Bucs fire offensive coordinator
TAMPA (AP) – Former Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski was fired Thursday as offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have been unhappy with the progress of their passing game.
First-year coach Raheem Morris offered a vague explanation for the abrupt move on the eve of the team’s preseason finale against the Houston Texans. Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson was promoted to Jagodzinski’s role and will take over playcalling.
“I have a lot of respect for coach Jags, and what he did, and the effort he put into his work, but we’re at the point now where we need to be more precise, we need to be more detailed and we need to have more direction on where we’re going to go,” Morris said.
Jagodzinski was hired in January, three weeks after being dismissed by Boston College for pursuing an NFL head coaching job.
At the time, adding an experienced assistant who was Green Bay’s offensive coordinator in 2006 was viewed as smart move by Morris, who turned 33 Thursday and is the youngest head coach in the NFL.
He installed an offense featuring a zone-blocking running scheme and a passing attack that encourages the quarterback to be aggressive throwing the ball downfield. Morris stressed that philosophy won’t change under Olson.
Offensive line coach Pete Mangurian, who presides over the running game, and assistant head coach/receivers Richard Mann will assume greater responsibility, too.
“It’s not a knock on coach Jagodzinski. It’s just what we needed to do, the plan we needed to have,” Morris said.
“A lot of the things remain the same. This offense was going in the right direction. You’ve got to give Jagodzinski credit. He did get it started in the right direction. Now we’ve got to finish off the deal with some of our other guys.”
Jagodzinski, 45, led Boston College to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game in each of his two seasons there, but was fired after being told he would be let go if he interviewed for the New York Jets’ coaching vacancy.
He interviewed despite the ultimatum and was fired the next day. The Jets job eventually went to Rex Ryan.