Bruce Arians and general manager Jason Licht are putting the finishing touches on Tampa Bay’s new coaching staff, and have signed Todd McNair to coach the Bucs’ running backs as PewterReport.com alluded to earlier in the week.

Keep an eye on Todd McNair as a possible name for #Bucs RBs coach. Arians coached McNair at Temple and in Kansas City, and McNair, who coached RBs at USC, nearly joined the Arizona staff in 2013. — PewterReport (@PewterReport) January 9, 2019



McNair played running back for Arians at Temple and was a sixth-round pick by Kansas City in 1989, the year that Arians became the running backs coach for the Chiefs. McNair was a third-down back in K.C. and played with Christian Okoye, who was the league’s leading rusher in 1989, and Barry Word. After five years with the Chiefs, McNair spent two years with Houston before one more season in Kansas City in 1996 before retiring.

McNair coached at Camden High School in New Jersey after his playing days were over, and then coached running backs for the Cleveland Browns from 2001-03 alongside Arians, who was the Browns offensive coordinator. McNair joined Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans staff from 2004-09 where he coached Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Joe McKnight.

McNair’s contract was not renewed after six years at USC when he was alleged to have some wrongdoing in the recruiting violations that led to USC vacating wins, a national championship and Bush’s Heisman Trophy. McNair came close to joining Arians’ coaching staff in Arizona in 2013, but backed out.

The Bucs are also close to adding another assistant in defensive backs coach Kevin Ross, who played cornerback for the Chiefs with McNair and Arians for part of his Kansas City career (1984-93, 1997). Ross also played for Arians at Temple, and coached cornerbacks with him in Arizona from 2013-17 and then stayed on with the Cardinals last year in the same capacity under head coach Steve Wilks.

It is believed that Ross, whose nickname in Kansas City was “The Rock,” will coach cornerbacks and that Nick Rapone, who coached safeties under Arians in Arizona from 2013-17, will coach the Bucs safeties. Rapone spent the 2018 season coaching at Delaware and was set to take an assistant’s position under Steve Spurrier with the Orlando Apollos, a new franchise in the American Alliance of Football, which starts this spring, before Arians called him to join him in Tampa Bay.