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
