The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Greg Schiano as their head coach in 2012, after nearly reaching an agreement with Chip Kelly and seeing him back out at the last minute. Schiano’s hire ended an extensive and troubled head-coaching search that saw them interview a vast array of candidates, and settling on arguably the worst of the lot.
One coach that wasn’t reported to be on their candidate list at the time: then New York Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. And yet, he came awfully close to being the Bucs’ head coach.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio has spent the past months telling his readers that the Bucs wanted to hire him, but that they weren’t willing to wait until after the Super Bowl to hire him, as Gilbride was headed there with the Giants.