Lovie Smith finalizes deal as Buccaneers coach

Tampa, Fla. • The Buccaneers say Lovie Smith is the ideal man to coach Tampa Bay.

The team made it official Thursday, announcing the one-time Tony Dungy protege who led the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl seven years ago finalized a five-year contract that he had reportedly agreed to on Wednesday. He will be formally introduced at a news conference next Monday.

The 55-year-old Smith replaces Greg Schiano, who was fired Monday following a 4-12 finish. The Bucs also dismissed general manager Mark Dominik, and the search for his successor continues.

Bucs co-chairman Bryan Glazer called it an "exciting day" for the organization.

"We knew from the start of our search that he was the ideal man to lead our team into a new era. ... Lovie is an accomplished and very well-respected head coach who has enjoyed success at every level of his 30-year career," Glazer said.

In hiring someone with a proven track record as a NFL head coach, ownership departed from the route taken for two other coaching changes over the past five years.

The Glazer family promoted Raheem Morris from defensive coordinator to replace Jon Gruden after the Bucs missed the playoffs in 2008. They opted for another candidate with no previous NFL head coaching experience when they lured Schiano from Rutgers, where he had turned a struggling college program into a winner.

Schiano was fired after going 11-21 in two seasons. The Bucs lost the first eight games of this season and played played poorly in the four losses during the 4-4 stretch the team put together to close out the Schiano era.

Smith is a defensive-minded coach who could bring back a version of the Tampa 2 system that the Bucs popularized during a successful run under Dungy in the late 1990's and Gruden in the early 2000's, when Tampa Bay won its only Super Bowl title with one of the most dominant defenses of the past two decades.

"I think the fit is going to be tremendous," Dungy said. "Number one he knows the area, he knows how the team got built into a Super Bowl winner, he knows how to win in the NFL. But more than that, I think he is going to build just a chemistry and camaraderie in that locker room and in the whole organization that's going to resemble what we had before."

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