Coaches Retention.......

Bucs had successful 2008 which ended with heart breaking loss to Redskins in the conference championship game. This was 2nd time Bucs made it to the conference championship game just to return home empty handed but Bucs owner believed that we have right coaches on the roster just needed little tweaking but also were challenged to protect the assistant coaches as others team looking for success will surely try to lure them away from Bucs.

First and foremost we wanted to show our loyalty and reward Jerry Martinez (Tony Dungy) with huge lifetime contract to show that we 100% have trust in him to anchor Bucs Pirate ship to ultimate destination Super Bowl. We were happy that he accepted our extension offer of 6 years for about 120M

Once we secured we had to decide how to support our #1 pick our new QB Jamie Woods by providing him consistency as much as possible as he cement himself as the new leader of the Bucs ….. First was to secure his QB coach Ralph Hughs (Jim Caldwell) who has been great influence on Jamie from day one along with his on the field coach Luis Rodriquez (Brad Johnson), at one point that seems impossible but coach surprised us when he agreed to stay put and signing long term extension to shape Jamie’s career. We also were able to retained our Offensive Coordinator - Lonnie Gaines giving Jamie familiarity to the offense.

Our Offensive Line was stellar last year and we are hoping that will continue as we were able to lock Jack Jennings (Dante Scarnecchia) only orginal Bucs coach from day one of his coaching career.

We were also able to retain Carmen Carpenter (Clyde Christensen) & Brian Kang(Chris Forrester) with extensions

When we saw that fellow respected RB coach Noah Mayes (Bobby Turner) was in market we had to make the play to inject him in our coaching roster but in the process we lost our good friend (Tony Nathan). We Thanks coach for his contribution and will always look for the way to see if we can bring him back.

Once the Offense was all locked we had one of the biggest decision to be made on the defensive side of the ball.

Bucs fielded bend but not break stellar defense under the leadership of James Overbeck (The Monte Kiffin) but due to rise of this unit we had couple of our assistants being targeted by other teams so we had heart to heart conversation with coach James (Monte) to seek his help in keeping this unite together and to our surprise he & coach Jerry (Tony) came up with master plan……where we promoted Gary Vanwyk (Herman Edwards) to Defensive Coordinator position and moved Ty Tackett (Dave Toub) to Special Team Coach while adding Jesse Agostini (Mike Tomlin) as the Secondary coach & James Brown ( John Teerlink) as the DL coach with the master stroke of moving James Overbeck (The Monte Kiffin) to Associate Head Coach & LB coach giving him contract worth as much as our Coordinators. ( Thanks Mad Man Monte for allowing us move stuff to keep our talented coaches together – You are true fried of Jerry (Tony) & Loyal Bucs……..)

Final Coaching Roster

Head Coach – Jerry Martinez (Tony Dungy)
Associate Head Coach & LB Coach – James Overbeck (The Monte Kiffin)

Offensive CoOrdinator – Lonnie Gaines (Les Steckles)
QB Coach – Ralph Hughs (Jim Cladwell)
WR Coach – Carmen Carpenter (Clyde Christensen)
RB Coach – Noah Mayes (Bobby Turner)
OL Coach – Jack Jennings (Dante Scarnecchia)
TE Coach – Brian Kang (Chris Forrester)

Defensive CoOrdinator – Gary Vanwyk (Herm Edwards)
DL coach – Marc Sanders (Rod Marnelli)
DB coach – Jesse Agostini (Mike Tomlin)

SP team Coach – Ty Tackett (DaveToub)

Good Luck fellows for the great season ahead…….

Bucs Owner & GM – Hitech

We had unique situation... our longtime punter D..Homan from FSU was becoming FA and we had no cap to resign him..... so we brought in young P . D. Lafortune to take over the job by signing him to very favorable 6 year deal......but to our surprise our Punter D.Homan surprised us by declining larger contract to sign with us for minimum starting one of the best job competition.... both player played even but at the end due to Kick Holding capabilities and comfort of knowing the capabilities Bucs went in the direction of keeping D. Homan and granting relaese to D. Lafortune ...... wishing him luck and letting him know that Bucs doors are always open if there is right match for both.

Bucs had very interesting 1st half of the season.... it fielded team mixed with young talent led by star veteran....keeping true to Bucs philosophy to field the team that will give us chance to bring the Super Bowl home now but same time keep building for future.....

Bucs introduced Jamie Woods, QB as our new leader along with W.Pollack, DE, E.Evans, FS, M.Walker, LB, R. Boiling, WR, R. Burdon, CB & N. Pedersen, RB as the new captains of the team.... learning the ropes from outgoing veteran captains.

Bucs records stand at 7-1 with Bucs fielding 5th best scoring offense and 1st lowest score allowed defense....

Here are the quotes from Bucs owner & GM - HKPMAN & Coach Jerry Martinez

HKPMAN - " Team while I am happy to see that our plan is unfolding slowly but surely.... Congrats on successful 1st half but let me remind you NFL is brutal place and we can go 1-7 in next half... so keep focus and let's have fun"

Jerry Martinez "Guys..... i will cut the chase... as i am coach and not the GM ....its 8 games only that we have played...while i am happy to say we are coming together as the team and growing we have long way to go in the season to make playoff..... no matter what every one predict i feel this division will come down to last two games with Panther and Saints breathing down our neck to win the division...... so get your self down to earth and keep pushing to be best every day"

=====