In 2010, when Raheem Morris led a young Buccaneers team to a 10-6 record, the conventional wisdom was that Morris, the youngest coach in the league, was a perfect fit for a young group of players. Then the Buccaneers slumped to 4-12 in 2011, and all of a sudden the stories about Morris’s inability to bring discipline to a young bunch that needed it were rampant.
Jeff Faine, the Buccaneers’ starting center during Morris’s three seasons as head coach, says Morris’s approach only works with veteran players who already understand how to conduct themselves as professionals.
“Coach Morris will be a head coach again, but he’s gotta be a head coach of a very veteran team that can handle the style that he brings,” Faine said on 1010 AM, via JoeBucsFan.com.
Faine, a free agent who was released by the Bucs in March, has no hard feelings toward the team for cutting him. Faine said Greg Schiano’s leadership style is “desperately needed” in Tampa Bay, and he said he thinks the Bucs made the right decision to cut him, move Jeremy Zuttah from guard to center and upgrade at guard by signing Carl Nicks in free agency.
“I can understand the decision. They made an investment in Carl Nicks. Looking into the future and trying to build through youth, and I think it was the right decision,” Faine said. “I’m going to be playing for two, three more years, and they’re looking to build something to last.”
The Bucs thought they were building something to last with Morris, but in the end, he turned out to be the wrong coach. Even the players who liked him say that.