On Thursday, the Bucs announced the hiring of seven new assistant coaches, including two who have left the USC staff to jump to the NFL. Ten years after hiring Rod Marinelli to coach their D-Line and shortly after Marinelli left to become the Detroit Lions new head coach, the Buccaneers have filled that position with the Trojans' Franklin. The team's new defensive backs coach, Greg Burns, is also fresh off that USC staff; he replaces Mike Tomlin, who is now the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.
After seeing their coaching staff raided by four other organizations, the Bucs also filled six additional openings, including one from within. Jimmy Lake is the new assistant defensive backs coach, replacing Raheem Morris, who took the defensive coordinator position at Kansas State. Tim Berbenich and Nathaniel Hackett are the new offensive quality control coaches, replacing Kyle Shanahan, who joined Gary Kubiak's new staff in Houston, and Chris Wiesehan. And Casey Bradley is the new defensive quality control coach, filling the vacancy left when Joe Woods followed Tomlin to Minnesota.
Berbenich comes to the Buccaneers from the New York Jets, where he was a quality control coach last season and an offensive assistant in 2003-04. Shultz spent the last two seasons as the strength and conditioning coach for the Minnesota Vikings. Lake, Hackett and Bradley, though, are three more NFL first-timers making the jump from the NCAA. Lake has coached at Eastern Washington, Washington and, most recently, Montana State. Hackett, the son of Buccaneers Quarterbacks Coach Paul Hackett, was on Stanford's staff the last three years, serving as a specialists coach and recruiting coordinator in 2005. Bradley spent the last decade at North Dakota State, holding the defensive coordinator position for seven of those 10 years.
Berbenich spent three seasons (2003-05) as a member of the Jets coaching staff, including one season as a quality control coach in 2005. He served as an offensive assistant coach during his first two seasons (2003-04). Berbenich originally joined the Jets as an operations assistant for the 2002 season after interning in the operations department during training camps from 2000-01. From 1998-01, he played wide receiver for Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
2006 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coaching Staff
• Jon Gruden, Head Coach
• Monte Kiffin, Defensive Coordinator
• Bill Muir, Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line
• Richard Bisaccia, Special Teams Coordinator
• Art Valero, Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs
• Joe Barry, Linebackers
• Tim Berbenich, Offensive Quality Control
• Casey Bradley, Defensive Quality Control
• Greg Burns, Defensive Backs
• Jethro Franklin, Defensive Line
• Jay Gruden, Offensive Assistant
• Paul Hackett, Quarterbacks
• Nathaniel Hackett, Offensive Quality Control
• Paul Kelly, Assistant to the Head Coach/Football Operations
• Aaron Kromer, Senior Assistant/Offensive Line
• Jimmy Lake, Assistant Defensive Backs
• Richard Mann, Wide Receivers
• Rod Middleton, Tight Ends/Assistant Special Teams
• Mike Morris, Head Strength and Conditioning
• Kurt Shultz, Assistant Strength and Conditioning
