“Never Seen A Disciplinarian Like This”
August 6th, 2012Yesterday afternoon, longtime beat writer Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune popped in “The Todd and Booger Show,” co-hosted by Todd Wright and Booger McFarland, heard locally on WHFS-FM 98.7.
McFarland spoke about how he played for a strong disciplinarian coach under Father Dungy and asked Cummings what his perspective was about how new Bucs coach Greg Schiano was running the ship.
Cummings minced no words.
“I have never seen a disciplinarian like this,” Cummings said of Schiano. “Tony Dungy was very structured in the way he ran a practice and a training camp. Jon Gruden had his way in how he ran a training camp, Raheem Morris was something different than those two. But I have never seen anything quite like this — extremely disciplined.
“You know, there are no benches out there at training camp. There are no places to sit down at training camp and that is by design. That may give you an idea. That’s more of a college-type ploy. The whole goal is you are out here for maybe two hours and 45 minutes in the heat practicing and you want these guys to be ready and that is part of his discipline. It’s not just the stuff about the toes on the line and things like that, but it’s about the fundamentals of the game, which he is really adamant about. Booger, it is amazing. They are doing some of the most basic things.”
Joe has noticed that, too. The biggest thing is how offensive players — not just running backs — are constantly biting the football.
Joe has also seen Schiano, after the offense put the ball on the ground a couple of times, blow the whistle and have the entire team gather around him for what is either a tongue-lashing or a lecture about the value of taking care of the ball.
Joe has seen drills he has never seen before, and one tackling drill that Joe remembers doing in high school, which is to foster would-be tacklers to wrap-up. instinctively.
Little things add up to big things and Joe hopes the results can be seen in a few weeks on NFL Sundays.
Schiano is nothing if not detailed.
August 6th, 2012 at 8:17 am
Guess he watched film of last years games a practices….
August 6th, 2012 at 8:34 am
I’ve never seen a team that needed as much Discipline
August 6th, 2012 at 8:49 am
I sincerely hope his methods work, because if it doesn’t, the coach will become the focus of the media instead of the team and that would not be a good thing.
August 6th, 2012 at 10:13 am
What misery it will be for the local hacks if the Bucs are even the slightest bit successful.
August 6th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Until proven otherwise, this team was BEGGING for discipline
August 6th, 2012 at 11:45 am
Lack of discipline leads to quitting when things go wrong. There’s no established habits/training to fall back on. Soldiers always talk about just relying on their training when the heat of battle freaks them out. This discipline will go a long ways towards keeping order when things get tough.
August 6th, 2012 at 1:24 pm
Belechick is a disciplinarian too. Seems to work for him……
August 6th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Ray Perkins was a disciplinarian and the stupidest man alive. I just don’t see a connection between discipline and success. I do see a definite connection between discipline and stubbornness. I see stubbornness usually leads to abject failure.
August 6th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
@MG:
If you are unable to see the correlation between discipline and success, it might be YOU who’s the stupidest man alive.
Talk about abject failure!
August 6th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
“Little Mikey”,
Get off the anti-Perkins schtick already. Ray Perkins was the offensive coordinator for Air Coryell. He turned around the losing culture of the Giants as its Head Coach, mentored Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick (both destined for the Hall of Fame), and drafted Lawrence Taylor (already in the Hall as the best defensive player ever) among others.
From a Sports Illustrated article in 1983:
At his desk, Perkins sifts through telegrams of encouragement. Seven are from New York Giants players. When he first took over the Giants, Perkins remembers, some players said he was a “martinet.” They were also quoted as saying he “drives you too hard” and “gives you no sense of security.” One said he was “a heartless leader in a heartless business.” When the Giants went to the playoffs for the first time in 18 years in 1981, they said other things, that he had “taught us a work ethic” and “whipped us into shape” and “brought us national respect.”
Oh, and he was asked by Bear Bryant to take over coaching for him at Alabama.
Are you going to call Bear Bryant the stupidest now?
The guy knows football.
The problems at Tampa did not stem from Ray Perkins. Try looking at the owner at the time. And the mirror for impatient fans expecting a miracle with a wave of a hand and no effort involved.
August 6th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Miguel Grande Says:
August 6th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Ray Perkins was a disciplinarian and the stupidest man alive. I just don’t see a connection between discipline and success. I do see a definite connection between discipline and stubbornness. I see stubbornness usually leads to abject failure.
.
Perkins was hired by ownership who wanted to save money more than have success. Schiano is a completely different case.
We’ve seen coach after coach pointed at as being the next Billichek, but most of them came from Bill’s coaching tree. Schiano knows him, but is mostly self developed.
Does this mean success for Schiano. Maybe not. But failure is not assured either.
I find myself wondering how any person could enjoy football when they are always negative.
August 6th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Hugh Culverhouse couldn’t pry Bear Bryant from Alabama, Ray Perkins was his Bear Bryant. John McKay was hired on the recommendation of Coach Bryant.
Isn’t it ironic that Ray Perkins is part of the Belicheat tree that you speak so highly of.
I enjoy the intrigues and complexities of football, when the coaches, players, front office and or GM make stupid moves, I just can’t help but noticing out loud.
August 6th, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Ray Perkins used the #1 overall pick in the NFL to select Vinny Testaverde, a color blind QB with an incredibly low Wonderlic, who could not discern the difference between the creamsicle orange uniforms from the opposing white jersies.
“Vinny Testaverde’s ’88 campaign has to be arguably the worst season for a quarterback in NFL history. In 15 games Testaverde threw 35 interceptions. 35. That’s the second most in NFL history. Tack on another 8 fumbles and Vinny turned the ball over a total of 43 times that season. It comes out to roughly three turnovers per game by Testaverde alone. BIG. If there were an award given out to the player who contributes the most to an opposing team’s success Vinny Testaverde would have unanimously won this award. Think about it. If you were an opposing team playing against the Bucs in 1988, you could pretty much count of Vinny making more plays to help your team win than his own. The dude had a 7.5% interception ratio (that’s just sickening). In any case, Vinny and the Bucs somehow managed to win 5 games that season. Here is Vinny’s entire stat line for the 1988 season: 3,240 yards on 43% completion percentage, 13 touchdowns, 35 INTERCEPTIONS and a league worst 48.8 passer rating (ouch ouch).”
The first move Perkns made as the Buc’s HC was to switch sides of the field with the visiting teams so that the Bucs would stand facing the relentless sun and the visitors could stand in the shade. He didn’t want the teams to crisscross on the way to their locker rooms and shake hands. He felt that his failures were based on his teams passing secrets about his genius game plan to the opponents.
His Baltimore Colt team mates coined him the stupidest man alive. He thought that he was a football genius but he also thought he was a poker genius. They would fight for the opportunity to relieve him of his paycheck every week in a poker game.
Ray Perkins had memorized a play for every down and distance, according to the position on the field. Defensive coordinators who were lucky enough to face him had a book on his tendencies.