TAMPA — Bruce Arians’ hiring as the Bucs head coach was the day the music died. It had played non-stop for the past half-dozen years or more in warmups, at practice, all the time. He kicked out the cord to the enormous speakers and personal play lists.
For as cool and innovative as Arians appears to be with the Kangol hat and “Hey baby,” cadence, he is decidedly old school, a disciple of and former assistant coach under Paul “Bear’’ Bryant at Alabama.
Some Alabama assistant coaches avoided Bryant’s wrath like a subpoena. Arians was admittedly overconfident when he went to work for him to coach running backs in 1981.