It wasn’t long ago when it seemed the Buccaneers were on the verge of a mutiny, and that coach Greg Schiano might not survive an eight-game losing streak that included the messy jettisoning of a former first-round quarterback and a MRSA outbreak.
Funny what three straight wins will do for a guy.
Players have slowly started coming around, but Schiano got an even bigger endorsement yesterday.
Buccaneers co-chairman Joel Glazer had nothing but positive words for his coach after yesterday’s win over the Lions.
“I think it’s tremendous,’' Glazer said, via Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. “The guys are hanging in there and fighting to the end. I think that speaks volumes about Greg. [These are] tough times, but the team has never doubted him in the locker room.”
That’s as close to a public show of support as he’s gotten. In fact, the previous closest was being not fired each week, and that’s a tenuous existence. If he can keep quarterback Mike Glennon playing well, keep the players happy, win a few games and make sure no infectious diseases break out the rest of the way, it’s the kind of thing that could buy him another year.
As his NFC South neighbor Ron Rivera has shown with the Panthers, sometimes it takes three years to turn things around, and the Bucs may be inclined to give Schiano that time now.