{"id":12203,"date":"2012-01-05T15:35:41","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T20:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=12203"},"modified":"2012-01-05T15:35:50","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T20:35:50","slug":"most-feel-raheem-morris-not-given-what-he-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=12203","title":{"rendered":"Most Feel Raheem Morris Not Given What He Needed"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS<\/strong>
\n Sentinel Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Raheem Morris\u2019s<\/strong> first season as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team finished with a 3-13 record. During his second year, the team surprised everyone by finishing 10-6 and just missed the playoffs.<\/p>\n

This season, the Bucs started off with a surge, piling up a 4-2 record. A trip to England to play the Chicago Bears left them with a 4-3 record, and the team would continue that slide by not winning another regular season game, finishing the season 4-12<\/p>\n

During the course of the season, there were rumblings that Morris<\/strong> would be fired at the end of the season. As it turned out, those rumblings were right when the organization announced that Morris<\/strong> and his entire coaching staff were getting pink slips.<\/p>\n

A few sports enthusiasts in the area gave their opinions on the head coach\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n

High school football coach, Charles McDonald<\/strong>: \u201cI think Raheem<\/strong> is a good coach, but he was thrown into a position he wasn\u2019t ready for. He didn\u2019t have any power as far as personnel is concerned, and that hurt him. The Bucs were the youngest team in the league, and it showed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping they wouldn\u2019t fire him, but from the team\u2019s performance, you could see Raheem<\/strong> had lost the motivation of his players, and there were no veterans on the team to bring stability. Whoever takes Raheem\u2019s<\/strong> place will get more veterans on the team, and a lot of the young guys will find themselves without a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Boys And Girls Club Director, Bobby Wilds<\/strong>: \u201cI saw this coming. It\u2019s all part of being a professional coach. Even when the team finished 10-6, they thought he was too close to his players. They were waiting for him to stumble, and that affected his coaching on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a w hat have you done for me lately league. Because Raheem<\/strong> is still under contract, they will probably buy him out, and mandate he not coach for a year. There\u2019s no longevity as a head coach in the NFL. You really have to do well to stay.\u201d[private]<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fred Hearns<\/strong>: \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate he had to take the blame for what happened, especially when there was a lot of blame to go around. I hope he lands another job with a better group of players than what he had here. I think the players stopped listening to Raheem<\/strong> and there was no respect in the locker room. Because Raheem<\/strong> is so young, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll get another chance to be a head coach in the NFL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season ticket holder, Bobby Scott<\/strong>: \u201cI think the general manager (Mark Dominik<\/strong>) should have been fired along with Raheem<\/strong>. I know he did the best he could, but his hands were tied with all the kids on the team. I think a lot of the young guys weren\u2019t mentally into it. They were just counting their money. I\u2019m still a season ticket holder, and I want to see some veteran players on the team. The owners have got to start spending more money to get quality coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Ransom<\/strong>: \u201cI think the Bucs were being conservative with the payroll in not hiring a high profile coach. I think they were just biding their time while saving a lot of money. Raheem<\/strong> was paid far below the normal rate for an NFL head coach. I\u2019m not sure if it\u2019s right to fire the entire staff, but I do believe they already have someone in mind for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also think the payments they were making to Jon Gruden<\/strong> caused them to hold back on the payroll. Raheem<\/strong> was never given everything he needed to create a great team. Now, I think the Bucs are rebuilding, and the foundation is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback, Super Bowl MVP, Buc executive, and Grambling State head coach, Doug Williams<\/strong>: \u201cI think it was hard not to terminate Raheem<\/strong>. Unfortunately, the talent he was working with was overrated. I also feel the entire administrative section should have been terminated, not just the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Bucs tried to make it look like Mark Dominik<\/strong> did a great job of selecting the talent and Raheem<\/strong> did a poor job of coaching. At the end of the day, he had a great opportunity. From an economical standpoint, Dominik<\/strong> was hired on a certain level. Raheem<\/strong> was hoping to improve on last year\u2019s 10-6 record, and get a new contract. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t work out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams<\/strong> said longevity isn\u2019t a given in this sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to let a couple of people go from my staff at the end of the season. It just comes with the territory.\u201d [\/private]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer In Raheem Morris\u2019s first season as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team finished with a 3-13 record. During his second year, the team surprised everyone by finishing 10-6 and just missed the playoffs. This season, the Bucs started off with a surge, piling up a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}