Ronde Barber is in his 16th season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Greg Schiano is in his first season as the Buccaneers’ coach. And Barber says he’s seeing a level of discipline and intensity from Schiano that he’s never seen before.
And Barber says that’s exactly what the Bucs need.
“He’s very demanding, and I think that’s a good thing for this football team,” Barber told Andrew Siciliano on NFL Total Access. “He has come in and really put an emphasis on a lot of details. We line up for stretching and we’re on the line -- that’s something I haven’t had since I was in college ball, but he has high expectations for us and you really just have to appreciate what he puts into the job. I think we have a lot of guys right now who are buying into it. He has a saying, the quicker we buy in the quicker we win. And it feels like we’re doing that right now.”
The reason the Bucs need someone who’s so demanding is that they’re coming off a bad season with a “players’ coach” in Raheem Morris. Barber likes Morris, but he realizes that last year, the Bucs responded to Morris’s more laid-back approach to coaching by putting a lackadaisical product on the field.
“We were very uncompetitive, and it got a good friend of mine, our coach, Raheem, fired,” Barber said.
Schiano won’t let the Bucs get away with being very uncompetitive.