TAMPA, Fla. -- Once upon a time, Raheem Morris was it. The charismatic defensive backs coach, who had worked his way up from defensive quality control coach on Jon Gruden's Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl staff, had been quietly anointed the “next Mike Tomlin.”
He was the one the Bucs vowed not to let get away after a one-year stint at Kansas State in 2006, so much so that when Gruden was fired after the 2008 season, they gave Morris -- who hadn’t been a defensive coordinator for even a month -- the keys to the franchise.