Newark, NJ  - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers must have been serious about finding a new coach from the college ranks.

After a strong flirtation with Oregon's Chip Kelly last weekend, the Bucs on Thursday have reportedly settled on Rutgers' Greg Schiano.

Numerous reports earlier on Thursday indicated that Schiano was finalizing contract details with the Buccaneers, while the Newark Star-Ledger has cited a source as saying Rutgers now needs a new head coach.

Tampa Bay needed a replacement for Raheem Morris, who was fired earlier this month after the Buccaneers closed out a 4-12 season with a 10-game losing streak.

Schiano spent the past 11 seasons at Rutgers and posted a record of 68-67 at the New Jersey school. He turned around a Scarlet Knights program that had just one bowl appearance prior to his arrival into a perennial postseason contender.

Rutgers has been to bowl games in six of the past seven seasons, including a Pinstripe Bowl win over Iowa State in December that capped a 9-4 season. The Scarlet Knights have a record of 56-33 in the past seven years, with only one losing season in that span.

Schiano, who had been the longest-tenured head coach in the Big East, has minimal NFL experience. He was a defensive assistant with the Chicago Bears in 1996-97 and the club's defensive backfield coach in '98.

The 45-year-old New Jersey native was also an assistant at Penn State from 1991-95 and the defensive coordinator at Miami-Florida from 1999-2000 before taking over the moribund Rutgers program.

Things started slowly at Rutgers, as Schiano's first four teams won a combined 12 games. The 2005 squad went 7-5 and reached a bowl game, setting the stage for one of the program's best-ever seasons.

In 2006, led by future Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice, the Scarlet Knights went 11-2 and captured the school's first-ever bowl victory with a 37-10 triumph over Kansas State in the Texas Bowl. Rutgers finished 12th in the national rankings that season and Schiano was honored with numerous coach of the year honors.

Philadelphia, PA - The Giants and Patriots have played four times over the last 10 years with each team winning twice. However, New York came through with the victory in the most important of the four, taking Super Bowl XLII, 17-14.

That low-scoring contest has been indicative of most of their meetings as three of the four match-ups have gone under the total. In fact, the last time they met on Nov. 6, the two teams combined to score 44 points despite a a 51.5 posted total.

Tom Brady has had pretty decent numbers the last three contests against the Giants, averaging 321 yards per game with a 64-percent completion percentage and five touchdowns compared to two interceptions. Nevertheless, he has won just one of those games.

On the other side, Eli Manning has been extremely consistent, throwing for 250, 251 and 255 yards in the three meetings, completing 58 percent of his tosses, three of which fell into the hands of the Patriots defense. Despite those totals, he's thrown eight touchdown passes - three more than Brady.

Most of the recent Super Bowls have favored the under, including the previous match-up between these two clubs. In fact, only two of the last seven games went over the total and both of those contests involved the Steelers.

If the Giants win Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, they will have followed their own footsteps of winning three road playoff games and then the Super Bowl. Furthermore, another victory will mark the fourth time in the last seven years a wild-card representative has gone on and taken the big prize.

One thing is for certain, they will not be underestimating New England despite their recent success against coach Bill Belichick's squad. The Patriots are very capable of winning their first title since 2005 and, in fact, should be hungrier than New York since they have not won the Super Bowl in seven years.

On the other hand, the Giants beat New England this season with wide receiver Hakeem Nicks and running back Ahmad Bradshaw out of the lineup, and the addition of those two skilled players should keep this one close throughout.

Four years ago, I predicted a Giants' cover along with a possible upset in Super Bowl XLII. I am less confident about New York's chances of covering this time around, considering the line is only three points.

New England is a far better team than it showed last weekend against Baltimore, which has one of the better passing defenses in the NFL, and this time around, the Pats take on a defense that ranked 29th against the pass this season. Sure, the Giants have fared much better in this category during the postseason, but it's asking a lot to shut down Brady and his offensive arsenal after they played so poorly against Baltimore. Conversely, Manning has clearly reached "elite" status and New England's pass defense is just as bad as New York's, so this contest should be evenly matched.

St. Louis, MO - The St. Louis Rams have hired Gregg Williams as defensive coordinator and Brian Schottenheimer as offensive coordinator.

Coming off a rocky season with the New York Jets, Schottenheimer was reportedly picked over fired Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson.

Schottenheimer parted ways with New York two weeks ago following a season in which the offense ranked 25th in the NFL and failed to break the 20-point mark in each of the last three games.

Schottenheimer had been the offensive coordinator of the Jets since 2006.

"I am really excited to have Brian join our staff," Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said. "He is a well respected coach in this league who has had success for many years at a high level as an offensive coordinator. We share the same philosophies on the offensive side of the ball and I think he is a tremendous addition to our staff."

Williams was the defensive coordinator for the Saints for the past three seasons. In his first year in New Orleans, Williams helped guide the Saints to a Super Bowl title.

Fisher and Williams are close friends, working together in Tennessee for six seasons. During his time in Tennessee, Williams helped lead the Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV.

Metairie, LA- The New Orleans Saints have decided on Steve Spagnuolo as their next defensive coordinator, according to a report by FOX's Jay Glazer.

Spagnuolo spent the last three seasons as the head coach of the St. Louis Rams, but was fired on January 2 after completing a dismal 2-14 campaign.

He finished his brief tenure with a mark of 10-38. The Rams were 1-15 in his first year, then took a big step forward at 7-9 in 2010 before regressing this season.

This year's team was expected to contend in the NFC West, but started with six straight losses and never recovered. The Rams' lone wins came against New Orleans and Cleveland in a three-week span, and they finished the year with a seven-game losing streak.

He will replace Gregg Williams, who left New Orleans earlier this week to become the defensive coordinator of the Rams under new head coach Jeff Fisher.

Prior to becoming the Rams head coach, Spagnuolo spent two seasons as the New York Giants defensive coordinator, helping New York to a Super Bowl title after the 2007 season against the undefeated New England Patriots.

Foxboro, MA  - First, the win and a Super Bowl berth was knocked out of Lee Evans' hands. Then, Billy Cundiff pulled the Ravens' chance to tie the game wide left.

Baltimore couldn't capitalize on two good scoring chances in the final minute, and the New England Patriots held on for a 23-20 victory in Sunday's AFC Championship Game.

Tom Brady's diving touchdown on fourth down early in the fourth quarter was the decisive score, and helped the Patriots advance to Super Bowl XLVI against the New York Giants.

It will be a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, which the Patriots lost to Eli Manning and the Giants on a game-winning drive in the final minute. The Giants, who ended New England's perfect season that year, beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime later Sunday to win the NFC championship.

Baltimore was playing in its first conference championship since the 2008 season, when it lost to Pittsburgh. It hasn't advanced to the Super Bowl since winning XXXV to conclude the 2000 season, and Sunday's failure ensured the Ravens will head into the offseason stunned.

Baltimore players were already visibly shocked when Cundiff missed the 32- yarder with 11 seconds to play. Mouths agape, they seemed to be in disbelief that the offense couldn't cash in on such a sure thing.

"That's a tough kick," said Patriots tackle Vince Wilfork. "You just don't know what you're going to get in those situations."

In reality, while Cundiff's missed kick was the Ravens' last failure, it wasn't their only one. They had multiple chances to score after Brady dove head-first over the pile with 11:29 left in the game, giving the Patriots a 23-20 lead, but came up short each time.

San Francisco, CA - For the second time in five seasons, New York Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes got a chance to win the NFC Championship in overtime.

He's 2-for-2.

The extra minutes at Candlestick Park provided a crueler dose of deja vu for the San Francisco 49ers.

Tynes kicked a 31-yard field goal after the 49ers fumbled a punt in overtime, lifting the Giants to a 20-17 victory on Sunday and sending them to Super Bowl XLVI to face the New England Patriots.

"A classic football game," said Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who had seen a similar finish from the sideline before.

In 2008, Tynes kicked a 47-yarder in overtime to beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game and the Giants went on to down the Patriots in a memorable Super Bowl, ending New England's perfect season.

This time, the Giants were gifted a chance to kick the game-winner after 49ers return man Kyle Williams fumbled a punt deep in San Francisco territory when he was stripped by Jacquian Williams.

The ball was recovered by New York's Devin Thomas, his second such heads-up play of the game. In the fourth quarter, Thomas jumped on a ball that hit off Williams' knee in a muffed punt that led to a Giants touchdown.

"You hate to be the last guy to have the ball and give it up and lose the game that way," Williams said in the locker room. "But everyone in here has had my back and patted me on the shoulder and said it's not on me."

Eli Manning, who has played years his older brother's shadow, passed for 316 yards and two touchdowns and will get a chance to beat Tom Brady's Patriots yet again on February 5 in Indianapolis.

It won't just be a rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, but also of New York's 24-20 win over the Patriots on November 6 this past season -- New England's last loss before rattling off 10 straight wins up to Sunday.

"It feels great," Manning said after a tough game against the 49ers on a rain- soaked field. "We had to fight for every yard we got. They're a good team. Their defense is stout."

Tampa, FL. - SLRN can be loaded on IPhone by downloading ooTunes and select SLRN and you have it. However, if you have a androde phone

However, this is a trial and you will have to buy it at $3.99. We want as many people as possible to hear our shows. Soon there will be a auto radio with a FM-Internet on it.