Schiano learned a lot from Kiffin's D

Bucs Beat: Schiano learned a lot from Kiffin's D

2008, CLIFF MCBRIDE/STAFF
Monte Kiffin earned an admirer in Greg Schiano in his time as the Bucs' defensive coordinator.

By ROY CUMMINGS| The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 08, 2012 - 6:08 PM

TAMPA --

When the members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2002 Super Bowl championship team take the field at halftime today, one of DT Gerald McCoy's idols (Warren Sapp) and one of WR Mike Williams' idols (Keyshawn Johnson) will be there.

One of coach Greg Schiano's idols will be there, too.

As a young coach working his way through the pro and college ranks, Schiano became a big fan of former Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and the revolutionary Tampa 2 he perfected during his time here.

"We studied that Tampa defense wherever I went,'' Schiano said, referring to his stops in Chicago, where he was a defensive backs coach with the Bears, and the University of Miami, where he was the Hurricanes defensive coordinator.

"We were obsessed with that defense. We used to get the Bucs' tapes and cut them up and have their cutups in our system right along with our cutups. We did a lot of their stuff.''

It wasn't just on tape that Schiano devoted hours of study to Kiffin and the Bucs defense. While at Miami, Schiano also made a series of offseason road trips to Tampa to meet with Kiffin and study his defense firsthand.

More than a decade later, Schiano still uses some schematic elements of the Tampa 2 defense he studied so intently, but it's mostly Kiffin's methodology he has incorporated into the Bucs' new defensive design.

Like Kiffin, Schiano caters more to speed than size. And, just like Kiffin, he is a stickler for the tedious fundamental drills that allow each player's individual assignments to become second nature.

"We're doing a lot of things here now that reminded me of what we did back in the early 2000s,'' said Bucs S Ronde Barber, the only player from the 2002 title team still with the team.

"And I told (Schiano) that. Obviously, it still hasn't manifested itself in the same way, but the way we went about doing things and all that, that's clearly what he is after here.''

Like a lot of his players, Schiano is excited about the chance to see that 2002 team reunited and honored. And while he wasn't a part of that team, he believes he'll have a role in making the day special.

"We have a job to do, which is to win the game (against the Eagles), and the worst thing we could do is have all those guys come back on their commemorative weekend and not go out and do our job,'' Schiano said.

"We definitely want to make our alumni proud of how we coach this football team now and how we play as a team, so that's just another piece of the goal for this weekend – to go out there and get our win."

Better than ever

Now in his 16th season, Barber is doing something he's never done before - and we're not talking about playing safety.

At no other time in what could prove to be a Hall of Fame career has Barber returned interceptions as far as the four he's picked off this season. Barber has gained 160 yards off his team-leading four interceptions for a 40-yard average. That is not only the longest average of his career, but the longest in the NFL this season.

It also is the fifth-longest in NFL history for players with at least four picks in a season. Only Arizona's Antrel Rolle (2007, 46.2), the New York Jets' Darrelle Revis (2011, 46.0), Detroit's Chris Houston (2011, 45.0) and Arizona's Kerry Rhodes (2010, 43.5) have bettered it.

Freeman facts

In his past eight games, Bucs QB Josh Freeman has thrown 18 touchdown passes against only four interceptions, including eight touchdowns and one interception in his past four home games.

Freeman's passer rating over that eight-game span is 99.6, which is very close to a winning number for him and the Bucs. In the 14 games in which Freeman had a passer rating of more than 100, the Bucs were 11-3.

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