REPORT: Buccaneers Hire Former Gators DC as Defensive Line Coach

A former Florida Gators coach is making his return to the Sunshine State. According to Ian Rappaport, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have hired Charlie Strong as their defensive line coach.

The #Bucs are set to hire Charlie Strong as their new defensive line coach, sources say.

The former #Louisville and #Texas head coach spent last season with #Bama as an analyst. Now, back in the NFL for the first time since 2021 with the #Jaguars. pic.twitter.com/BMPelYomm1
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 5, 2025

This will be his second stint with an NFL team.

Strong is replacing Kacy Rodgers, who departed the franchise to become Detroit’s new defensive line coach.

Strong spent multiple stints with the Gators during coaching career. He started as a graduate assistant in 1983 and returned for two seasons in late 1980s and an outside linebacker coach.

From 1991 to 1994 under head coach Steve Spurrier, Strong held multiple positions, including associate head coach, defensive tackles coach and defensive ends coach.

After stints with Notre Dame and South Carolina, Strong returned to Florida for a third time and stuck around for the Ron Zook and Urban Meyer regimes. He was the interim head coach after Zook was let go for the Peach Bowl against Miami. Florida lost 27-10.

During the Meyer era, he served as assistant/associate head coach, co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The Gators won the BCS National Championship twice in three years.

Strong went on to be the head coach at Louisville, Texas and USF. While the Cardinals' head coach, he beat Will Muschamp’s Gators in the 2013 Sugar Bowl. Strong’s current head coaching record is 74-53 (.583). He was named Big East Head Coach of the Year twice (2010, 2012).

He was the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach during the partial season Meyer was the head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Strong has also the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Miami (FL).