TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jameis Winston had a strong rookie season, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tripled their victory total from the previous year. Still, it wasn\u2019t enough to save coach Lovie Smith\u2019s job.<\/p>\n
Smith was fired Wednesday night after going 6-10 this season, 8-24 overall in two years running a team that has missed the playoffs eight consecutive years.<\/p>\n
The late-night announcement came as a surprise because Smith\u2019s job was not considered to be in danger after the Bucs improved from two wins and landing the No. 1 overall draft pick in his first season to rebounding from a slow start to briefly contend for a wild-card berth with a rookie quarterback starting every game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision was difficult on a variety of levels,\u201d Buccaneers Co-Chairman Joel Glazer said in a statement. \u201cI am disappointed that we were not more successful these past few seasons, but we are committed to doing what is necessary to give our fans the winning team they deserve. \u201c<\/p>\n
General manager Jason Licht will oversee the search for a new coach.<\/p>\n
Smith led the Chicago Bears to the NFC title in 2006, when they lost to Indianapolis in the Super Bowl. He was 84-66 in nine seasons with Chicago.<\/p>\n
The Bucs showed some improvement this season with Winston joining Andrew Luck and Cam Newton as the only players since the 1970 NFL\/AFL merger to throw for 4,000 yards as rookies. But they lost five of their last six games, including the final four to finish last in the NFC South for the fifth straight season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us would say that we\u2019ve met our expectations. We had high hopes when I took over the franchise. You just can\u2019t build a program overnight,\u201d Smith said earlier this week, reflecting on the progress the team made over two seasons under his guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d like to have a quick fix, but that just wasn\u2019t part of the process. When you get to 6-6 in a season, it makes you think that maybe you\u2019re a little bit further along and we can get it done. But in the end, we weren\u2019t quite there. \u2018We\u2019re not where we want to be and eventually, we\u2019re going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time, the Bucs ranked in the top 10 in total offense and defense. But finishing No. 5 offensively and No. 10 defensively was deceptive. The Bucs struggled to get the ball into the end zone, ranking 20th in points. They were 26th in scoring defense, allowing 24 or more 10 times.<\/p>\n
The shortcomings on defense were especially frustrating because that\u2019s been Smith\u2019s area of expertise as a coach. He took over play-calling responsibilities from defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier this season, but an inconsistent pass rush and constant shuffling of personnel in a leaky secondary contributed to a lack of success.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Smith reiterated his belief that the team is headed in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur football team isn\u2019t a finished product yet, but I think it\u2019s safe to say that we\u2019re in pretty good shape going forward with (Winston) leading us, on and off the field,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Now the Bucs will move ahead without Smith, the team\u2019s third coach since Jon Gruden was fired after the 2008 season. Gruden led Tampa Bay to its only Super Bowl win; none of his successors had an overall winning record in Tampa.<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay cornerback Johnthan Banks was sitting courtside Wednesday night at alma mater Mississippi State\u2019s home basketball game against Texas A&M when he learned Smith had been fired. Banks starred at his phone for a few minutes before abruptly walking out of the gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just not ready to talk about it,\u201d Banks said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http:\/\/twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Jameis Winston had a strong rookie season, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers tripled their victory total from the previous year. Still, it wasn\u2019t enough to save coach Lovie Smith\u2019s job. Smith was fired Wednesday night after going 6-10 this season, 8-24 overall in two years running a team that has missed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10482"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}