Kevin Hoffman-US PRESSWIRE
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced their full coaching staff, and Robb Smith is the surprise addition as linebackers coach.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have completed their 2013 coaching staff, and they've made a total of five changes. We've written about four of those in the past, as they were known at the time. Tony Oden has replaced Ron Cooper as defensive backs coach. John Garrett has replaced P.J. Fleck as receivers coach, the latter left to become the head coach at Western Michigan. John McNulty was hired as quarterbacks coach, replacing Ron Turner who is now the head coach at Florida International University.
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There's one hire we didn't know about yet: Robb Smith has been named linebackers coach, replacing Bob Fraser, who was elevated to assistant defensive coordinator. Fraser was Schiano's defensive coordinator at Rutgers for three seasons and could be groomed to take over for Bill Sheridan at some point in the future. At a minimum, he should help Sheridan implement Schiano's defense better. Because we should never forget that this defense, for all its coaches, is ultimately Greg Schiano's.
Robb Smith also joins the Bucs from Rutgers, where he was the defensive coordinator and secondary coach last season. Before that, he coached outside linebackers, cornerback and linebackers from 2009 to 2011, in that order, and also served as Rutgers' special teams coordinator. He has no NFL experience, having coached at Iowa and Maine before coming to Rutgers.
Another interesting mutation happened at secondary coach. Tony Oden isn't fully the team's secondary coach, as he will coach cornerbacks instead of the entire secondary. The safeties will be coached by Jeff Hafley, who was an assistant defensive backs coach last season. We'll see whether this split in responsibilities is a sensible one. In addition, Bryan Cox is now a pass rush specialist, rather than a front seven coach, which is what he was last season. The Bucs sure could use a better coordinated pass rush.
The strangest hire has to be that of Dave Wannstacheedt, though. The former head coach and special teams coordinator hasn't coached special teams since the '70s, and yet he's now the Buccaneers special teams coordinator. Phil Galiano will help him make that transition as an assistant, and Wannstedt has a lot of experience as a football coach, but I can see this blowing up in the team's face really, really quickly.
Here's the full list of coaches, with links to their profiles as we've written them in the past:
|
Head Coach |
|
|
Tight Ends Coach |
Brian Angelichio |
|
Offensive Line Coach |
|
|
Head Strength and Conditioning Coach |
Jay Butler |
|
Running Backs Coach |
|
|
Pass Rush Specialist |
|
|
Assistant Defensive Coordinator |
Bob Fraser |
|
Assistant Special Teams Coach |
Phil Galiano |
|
Wide Receivers Coach |
|
|
Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach |
Bob Gilmartin |
|
Secondary-Safeties Coach |
Jeff Hafley |
|
Assistant Offensive Line Coach |
Steve Loney |
|
Defensive Assistant |
Tem Lukabu |
|
Director of Football Operations |
Kevin MacConnell |
|
Offensive Assistant |
|
|
Quarterbacks Coach |
|
|
Defensive Line Coach |
Randy Melvin |
|
Secondary-Cornerbacks Coach |
|
|
Senior Offensive Assistant |
Jimmy Raye |
|
Defensive Coordinator |
|
|
Linebackers Coach |
Robb Smith |
|
Offensive Coordinator |
|
|
Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach |
Joe Vaughn |
|
Special Teams Coordinator |
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