TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Bemidji State football\u2019s co-defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator, Shevin Smith Jr., will have an opportunity to learn from an NFL team this spring.<\/p>\n
Smith has been selected to participate in the 2026 Tampa Bay Buccaneers National Coaching Academy held May 4-10, the team announced Tuesday. He is one of 25 coaches taking part in the coaching academy.<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers are where his dad, Shevin Smith Sr., played for two seasons (1998-1999) as a safety.<\/p>\n
“I am very appreciative to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization for giving me this opportunity to grow and learn within the halls of their facility,” Smith said in a release. “It will assuredly be a week of great development. I am very excited to learn not only more about football schematics, but more professional and leadership development tools as well. <\/p>\n
“It means just as much to me personally as it does professionally. My dad was drafted by the Buccaneers in the late 90s after starting out as a walk-on at Florida State. I also am grateful to represent Bemidji State University and Bemidji State football through this experience.”<\/p>\n
Smith has had an unconventional path to where he is today in football. He didn\u2019t play the sport until his senior year of high school before being recruited as a cornerback by Baylor. After his career with the Bears, Smith became a defensive intern for the Indianapolis Colts before getting an assistant job at Nebraska under head coach Matt Rhule from 2023 to 2024.<\/p>\n
Head coach Brent Bolte hired Smith for the coaching staff last season,<\/p>\n
as detailed by the Pioneer last year.<\/a><\/p>\n The Buccaneers Coaching Academy will allow coaches to take part in team meetings and on-field coaching sessions with the Buccaneers during rookie minicamp. There will also be sessions with Super Bowl Champion head coach Bruce Arians, Pro Football Hall of Famer Ronde Barber, current head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht, along with Hall of Famer Tony Dungy, who coached Smith\u2019s dad in his NFL career.<\/p>\n The academy was created by Buccaneers owner Joel Glazer and his family in 2024 to create pathways for coaches seeking the opportunity to work in the NFL.<\/p>\n Our newsroom sometimes reports stories under the byline “Pioneer Staff Report.” This byline is used when reporters rewrite basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as an email or press release that requires little or no reporting. <\/p>\n Other times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.<\/p>\n For questions about a staff report, call (218) 333-9796<\/a> or email news@bemidjipioneer.com.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Bemidji State football\u2019s co-defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator, Shevin Smith Jr., will have an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-251783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}