Top of the list

1. Jeff Fisher, former Titans coach

2. Mike Sherman, former Packers/Texas A&M coach

3. Mike Mularkey, offensive coordinator, Falcons

On the radar

1. Rob Chudzinski, offensive coordinator, Panthers

2. Jerry Gray, defensive coordinator, Titans

3. Tom Clements, quarterback coach, Packers

What’s new

• Bucs arranging interviews with Sherman and Gray (who would satisfy the NFL rule requiring teams to interview a minority candidate).

• NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora lists Sherman and Mularkey at the top of the Bucs’ list. Suggests Fisher ends up in St. Louis and Chudzinski might be leading candidate in Jacksonville.

• Fisher interviewed with Miami on Tuesday and might be leading candidate in St. Louis.

• Fox analyst and former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson predicts via Twitter that Fisher will wind up with the Rams.

Our take

While the Bucs are open to coordinators and college coaches, it looks like they will lean toward candidates with NFL head coaching experience.

Rick Stroud, Times staff writer

Hunt for a head coach: Day 1

Three weeks ago, I wrote an article defending Raheem Morris and advocating that he was the right person to continue coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Ending the season on a 10 game losing streak, the Tampa Bay Bucs fired 35 year-old Coach Raheem Morris on January 2, 2012
Wikimedia Commons

In the interim, without public support of ownership or on-the-field backing of his players, my lone voice was certainly not enough to prop up the beleaguered third year coach.

With the season ending on a frightful 10 game losing streak, on Monday, January 2nd, General Manager Mark Dominik bitterly relieved Coach Morris of his duties.

Though blame for the team’s failures can hardly be cast upon the 35 year-old, given the way the disappointing year unfolded, the Glazer family likely executed the only decision possible in these dire circumstances.

This move can only be commended if soon accompanied by wholesale roster changes. When a club sits a full $50 million below the NFL’s salary cap, there is ample room for such turnover. Yet, ownership has yet to display a willingness to its fans that they will make such bold moves.

If those moves do not follow, firing Morris is mere window dressing and not the gateway to building a team properly, for which fans of the Pewter Pirates yearn.

The 2011 Bucs’ roster featured an eye-popping 20 first or second year players. It must be noted that Raheem Morris did not make such risky decision. Furthermore, these competitors, many of whom were lower-ranked draft picks, often were forced to assume significant responsibilities, where they quickly displayed an inability to meet such a challenge. With a harsh schedule from modest success in 2010, and only a sparse checkbook provided by ownership, there was simply not enough veteran leadership to right the ship.

Admittedly, as the squad was embarrassingly outscored 203-88 during its final 5 games, such direction also did not come from its head coach. Through a multitude of missed tackles, lagging efforts, and prolific turnovers, the players made it apparent that they quit on their leader.

In the team’s final game against the division rival Atlanta Falcons, the Buccaneers even managed to fall behind 42-0 mid-way through the 2nd quarter. Such a notorious feat is not easy to accomplish in the NFL, even for the worst of teams. But it is a testament to an utter breakdown in the assembly of the club’s roster.

The necessary talent is not present, nor is the heart to win.

Only after getting beyond those issues, do problems with the coaching staff truly come to mind.

With Raymond James Stadium rarely full and football fans alienated throughout Tampa Bay, signing a new coach can inject some hope into the franchise. From that standpoint, firing Morris was a move that ownership had to make. However, given their track-record, I would caution Buccaneers’ fans to keep tempered expectations.

Let’s hope that changing the coach does not prove to be the highlight of off-season makeovers of this franchise—for this cast of misfits does not need a new tailor, it cries out for a completely new wardrobe.

Source:

Yahoo! Sports

More by Jeff Briscoe from Yahoo! Contributor Network:

Do Embarrassing Efforts Mean End of Morris’ Era in Tampa Bay?

Jeff Briscoe is a writer from Florida who covers sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network and the Fort Myers Examiner. A loyal Tampa Bay Bucs fan, his favorite sounds include the firing of the cannons at Raymond James Stadium.

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TAMPA — The Bucs’ London trips, for now, are over.

Co-chairman Joel Glazer said Monday the team has told the league it does not wish to play in overseas games after doing so twice in three seasons.

The Bucs began their season-ending 10-game losing streak this season in London against the Bears. But Glazer said the decision was not made for football reasons. Tampa Bay wants to solidify its core audience here.

“We were helping the NFL build internationally. We believe greatly in that,” said Glazer, whose family also owns the massively popular English Premier League soccer team Manchester United. “But for the foreseeable future, we told them we want to focus on building our base here.”

The Bucs didn’t benefit on the field from the trips abroad. Tampa Bay also lost in London to the Patriots in 2009. The physical and mental toll from the travel wasn’t conducive to winning, either.

STOCKER’S SEASON: Rookie TE Luke Stocker didn’t have a memorable foray into the NFL in a personal or team sense. But he said he is looking ahead to a critical offseason in which he thinks he’ll grow as a player and the nagging injuries that limited him all season will heal.

“I expect a lot from myself next season, especially with a full offseason,” said Stocker, a fourth-round draft pick from Tennessee. “Missing all that time in (training) camp was a big issue.” He hurt his right hip on the first day.

“That slowed me down a lot,” he said. “Any time you have a lower-body injury, you lose strength and you lose speed. … By about the time I started getting it back, I got hurt, and I missed a couple of weeks.” That second injury, a knee sprain, cost Stocker two games in the middle of the season.

“I personally just worked every day and tried not to get caught up in the ups and the downs,” he said. “I felt that as an individual, as this season went on, I did become a better player, especially a better blocker.”

BENNETT’S OUTLOOK: DE Michael Bennett said he expects to need surgery to repair a toe injury that slowed him during the latter part of the season. He played through the injury, dealing with significant pain. Bennett is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent, one the Bucs could have significant interest in retaining. Bennett maintains he’d like to return.

FINAL STATS: The Bucs finished the season with the league’s 21st-ranked offense (16th passing, 30th rushing) and 30th-ranked defense (21st passing, 32nd rushing) among the 32 teams.

The team announced the change one day after a 45-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons extended the franchise’s longest losing streak within the same season since 1977 to 10 games.

Morris went 17-31, including a 10-6 mark in 2010, when the Bucs (4-12) narrowly missed the playoffs.

“I have has a lot of respect and appreciation for the passion coach Morris gave to our football team, but this change is one we felt was necessary,” general manager Mark Dominik said in a brief statement released by the team, which is owned by the Glazer family.

“We want to thank coach Morris for all his hard work and dedication as head coach, ” team co-chairman Joel Glazer said.

The Bucs scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference to discuss the change.

The 35-year-old Morris was hired in January 2009, replacing Jon Gruden after Tampa Bay lost the final four games of 2008 to miss the playoffs following a 9-3 start.

This year’s collapse followed a promising 4-2 start that included wins over NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta, which are both headed to the playoffs.

Morris began his stint as the NFL’s youngest coach with a seven-game losing streak. It ended with a skid that rivaled some of the worst stretches in franchise history, in part because it came only a year after it looked like the Bucs might be headed in the right direction.