Hiring a great set of assistant coaches can go a long way as far as winning and losing.So we have Greg Schiano, that’s it right? The Bucs are going to win? Schiano now must pick his staff, and that can be the most important part of building a franchise into a winner. And make no mistake, if you get a good group of the right guys, you can overcome ANY, and I mean ANYTHING bad that has happened recently.
Case in point, the 1992 Minnesota Vikings.
The year before the Vikings were expected to be a playoff team, instead they were 8-8, and Head Coach Jerry Burns decided to call it quits after decades with the Vikings lockerroom. To make matters worse, the new coach, whomever he would be, would have no draft picks in the first three rounds because the Vikings gave them all to the Dallas Cowboys for Herschel Walker. Some say it wasnt Jimmy Johnson, it was Herschel Walker that built the Dallas Cowboys!
It would seem that doom was in store for the Vikings in 1992.
They finished 11-5!
Lets take a look at the hires they made, because they really didnt produce any rabbits out of the hat in Plan B free agency, which was severly limited comapred to what we have today.
For Head Coach, they went out and got a special teams coordinator from the San Francisco 49ers, who took the leap to be a head coach in college, helping turn Northwestern, a team that didnt really do much in College Football, into a winner. He was an offensive coordinator at Stanford too, went back to the 49ers as the WR coach, then became head coach again at Stanford. He took the Vikings head coaching job in 1992 and kept it until 2001.
Head Coach- Dennis Green.
Green hired his defensive coordinator from the KC chiefs, Tony Dungy.
His offensive coordinator was Jack Burns, but the Tight End coach would take this job in a few years…Brian Billick.
The Wide Recievers coach was Tom Moore, who became the OC of the Colts for most of the productive Peyton Manning years.
Linebackers coach? Monte Kiffin.
Is it any wonder this team went from 8-8 to 11-5 with no free agents or draft picks?
This is how important it is to get the RIGHT assistants in house.
Where did Tony Dungy come from? The Kansas City Chiefs where he was a Defensive Backs coach like Raheem Morris was. The Defensive Coordinator was Bill Cowher. Marty Schottenheimer was the head coach, and Bruce Arians was the running backs coach. Al Saunders was the recievers coach. Arians was the OC of the Steelers, Saunders the offensive coordinator of the Ravens and now the Raiders.
Tony Dungy, when he became the Bucs head coach, went into college and the Pros for his assistants. Herman Edwards who became head coach of the Jets and Chiefs, Lovie Smith who became coach of the Bears after being Defensive Coordinator for the Rams. Rod Marinelli was the D line coach who became the Head Coach of the Detroit Lions. Joe Barry became the Defensive Coordinator there.
Eventual replacement for Edwards, Mike Tomlin became DC for the Vikings before taking the Head Coaching job in Pittsburgh.
Brian Billick went on to coach the SuperBowl champion Baltimore Ravens. His Defensive Coordinator was Marvin Lewis, with Jack Del Rio at Linebackers coach, Rex Ryan on Defensive Line and Mike Smith a defensive assistant.
How about the 2001 New England Patriots?
Bill Beichick as HC had Charlie Weis as his offensive coordinator, Romeo Crennel as his DC, Rob Ryan as Outside LB coach, and Eric Mangini as defensive backs coach.
So Assistants make all the difference in the world. Lets give the Bucs their time to find them.
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