Harold Goodwin knew he’d be the Bucs interim head coach early on Tuesday morning. After receiving an unexpected call from Bruce Arians, the assistant head coach now gets a crack as the gameday shot-caller when the Bucs play the Jets on Sunday.

Goodwin shared how that phone call went when Arians broke him the news. Of course, it was in typical BA fashion from the beginning.

“It was yesterday morning and my phone [was] ringing,” Goodwin said. “Just the pit of my stomach just knew what that phone call was about. Because he never calls me in the morning because I expect him to be in the office. Himself, just being the way he is, he goes, ‘Hey, got a little problem with this COVID thing. You’ve got it.’ I was like, ‘OK.’ He was like, ‘alright, talk to you later.’ Click. I actually ended up calling him back last night. We talked for a little while, and he goes, ‘Hey, I don’t want to do any Zoom meetings. I trust you and you’ll do great. Just be yourself, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.’ That’s all he said to me.”

In a 26-year coaching career that began as a graduate assistant at Michigan, Goodwin has worked under the tutelage of Arians for the last 14 years. The two of them are practically one mind at this point. That made it easy for Arians to trust Goodwin with the team in the event that the Bucs head coach can’t clear protocols for Sunday.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and run game coordinator Harold Goodwin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I view B.A. as one of my major mentors as far as my coaching career,” Goodwin said. “I’ve been with him a lot. I probably in some shape or form carry a lot of his mannerisms, too. I don’t ride the golf cart, but a lot of things he does, says, sees, I see the same thing. So it makes it an easier transition for me. My job is just to follow protocol as far as the things he wants done, how he wants them done and just make sure I follow through with them.”

While Goodwin is the head coach on an interim basis, he isn’t the only one on the Bucs staff making headlines in that department. Offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles have been generating buzz as potential future head coaches. Of course, Bowles was the Jets head coach for four years. Goodwin expressed his aspirations to beomce a head coach as well.

“I think when you’re in this profession you want to be a head coach,” Goodwin said.  “I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing with a couple teams in the past. But I know this league is predicated a lot on play-callers. Why, I don’t know, but everybody likes play-callers. But there are a lot of good coaches out here in this National Football League that are good leaders. They just don’t happen to call plays, like myself. I do want that.

“Hopefully one day it will come my way, but at the end of the day that’s in God’s hands. But like I said, there [are] a lot of good coaches on a lot of good teams that need that opportunity that don’t [get it]. They don’t call plays, but we talk about what makes a head coach. It’s about building cultures, being leaders of men and just having that disciplinary, authority-type figure that can get a team behind you and to fight for you. They’re a lot of good coaches out here that can do that, but are not coordinators. That’s all I’ll say towards that.”