Lovie Smith will interview with Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers seem to be closing in on a top candidate for their head coaching vacancy, and it looks like a great hire on paper, especially if he can assemble the strong staff that he is expected to bring with him. Former Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith has been heavily linked to the Buccaneers head coaching gig ever since the Bucs canned Greg Schiano, and the rumors have only become stronger. There is plenty of mutual interest, as Smith really likes the Buccaneers organization, and the Bucs seem to be just as high on him.
According to a source close to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Lovie Smith will be the first head coaching candidate that the Buccaneers will interview, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Smith hired as the new head coach after just one interview. While that rarely happens and teams like to do due diligence, that’s just a reflection of how much smoke there is right now regarding a Smith-to-Tampa-Bay move.
If Smith were hired, then the National Football Post’s Jason Cole reported yesterday that he would bring Jeff Tedford, Tony Sparano, Leslie Frazier, and Rod Marinelli with him to his new team. That’s a great group of head coaches, with only Tedford, who most recently was the head coach of Cal, as a question mark.
It will be interesting to see when Smith is interviewed and how the interview goes, since he is easily the favorite to become the Buccaneers next head coach. Smith would bring back some credibility to the Buccaneers head coaching position and organization, since he’s one of the best coaches in the game at relating with players and is a great deal better than both Raheem Morris and Schiano.