After Sunday’s loss to the Eagles, Buccaneer coach Greg Schiano told reporters that he didn’t hear booing from the crowd at Raymond James Stadium as the Bucs made their way off the field at the end of the game.
On Monday, Schiano met with the media again and he’d either watched tape of the game again in the interim or realized in hindsight that the crowd wasn’t chanting “Schia-nooooo.” Schiano said he “can imagine” how frustrated the team’s fans are with the 0-5 start and 10 losses in the team’s last 11 games because he’s frustrated as well, but also told them that the team will be something “special” when the Bucs get things turned around.
“If they can hang in there, we’re going to be good,” Schiano said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “If they can’t, we’re still going to be good, and they’re welcome back. I’m not being smart. I mean that. I think our fans are great. When I came out to start the game, warmups, our fans were awesome. The end of the game, I’m disappointed just like they are.”
Schiano didn’t put any kind of time frame on when the turnaround would start, which could be the rub. Losing is bad enough, but doing it with side orders of MRSA infections and feuds with quarterbacks who have had confidential information leaked to the press makes things exponentially worse. That’s raised the heat under a coach who came in talking about changing the culture of the franchise.
Schiano’s done that, but not in the way anyone was expecting or hoping to see. Unless that turnaround starts immediately, it’s hard to see Schiano on the sideline whenever the Bucs will again be a good team.