Oregon Ducks Coach Chip Kelly finalising deal to take over Tampa Bay Buccaneers - NFL News Update
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' search for a new head coach may be coming to an end, according to sources on Sunday, January 22, 2012.
Rumours coming out of the franchise suggest that the Buccaneers have interviewed Oregon Ducks’ head coach, Chip Kelly, for the position and have been sufficiently impressed by the college coach to start contract negotiations.
The sources claim that the Oregon coach always wanted to move to the professional circuit and coach a National Football League (NFL) team, making his profile a good fit for the Buccaneers.
Buccaneers fired their previous coach, Raheem Morris, after one of the worst seasons in the franchise’s history.
Morris took his team to, 4-12, in the regular season and seemed to have lost control of the dressing room in the final half of the football year.
Tampa Bay started off well enough, going 4-2 by week six and seemingly poised to challenge for a playoff berth but things started going completely downhill from that point onwards.
Buccaneers managed to lose every single game after week six and with performances getting increasingly poorer, including a horrendous 41-14 defeat against the Jacksonville Jaguars in week 14, the fans and Glazer family (franchise owners) had seen enough.
Morris was sacked at the end of the season along with the entire coaching staff as the Buccaneers sought to rebuild.
The Buccaneers also refused to participate further in the NFL’s international games at Wembley Stadium after the loss of crowd support and the increasingly empty seats at the Raymond James stadium.
Kelly has met with the Buccaneers’ general manager and hopes that an agreement could be reached within the next few hours.
The Oregon Ducks’ coach has been coaching the NCAA team for three seasons and has had a trophy laden stint with the university.
Kelly this year took the Ducks to an overall, 34-6, record while also leading the Ducks to the Rose Bowl title along with winning the Associated Press Coach of the Year Award for his achievements and a string of other individual honours.
With the Buccaneers looking to move on from their horrible 2011 NFL regular season, most fans would not agree a first time NFL coach is the answer to their problems but only time will tell if Kelly can transfer his genius in the college circuit to the major
league.
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