AP

Last year at this time, incoming Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith made what at the time was regarded as a genius hire, bringing former Cal coach Jeff Tedford to Tampa Bay to run the offense. But then Tedford got sick in the preseason, the Buccaneers had to get by without an offensive coordinator, and Tedford was eventually released from his contract.

Now the head coach of the B.C. Lions of the CFL, Tedford talked about his time in Tampa with JoeBucsFan.com, and about the way it all ended.

“I was ready to [return to coach] with about five games left,” Tedford said. “I wouldn’t say that there was friction, it was a situation where I think when I let [Lovie] know I was ready to come back, Lovie felt like it would kind of disrupt continuity at the time. A season is a long season, there’s a lot of water under the bridge going game to game and things like that. I think he felt it best that I not come in and try to fulfill my role like that because it would have been a disruption and really kind of mess up the continuity. So that was the situation then.

“And they really couldn’t commit to me about another year because, you know, I don’t know if they were a little apprehensive about my health or whatever. But I wanted to stay in the first place. You know when it first happened, I got out and I wanted to, but I was in no position to coordinate at the time. I was under a lot of medication. I had some further issues that went on because of my stents in whatever they call that main descending artery. And I had blockages I was on medicine for. But then there were some other things that went along with it, and so I was on a lot of medication. And I mentioned to Lovie, ‘I still got some issues here, but I’d love to stick around and do what I can do.’ But I was in no position to coordinate at the time.”

The Bucs now have Dirk Koetter in place to run the offense. Having any offensive coordinator will be an improvement over 2014, when the team had to get by with a major absence at one of the most important coaching positions on the team. For that reason alone, the Bucs should be a lot better in 2015.