Table of Contents
About the Author: Scott Reynolds
FAB 4. The Year Morris Left The Bucs
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.
Here is the inside story of me breaking the stories of the departure of former Bucs defensive backs assistant coach Raheem Morris in 2006 and his return to Tampa Bay a year later. In 2005, Morris was Mike Tomlin’s right hand man when Tomlin was the team’s defensive backs coach, and was set to replace him in 2006.
But Bucs general manager Bruce Allen didn’t move quickly enough to promote Morris, whose agent is Brian Levy, who also serves as Tomlin’s agent. When Tomlin left for Minnesota following the 2005 campaign to become the Vikings defensive coordinator, Ron Prince, the new head coach at Kansas State University, reached out to Morris to become the Wildcats defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.
Scott Reynolds, Charlie Campbell and Raheem Morris – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
I had grown close to Morris over the years, interviewing him several times at the request of defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, who called Morris a rising star behind the scenes. And as a K-State alum, it was only natural that I break the story of Morris leaving Tampa Bay for my alma mater.
But I didn’t get the story from Morris himself. I got it from my friends and colleagues at GoPowercat.com, the leading website that covers K-State sports. When I got the tip, I was a little miffed that I didn’t get the scoop from Morris himself, so I called him while I was at The Home Depot.
Morris was surprised that I knew about his departure, and said he was actually going to call me later that afternoon so I could break the story in the Tampa Bay media. He told me that the chance to become a defensive coordinator at an FBS school in a major conference at age 31 was too good for him to pass up.
I was excited that he was going to Manhattan to coach my Wildcats.
Morris had e-mailed and texted me several times after games, and implored me to come out to visit him during the season. The only real window of time I had to do it was the weekend when the Bucs played at Carolina on Monday Night Football during the 2006 season. I flew out there for the K-State vs. Texas game, which was the season finale on November 11, which wound up being moved to Saturday night and was on national television because the Longhorns were ranked No. 4 and in contention for the national championship game. The fact that it was at night made it a very cold game for this Floridian to attend.
Scott Reynolds and Raheem Morris – Photo courtesy of SR
I met up with Morris at the team hotel the night before the game where he introduced me to the Wildcats offensive coordinator, 33-year old James Franklin, who would go on to become the head coach at Vanderbilt and is currently at Penn State. Morris’ grad assistant on defense was Scott Frost, a former Nebraska quarterback and Bucs safety for a minute. Frost later became the head coach for UCF and is now the Cornhuskers head coach.
K-State would upset the Longhorns, 45-42, as Morris’ defense knocked out quarterback Colt McCoy with a concussion on the first drive of the game, and held backup quarterback Jevan Snead to a 43.3 percent completion percentage. The Wildcats defense forced and recovered two fumbles and held Jamaal Charles to less than 100 yards rushing.
Of course the star of the show was K-State’s true freshman quarterback Josh Freeman, who passed for three touchdowns and rushed for another in the upset. Wildcats star receiver Jordy Nelson was held to just 15 yards on three catches, but speedster Yamon Figurs erupted for 123 yards and two scores on six receptions.
After the win, the fans, including yours truly, stormed the field to celebrate. Afterwards, I met up with Morris inside the football complex where I got to meet the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Freeman, who was just 18 years old. It was wild that I would be covering Freeman as a Buccaneer just three years later.
That win put K-State in the Texas Bowl where the Wildcats faced a 10-2 Rutgers squad that featured running back Ray Rice and fullback Brian Leonard. Of course the Scarlet Knights were coached by Greg Schiano, who would become Morris’ successor in Tampa Bay in 2012 – just six years after Rutgers beat Kansas State, 37-12 in the bowl game.
Scott Reynolds and KSU QB Josh Freeman – Photo courtesy of SR
Morris left K-State after just one year. Franklin did, too. Prince was a tyrant to work for and caused so much damage to the Wildcats football program in three years that Bill Snyder had to come out of retirement to fix it.
Once again, Morris failed to let me know he was returning to Tampa Bay to replace Greg Burns, who did an awful job with the Bucs secondary in 2006 and was fired after the team went 4-12. My friends at GoPowercat.com gave me the scoop and I called Morris immediately. He told me he was minutes away from calling me and that he was in Doug Williams’ office literally signing the contract.
Allen admitted to me that he made a mistake in not giving Morris a better offer when Tomlin left following the 2005 season, but that Morris’ new nickname at One Buccaneer Place was “Brinks” because the team backed up the Brinks truck and offered him a king’s ransom to come back to Tampa Bay. The Bucs made Morris the highest-paid defensive backs coach in the NFL and went on to produce a 9-7 record and an NFC South title in 2007.
The Bucs secondary rebounded thanks to Morris’ return and the addition of Morris’ new right-hand man, Jimmy Lake, who would serve as Morris’ defensive backs coach when he took over as head coach in 2009. Lake is now the head coach at the University of Washington.
As for Burns, as fate would have it, he unfortunately went to Manhattan to replace Morris as the K-State secondary coach. Burns did a horrible job with the Wildcats secondary and allowed Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz to set school records with 510 yards and seven passing touchdowns in an embarrassing 73-31 beatdown of K-State in Lincoln. Burns would be fired at the end of the year.
Former Bucs DBs coach Raheem Morris and DC Monte Kiffin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR
The one time Morris actually beat me to the news and offered me some scoop that I didn’t already have was on Christmas Day in 2008 when he called me that morning and told me that Jon Gruden had named him as the defensive coordinator and Kiffin’s replacement in 2009. Gruden notified the local reporters of that decision around noon after practice ended, but I had skipped going to practice that day so I could be there for my son’s first Christmas morning and I left my phone in my home office.
After the kids opened presents I went online around noon and saw that Morris had been tabbed as Kiffin’s replacement and I was upset that I didn’t get the scoop.
Until I checked my voicemail from when Morris called me before practice with the news and left me the scoop in a message.
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.
Video: Gronkowski Practices With Brady And Bucs Teammates
Bucs Pewter Nation Podcast Episode 195: Will This Be Brady's Or Arians' Offense?