“Old School To The Bone”
August 28th, 2014
A Lovie Smith team leader paints a picture of the head coach being a throwback
Don’t think for a minute that Lovie Smith isn’t yearning to run the football.
Lovie bought all kinds of offensive toys this offseason and in the draft, but that wasn’t necessarily to break new ground under Jeff Tedford’s mysterious offense.
Starting center Evan Dietrich-Smith joined SiriusXM NFL radio and co-hosts Bill Polian and Vic Carucci on Tuesday night and was asked whether Lovie is looking to pound the rock and grind out the game on the ground.
Absolutely.
“He’s a very, very calm demeanor guy, but he is old school to the bone,” Dietrich-Smith said. “As far as football goes, you know he’s very old school about it. He believes in how the game should be played a certain way. He wants the game played a certain way. And I love playing for the guy. He treats us like men. He takes care of us, but at the end of the day he’s a very old school coach.
“He wants the defense to take the ball away, offense to protect the ball, run it and score points.”
Yes, folks, the “Buc Ball” Lovie references is very much about running the football. Think Father Dungy in Tampa.
Dietrich-Smith later called Jeff Tedford very innovative and a fascinating football mind to chat with about the game
But will Tedford be let loose, assuming he returns from his recent medical procedure?
Joe suspects Tedford will have plenty of freedom, even if his head coach has a conservative approach. Lovie gave his four offensive coordinators in Chicago (in nine seasons) plenty of independence.
August 28th, 2014 at 9:10 am
I think they will start conservative, but as teams get tape on the Bucs, Lovie will have to open things up a bit, just to change things up. By then, he’ll trust his staff and players.
So long as the team averages 24 points per game, we can go all the way with defense.
August 28th, 2014 at 9:14 am
You can look for yourself and find out what surgery procedure Tedford had to get done. It’s been reported. It wasn’t minor and I don’t believe it was elective. I wish Him all the best and a speedy recovery.
August 28th, 2014 at 9:24 am
We heard the same thing about Schiano didn’t we?
August 28th, 2014 at 9:37 am
David Garrard is back to full health. Interesting. Not starting quality, but might be a better backup than Mike Glennon.
Yep…that should get things rolling 😉
August 28th, 2014 at 9:43 am
Stanglassman Says
“You can look for yourself and find out what surgery procedure Tedford had to get done. It’s been reported.”
I have looked and all I could find was a one word comment that said “stents”. If you could direct me to any of these reports, I would be grateful.
August 28th, 2014 at 9:44 am
I think the draft is a bit more telling. When you use all of your draft picks on offensive weapons, that should say something right there…
August 28th, 2014 at 9:46 am
Its a winning formula.
Which will be a refreshing change.
August 28th, 2014 at 9:49 am
@ShutTheBucUp
It could mean Lovie was over compensating for his past lack of success with offense.
I think drafting Sims was a stretch. An OL guy would have been a smarter move. Either way, it is still offense though.
August 28th, 2014 at 9:49 am
Let’s hope the Mike Shula era is not reborn as well along with Father Dungy era
August 28th, 2014 at 9:51 am
this i what I found searching….. radical parotidectomy
August 28th, 2014 at 9:53 am
At least Tedford won’t be Deadford
August 28th, 2014 at 9:53 am
I am of the mind that Tedford will be conservative until he has full confidence in the OL. Once they gel and come together it will be very easy to go up-tempo and creative because you have the horses up front to block.
As the season goes so will the growth of the Playbook and Offense confidence. Tampa is a very scary team!
August 28th, 2014 at 10:04 am
Old school is fine as far as principles go but the NFL is constantly evolving.
I hope Lovie understands the Bears fired him for the same reason the Glazers fired Dungy. He needs to let Tedford call the plays.
August 28th, 2014 at 10:13 am
I think Smashmouth football when I think leading with the run and Coach Tedford is a huge fan of the run game, though it goes unmentioned he produced a lot of RB talent in his time at Cal. I think our draft approach was spot on, we needed offensive help badly at the skill spots, and I’m not going with the hindsight mentality of drafting an OG instead of Sims, because said OG could’ve came in wet the bed and there goes that pick. Our interior line has been a problem since Nicks went down in 2012, and I’m not about to start actin like an entirely new regime is fully responsible for mending that after rehashing 70-80% of the entire roster upon their arrival.
August 28th, 2014 at 10:14 am
Lets all remember, Matt forte was drafted by lovie and was solid right away. Lovie is a terrific coach. Doug Martin has that type of ability. I look for Martin to be very good this year. Too bad sims got hurt. Would be very interesting to see how lovie would use him.
August 28th, 2014 at 10:17 am
@biff
Let’s also remember dungy was a better coach after leaving tampa. Won a Super Bowl. Talent at quarterback helps. Dungy had guys like differ and king and still went deep into the playoffs. When he got to Indy with Peyton there was a huge difference. I believe the bears made a mistake firing lovie.
August 28th, 2014 at 10:28 am
As long as Lovie doesn’t try to influence Tedford with a run-count quota or something ridiculous like that the offense will be fine. I noticed after we ran the ball a ton in the first half of one of this year’s preseason games Lovie made a comment about that’s what he wanted. I took it as a public statement to Tedford that he expected him to have a quota for the minimum number of runs Lovie wanted to see in a game. That crap won’t fly.
August 28th, 2014 at 10:43 am
“That crap won’t fly.” …..unless you’re at the monkey exhibit at Lowry park Zoo!
August 28th, 2014 at 10:46 am
I don’t care if we run 80% of the time or throw 80% of the time, just so long as our points are more than the opponents when that final whistle blows!!
August 28th, 2014 at 11:27 am
I agree with a lot of the comments above, especially with Bonzai. As in (especially) the 2002 Season, we saw Brad Johnson and our offense “Progress” during the course of the season; and as was the “norm”, we came to expect the Defense (during that whole era!) to actually take the ball away and score! “If” the Bucs can average anywhere close to 24 points a game, I believe that most everything else will fall into place and the Bucs will make a run for the Big Dance.
With regard to Lovie Smith being “Dungy-ish” and not being able to take the team on that last step to winning Championship Games; I hope “You’re/We’re” wrong! I keep thinking that maybe the year in the basement watching the films and analyzing what went wrong (with Tedford and others) was the cure for that problem. No matter, this season will prove to be awfully interesting and hopefully exciting!
‘
August 28th, 2014 at 11:43 am
Lovie came into this situation which was a MESS in many ways.
Methodically he has addressed this mess with very good results so far.
The Glazers did well to bring someone in to clean up the mess and I believe they picked the right person.
The moves so far have been very good within the constraints of contracts, trades and personnel. Its all a balancing act with a very fine line.
I think this year will be a monsterous upgrade from the last few years of CHAOS and I am really looking forward to next year after seeing what has been done so far.
This could become a dynasty
August 28th, 2014 at 12:19 pm
Philly, Seattle, San Fran Cisco, NY Jets, Baltimore, Cincy, Carolina, and some others also play smash mouth football. And Lovie does not play the Tampa-2 but if it makes some feel better, then so be it. Plus, the Tampa media better stop pushing Lovie or he’ll shut down and the team as well. All you will get from players is: ask Lovie and all you’ll get from Lovie is “blank is our player” and a blank stare. Then you really would have some slow news days
August 28th, 2014 at 12:43 pm
Joe
Stents are usually put in because an artery to the heart is blocked. I know of many people that have it done and are back on their feet in a few days, out of the hospital. Because he runs around a lot on the practice field, I am guessing that he is taking it easy there.
As for the offensive play, let’s see the last two games, VJax had one, Evens should of had two, Martin almost had one, and Demps should of had one (it hit his hands in the end zone), these of course are TDs by passing. I am not counting the cut players either. So we have five that should have been in three quarters? And we are considered a running team? I didn’t know that medical pot was here yet to ease the minds of these running advocates. Sure we will run and score, but with the receivers we have, we are going to do some serious bombing.
August 28th, 2014 at 12:48 pm
My concern is how long will Tedford be out from this medical procedure? And how is his overall health?
Especially now that we just brought in Mankins, and possibly will have another new starter at the other guard position… New regime, new offense, so many new players.
We need Tedford back asap to help get everyone on the same page.
August 28th, 2014 at 1:31 pm
On cbssports.com the writer Prisco has our Bucs losing games with the opponents scoring 30 plus points. WTF is that all about? Disrespected