"I spent a lot more time probably fooling around with special teams and defense and still have my hand in the offense but I'm just a head coach now. "It's an unbelievable difference," Arians said. He could fully embrace the CEO element of the job. Giving Leftwich playcalling responsibilities has given Arians freedom from wearing two hats as head coach and offensive coordinator. Of course, Arians still clicks over on the headset a time or two, such as in the NFC Championship Game, when he called the play that resulted in a 39-yard touchdown pass at the end of the first half to put the Bucs up 21-10. Leftwich was fired by the Cardinals after the 2018 season, making the timing perfect.Īrians has long made it a priority to prepare his staff for the next step. But Arians would give up the playcalling duties only if Leftwich would take them over. When Arians started to consider coaching again, he knew he didn't want to call plays. However, it was Leftwich who made the biggest difference in Arians' return. We get along well and we even argue well to get the results that we want and make the decisions that we've made.
"He is just such a unique guy and we have such a unique, strong bond. "Having a head coach like Bruce and the relationship that I have with him - I don't know if it will ever be repeated," Licht said. It also helped that the Arians were friends with Licht's wife, Blair, who they befriended when Bruce and Jason worked together in Arizona in 2013. In Licht, Arians had a good friend as his general manager who he knew, trusted and got along with seamlessly. "I wouldn't have taken the job if it wasn't for Jason, and probably wouldn't have taken the job if Byron Leftwich wasn't available," Arians said. "The whole staff was available so it's like, why the hell not do this right," Arians told ESPN.īut among all those reasons Arians decided to return to coaching, there were two that rose above the rest: Licht and Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. He essentially got the band back together, hiring 12 coaches who worked for him in Arizona, along with others he's known for years like quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen, who was on his staff at Temple in the 1980s, and special-teams coordinator Keith Armstrong, who played for Arians at Temple.Īs Arians went through the steps of figuring out if he wanted to take the Bucs job, "all the things kind of just added up." It's also an hour flight from Birmingham, Alabama, where his grandchildren live.Īrians could build the staff he wanted. And on a personal level, it's a quick six-hour drive to Lake Oconee straight up I-75 - where Bruce and Chris stay from right after the draft until returning to Tampa for training camp.
BRUCE ARIANS PAST TEAMS COACHED PROFESSIONAL
On the professional side, they had infrastructure Arians believed was needed to create a winner - from ownership to the general manager to the roster. The Bucs and the Tampa area had everything Arians wanted. The 68-year-old Arians had to find the right situation to return, and Tampa Bay was it - even before he had quarterback Tom Brady. So, at the kitchen table at their home on Lake Oconee in Georgia during breakfast, she laid out a list of requirements: They would rent a house, not buy she would have an unlimited travel budget to see her grandchildren and Bruce would work on his health.īruce's decision to return to coaching looks like the right one as he will lead the Buccaneers against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV on Sunday (6:30 p.m. If he was going to return to coaching, Chris would have some say in it. "We'll be married 50 years in June, like, I do know the man."īruce took the 2018 season off following five seasons as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. "I was certainly resigned to it," Chris told ESPN. When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were looking for a head coach after the 2018 season, Chris Arians knew her husband, Bruce, was talking to general manager Jason Licht.
Why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the only team that could get Bruce Arians back to coaching
BRUCE ARIANS PAST TEAMS COACHED UPGRADE
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