Matt Walters, who coaches high school football in Pennsylvania, chats with Hall of Famer Tony Dungy during a session at the Bucs' National Coaching Academy.
TAMPA — Shortly after Tony Dungy arrived in Pittsburgh to begin his NFL coaching career as an assistant at age 25, he asked Steelers coach Chuck Noll a simple question:
“What am I supposed to do?” Dungy recalled.
Noll didn’t hesitate. “He said, ‘As long as you’re here, you have only one responsibility and that’s to help your players,’ ” Dungy said. “As soon as he said that, the light went on. I sat there and said, ‘I admired this guy for so long. He’s been my favorite coach. Why is that?’ And then it hit me. It always felt like he was there to help us.
“So, for me, for 28 years, that’s what I tried to do, is help my guys be the best they could be.”
Dungy was speaking recently in the auditorium at One Buc Place, participating in a seminar on the coach-player dynamic with another member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, defensive back Ronde Barber.
Later in the day, Jon Gruden, the coach who replaced Dungy for the 2002 season and won Super Bowl 37, held a clicker in his hand and gave the 25 members of the Bucs’ National Coaching Academy a tutorial on the snap count and some film breakdown of several plays.
There was a Q&A session with head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht, and a seminar on scouting to signing with assistant general managers Mike Greenberg and Rob McCartney and vice president of football research Jacqueline Davidson.
It was an unforgettable, potentially life-changing week for the Class of 2025.
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Matt Walters is the head football coach and offensive coordinator at East Stroudsburg South Senior High School in Pennsylvania.
During the day, he’s a full-time elementary school physical education teacher nearly 40 miles away from where he coaches. Last week, he was working with Bucs special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and defensive/special teams assistant Keith Tandy.
He was selected from more than 1,000 applicants to the coaching academy, which is in its second year.
“I know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for someone in my position coaching high school football who has zero connection to the National Football League and to be put into this facility with the first-class amenities, with the people that are here, the coaches that are here, the staff that is here,” said Walters,
”iIt’s everything that I envisioned.”
From left, Nadine Nurasyid, the defensive assistant coach for the Stuttgart Surge, outside linebacker David Walker, run game coordinator/outside linebackers coach Larry Foote and outside linebacker Warren Peeples Jr. chat during rookie minicamp.
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Nadine Nurasyid took another route. The Munich, Germany, native is a full-time marketing manager who learned about American football by watching her partner play. Then Nurasyid began playing and was part of the German national team, a head coach in a football league there and now a color commentator for NFL games league-wide for DAZN in Germany.
Thanks to Gruden, she also demonstrated an ability to replicate a pretty hard snap count.
“It’s very emotional, super special for me,” Nurasyid said. “Also, talk about full circle moments. I’ve been here in Tampa. I was here, like, 10 years ago as a player.”
Robert Ayers played for 10 years in the NFL, including 2016-17 for the Bucs. He currently is an assistant defensive line coach with the Tennessee Vols, his alma mater.
“I didn’t always have the best coaches,” Ayers said. “It’s something I have a passion for and feel like I can help people.”
Ayers didn’t ask for any special consideration from the Bucs. He went through the academy application process like everyone else.
Robert Ayers Jr., a former Buc and current assistant defensive line coach for the University of Tennessee, was back in Tampa for the team's coaching academy. [ Kyle Zedaker/Tampa Bay Buccaneers ]
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At the forefront of the coaching academy is Darcie Glazer Kassewitz, the Bucs co-owner who attended every session.
The initiative has been a success. Genevieve Humphrey, who participated a year ago, landed a job with the Panthers as their assistant strength and conditioning coach.
“Recognizing people’s efforts, people who are working hard, is something that my family has always valued, and knowing that not everybody has the opportunity, and it doesn’t mean that they’re not just as good as somebody else,” Glazer Kassewitz said. “So that’s kind of baked into our DNA, and we really want to help people.”
The fact that Dungy and Gruden — both eventually fired by the Glazer family despite winning records and championships with the Bucs — would volunteer to participate says something about their relationship with the franchise and its owners.
Bucs co-owner Darcie Glazer Kassewitz says past and present coaches are invested in the team's National Coaching Academy. "Everybody’s wanting to lift up everybody else, because they know how important that is.”
“We’ve always had a great relationship with them,” Glazer Kassewitz said. “They’re exceptional people. That’s why they are who they are. That’s why they got to the levels that that they are, and for them to want to be involved in this speaks to who they are as people, and I think that kind of extends to our entire coaching staff, right? Everybody’s very invested in this.
“This was going back two years. We spent a year planning the execution of this. This was not coming from one office and one perspective. This was a lot of research from a lot of people’s journeys as coaches, scouts, and how they got to where they are and what would have been helpful to them at the time. And so, you know, having Gruden and Dungy and all of the coaches here, everybody’s wanting to lift up everybody else, because they know how important that is.”
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Barber warned academy finalists to check their egos at the door.
“The best (coaches) I’ve been around understand that the only thing they can do is make a player better,” Barber said. “It can’t be about you guys. It has to be about the player because at the end of the day, they’re the product on the field and the ones that matter. Your rewards come as a result of the players.”
Dungy said not every player can be coached the same.
When he arrived as the Colts head coach in 2002, Dungy needled Marvin Harrison in practice one day and the All-Pro receiver didn’t take it well.
“My first year there, we were preparing for the New England Patriots and I said, ‘Ty Law, their left corner, he can’t wait to cover you, Marvin,’ ” Dungy recalled. “The whole room blows up and laughs. After the meeting, Marvin comes up to me and says, ‘Coach, I don’t joke about football.’ There would be no more Ty Law jokes. Joke with someone else, but for him, that didn’t work. My job as a coach is to do what works.”
Nearing the end of his session, Dungy pulled out his cellphone and scrolled to an 18-year-old text he received from Lamar Thomas, whom he released in 1996 shortly after the former University of Miami receiver was charged with aggravated battery against a pregnant female.
“Coach Dungy, this is Lamar Thomas,” the text began. “I just wanted to say thank you. You don’t even know how much impact you had on my life. The decision you made to release me after you and your wife prayed about it was the best thing that could’ve happened to me. You saved my life. It made me face where my life was going if I didn’t change. You were a man of your word. You called coaches and told them I could play.
“In return, I got a chance to reach the potential you saw in me. I became a coach to hopefully make the same impression that you made on me.”
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Rick Stroud is a sports reporter covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Reach him at rstroud@tampabay.com.
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