A threat of lightning from an approaching storm forced the Bucs to cut practice short roughly 20 minutes. It was Alumni Day for former Bucs players, dozens of which were on hand. As the team scrambled off the field, most of the alumni then left, which Greg Schiano later confessed disappointed him. He had looked forward to slapping flesh and shooting the breeze with the former Bucs in attendance.

* Greg Schiano loves his bullhorn. Even without piped in crowd noise he used the bullhorn early in practice.

* Outside of the snap of blocking sleds early, the sound that punctures the muggy morning is the encouraging, loud voice of P.J. Fleck. “Good job Sammie!”

* Josh Freeman sure looked crisp throwing balls over the middle.

* There’s a lotta hollering going on at lineman drills.

* LeGarrette Blount runs for a nice gain up the one-hole. Next play, he runs up two-hole, finds traffic and spins right for a good gain. Blount was running too well in fact as Schiano barked at the defense to “attack the ball.”

* Muscle Hamster runs through a massive hole on the left side. But a similar hole later was not to be found when linebacker Daniel Te’o-Nesheim shot the gap and dropped Martin for a loss.

* Not sure why but after a group meeting Schiano bellows “Get off the snap” and then throws a towel as he walks off the practice field. With a sloppy start to practice, Schiano is not having a good morning.

* Linebacker Jacob Cutrera levels running back Robert Hughes for a loss. But Hughes turned the tables on the defense on the next play as he dodged a few tackles for a big gain.

* Schiano wasn’t all fire and brimstone. After one play, though Joe doesn’t know who Schiano was speaking towards, he yelled for all to hear, “Great job, great job!”

* Schiano is big on dealing with the heat and not succumbing to fatique. He encouraged the offense, “Hands off your hips men!”

* Blount tries to bounce outside to the right when holes don’t open up and is corralled by Quincy Black.

* Watching Frank Okam try to chase down Michael Smith springs to mind Dick Vitale. “It’s an M&Mer, baby!”

* Smith later shows good patience in waiting for a hole to develop, and runs for a good gain.

* Halfway through practice, there is an Arrelious Benn sighting. He had pants on, but not shoulder pads, and was wearing a practice jersey.

* Freeman rifles a pass over the middle perfectly to Vincent Jackson who beat Ahmad Black.

* Tiquan Underwood spins around Anthony Gaitor for a catch along the right sideline.

* More strip drills.

* Freeman hits Dallas Clark right between the numbers on the left sideline. Clark hauled in the pass just ahead of a charging Ronde Barber. Joe is not sure if he has ever seen Freeman throw with such precision for a full practice. He has been razor sharp all morning.

* Donald Penn is jogging around the practice field.

* Mason Foster swallows up LeGarrette Blount for a loss.

* Mossis Madu gathers in a Freeman pass in the left flat and scores.