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One of the most popular articles on Bucs Nation yesterday was Witty's FIRE GREG SCHIANO manifesto, and we have a fanpost section filled with pleas to fire Greg Schiano. Bucs fans are angry, and rightly so: Greg Schiano's team is losing game after game despite having arguably the most talented team since 2002. The Bucs have been involved in media circus upon media circus for the entire offseason. The offensive scheme is a mess. All of them goes back to Greg Schiano.
However, none of that is going to go away if Greg Schiano is fired. There will be no new schemes implemented mid-season, because there's no time do that. There will be no grand change of philosophy, because whoever takes over from within the coaching staff will be Schiano's guy. Do you think Butch David or Dave Wannstedt would be so very different?
The issues with this team extend beyond Schiano, too. The offense is a mess right now. The Bucs cannot pass the ball at all -- they can't threaten opponents, they can't create open receivers, and they can't take advantage of mismatches. They have two outstanding outside receivers -- and that's all they have. That's creating stacked boxes for Doug Martin, which creates third-and-long situations, which creates punts and a lack of points. That problem isn't going to go away with Greg Schiano.
The problem lies with the focus of talent acquisition, with the coaching, with the lack of a good quarterback, with the vanilla scheme on offense and with, truth be told, some bad luck. Losing three games by a combined six points requires some bad luck, after all. Firing Greg Schiano now wouldn't fix any of those things. The Bucs are locked in to his strategy, and they might as well see if he can't turn it around. And if he can't, well, there's always the end of the season to fire him.
Regardless, the Glazers are not in the habit of firing head coaches mid-season. They waited until the season was over before they fired Sam Wyche in 1996, Tony Dungy in 2002, Jon Gruden in 2009 and Raheem Morris in 2012. But then, the Glazers have never quite found themselves in this situation: facing 0-4 with a second-year coach who has managed to completely alienate the fan base.
In terms of winning games, replacing your head coach mid-season isn't much more than a gesture. Firing Greg Schiano would do one thing, though. It would placate an enraged fan base. Maybe that alone is justification enough to get rid of Tampa Bay's much-maligned head coach.