The Bucs made several defensive coaching changes over the offseason. The departure of run game coordinator/defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers to the Lions saw Larry Foote take over run game responsibilities while also shifting to become the outside linebackers coach. Mike Caldwell returns to fill the inside linebackers coach position, while George Edwards is now the pass game coordinator.

There have been plenty of moving parts, but the most notable addition to the staff is new defensive line coach Charlie Strong. Strong, who was a longtime college head coach at Louisville, Texas, and the University of South Florida, returns to Tampa Bay in a different capacity.

He is already settling in and building rapport with head coach Todd Bowles and his defensive line room.

Why Was Charlie Strong Drawn To Bucs Defensive Line Coaching Job?

During a recent interview with Bucs team reporter Casey Phillips, Charlie Strong was first asked about what drew him to the Bucs defensive line coaching position. It is one of the most important roles under Todd Bowles as he likes to use exotic fronts to generate pressure with a reputation for having a stout run defense.

Bucs DL coach Charlie Strong, OLB Yaya Diaby, DTs Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea, and OLB Haason Reddick – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

“Well, I had lived here in Tampa and I came over here to visit numerous times and just watched practice and watched everyone work,” Strong said. “I had a relationship with Coach [Bowles], but it was more of a professional relationship. When the position came available, I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to give him a call.’ We sat down and talked, and we were able to connect and that’s where I said, ‘Hey, this would be the right spot.'”

While Strong’s time at USF ended in 2019 and he has filled various roles since, coming back to Tampa Bay and working with a room led by defensive tackles Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, and Logan Hall was too enticing to pass up. Even fifth-round pick Elijah Roberts mentioned during his Pewter Report Podcast appearance this offseason the impact Strong has on him when the two overlapped at Miami in 2022.

“You always look at coaching and you say, ‘It’s all about your relationships,'” Strong said as he comes in. “You want to make the players better. With this group, you had Vita, Calijah, Logan, you had three starters all coming back and you look at what they accomplished with the number of sacks they had. It was all about, ‘Hey, that would be a great group of guys to coach,’ and it has been.”

Bucs DL coach Charlie Strong – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There are few defensive tackle duos around that know how to bring down the quarterback and affect the game as much as Vea and Kancey. Both have led the team in sacks in recent seasons and have the chance to do so again this season. While they are imposing presences on the field, Strong has enjoyed getting to know each of their personalities in the meeting room and off to the side.

“It’s about the personalities because when you sit down with them, you have a chance to see how they can just cut off and be themselves,” Strong said. “With Vita, he just had a daughter. He was talking about how excited he was to have his daughter. Calijah, I knew him because I recruited Northwestern High School in [Miami, Florida]. That’s where [former NFL quarterback] Teddy Bridgewater [went].

“He told me when he saw me, ‘You are that guy that always came by our school.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I came out there a lot.’ He said, ‘You told me I was too short.’ I said, ‘At that time, it wasn’t I was telling you; you were too short. I just never thought you were going to turn out the player you did. If I would’ve known you were going to turn out the player you are right now, I would have taken you [laughs].”

Charlie Strong’s Strengths Stem From Being “Player Driven”

With head coaching stops at Louisville, Texas, and USF over the past 15 years, Charlie Strong knows what it takes to get the most out of his players. During his first two years at Louisville, the Cardinals went 7-6. Under Strong and quarterbacked by Teddy Bridgewater, they improved to 11-2 and then 12-1.

While he did not reach the same level of success after that, Strong built plenty of connections across college football that led to his latest gig with the Bucs. It all goes back to being a relationship-builder.

Bucs DL Coach Charlie Strong – Photo by: USA Today

“You have to be player driven,” Strong said about his biggest strength as a coach. “I always wanted to have a great relationship with my players where they understood that I cared about them, but I was not going to allow them to just do anything they want to do. It’s all about you watching them grow and build their own family. You’re watching them grow as they move through life.”

Now under Todd Bowles, he is looking forward to all of the ways he can grow his players and get them ready for the season. If one thing is for certain, Bowles knows how to get creative and dial up different pressures.

“He’s going to set the defense up for the players,” Strong added. “Whatever our strengths are with our players, that’s the way the defense is going to be set up. It’s great because he’s not a guy who’s just going to call a defense just to call it… You’re going to see him blitz a lot. We’ve seen that already and sometimes we may have to drop a lineman out so that we can get pressure on the quarterback. It’s been fun, just how he goes about it.”

Having been a coach since 1983, it has been an up-and-down ride for Charlie Strong in his nearly 40 years of coaching. As he makes the jump up to coaching in the NFL again, there is no better place for him to do it than coaching Tampa Bay’s defensive line.