Joe’s in the building!

Joe’s annual jaunt to the Super Bowl has commenced, following a chat with Peter King last night and cold beers in not-so-cold Indianapolis. Hopefully, Joe will find someone with a clue who Greg Schaino wants as his offensive coordinator.

Lomas Brown, Skip Bayless and Jon Ritchie debate Team Glazer’s decision to hire Greg Schiano as the ninth coach in Bucs history in this BSPN video.

Two weeks ago during practices for the East-West Shrine Game at Shorecrest Prep in St. Petersburg, Joe got a chance to talk Bucs football with the one and only Mike Mayock of NFL Network. In Joe’s eyes, there is no better talking head in all of football than Mayock, the way he breaks down players and plays in a concise, yet intelligent manner. He is the ultimate draftnik and Joe’s go-to guy for draft knowledge.

JoeBucsFan: What caused the Bucs’ grotesque collapse? I’m sure it was a number of things combining to one ugly result.

Mike Mayock: You are right; it is a combination of different things. What I think happened was when you have a few injuries and things start to go against you and you are a pretty young team, momentum can work in both ways. The year before, it worked in a positive way for a young team. This year when you don’t have enough guys who have been through tough trench battles before, when things start to go bad, it’s difficult to stop them for getting real bad. I just think it was a combination of their best players getting hurt, especially on that defensive line. Then all of a sudden, not sure there was enough veterans to keep things working the way they should.

Joe: Gerald McCoy, for his first two years he has had trouble staying on the field. It seems Bucs fans are turning on him. Joe is of the opinion that penetration can do as much if not more than a sack. In Joe’s eyes, it seems he gets penetration. He doesn’t get sacks but he disrupts. Your thoughts?

Mayock: He is a high level football player but his challenge is to stay on the field. No matter how well he plays in spurts it doesn’t matter unless he can get a 16-game season in under his belt. The jury is out. I understand fans’ frustration. He’s a talented kid that can make plays. But if he is ever to be considered an elite defensive lineman, he has to stay healthy.

Joe: Adrian Clayborn really played well as a rookie. What was your take on his first season in the NFL?

Mayock: If you ever watch a tape of him at Iowa, no defensive lineman played harder than he did. He is a young, gifted defensive lineman along with Price, Bowers and McCoy. If they can they can keep these guys healthy, they have something to build on along with that linebacker Foster. There are some good young building blocks. If they can keep those kids healthy, they’re a group to build around. Just a matter of being more consistent and being healthy.

One would think the Bucs would look to free agency or a trade to land a beast of a linebacker to help shore up the mess that’s there at the position right now.

But the Bucs might also snag the best linebacker they can find in the draft. Draft guru Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski, pregame and postgame host on the Buccaneers Radio Network, says the Bucs might have a bit of drool on their chin for Zach Brown out of North Carolina. The Commish, via CommishOnline.com, pegs Brown as a late first-round, or early second-round pick.

Brown is one of the fastest linebackers in this year’s draft. He has good size (6’1” 236lbs), but excellent speed, explosion, and athleticism. The linebacker position has been undervalued in recent years, which might have Brown slip a little. If Butch Davis joins Greg Schiano’s staff in Tampa, you’d have to wonder if the Buccaneers would make a move to grab Brown later in the 1st round.
Possible Targets: Buccaneers, Lions, Giants, Eagles

Joe surely could see this happening. Scoring a stout middle linebacker in free agency — Jonathan Vilma after he’s cut? — and having Brown, Mason Foster, Quincy Black and Dakoda Watson and more fighting for snaps wouldn’t be so bad.

Joe does not fall into the rather large camp of Bucs fans, local pundits and former Bucs coaches that thinks LeGarrette Blount is a one-dimensional running back incapable of being effective on third down.

Joe sees absolutely no reason why Blount shouldn’t catch 40+ balls a year and rack up good yardage. All he needs is an offensive coordinator that has a clue how to use his versatility and ability in open space.

Therefore, the latest stats from BSPN on NFC South running backs is yet another reason for Joe to bang his head against the wall repeatedly. Per BSPN, Blount was on the field for 38.4 percent of Bucs offensive snaps in 2011. Kregg Lumpkin had opportunities on 35.9 percent of snaps.

Sure, Blount missed a couple of games because of injury, but Lumpkin’s role was very limited early in the season when the Bucs were winning with Earnest Graham as third-down back.

Regardless, the thought of Blount essentially getting as much playing time as Lumpkin is astounding.

Joe still swears he can see the smiles on opposing defenses when Blount trotted off the field on third down.

Joe sheds no tears for Raheem Morris. On the heels of a great 10-6 season, multiple players on the man’s team quit on him last season, he couldn’t dig out of a historic collapse, and he proved to be the worst defensive coordinator in Bucs history, among other faults.

Call Joe a hardass, but Raheem deserved his fate. Goodness, he was well liked by his superiors and winning a mere six games likely would have saved his job. But he couldn’t get it done.

But there are Raheem sympathizers, and Tampa Bay Times scribe Rick Stroud seems to be leading the pack.

Speaking on The Dan Sileo Show this morning on WDAE-AM 620, Stroud said Raheem and company will feel slighted if the Bucs make some splash plays in free agency in 2012. Stroud implied that somehow Raheem got a raw deal.

“It’ll be a little unfortunate for that old coaching staff to sit and watch the Bucs go out now in free agency and be active, and find that veteran running back, to find a veteran linebacker and find some corners. You know, that’s going to be a tough pill to swallow for some of those guys,” Stroud said. “I hope for [Greg Schiano’s] sake, he got some commitment on free agency.”

Joe thinks that’s just ludicrous.

It’s Bucs fans, not former coaches, that deserve to be crying that Greg Olson took a nearly identical top-10 offense in the second half of 2010 to a disgrace for most of 2011. It’s the fans that swallowed the bitter pill of a coaching staff that couldn’t figure out how to not get thoroughly dominated in the first half of games.

Raheem couldn’t figure out how to use what he had. Joe suspects that wouldn’t have changed with a couple more veterans on the roster.

Yes, Joe’s gotten the countless “Did you see this!” emails from readers pointing Joe to today’s story by former Bucs beat writer Charlie Campbell, now of WalterFootball.com.

Campbell penned a rumor-filled/anonymous-source blast quoting unnamed former Bucs coaches ripping Mike Williams, LeGarrette Blount and Bucs management. Frankly, Joe’s no fan of this rumormongering kind of stuff. Heck, even Campbell has the story filed under “rumor mill” on his employer’s site. Joe could write this kind of stuff all day long from the many sources that communicate with Joe, but Joe would find that seedy and he doesn’t go there.

There’s no reason to think Campbell is making stuff up, but Joe’s always cynical about unnamed sources and a story from this angle. 

For example, Campbell’s confidant(s) rips Mike Williams’ work ethic and question his future, and Campbell says he could be going down a Michael Clayton path. But in Williams Joe sees a guy that caught 65 balls in a “down year” when the offensive coordinator forgot to throw him slant passes early in the season and rarely threw him the jump balls downfield that Williams had great success with in 2010. Plus, Williams was surrounded by a coaching staff that had a lousy 2011 season.

Joe just advises his readers to consume this stuff with a big grain of salt.

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.