Bennett Picks Standout, Says Young Wasn’t Ready
January 21st, 2013
Joe chatted with former successful Falcons head coach and not-so-successful Bucs head coach Leeman Bennett yesterday and asked him to go out on a limb and pick standouts from the East-West Shrine practices and game last week. Bennett coached the West squad.
Linebacker Keith Pough (6-2, 241) was the only name Bennett spit out. He said Pough is a complete, physical player who quickly showed he was a leader on the field and in the locker room.
Pough is projected to be a strong-side linebacker in the NFL but not a first- or second-round pick, likely because he played college ball for Howard University in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference against the likes of Morgan State, Savannah State and Delaware State.
Joe also learned that Pough seems to have the makings of the proverbial “Buccaneer Man.” He was a two-year captain at Howard and is the son of a high school football coach. He also was shorter in high school, a late physical bloomer, which factored into his college options.
Perhaps Pough could be a replacement for Quincy Black?
Bennett also weighed in on Steve Young’s days with the Bucs and the team’s decision to get rid of Young. Bennett said Young was not ready to be a professional quarterback and pointed to Young’s early days in San Francisco as evidence that he needed more time to mature.
Of course, Young was dreadful leading the ’86 Bucs to a 2-14 record, and talent in San Francisco was a massive upgrade.
January 21st, 2013 at 10:42 am
Hmm, so the Bucs gave up on a talented QB too early…
Surely we wouldn’t do that again.
January 21st, 2013 at 11:23 am
It’s a win now mentality that has fans inpatient. Plus, with the young QB that have hit the league running doesn’t help. Some QBs just was put in the right situation at the right time and they do well. Mark Sanchez was lucky to be in the situation he was in, but look at him now.
January 21st, 2013 at 1:10 pm
I think its safe and fair to say that Young was helped tremendously by having Bill walsh as a coach and playing behind (IMO) the greatest QB of all time in Joe Montana. Without those two people, Steve Young could of very well be a nobody today. Everybody has 20/20 hind sight. Bottom line though was that when he was here, he was not very good. Kind of like another QB we have now.
January 21st, 2013 at 1:44 pm
Young only had two seasons,
Free’s going on his fifth lol
Yea…
January 21st, 2013 at 1:45 pm
If we are going to compare the shot they were given here…
January 21st, 2013 at 2:05 pm
I was in 8th grade and had to write a letter to a business for an assignment. I wrote to the Buccaneers begging them to keep Young and not draft Testaverde. And thus began my life of making far better personnel decisions than the Bucs.
If they had kept Young, however, I seriously doubt it would have been a mutually beneficial relationship. Young needed solid coaching, something the Bucs didn’t even come close to having until Wyche came on the scene. I am still 100% sure that Young would have been far better than Testaverde ever was and if we had used that #1 overall pick we used on Vinny to trade down and stockpile talent, we COULD have actually had better talent around Young. Other than James Wilder, Paul Gruber, and a few splash seasons by Carrier and company, the mid-to-late 80’s Bucs had very little talent on offense.