TAMPA — On the day he was introduced as the Bucs' new head coach, Dirk Koetter addressed perhaps his biggest question mark, announcing during his introductory news conference that former Falcons head coach Mike Smith will be his defensive coordinator.
Smith and Koetter worked together as coordinators in Jacksonville, and Smith hired him as his offensive coordinator in Atlanta, where they worked together from 2010-14. Their roles will be reversed, but Koetter said Smith's addition was a "huge hire," an experienced voice on his staff as a first-time head coach.
"To get a coach with Mike's experience, not only as a defensive coordinator, as a teacher, as a head coach, but as a man, as the right kind of guy we want in front of our players every day, I couldn't be happier," Koetter said.