New Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano joined WDAE-AM radio in Tampa on Wednesday to talk about a number of things relating to his brief tenure on the job. When the topic of penalties came up, Schiano surprised some by saying that he does not want his Bucs to rank among the teams that draw the fewest flags.
The reason is simple: Schiano wants his team to be aggressive. That said, he was also quick to point out that he wants his players to be disciplined and not take stupid penalties:
"The selfish penalties are the ones where you're angry, so you're going to relieve your anger and do something that hurts the team. Whether you shove a guy, punch a guy, whatever -- that's selfish. The silly penalties are the ones where you line up offsides ... You're just not paying attention to details.
I don't want to slow our guys down too much that way. It's a fine line between being a physical, aggressive football team and getting a flag. You gotta be careful. I don't ever want to be the least penalized team in the league, because I don't think you're trying hard enough then. But I certainly do want to be in the top 10. That's where you should be. You should be -- five through 10 is a great place to be as a penalized team."
Schiano emphasized that he wants his Bucs to stay away from late hits, offsides, false starts and other mental-error penalties that could cost his team.
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