It’s All About Trust
June 12th, 2014
Bucs DT Gerald McCoy said the entire organization is allowed to breathe under the Lovie Smith administration
Despite the fact the New Schiano Order balloon was punctured in January, the gas from that era still permeates One Buc Palace. The memories, that is.
For players who survived the New Schiano Order and remain Buccaneers, the days of barking “Toes on the line” orders are still in their heads. Bucs running back Doug Martin even quipped, “We don’t like to talk about last year.”
Players, as noted by Gerald McCoy, enjoy their head coach Lovie Smith. “It has been a while, I can honestly say, since you have seen guys smile and have this much fun,” GMC said.
That is not to say the Bucs are not working. And that’s not to say Lovie doesn’t have standards. Woe be it to the player who has a mattress in his front yard. GMC explained the difference, other that the decibels of on-field commands. In short, it’s all about trust.
Practices are “just as tough as last year,” GMC said. “It’s just different. Completely different. We are professionals. Trust us to be.”
For players, that pretty much sums up their experiences of the New Schiano Order. It seems, coming from the players, that Schiano didn’t trust them as a group. Now whether this was Schiano’s way of weeding out the bad eggs, that could be a different story. If that was Schiano’s goal, then he may have turned off far more good players than he found malcontents.
GMC noted the ways of the past haven’t adjusted his personality one bit.
“[Schiano] didn’t change me at all,” GMC said. “You aren’t going to change me, regardless. That’s me. You are never going to see me not smile. That’s me. We were a tight-knit group last year. That’s why we got through that circus. However, this group is really tight-knit and we are having a lot of fun. I mean throughout the whole building. There is a whole different feel around the whole building.”
June 12th, 2014 at 10:05 am
The 2011 Buc’s roster had alot of fun, There was a lot of smiles then as well. even when they quit and were losing.
June 12th, 2014 at 10:25 am
Schiano’s college mentality thought he could mold men into professionals, but Lovie simply expects you to be a professional or get off the team
June 12th, 2014 at 10:27 am
Thanks realist I was going down that road as well.
June 12th, 2014 at 10:31 am
@ BFFL
in fairness to Schiano he basically inherited a college football team after Rah was done with the squad. Glazer’s knew Schiano could come in and clean up most of the mess and they are confident Lovie can come in and use his NFL experience to win with the core Schiano left him with. Seems sound
June 12th, 2014 at 10:41 am
@BFFL – EXACTLY!
No barking is needed to talk to person/player. You treat them like an adult and don’t allow anything less from them. If you do allow them to disrespect you ala Raheem Morris you become a “door mat.”
June 12th, 2014 at 10:41 am
Again a plug for Phil Jackson’s latest book….11 Rings.
If you want to see how the winningest coach in NBA history managed some of the most massive egos in NBA history…Jordan, Rodman, Shaq, Kobe, Artest
This is a must read. It’s great for basketball fans but honestly I got more from Jackson’s Zen teachings for my personal use than anything I took away about basketball.
Just a great book! Especially if you are interested in leadership and what it takes to get peak performances from super talented super egotistical athletes.
This should be a MUST READ for Schiano.
@Toes
I pretty much agree with your assessment. Schiano was brought in to clean up the mess…and remember before we lay all of this at Rah’s feet that Gruden/Allen left the team in a total mess.
The “Rockstar” arrived just in time to learn the Glazers had leveraged their lives to purchase Man U and gave Rah and Dom little to work with.
The Bucs disaster was truly a “team effort” and it starts at the top with the Glazers. Then toss in Gruden/Allen Dom/Rah and finally the need to bring Schiano in to clean up some of this mess.
June 12th, 2014 at 10:46 am
@ToesInTheLine
Lovie’s way would have work just fine with Schiano’s team. A lot of player would have been cut as well…
June 12th, 2014 at 10:47 am
Lovie does not need drama. Either you are in or you are out…
June 12th, 2014 at 10:51 am
@ToesInTheLine – I meant to say Morris’s team
June 12th, 2014 at 10:55 am
Lovie, Dungy, Frasier……they can relate to them
and they earned respect long ago, like em or not
June 12th, 2014 at 10:58 am
“It seems, coming from the players, that Schiano didn’t trust them as a group.” – Joe
I don’t think that is it at all. I think the Glazers brought him in the be a heavy-handed disciplinarian, and Schiano played the role he was asked to.
Players will always say those things about tough coaches. Coughlin, Bilacheat, etc. Schiano may not have had much success during games, but I think he turned the team around so far as player discipline.
They behave now, as a group, because they now know what could happen if they don’t.
June 12th, 2014 at 11:01 am
As far as not wanting to talk about last year, that probably has more to do with it being a year where everything went wrong. MRSA, Freeman, lies the media perpetrated, the first game of the season being an embarrassment, etc.
As I recall, there were several instances where players said the things being reported were not true, that Schiano was being targeted unfairly.
June 12th, 2014 at 11:03 am
would have loved to see Schiano and jfro throw down.
Schiano would have hurt that chump.
June 12th, 2014 at 11:40 am
would have loved to see Lovie coached Freeman. Freeman either develops to be the franchise QB or he would have been released. With Lovie there would have been a chance for Freeman to grow up.
Freeman and Schiano combination was a disaster waiting to happen. Those two personalities are like oil and water…
June 12th, 2014 at 11:43 am
The damage is done with Freeman. Party and $ rules his decisions at this moment…
June 12th, 2014 at 11:52 am
Circus is a good description of last season. I knew Gregory was a clown the moment he told the press he knew the rules better than the refs after the 2012 Saints game, only to have the NFL correct him.
June 12th, 2014 at 11:55 am
Big companies do that too. I had it happen twice at two big companies. They bring in a tough guy who then goes to cleaning up and getting rid of the people who aren’t pulling their weight and he’s usually an arse to work for. He then gets fired or asked to resign. With upper management saying “We didn’t know he was that way:. yeahrightsure
June 12th, 2014 at 12:14 pm
Joe says
“It seems, coming from the players, that Schiano didn’t trust them as a group.”
You know who did not trust the players? The Glazers. That is why they told Schiano to clean up the locker room before he was hired and made is a mandate.
June 12th, 2014 at 12:27 pm
Gregory was a panic hire when Chip Kelly backed out at the last minute.
And circus is a good description of his regime by GMC. I could tell Gregory was a clown after he claimed he knew the rules better than the refs after the home game against the Saints in 2012.
June 12th, 2014 at 2:47 pm
@BoJim
I was that guy, when I left active duty I was hired by Dynacorp as an Ax-man. I fired a whole department my 3rd day, 12 people gone, hired a new crew, new sys-admins, dba’s, programmers. Left Dynacorp when CSC bought us out, went from stock-options as a Xmas bonus to a tee-shirt, thats when I knew it was time to leave.