Bucs set to interview Marty Schottenheimer

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are leaving no stone unturned in their search for a new head coach. Monday, Bucs GM Mark Dominik is meeting with Marty Schottenheimer, most recently of the UFL Champion Virginia Destroyers.

I was pretty sure the days of Marty Schottenheimer coaching in the NFL were behind us. Not that I thought they should be ‒ I'd fully endorse Marty Ball to anyone who asked ‒ but this really seems to come out of nowhere. Schottenheimer last coached in the NFL in 2007 with the Chargers, being fired after going 14-2 (insert your own Norv comment here).

It comes from so far out of nowhere, in fact, that if any Schottenheimer was going to get a head coaching job this offseason, it was most likely Marty's son, Brian. He got an interview with the Jaguars recently.

Marty, if you're curious, is 68 years old. That's old for a head coach, but anyone who's willing to step down to the UFL and take a head coaching job has to still have a serious itch to coach. At any age, I don't think Marty Schottenheimer will ever shortchange anyone with his work ethic.

He's not a shoo-in for the job, of course. The Bucs are also meeting with Brad Childress and Wade Phillips, and have already interviewed Mike Sherman and Jerry Gray.

Marty Schottenheimer would be an excellent hire. If you want a team to play sound, fundamental, hard-nosed disciplined football, he's your guy. The knock against him is that he can't win playoff games (not a label likely to be dismissed by winning a UFL Championship), but that really only becomes an issue when a team becomes a perennial playoff team, and the Bucs were pretty damn far from that this year. Ten-game losing streaks tend to hamper your playoff chances.