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Jeff Tedford will have a few Golden Bears to associate with on his coaching staff on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. One of them he's familiar with and definitely had some input in getting him hired; the other is a local legend.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will add one of their legends to the coaching staff, according to Rick Stroud. Hardy Nickerson will be an assistant, coaching linebackers under Lovie Smith. He previously coached linebackers for Lovie Smith in 2007 for the Chicago Bears but resigned in January of that year.
It's good to see Hardy get back in the coaching ranks. Hardy had been coaching Bishop O'Dowd High for four years, going 29-17 and 18-6 in the conference. He has coached in the league before with Lovie Smith at Chicago as linebackers coach. He also coached his son Hardy Nickerson Jr., who should be one of Cal's starting linebackers in 2014.
The more surprising hire came earlier this weekend with Marcus Arroyo joining Tedford at Tampa Bay as his quarterbacks coach once again.
Tedford will bring along Marcus Arroyo as the Buccaneers' quarterbacks coach, according to Fox Sports' Alex Marvez. Marcus Arroyo was the offensive coordinator at Southern Miss this past season and worked as a quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator under Tedford for two seasons at California. Prior to joining Tedford he spent time as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Wyoming and San Jose State.
I'm not sure what to make of this hire. Arroyo might be a good coach, but it's hard to tell what he could actually do with only Zach Maynard to work with (the lack of development with Allan Bridgford at Cal and at Southern Miss is a little troubling though). Perhaps with the proper practice time Tedford feels that Arroyo and he can definitely get through to their quarterbacks and develop them better than they were able to at Cal.
What do you guys think of the hiring of Nickerson and Arroyo?
