It’s no rebuilding process for new Bucs boss Lovie Smith.

Speaking for the first time as Bucs head coach today, Lovie says he “likes the foundation” in place with the Bucs and says it’s ready for the Bucs “to make a quick climb.”

Lovie said the Bucs will be “relentless” and he wants “athletes at every position.”

Stick with Joe all day for the latest on Lovie’s first public day on the job.

It’s a big day for Bucs fans, as the Bucs introduce Lovie Smith at One Buc Palace.

Bryan Glazer took to the podium this afternoon and raved about their new leader.

Glazer said Lovie will “energize our fan base.”

He said the Bucs owner sought “a strong leader with a proven and established track record,” and Glazer went on to say Lovie “fit our criteria perfectly.”

Stick with Joe through the day for so much more.

He once went through a Wendy’s drive-thru naked? Who hasn’t?

There have been all kinds of voices inside Gerald McCoy’s head. Entering his fourth NFL season, McCoy will now answer to his sixth defensive line coach.

There was Todd Wash, Grady Stretz, Keith Millard, Bryan Cox and Randy Melvin, and now, via various reports, Lovie Smith has hired Joe Cullen as defensive line coach. [read more]

It’s coming today

Lovie Smith will be peppered with questions for the first time as Bucs head coach/personnel chief today, and Joe is most curious to hear how Lovie talks about the quarterback position.

Lovie can direct the perception game all sorts of ways. [read more]

Lovie Smith and Team Glazer take center stage on the One Buc Palace podium this afternoon at 2 p.m., and Joe will bring you everything interesting from the events. Plenty of Bucs icons should be buzzing around to chat with, as well.

Reading Joe and listening to the festivities live via Joe’s media partner, WDAE-AM 620, is the way to go.

Joe also wants to take a moment to thank you for a great 2013! The math is done, and Joe can proudly say he enjoyed more than 6.2 million actual visits to JoeBucsFan.com last year. Wow! Thanks for all the tremendous support. Joe has far and away become the top online source for Bucs fans outside of Buccaneers.com. Thank you.

One of these days, Joe’s must find a way to earn a few pennies for each of those visits.

In the meantime, Joe wants business owners out there to know Joe now has “geo-targeting” available for his advertisers. That means, if you’re a small business in, say, Sarasota, Joe can deliver prominent advertisements to readers only in Sarasota specifically, or in Sarasota and Bradenton. Or a St. Pete plumber can advertise only in that area.

For peanuts in the advertising world, you can target these customers. Shoot Joe an email, if you’re interested, joe@joebucsfan.com.

Don’t look for Foster to be gifted a starting job for the fourth straight year

Bucs boss Lovie Smith has been blessed with an impressive of stable of middle linebackers during his 17 years of NFL coaching.

First he had perennial Bucs Pro Bowler Hardy Nickerson, who gave way to Jamie Duncan. When Smith moved on from Tampa to be Rams defensive coordinator, likely Hall of Famer London Fletcher was waiting for him. Then, for Smith’s long tenure in Chicago, surefire Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher was the main man in the Bears’ humming 4-3 defense. [read more]

Lovie Smith has the power.

Joe has already shared the report of new Bucs coach Lovie Smith being granted full and total control over the 53-man roster. This may, in part, be why Team Glazer jettisoned former rock star general manager Mark Dominik, because in the pact for total autonomy, Lovie wanted his hand-picked man as a general manager.

Think about that: A coach who has never won a Super Bowl, has only appeared in one Super Bowl, and has a paltry record against teams with winning records is one of the most powerful men in the NFL, types Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. [read more]

Lovie record vs. winners? Not good.

On this holy day of the Church of the Bucs, Lovie Smith will be brought before the altar of Team Glazer and in a very public ceremony, be ordained as the 10th coach in Buccaneers history.

And no, Lovie won’t have to dive in a retention pond behind One Buc Palace to retrieve a coach’s headset to consummate his anointing.

But in this day of jubilation among many Bucs fans, Joe has sobering news by way of former Chicago Tribune scribe Dave Wischnowsky (now that’s a Chicago name!), who types a column for WSCR-AM 620, “The Score,” in Chicago. [read more]

Now in this CBS Sports video, popular sports radio and television personality Adam Schein, Jason La Canfora and Amy Trask discuss the Lovie Smith hiring and how Team Glazer had reached out to Bill Cowher in November to take over the team.

This tells Joe that Team Glazer had hit a boiling point from the 0-8 start by the Bucs along with the mess started by leaky Rip Van Freeman, and long ago decided former Bucs commander Greg Schiano’s fate. [read more]

It’s no real shock to Joe that the speed in which Team Glazer closed the deal on hiring Lovie Smith meant Team Glazer threw in all their chips. This was clear when Lovie didn’t explore all his options to interview leaguewide for head coaching vacancies.

One way to keep a candidate from walking out the door without a signed contract is to make him an offer he cannot refuse. And apparently, Team Glazer did just that, giving Lovie full control of the Bucs roster, so claims BSPN insider Adam Schefter. [read more]

“Who the hell gave you guys my cell? Jiminy Christmas! You think I’m going to pay $16 million for a guy that can’t throw the football? I want no part of this.”

Per CBS Sports, Team Glazer had bigger names than Lovie Smith in mind to replace Greg Schiano.

A stunning (but not really so stunning) report by Jason La Canfora this morning claims the Bucs owners were chasing the biggest big names last year. [read more]

A ticket saved is a ticket earned in the world of One Buc Palace.

When Greg Schiano was head coach and Bucs ticket sales staffers made dreaded late December 2013 renewal calls to season ticket holders, Joe’s confident they encountered quite a bit or resistance and rage not befitting the holiday season.

Yes, there are faithful fans who will buy tickets unconditionally, but that’s not everybody. [read more]

Many tens of thousands of JoeBucsFan.com readers only come here once a week or so. They’re people with meaningful lives, unlike Joe and the Bucs-obsessed lunatics who live on these pages 24/7. So Joe thought he’d re-visit a handful of this busy week’s headlines — for non-regular readers who want to catch up. Enjoy!

 
Ominous sign from Schiano at halftime
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104385

Team Glazer took the pulse
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104445

“No Fly Zone” largely unenforced
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104486

Impotence score = 83
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104504

Dominik-Schiano end was no surprise
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104515

End of the Mike Glennon era
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104522

Schiano reacts to firing
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104556

Dominik says good-bye
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104563

Freeman wrecked three careers
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104641

Why do people hate Johnny Football?
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104636

Mike Williams update
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104669

It’s Lovie!
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104685

Lovie’s power move
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104783

Father Dungy on Lovie’s leadership style
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104816

Bears save Bucs; Re-sign Cutler
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104798

Hoping for “middle-of-the-road offense”
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104793

No more “CFL B” in Tampa
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104820

Ronde, Penn, McCoy & more react
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104843

Jeff Tedford’s new offense
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104868

Glennon support is everywhere
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104893

Leslie Frazier will run the defense
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104929

John Madden weighs in on Lovie
https://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=104923

As Lovie Smith’s assistants are revealed, it appears he has a QB philosophy different from Greg Schiano’s.

One of the most stunning phenomena in the NFL is the fact that some teams have quarterbacks coaches who never played quarterback.

Think about that for a minute.

Under the New Schiano Order, both Greg Schiano and former QB coach John McNulty were firm in their belief that quarterback mechanics didn’t need to be taught and stressed at the NFL level. [read more]

NFL Films chief is adamant

As Joe wrote earlier, prominent NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport claims Lovie Smith has big plans for Darrelle Revis.

That’s great! But the question that will linger through the opening days of free agency is whether Lovie believes Revis is worth his massive $16 million salary, which is about triple what top free agent cornerbacks earned on the open market last offseason.  

One astute student of the NFL says Revis isn’t worth it in Lovie’s defense. [read more]

Some Bucs fans believed Darrelle Revis’ days with the Bucs were done, that Lovie Smith is a Tampa-2 guy and that isn’t what Revis plays. Thus, Revis and his $16 million a year salary were toast.

Well, maybe one shouldn’t choke on that toast.

Per Ian Rapoport, a plugged-in NFL insider, Bucs fans wringing their hands over losing Revis can rest easy tonight. Not only is Revis staying with the Bucs, but apparently Lovie is banking on Revis’ solid play. [read more]

Their Twitterings rankled a former Buccaneer

Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers should be talking big with their play and not their Twitter accounts, so says former Bucs guard Ian Beckles.

The popular WDAE-AM 620 radio host wagged a finger of shame at Clayborn and Bowers for their jabs at the New Schiano Order following its demise. Joe already brought you Bowers’ plea for good coaching, but Clayborn also yearned publicly for personal change. [read more]

Lovie Smith likes how Jeff Tedford develops “young talent.”

Well, this morning, the Bucs made the Jeff Tedford news official; he is Lovie Smith’s offensive coordinator. Joe already weighed in on Tedford, a curious but bold hire. Who knows if his quarterback magic will work on the NFL level? It will be a fun puzzle to see put together.

Usually, the quotes included in such new releases are boring, predictable and rarely worthy of repeating. If the coach didn’t like his assistant, he wouldn’t have hired him in the first place, right? [read more]