:

“He’s done a great job at Rutgers,” said Belichick. “I think he’s a tremendous coach, he’s done a great job with that program and his players have been very NFL-ready. Guys that come out of that program, when they get to the NFL, I say most of them make it. They have enough talent to really to compete in the NFL and most of them end up staying in one way or another. And that’s a credit to the preparation and the program that he’s built there.”

High praise from the NFL’s Yoda.

If Joe wasn’t so busy, he’s belly up to a bar, order a Bushmills, have the barkeep turn on the Big Ten Network and toast both JoePa and Schiano.

Oh, and Team Glazer and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.