Shula as OC...

[Zod]

I was living in Tampa Bay for some of his tenure as OC...

Run...Run...Pass...Punt

That was the offense. It was a joke. A good game was 13 points, and they won them because of Tony Duny and Monte Kiffin's Defense.

Now, maybe he has learned. Maybe he is better now. But I have cold chills imagining him as the Panthers OC. I will try to be optimistic, but good lord, the memories. It was awful.

Please stay Chud. Please?

[Donald LaFell]

We have two #1 runningbacks and one of the most impressive running qbs ever so foxball isn't that bad of an idea.

[Guest]

We have two #1 runningbacks and one of the most impressive running qbs ever so foxball isn't that bad of an idea.

gtfo

[pstall]

the only other thing Shula has going for him is if there is ever a movie made about James Taylor he could play a young James.

[Marguide]

Weren't Dilfer and Shaun King his QB's?

I probably wouldn't have passed much either.

[CaptaINCrunchKing]

That's also what I fear. He seems overly conservative. We need to be an attacking offense, and that 'three yards and a cloud of dust' approach does not work anymore in the league. I don't want our offense to consist of Cam having to convert 3rd and longs almost entirely to move the chains. I hope he has learned at least.

[Woodie]

He'll run the offense Rivera wants run...and that's aggressive.

Factors that may have influenced his style in TB include directives from Dungy, the talent he had at QB, less passer-friendly rules, and perhaps most importantly, less experience. Regardless, I'm sure he has learned a few things in his time with Chud, and I have little doubt that you would see a much different Shula this time around.

[Dpantherman]

I don't see why he wouldn't be running the offense Rivera wants him to run. Rivera even said that there wouldn't be any major changes, scheme included http://www.carolinahuddle.com/forum/carolina-panthers/75918-coach-rivera-says-he-has-a-plan-if-chud-leaves-that-doesnt-involve-major-changes.html

[Dpantherman]

We have two #1 runningbacks and one of the most impressive running qbs ever so foxball isn't that bad of an idea.

We also have a franchise QB. Ever heard of him?

[teeray]

OCs do what coaches ask them to do. He would be fine as OC.

[MWCarolina]

i dont see Chud leaving, Miami worries me, but i think in the end, they hire Mike Zimmer who i think is more ready to be a head coach than Chud. i dont see Chudzinski in Tampa Bay because they (reportedly) want a discipline style of coach and i dont know if Chud is that.

[rayzor]

cat scratch reader talked about this yesterday.

I will say this: 15 years is an eternity for a coach, and a lot can change. Also we have to keep in mind the dearth of talent Tampa Bay had during this time period. That being said, here is what happened 1996-1999

QB Position

Do you like Trent Dilfer!? Okay, that was less excitement than I thought. When Shula arrived he had a stable of three glorious QBs- Trent Dilfer, Casey Weldon and Scott Milanovich. Sadly, unlike Chud with Cam he didn't work wonders with the 3rd year Dilfer. He finished with 2,800 passing yards, 12 TDs and 19 INTs.

Year two got much better and the answer was to pass less. Shula leaned on RB Warrick Dunn and turned Dilfer into a game manager, and this worked well as he finished with 21 TDs and 11 INTs. It's important to note the team jumped from 6-10 to 10-6 due to the defense, but also in large part to smart management of the offense.

In the third year there was a greater emphasis on the run as he continued to utilize Dilfer as a game manager. While the team regressed slightly we saw the 1998 team have their best year as an offense.

In 1999 the Bucs were on the cusp, but Dilfer fell off a cliff and they tried to break in new QB Shaun King. It was an abject nightmare on offense due to an innefective Warrick Dunn and amysmal Dilfer. Shula seemed to become the sacrificial lamb and was fired. However, it's important to note that the new offensive staff didn't fair any better with Tampa's talent. They invested all their resources in defense and it showed.

RB Position

It's safe to say that one of Shula's greatest contributions to the Bucs was in developing a nasty running game that allowed Dilfer to be little more than a game manager. There was no messing about when it came to what he wanted to do on offense as he and Tony Dungy drafted Mike Alstott in 1996 and then Warrick Dunn in 1997.

Consistently Shula used these two as a devestating 1-2 punch where he kept teams off balance with the speedy Dunn, and then demolished them up the middle with Alstott. It's interesting to see what he did here, because it could be a future analog for how he would use DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, rather than the specific packages we saw this season.

WR Position

LOL

That pretty much sums it up. The Bucs from this period had arguably the worst WRs of any team. In 1996 Mike Alstott was the leading receiver... a fullback... as a rookie. That should tell you something. From there such luminaries as Karl Williams, Reidel Anthony and Jacquez Green led the team. When you see four years and four different receiving leaders it normally tells you a team stinks.

The Impact

It has to be mentioned that, well, the Bucs were garbage on offense as a whole. It was an afterthought for a team being built around defense. The talent was never there, but Shula seemed to do the most with what he had available. In the end the Tampa Bay Buccaneers never managed to get out of the 20's in both points and yards scored.

http://www.derp/2012/1/13/2705648/looking-at-mike-shula-the-oc

did the offense suck because of shula or because the bucs put most of their resources in the defense and relied on a game manager like dilfer and a crappy group of receivers?

it was a defense focused team built around the idea that defense wins championships.

shula might have deserved some of the blame for it being bad, but given what he had to work with @QB and WR and the mentality of the team maybe he made the best of what he had.

[TruCatzFan]

Yes, more hypotheticals... That's what we need.

What if Peyton Manning wanted to be a Panther?

What if Brandon Marshall and Reggie Wayne wanted to be Panthers?

What if we cut DeAngelo and traded up to pick up Richardson?

How bout this one.... What if Chud STAYS and we win the motherfugin Super Bowl next year?

Yeah, I like that last one.

[rainwater]

It's funny how people must think Chud ran this offense before too. He didn't. He's running the offense Rivera demands. And OC's main job will not be designing plays but calling them at the right time. This offense isn't going to magically change with a new OC.