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If Lovie Smith becomes the next head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jeff Tedford is likely to join him as his offensive coordinator, Jason Cole of the National Football Post reports. That report was then quickly confirmed by Ian Rapoport.
Lovie Smith seems likely to be the Bucs' head coach, with multiple journalists claiming he's the early favorite, including Adam Schefter and Rick Stroud. That will lead to some questions about his offense, however, and Tedford may not be the man to answer those questions.
Tedford has no NFL experience either as a coach or as players, and while he certainly created some good college offense, his quarterbacks have almost universally been busts in the NFL: Trent Dilfer, David Carr, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller, Billy Volek, A.J. Feeley and Aaron Rodgers is not an impressive group. The only successful quarterback to come out of Tedford's school was Rodgers, and he re-tooled his mechanics with Mike McCarthy for three seasons before becoming a starter.
Jason Cole also named a few other assistants connected to Lovie Smith who are likely to join him at his new job: offensive line coach Tony Sparano, defensive coach Leslie Frazier and current Cowboys defensive line coach Rod Marinelli. The latter would be a spectacular addition to the coaching staff: he's produced consistently dominant defensive lines, including during his long tenure in Tampa. Unfortunately, Marinelli is under contract with the Cowboys and they are under no obligation to let him go for any job but head coach.
