Dirk Koetter returns to Arizona as Tampa Bay head coach
Sep 15, 2016, 7:20 AM | Updated: 11:20 am
FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2016, file photo, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter calls a play for his team against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the first half of an NFL preseason football game in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
TEMPE, Ariz. — Dirk Koetter does not see this weekend as any kind of homecoming.
No, the former Arizona State head coach who is now leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sees it as a business trip and not a chance to catch up with old friends and acquaintances.
“We can postpone all the pleasantries until the Phoenix Open or something,” he said.
Asked what kind of memories he has from his time in Tempe, he laughed and said, “distant.”
“I mean, it’s been 10 years, so obviously everywhere you work you come across some awesome people and have a lot of appreciation for the players, the coaches, the people that work with us there,” he added. “Ultimately, under my regime, we weren’t able to get it done.
“That was 10 years ago, now it’s a different time.”
Arizona State went 40-34 in Koetter’s six seasons, and went to four bowl games. The high water mark was in 2004, when the Devils went 9-3, won the Sun Bowl and was ranked 19th in the final AP Poll.
A pair of seven-win seasons followed, though, and at that point the school decided to make a change.
As Koetter said, it is a different time now. Arizona State seems to be in good hands with Todd Graham, whereas Koetter has found the NFL to be far more suitable to his skill set.
He was the offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2007 to 2011, and then was hired for the same job with the Atlanta Falcons in 2012. Last season he joined Tampa Bay’s staff as the offensive coordinator, and in January he was named head coach.
Last Sunday, his team knocked off the Falcons 31-24 on the road.
Koetter said he learned a lot from his time with Arizona State, with the caveat that with any job one has they should improve with more experience.
One thing Koetter has always been good at, however, is running an offense. Last season, the Buccaneers set a franchise record for total yards while also finishing with the second-most rushing yards and passing yards in team history. Their 342 points were the fifth-most, and for the first time ever, Tampa Bay finished in the top five in total offense.
His offenses in Atlanta, Jacksonville and even ASU were always good, too. So while he maybe coaching at a different level now, the job itself, he said, is not really much different.
“It really isn’t, from a coaching standpoint, other than no recruiting,” he said. “But the coaching itself is very similar. Your day is real structured; the players, I think in the NFL, are even more hungry to be coached than they are in college.
“Players want to be coached, and if you can improve a player, for the most part, they’re going to listen to you.”
Koetter added that his perspective has come from having coached at all levels, from junior high all the way to the NFL.
“I’ve found that coaching is coaching pretty much wherever you go,” he said.
One aspect of the profession that he no longer has to worry about is recruiting which, for anyone who followed his tenure at Arizona State, knew to be something he was not particularly fond of. Koetter chuckled when asked if not having to concern himself with that suits him better, before saying, “probably, yes.”
As he went on to point out, however, recruiting is not something he has to worry about these days.
If it sounds like Koetter is happy to leave the college game behind, your perception probably would not be too far off. As time passes his stint at Arizona State becomes more of a footnote in the career of one of the NFL’s newest head coaches.
But while he has moved on, there is one part of ASU that has followed him to Florida and hangs on the wall in his office.
“It’s a framed Pat Tillman jersey from Arizona State,” Koetter said. “For those of you that ever came to my office up at Arizona State, I had I think seven or eight jerseys framed in my office at ASU of great players, great players in the history of ASU. I gave them all away to boosters when I got fired there, except I kept one, and I kept No. 42.
“It means something special to me; I didn’t know Pat well, I knew him just a little tiny bit. Got to know his family — his wife, his father, Alex Garwood — after the fact. Of course I read the books and the accounts and all that kind of stuff. But Pat Tillman is an American hero and it means something to me. I’ll always have it in my office.”
