Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Kellen Winslow said Thursday he was disappointed his team didn't make Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski its new head coach, although he also expressed enthusiasm for the man the Bucs did hire: former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano.
"I was really hoping for coach Chudzinski, who I was with at Miami and Cleveland," Winslow told Sirius XM NFL Radio. "But, you know, we got another guy in Greg Schiano who I know and heard he's one of the best coaches people have been around. And he's got a lot of enthusiasm and is real energetic so I'm excited, man."
"He's been top of the league past seasons, Chud I'm talking about," Winslow said of Chudzinski, who coached him while with the Hurricanes in the early 2000s and as the Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator from 2007-08. "You got Cam Newton going over there, and their offense rolling over there and they're a much better team for it. Just past connections and I know what offense he runs and love his offense obviously."
"I'm happy with Greg Schiano," Winslow stressed. "You know, I was just kinda hoping that it would be Chud. But Greg Schiano is fine with me."
Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik, also appearing on Sirius XM NFL Radio on Thursday, said Schiano's record of producing good pro players at Rutgers played a big role in the hire.
"The guys that came out of Rutgers, I think everybody admits in the pro game, those are 'Rutgers men' as he calls it, guys who are ready to go play in the National Football League," Dominik said. "Certainly Ray Rice jumps to mind, that he just jumps in the league and plays good, or the (Jason and Devin) McCourty brothers, they just jump in the league and play good, because they're ready-made guys. It's an NFL program at the college level, which is something that was very intriguing to us."
Schiano's coaching experience is mostly in college football, including stints at Miami and Penn State, but he did spend time with the Chicago Bears, serving as a defensive assistant from 1996 to 1997 and as a defensive backfield coach in 1998.
