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FAB 4. My Favorite Bucs Assistant Coaches
The year 2020 marks my 25th season covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for you, the loyal PewterReport.com reader. As I begin this milestone season, I’m going to spend the next 25 weeks telling some never-before-told Bucs stories and recalling some of my most memorable moments in my professional journey.
In Fab 4 from last week’s SR’s Fab 5 column, I wrote extensively about former Bucs defensive backs coach and head coach Raheem Morris, who was one of my favorite assistant coaches through the years. There have been several assistant coaches that I really enjoyed covering and actually got close to in my first 24 years of covering the Buccaneers.
Former Bucs coaches Raheem Morris and Greg Olson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Under former head coaches Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden and Morris, the Bucs had a very lax approach when it came to having access to the assistant coaches during the season. It was common practice to just be able to walk up to assistants for a quick interview or conversation. Those conversations and interviews helped forge relationships over the years that led to some great insight and some inside scoop, along with helping advance my understanding of NFL football, which aided in my reporting to you, the die-hard Buccaneers fan.
Alas, media policies have changed with the Buccaneers and our time with assistant coaches is quite limited to just a few encounters per year. That practice began under Greg Schiano in 2012 and continued through the Lovie Smith, Dirk Koetter and Bruce Arians regimes.
As I reflect on my near quarter century of covering the Bucs, here are some of my all-time favorite Tampa Bay assistant coaches.
Raheem Morris – 2002-05, 2007-11
Morris is atop the list because I was the first media member to interview him back when he was Mike Tomlin’s assistant defensive backs coach. When interviewing Monte Kiffin for some quotes about Tomlin back in 2002, Kiffin said, “You might want to get to know Mike T.’s assistant, Raheem. He’s a real up-and-comer.”
Former Bucs coach Raheem Morris – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Tomlin was a dynamic assistant coach, and so was Morris – just in a different way. Morris was like the Energizer Bunny, always hopping around the practice field with a ton of energy and an ever-present smile. Morris had an effervescent personality that just drew you in. Although he wound up being too young and inexperienced to become Tampa Bay’s head coach in 2009, he deserved the opportunity because he’s a great leader and a fantastic coach. Morris faced a lot of obstacles when he was the Bucs head coach from 2009-11, but is just one of four head coaches in Tampa Bay history to ever win 10 games – joining a select group that includes John McKay, Dungy and Gruden.
I got to really know Morris during his year away from Tampa Bay in 2006 when he was the defensive coordinator at Kansas State University, which is my alma mater. I wrote about that in last week’s SR’s Fab 5, so I won’t rehash it here. After spending three years in Washington as a defensive backs coach from 2012-14, Morris wound up in Atlanta where he has served as the Falcons’ assistant head coach, in addition to coaching defensive backs and wide receivers. Morris was promoted to defensive coordinator for the 2020 season, and it’s only a matter of time before the 43-year old gets another shot as a head coach in the NFL. He’ll be even better at it the second time around.
Jimmy Lake – 2006-07, 2010-11
Like Morris, Lake got his start in Tampa Bay as an assistant defensive backs coach, serving under Greg Burns in 2006 and under Morris in 2007. Lake left to become a full-time defensive backs coach in Detroit in 2008 under head coach Rod Marinelli before returning to coach the Bucs secondary from 2010-11 when Morris was Tampa Bay’s head coach.
Former Bucs coach Jimmy Lake with Ellie and Logan Reynolds – Photo by: Scott Reynolds/PR
Lake was like Morris in some ways in that he too was full of energy and always had a smile on his face, but he was a little more low-key and businesslike than Morris. Often overlooked by the media, I think Lake appreciated the attention that I gave to him, especially from 2010-11.
I’ve stayed in contact with Lake over the years, and interviewed him extensively about former Washington Huskies defensive tackle Vita Vea before and after the Bucs selected him in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Lake joined the Huskies staff in 2014 as the defensive backs coach and become the defensive coordinator in 2018. Now Lake is the head coach at Washington and I’m extremely proud of rise up the ranks in college football. I texted him the day he was named as Chris Petersen’s replacement.
Greg Olson – 2008-11
Olson, who is known to everyone as “Olie,” started as Gruden’s quarterbacks coach in 2008 and stayed on in that capacity when Morris took over in 2009. Former Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski was hired as the offensive coordinator in 2009, but was fired 10 days before the season opener when Morris and general manager Mark Dominik realized he was not cut out for the job and in over his head. Olson was promoted to offensive coordinator prior to the start of the season.
Olie was a wealth of knowledge, whether it was talking football with him after practice on the fields of One Buccaneer Place or over drinks at The Blue Martini, which was one of his favorite hangouts. Olie went from working with a seasoned veteran in Jeff Garcia in 2008 to developing a rookie quarterback in Josh Freeman the next year.
Former Bucs OC Greg Olson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
Olie helped Freeman turn in fantastic second season where he passed for 3,451 yards with 25 touchdowns and just six interceptions en route to a 10-6 season. Unfortunately Freeman and the Bucs regressed the next year and Morris and his staff was fired following the 2011 campaign.
After three years in Jacksonville, two years in Oakland and a year in Los Angeles coaching quarterbacks, Olie reunited with Gruden in 2018 as the Raiders quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. I just ran into Olie in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine and we still talk from time to time.
Mike Tomlin – 2001-05
Tomlin, who is known as “Mike T.” to everyone, stood out like a sore thumb on the Bucs coaching staff from the minute he arrived in Tampa Bay to replace Herman Edwards as the defensive backs coach. Tomlin was full of fire, energy and swagger from day one despite never being an NFL assistant before. Tomlin was a tremendous communicator, who famously gave Pro Bowl safety John Lynch a list of things he needed to improve upon when the two first met. Lynch’s pride was initially hurt, but he became even better under Tomlin, who helped the secondary become a driving force in the team’s Super Bowl season.
Tomlin was always generous with his time, and I remember featuring him on the cover of an old Pewter Report magazine with the title “The Next Big Thing.” After Tomlin left to become Minnesota’s defensive coordinator in 2006, his agent, Brian Levy, called me and asked me to FedEx overnight several copies of that edition for the Rooney family to read as Tomlin was set to interview for the Pittsburgh head coaching job in 2007.
Former Bucs coach Mike Tomlin with Ashley and Scott Reynolds
Of course Tomlin got the job – and not because he was featured in a Pewter Report magazine. Tomlin was – and still is – one hell of a coach. But it was cool to hear Levy say that Dan Rooney enjoyed reading my feature story on Tomlin during the hiring process. I’ve run into Tomlin a few times over the years, mostly at the Senior Bowl, and also at Ronde Barber’s retirement party in 2014. There is still a great deal of mutual respect between Mike T. and I, and he’s always gracious enough to say hello and chat for a few minutes.
Rich Bisaccia – 2002-10
Bisaccia was a salty coach, who rarely smiled and was sometimes a wise ass – perhaps due to his tough upbringing in Yonkers, New York. I appreciated Bisaccia’s demeanor and even though he tried to get under my skin on a few occasions I wouldn’t let him. Like the others, Bisaccia always made time for me and for Pewter Report – even when he acted like I was a bother.
I’ll never forget the time during one of the drafts in the Gruden years – maybe it was 2004, 2005 or 2006. I can’t remember the exact year, but it was on the last day of the draft and Bisaccia was bored. His special teams coordinator office was right across the hall from the Bucs locker room, which is where the media gathered during draft weekend to watch the draft.
Bisaccia noticed me in the locker room as I was getting up from one of the worktables and motioned me into his office. I got the feeling that Bisaccia felt underappreciated – and I think that’s the case with a lot of special teams coaches, as special teams doesn’t receive nearly as much practice time as the offense and defense typically gets. He wasn’t in a great mood that day and started to rant and rave about how difficult it is being a special teams coordinator.
Former Bucs coach Rich Bisaccia – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
He spent an hour just lecturing me on how a special teams coordinator has to be an offensive line coach to teach blocking on field goals, extra points and punts, and also has to be a receivers coach to teach gunners on punt coverage how to beat the jam or the press from the vice defenders outside. Bisaccia said he has to be a defensive line coach to teach pass rush on punt block and field goal/PAT block, and also has to be a defensive backs coach to help the vice defenders on punt return how to effectively jam the gunners at the line of scrimmage.
Bisaccia also had to be a running backs coach, which was his background as a college coach at Clemson, Ole Miss and elsewhere, to help punt returners and kick returners set up blocks and make moves to elude oncoming defenders. It was an incredible one-hour impromptu coaching clinic where I learned an awful lot about special teams. Bisaccia also invited me back to his office on a couple of occasions to watch some film.
Bisaccia was the Bucs’ special teams coordinator when Micheal Spurlock returned the first kickoff for a touchdown in Tampa Bay history, and I still run into him from time to time at the Senior Bowl. After he left the Bucs in 2011, he worked with the Chargers for two years before a five-year run in Dallas. Bisaccia reunited with Gruden in 2018 and serves as the Raiders assistant head coach and special teams coordinator.
There are a few other favorites worth mentioning, including defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, linebackers coaches Joe Barry and Gus Bradley, and former tight ends and running backs coach Art Valero, but this SR’s Fab 5 is getting quite lengthy. While I enjoyed covering those additional five coaches, I had a stronger rapport and relationship with the likes of Morris, Lake, Olson, Tomlin and Bisaccia.
Stay tuned for another Bucs story from yesteryear in next week’s SR’s Fab 5. And if you missed my previous Bucs memories from the past 24 years of covering the team, click on the links below.
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