Getting To Know The Bucs Interim Head Coach

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. As of Tuesday, Harold Goodwin is now the Buccaneers interim head coach. He has been Assistant head coach and running game coordinator for the Bucs since the 2019 season. The two coaches have a history together and have been together since Bruce Arians was the Offensive Coordinator for the Pittsburg Steelers. Goodwin would follow Arians to be on Chuck Pagano’s staff for the Indianapolis Colts as an offensive line coach in 2012, which was also the year Arians stepped in as interim head coach when Pagano was battling cancer.

Goodwin would follow Arians to the Arizona Cardinals as the Offensive Coordinator and take a year off when Arians retired for one season. When Bruce Arians accepted the Buccaneers head coaching job in January 2019, he would come out of retirement to follow Bruce Arians to Tampa Bay.

Harold Goodwin does have college football experience as he was a graduate assistant at Michigan from 1995-1997 under Lloyd Carr. He has a national championship ring from Michigan’s 1997 Rose Bowl victory over Washington State. He would also serve as an offensive line coach at Eastern Michigan from 1998-1999 and Central Michigan from 2000-2003.  He would get his first NFL coaching job in 2004-2006 for the Chicago Bears as he worked as an assistant offensive line coach on Lovie Smith’s staff. The following season is where he would join Mike Tomlin’s staff in Pittsburgh, where he would meet Bruce Arians and be a part of the 2008 Super Bowl Championship team.

Goodwin would be a part of two Super Bowl teams: The Pittsburg Steelers, in Super Bowl XLIII, when they beat the Arizona Cardinals at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, and the second one was with the Buccaneers, also in Raymond James Stadium when they won Super Bowl LV,  beating the Kansas City Chiefs.

He will coach his first game on Sunday against the Jets at MetLife Stadium, and we hope that Coach Arians gets better soon; this game is an opportunity for Goodwin to get his foot in the door for when it is time to be a head coach in the future. I think this is an audition for more significant opportunities to be mentioned as a candidate for head coaching vacancies in the future.