Bucs fans increasingly are falling into two camps: those that think rockstar general manager Mark Dominik is a bumbling, stumbling joke, and those that believe Dominik has done a solid job infusing the Bucs with young talent and deserves little responsibility for the Bucs’ demise in 2011.

Outspoken former Bucs coach Herm Edwards, now a candid analyst for BSPN, falls into the latter camp.

Speaking to the crew of PrimeTime on WHBO-AM 1040 today, Edwards said the Bucs’ crumbled not because Raheem Morris didn’t have players but because team discipline was lost and the Bucs lost their emotion.

“That has nothing to do with talent. It’s a mindset. And once it gets going, if you don’t stop it early, it becomes who you are,” Edwards said. “I’m a big believer in this, Your habits create who you are. And unless you’re willing to change your habits, it’s going to show up. And it showed up when they played.”

“We’re all human. I don’t ever say people quit. I say this, the game of football is played with emotion. And when you lose your sense of emotion, it looks like, well, they quit. … I just believe emotionally you check out sometimes. And when you do that, it looks bad.”

Edwards went on to say he believes the Bucs didn’t know how to handle success and didn’t have the locker room leadership to help pull them out of a tailspin.

Edwards said Ronde Barber can’t be a true leader from the cornerback position and he implied that the Bucs didn’t have any leadership on defense in 2011. “No one was there to grab’em,” Edwards said, and “hold them accountable.

“When your struggling you need to make sure your locker room is strong. … You gotta have guys that are willing to get in the players’ faces, not the coaches, the players, and say, ‘Hey man. We’re not doing that around here.'”

No interest in Bucs job

Edwards said he has no desire to be a head coach in 2012, saying he loves life at BSPN.

On Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Grey getting an interview by the Bucs this week, Edwards said Grey is a disciplinarian type and a guy he knows well.

As for the type of coach the Bucs hire and how discipline would be instilled, Edwards was passionate about the subject. He said the phrase “player’s coach” has a negative connotation that implies a lack of discipline. Edwards said that’s the furthest thing from the truth, giving Tony Dungy as an example of a “player’s coach.”

“They called me a player’s coach,” Edwards said. “You think I don’t have discipline? My father was in the Army for 27 years.  … When you’re a head coach, they respect the title of the head coach. When you get the players to respect the man behind the title, then you got discipline.”

Edwards was very upbeat about the Bucs’ future.

“Whoever gets that job is going to walk into a very good situation. Mark Dominik has done a good job drafting players.”

The Twitter universe was going wild earlier with word from Tampa Bay Times reporter Stephen Holder Twittering that rockstar GM Mark Dominik was not in attendance Wednesday when Team Glazer interviewed Mike Sherman and Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Grey for the Bucs head coaching job in Houston.

Calm down Dominik haters and lovers. Breathe easy.

Dominik was there front and center during interview process for these candidates, Joe has learned from One Buc Palace.

Rick Stroud, also a Times beat writer, joined J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010 today and apologized for riling up the masses with Holder’s errant Tweet.

The man Chucky couldn’t figure out how to get on the field with Antonio Bryant, Joey Galloway, took to the WDAE-AM 620 airwaves this week with Dan Sileo.

Galloway reflected, saying he enjoyed his time under Chucky in total, though the not the final days.

Speaking about the 2011 Bucs, Galloway said what happened to Raheem is common across all sports — teams fall apart and the coach gets the blame. Saying he liked Raheem and respected him while he saw him first-hand as an energetic Bucs secondary coach, Galloway said he highly doubted Raheem’s closeness with players was a factor in his demise with the Bucs.

“It wasn’t the problem last year [when they were successful]. I woudn’t imagine he got any closer with the guys this year than he did last year,” Galloway said.

Joe knows that many Bucs fans are pining for former Titans coach Jeff Fisher to be named the next Bucs coach. With Fisher being heavily courted by Miami and St. Louis, it would stand to reason those two teams are the frontrunners for his services.

Armed with that information, it seems
popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, beer-chugging Peter King of Sports Illustrated is of the mind that within two days, NFL types will know where Fisher is leaning, so King Twittered this afternoon.

@SI_PeterKing: I would assume we’ll know the fate of Jeff Fisher, or at least his very strong leaning, within 48 hours.

Add to the intrigue that good guy Maoist Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports yesterday wrote that there were two teams with head coach openings that “do not seem” interested in Fisher, Kansas City and Tampa Bay. Silver did not elaborate further.

Silver’s information seems to back up what eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune earlier this week said, that the suits at One Buc Palace are indifferent to landing Fisher.

Cash-tossing Danny Snyder, Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan might be after another big free agent — one with “core beliefs” who’s “ready to deal.” That would be Raheem Morris, the recently defrocked Bucs head coach.

Per Redskins reporter George Wallace’s Tweet, Raheem has been dining recently with Redskins staff, and Brad Biggs of NationalFootballPost.com says Raheem might be tapped for a key position on Washington’s staff.

The ex-head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is reportedly in the mix to join the Washington Redskins, who are looking for someone to clean up their secondary. George Wallace of WTOP radio in Washington reported Morris was spotted in the area dining with Redskins brass, leading one to believe he was in town for an interview.

It’s possible the Redskins could look to add Morris as their defensive backs coach and coach Mike Shanahan could also give him the title of assistant head coach. Morris and Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan have a relationship together from their days on the same staff in Tampa.

What a great potential fit for Raheem. Joe assumes Raheem would lose the $2 million remaining on his Bucs’ head coaching contract if he coaches with another team in 2012. However, if the Redskins make it worth his while with a long-term deal, then maybe Raheem jumps to join Bruce Almighty and Shanahan, and revive his resume at the same time. Plus Joe assumes the allure of playing the Bucs next season would be quite attractive.

If Raheem gets this job, Joe wonders what free agents in the Bucs’ secondary he might ask for? Elbert Mack? Ronde Barber? Surely not Sean Jones.

Joe loves mystery and drama. Give Joe some ice cold Molson and an hour to watch Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Joe’s a happy guy.

Therefore, Joe perked up reading a live chat with Bucs beat writer Stephen Holder yesterday on TampaBay.com. Holder was asked about an apparent locker room disagreement between someone with the Tampa Bay Times and Aqib Talib. Holder acknowledged some sort of confrontation and defended his newspaper’s response, or lack thereof.

Comment From Zeke: Why didn’t anyone report the Times’ locker room spat with Talib?

Stephen F. Holder: It was a personal conflict and unrelated to the game. We didn’t go there as a courtesy, not because we were pressured. I think that should be a lesson to those who think we went out of our way to disparage Talib. That was a layup and we did not take it.

.

Being a head coach in the NFL is completely different from any other coaching job. Some guys can make the leap; some can’t. Some would be great head coaches but poor coordinators.

Joe’s not about to pretend he’s got a can’t-miss candidate for the Bucs’ opening. If Team Glazer wants to let Joe in on the interview/vetting process, sure, then Joe would be happy to make a call. But for all Joe knows some of these hot candidates come off clueless or wacky in interviews, are burned out, or have all kinds of baggage no fan or media-type would every know of.

That written, it’s still fun to speculate and handicap the field. Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski, the Buccaneers Radio Network pre- and post-game host, has done just that in a new article for 620wdae.com. The Commish fires off names with pros and cons. Joe suggests you check it out.

One name Pawlowski highlights is Hall of Famer and Cardinals coach Russ Grimm, Cody’s dad.

Russ Grimm
Assistant Head Coach/Run Game Coordinator Arizona Cardinals

Pros:  Like Winston Moss, Grimm has been groomed to be a head coach under some top head coaches in the NFL.  Grimm was a finalist to become the Bears and Steelers next head coaches, but was passed up both times.  Grimm was one of the best offensive lineman the NFL has ever seen, and has become one of the top offensive line coaches in the NFL.  He is an aggressive minded coach who has good connections throughout the NFL.  Grimm would thrive with the offensive and defensive lines already in place with the Bucs.  On a side storyline, it would be interesting to see father (Russ) coach son (Cody) in the NFL.

Cons:  I’d like to see Grimm in an interview.  He must be doing something right to be a finalist for the Bears and Steelers jobs, but must be doing something slightly wrong to get passed up both times and then to not be a legitimate candidate since then.  I would question how Grimm would handle a roster as young as the Buccaneers and groom a quarterback like Josh Freeman.  I’m not as high on Russ Grimm for the Bucs as others are.  Picking a head coach is finding the right fit, and I’m not sure Grimm is a good fit here.

Joe admits that Grimm intrigues him very much. He would bring instant credibility — and surely some old school discipline — to young Buccaneers with his playing and coaching resume. Plus he coached for years in the Steelers organization, and Team Glazer and rockstar GM Mark Dominik seem to be enamoured with the “Steeler Way.”

Joe suspects Grimm would demand nothing less than an extreme physicality to his football team that would be such a welcome change. Though it could be a positive or a negative, Joe finds it interesting that he’d have a family mole on his team in the form of Cody Grimm.

Will Grimm get a sniff? Does he have baggage that’s kept him from the head coaching ranks? Joe has no clue.

Bucs icon John Lynch talks about Raheem's demise and says the Bucs' talent makes them a choice head-coaching vacancy in the NFL

In one of the more astute former-Buccaneer rants Joe’s heard in a long time, Bucs icon John Lynch gave a take on why Raheem Morris was fired during an interview with Todd Wright on Yahoo! Sports Radio this week.

Lynch opened by explaining Raheem is a friend of his and the two sat next to each other in position meetings when Raheem was an up-and-coming coach.

“He had somehow lost it,” Lynch said. “A young team, he had lost their attention. You know, it was kind of sickening to watch, I think, because there’s one thing that’s non-negotiable in this league to me from players, and that’s effort. In the last three or four games that I watched, there were numerous times where you were questioning effort. That doesn’t work. It’s inexcusable. And at that point you have to make a change.

“You know I think the next time around I would venture to say Raheem is going to come out and lay the hammer down. You know, I think it’s ok to be good to your players, treat them like men. But you also got to let them know that there are going to be standards to live up to on and off the field. And if you don’t, that there’s going to be consequences. And I don’t know if that ever happened. And I think that probably was some of his of his downfall.

“Ultimately when you’ve got a stud franchise quarterback and he’s not deveolping, in fact he’s going the other way, I think that’s what really more than anything did it. And that’s what happening with Josh Freeman. I really think that kid has the goods. And if I’m looking for a head coach for that team, that day No. 1 is to find a guy that can get the best out of him. Because I think then you build around him.”

Joe couldn’t agree more. Freeman having a solid 2011 surely would have brought the Bucs a couple more wins and cemented Raheem’s job (with a new defensive coordinator). Nobody would have wanted to mess with Freeman this offseason if he were thriving.

Lynch went on to say he thinks the Bucs have the most quality pieces of the NFL teams with a coaching vacancy, calling the Bucs’opening a job “people would really covet.”

As Joe’s’ written before, the Bucs gig is a plumb job, with loads of talent in the trenches, a 23-year-old quarterback with all the tools who showed he can put them together for a year, and a dangerous running back that nobody’s figure out how to use. That’s hadly a bad start to a new regime.

On the morning Raheem Morris was jettisoned by Team Glazer, Joe posted three questions that Morris must answer to if he were to keep his gig as the Bucs’ eighth coach in franchise history.

Apparently (at least) one of them he could not answer, and Joe would be stunned if the question wasn’t asked by Team Glazer:

“Why was your team seemingly never prepared for a game?”

Here’s an example of why, courtesy of eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, via the TBO Bucs Twitter feed.

Here’s a Buc nugget to chew on. TB scored one offensive TD in the opening quarter this season. Opposing offenses scored 15 TDs in 1Q.

Of course, Joe knows there will be some (many?) who will try to pin that on Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.

That is, in a nutshell, the Raheem Morris era of the Bucs. It wasn’t just this year, it was last year as well, as Josh Freeman bailed the Bucs out of too many holes after slow starts.

To add to the frustration, Kaufman also notes the Bucs, despite having one of the most dangerous running backs in the NFL, had the fewest rushing attempts in the league, which is simply outrageous.

The Bucs’ gameplans remind Joe of a line that Bob Knight told Bob Costas on Costas’ old nightly interview show on NBC over 20 years ago.

The NCAA adopted a new policy that seemed discriminant against inner city youths. Knight said of the controversial policy, “It is an ill-conceived idea by they who themselves were ill-conceived.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Yesterday Joe brought a tidbit from former Bucs quarterback Shaun King’s emotional, fire and brimstone radio tirade Tuesday blasting Team Glazer and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik over the firing of Raheem Morris and the state of the Bucs franchise.

For your evening listening entertainment, click below to listen to Part 1 of the audio, courtesy of WQYK-AM 1010. (Hat tip Justin)

Apparently channeling years of training as a social worker, Bucs beat writer Stephen Holder says some young, key Buccaneers lacked the mental capacity to handle adversity last season.

Holder offered his take during a live chat today for his employer, TampaBay.com.

Comment From PherbPherb: What do you make of talking heads like Shaun King saying Raheem go screwed? Shouldn’t it be obvious that his team quit on him and that’s all on the head coach?

Stephen F. Holder: Yes, the team seemed to quit and it’s his job to get thru to them. BUT, I think the makeup of the team is a reason they quit on him. In other words, you had SOME young and weak-minded players who didn’t respond well when the pressure got turned up. Last year, there was no pressure and they were winning. Everyone gets lifted by the high tide, you know? But this year, things got sticky and guys didn’t respond. A lot of those young guys had never been tested like that.

Joe interprets Holder’s take as essentially blaming a poor screening process, aka rockstar general manager Mark Dominik, for leading to mental weaklings landing on Raheem’s roster in key positions. And these softies caved under pressure.

Wow. Joe’s heard it all now.

The Bucs routinely came out in games outschemed before the opening whistle, often defeated and deflated only minutes into the game. For Joe, that was a complete failure of coaching, from motivation to preparation.

Somehow, in 2010, young Buccaneers stepped up in key roles, routinely while trailing in pressure fourth-quarter situations. How many rookies made starts in 2010? Hats off to Raheem and his staff for that. But in 2011 the team was allegedly infested with weak-minded players?

Joe doesn’t get why it’s so hard to just call the last 10 games what they were: a collosal, historic failure by the coaching staff.

With no coaching staff in place, a 10-game losing streak to end last season in a grotesque manner, perhaps the worst linebacker play in the NFL, and maybe losing its two starting cornerbacks in 2012, it’s difficult on face value to see the Bucs making the playoffs in the near future.

Don’t count Don Banks along with the naysayers.

The former Bucs beat writer for the then-St. Petersburg Times has been a popular NFL columnist for Sports Illustrated for some time now. He recently typed a piece where he believes the Bucs and the Lambs are much easier franchises to turn into winners than what many suggest.

Spagnuolo and Morris won’t reap the benefits, but an objective assessment shows the Rams and Bucs are in better position today than they were when they hired those two men in early 2009.

In the NFL, the teams without hope are the teams without a long-term answer at quarterback. On that front, the Bucs and Rams remain in decent shape. Tampa Bay’s Josh Freeman and St. Louis’ Sam Bradford both regressed this season and suffered setbacks in their development as first-round, franchise-type quarterbacks. Nothing came easily to either passer, and their first real blast of adversity in the NFL tested their wills and challenged their confidence levels.

But the things that ailed Freeman and Bradford are fixable, and their experiences this year were rather common for young quarterbacks who find themselves caught up in a season that spirals out of control. Yes, they struggled mightily at times, but that does not necessarily doom them to more of the same in the future.

Banks goes on to write that he believes the investments the Bucs have made on the defensive line should pay off and that will help turn the defense around quicker than most.

Banks has a point. But first thing first: Fix Freeman.

As Team Glazer and rockstar general manager Mark Dominik search the globe for a head coach and parade candidates through One Buc Palace, surely they will develop a key set of interview questions.

There are plenty to ask (Have you ever dropped an F-bomb to the media? Or been beaten by your uncles?), but Joe has to think one priority is getting a damn good answer on how this new head coach will develop the Bucs’ defensive front seven.

The Bucs invested two first-round picks and two second-rounders in the defensive line over the past two years. Like the picks or not, they can’t afford to miss on the D-line. Plus, the Bucs surely must grab at least one impact linebacker in free agency and likely draft one with one of their higher picks in 2012. So there’s no doubt the Bucs will have a load — financially and draftwise — invested in that front seven. There’s no way it can be an afterthought in any way.

In Joe’s mind, any head coaching candidate is going to have to show up at One Buc with something very concrete on developing the Bucs’ defense, including names of assistant coaches so they can be scrutinized.

Presumably, head coaching candidates show up prepared. But Joe hears offensive names like Mike Sherman and Mike Mularkey, and the first thing Joe wants to know is how they plan to stop having the Bucs gashed and gutted consistently by opposing running backs.

If, as Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has been known to say, the Bucs are all about “No. 5,” then it would stand to reason the Bucs want to hire an offensive-minded head coach to replace jettisoned Raheem Morris.

So, per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Dixie Chicks offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey is on the Bucs’ short list of candidates to replace Morris.

Mularkey is an interesting study. He was a former get-back coach for Sam Wyche with the Bucs, eventually rising to the status of tight ends coach.

With Pittsburgh roughly 10 years ago, he rose from wide receivers coach to offensive coordinator and somehow transformed Tommy Maddox of all people into a playoff quarterback.

In Mularkey’s last season in Pittsburgh, he somehow wrung 3,414 yards of passing out of Maddox’s right arm. Mularkey was also key in developing receivers Hines Ward and Antwaan Randle El.

With the Dixie Chicks, Matt Ryan largely credits Mularkey with his development.

If the Bucs are looking for an imaginative, entertaining offensive coordinator who has a knack for making young players productive, if not Pro Bowl players, the Bucs could do worse than Mularkey, despite the mixed bag of results he had in a two-year stint as Bills head coach.

The eighth-best kick retuner in the NFL in 2010 (with 10 or more attempts), “Run, Micheal, Run” Spurlock, was the invisible kick returner for the Bucs in 2011.

That was a season-long mystery to Joe. Spurlock didn’t get any kick return action in the first few preseason games and seemingly was never given a chance to keep his job.

Sammie Stroughter got the gig and was injured on his first kick return of the season, an impressive 78-yarder against Detroit. Preston Parker split returns the rest of the season with Stroughter. Parker finished ranked 35th in the NFL in yards per return (10 or more attempts). Stroughter was 14th.

Spurlock, a young veteran that repeatedly earned praise for his professionalism by Raheem Morris, rode the bench.

Parker also was one of the worst punt returners in the NFL this season, leading the league in fumbles on punt returns with six, especially glaring since the Bucs’ heinous defense hardly forced a lot of punts. Parker ranked 23rd in yards per return among those with 10 or more opportunities. Parker only had three punt returns of 20 yards or more and never “broke” one.

To be fair, Spurlock was an ineffective punt returner for the Bucs in 2010. While he only had one fumble, he didn’t break one either and only had two returns of 20 yards or more. Spurlock was tied for 35th in 2010 in yards per return among guys with 10 or more opportunities.

If fans are to go along with Raheem Morris and his staff’s assessment that Spurlock is nothing more than a backup returner now, then the Bucs could use serious upgrades at both those returner positions next year.

Joe suspects any new head coach will want fresh blood at the position. As effective as Parker was a receiver this season, Joe would suspect he’ll have trouble landing on the Bucs roster in 2012, assuming a new coach wants to upgrade the receiving corps and the return game.

There has already been some news seeping out of One Buc Palace about what the Bucs think of one of the candidates to become the franchise’s ninth head coach.

When Raheem Morris was told, in so many words, to go to the Outback Bowl and not come back Monday, quite a few Bucs fans jumped up and down as if they were on trampolines in the excitement of former Titans coach Jeff Fisher potentially coming to Tampa Bay.

Hold up, says eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune. Kaufman has his ear to the ground at One Buc Palace and believes the powers that be who work there are collectively shrugging their shoulders over Fisher, so he told “The Fabulous Sports Babe” yesterday, heard on WHBO-AM 1040.

“My information — and you are not going to like it — my information is this organization right here is not overwhelmed with Jeff Fisher. That’s my information.”

Kaufman had loads of other information about the Bucs’ putrid season, the coaching search (Mike Sherman is leading candidate thus far) and jettisoned coach Raheem Morris (“He did know he was going to be fired.”)

Never shying away from an opinion, former Bucs guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996) made it crystal clear who he wants to patrol the sidelines next year for the Bucs.

Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 this morning, Beckles was empahatic that he would snatch former Bucs defensive line coach and current Bears defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli as the Bucs’ next head coach.

Beckles said he’s never met a former player of Marinelli’s that didn’t respect him and laud his motivational and teaching abilities. Beckles said Marinelli would bring the right kind of discipline to the young Bucs.

Marinelli, 62, might be a great head coach one day, but he won only one of his last 24 games as Detroit Lions head coach, including the dubious 0-16 season in 2008.

As great as Marinelli might be in the job, if Joe were running the Bucs, Joe wouldn’t have the testicular fortitude to look past that record.

“The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN is reporting the Bucs have reached out to former Texas A&M and Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman in the team’s search for a new head coach.

Sherman was 57-39 in six seasons with the Packers and won three NFL North titles. He was 25-25 in four seasons at Texas A&M and took two teams to bowl games.

It’s possible the Bucs would lean toward a former NFL head coach with offensive experience to help quarterback Josh Freeman, who is considered one of the top young quarterbacks in the league.

Just a hunch, but if Sherman is the Bucs coach, we can expect not to see Warren Sapp around these parts until Sherman’s coaching days with the Bucs ends.

Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Gray.

Ah, the magic (and speed of Twitter). Within a handful of minutes, beat writers for both the Bucs and the Titans were in conflict about the Bucs’ first interview to fill the open head coaching position with the team.

Per Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, via Twitter, the Bucs plan to interview Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Gray Wednesday.

@NFLSTROUD: Bucs plan to interview Titans defensive coordinator Jerry Gray. Will make Bucs compliant with the Rooney Rule

Hold up, writes Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean. He is the paper’s beat writer for the Titans and Wyatt claims there’s a little technicality to take care of first before Gray interviews with the Bucs.

@jwyattsports: Tampa Bay plans to interview #Titans DC Jerry Gray for their h.c job, reports St. Petersburg Times. TB hasn’t asked for permission yet tho

So which is it? Have the Bucs asked for permission or is the interview locked in?

Time will tell, Joe’s sure of it.

Shaun King is angry and he’s not taking it any more.

King, one of only three quarterbacks to lead the Bucs to an NFC title game, has long been a staunch defender of jettisoned Bucs coach Raheem Morris.

And while King stated today in his monologue on the “too Jewish” King David Show he co-hosts with Toby David, heard on WQYK-AM 1010, that he understands losing 10 games in a row to end a season will see any coached fired, King lashed out at Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and Team Glazer, claiming the suits at One Buc Palace “sabotaged” Morris.

“This is the most complete lowpoint in the history of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization,” King said. “Raheem Morris was sabotaged in the very beginning by Mark Dominik and the Glazer family.

“As a head coach, all you ask for is to control your own destiny. Unfortunately, he had no control.”

King went on to say that Dominik has complete authoritarian control of the team, from player acquisition to the hiring of assistant coaches. King also claimed Morris did not want to be both head coach and defensive coordinator but that Morris was all but forced to wear both hats because it was a cost-saving move.

Lots of amazing year-end deals at Ed Morse Cadillac Tampa, a dealership Joe can recommend with complete confidence. Click on through below to learn more and schedule a test drive today.

In this BSPN video, former WFTS-TV sportscaster and current Soviet Mouse outfit indentured servant Sage Steele suggested that Raheem Morris being jettisoned by Team Glazer was a “PR move to satisfy bloodthirsty Bucs fans who loathed Morris. But NFL analyst Adam Schefter quickly shot that down and discussed the state of the Bucs.

Based on NFL history, Joe will take Carolina offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski in a heartbeat over Jeff Fisher to replace Raheem Morris.

Joe has been pondering this for some time, since it appeared possible roughly six weeks ago that embattled Bucs coach Raheem Morris could be jettisoned.

Joe wondered what type of coach the Bucs should get. Initially Joe was against a coach that would change the defense to a 34 defense as the Bucs are stocked with 43-front defensive players.

But as horrid as the Bucs are defensively, what mental midget would argue the Bucs defense shouldn’t be retooled?

Joe’s a history guy. History shows us patterns. And to ignore history and to ignore patterns is a perfect way to sink further in the quicksand.

Let’s take a look at very recent NFL history, this year to be precise.

Of the 12 NFL playoff coaches who will lead their charges in the coming days in a quest for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, nine had zero NFL head coaching experience prior to their current jobs. The three playoff coaches with previous NFL head coaching experience are Bill Belicheat, Tom Coughlin and John Fox.

In the last three Super Bowls, none of the five coaches (Pittsburgh was in the Super Bowl twice in the past three seasons) had NFL head coaching experience prior to their current gigs.

See a pattern there? Joe does.

Then, let’s take a look at how Super Bowl coaches fared when they moved to other teams after a brief layoff. It’s not pretty, believe it or not.

Below is a graphic compiled by Jason Lisk of TheBigLead.com of every coach that led a team to a Super Bowl, took at least one year off, and then took a job with another team. The coaches’ success usually did not arrive with them at their new job.

So history says the odds of Bill Cowher or Jeff Fisher leading the Bucs back to a Super Bowl are not good, not good at all.

Given the success of coordinators/position coaches turning head coaches and the limited success of successful head coaches coaxed out of retirement, Joe will easily take the former.

Sure, a coordinator/position coach may not make fans storm Ticketmaster to buy season tickets, but is the goal to build a Super Bowl contender or a quick fix to sell tickets?

After all, the Bucs already had a Super Bowl-winning coach who wasn’t selling out the football stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.