Peter King of SI.com recently published a story that alluded to new Bucs coach Greg Schiano’s control-freakish insistence on monitoring the precise room temperature of hotel team meetings for road games while Schiano coached at Rutgers.
Interviewed by NFL.com’s Albert Breer, Schiano confirmed the story and explained himself.
“If you’ve ever been with a group of men in a meeting room, you know that if you put 70 guys in a room, the temperature goes up right away,” Schiano said. “That might make it harder to focus, if you’re worried about trying not to suffocate.
“Those are the details most people don’t tend to. I don’t know if I put more on that than anyone else, but I make sure we’re thorough. You can bitch about the stuff when it doesn’t go right. Or you can get out in front of it.”
Schiano has brought his meticulous, detail-oriented style to Tampa Bay, and he thinks it’ll work.
“We’re all men here with different roles -- mine is head coach and theirs are as players,” Schiano explained. “It’s demanding, what we’re asking, it’s not easy, but it’s the best thing. ... The buy-in has been great, they’ve been working incredibly hard. We gave them off this week, and we’ll come back with OTAs and the minicamp.
“But so far, the guys have been excellent. It was a change for them, but we didn’t just do it to do it. We explain to them the reasoning, and once they hear that, they get it. Hey, they want to win.”