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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have an interesting offensive coordinator in Jeff Tedford. A lifetime college coach, everyone in the NFL seems to think that he'll have few problems adjusting to the NFL. That would be why Lovie Smith tabbed him as his offensive coordinator this year, but that wasn't the first time a Tampa Bay head coach tried to bring Tedford to the NFL. Tony Dungy told the Tampa Bay Times that he tried to hire Tedford, too.
Dungy tried to hire Tedford as offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay. But, Dungy said, "(Tedford) wanted to stay in college, and that was the track he wanted to go on. ... He's a very good offensive coach, and they've got some weaponry there."
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Of course, given the lack of success on offense Dungy had in Tampa, this may not be as solid an endorsement as you may think. But it does make some sense that he tried to bring Tedford in in the 1990s. The Bucs had Trent Dilfer starting, who was coached by Jeff Tedford in college. And for years, they couldn't get anything done on offense with such luminaries as Mike Shula, Les Steckel and Clyde Christensen running the Bucs' ever-stagnant offenses.
That lack of offensive production eventually did Tony Dungy in and allowed Jon Gruden to come in to remake the offensive side of the ball into a unit that could finally help them get to the Super Bowl -- and win it.
This time, Tedford was willing to come to the pros and even to Tampa Bay, something he didn't want to do with Tony Dungy. We'll have to wait and see whether he can build an offense in Tampa to keep up with what will likely be a very good defense.
