Lovie “Excited” About Holliday
October 23rd, 2014
Is Holliday signing a tell on the running backs battle?
It’s hard for Joe to excited over a returner who wasn’t re-signed by his own team as a restricted free agent, blew a hamstring this summer, and then sat unclaimed on the street for the past two weeks. But that doesn’t mean Bucs coach Lovie Smith isn’t excited.
The overlord of football operations with the Bucs is about as even-keeled as you get. Still, despite his Tom Landry-like demeanor, Lovie claims he is geeked — as only he can be geeked — about the addition of kick returner Trindon Holliday.
“Very [excited],” Lovie said. “Again, he has a track record. Great quickness and speed – legitimate speed, too. So we put guys that have been blocking – guys are normally pretty excited knowing that if they can just kind of get in front of their man a little bit and give him an opportunity, we could do something. We’re trying to score points any way we can. We haven’t gotten enough out of our return game up to this point.”
Holliday was looking for work, despite holding the mark for most kickoff touchdown returns by a a current player (four), because, at times, it seemed like he didn’t like the ball in his hands. Fumbling was a major reason he was walking the streets. Lovie is looking at the glass half-full.
“I kind of look to the returns he’s had for touchdowns,” Lovie said. “We just feel like, as I said before a few times now, that we think he can give us something that we haven’t had. He’s out there and he wasn’t on another team, so somebody didn’t like something about him, but we like him enough right now to give him an opportunity. We think we can be more productive in the punt return game and return game in general. We feel comfortable giving him a shot to do that.
“Speed helps quite a bit. Speed helps with any position we’re talking about. But it’s just not speed: quickness, he can make you miss in the open field. So it’s all those things. We feel comfortable [with] him catching the football, and then from there, he’s a tough guy to tackle in the open field. And if he hits a crease, very few guys can catch him. I think that’s a good start.”
Now this is interesting to Joe. Lovie is very much a turnover guy meaning he loathes turnovers but he is all about takeaways. And, yes, unless you have a rotten offense (see 2013 Bucs) if you win the turnover margin, you win games.
In other words, Lovie doesn’t like giving the ball away. So if he is willing to look the other way on turnovers perhaps grasping at straws for wins, maybe Lovie will be ordering Marcus Arroyo to feed the ball to Bobby Rainey, who has a fumbling issue, more than Doug Martin, who protects the ball?
Bucs fans scream that the offensive line is why Martin can no long run effectively but if that is true, then why is Rainey averaging nearly double the yards per carry of Martin running behind that same line?
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:48 am
The season is over but I’ve been a fan of holliday since LSU nice pick up
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:49 am
Why not. Give it a shot.
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:54 am
This joint is bugged with Astromedia pop ups…..spent 45 minutes with Norton yesterday….today I can surf all over the Web…without seeing them…until I hit this page
October 23rd, 2014 at 9:54 am
I don’t think he’ll get much of a shot to return punts that’s where his fumbles came from because we can’t stop nobody but he should get a lot of work returning kickoffs the way we’ve been known to give up touchdowns
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:08 am
Lovie’s very excited. That’s great news. Ya know in the offseason they said stuff like “we don’t expect the fans to be patient”.
They cared about us fans so much in the off season. Yet after the Ravens game, did anyone on this team come out and say the fans deserve better than this?
Lovie’s very excited. That’s great news. Hey Lovie there is not one Buc fan out there right now that’s excited as you are. Your excitement talk to me is like slapping me in the face after the way your team, that you assembled played against the Ravens . I want you to be depressed as hell like I am about this season.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:09 am
Yes people I’m starting to turn negative again day by day….
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:19 am
The entire engine won’t run and their answer is to change 1 spark plug
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:24 am
He was excited about Demps too, look how that turned out. Based on our luck I see him fumbling the first time he gets his hands on the ball and Lovie cuts him next week in favor or….dun dun dun….Eric Page. Or not lol.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:25 am
1987…. I’ll call your negativity, and raise you two distinct positives. The Bucs are due for a win and it could be worse.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:29 am
WTH – so you couldn’t find a way to put packages in for Demps but you go get a turnover probe player with the same issues?
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:38 am
What is the over/under this Sunday for how many minutes in to the game until TV channels are switched away from the game or illegal internet feeds are closed?
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:47 am
The same Lovie will pump you up in the media and denounce you without even trying to exploit your strengths.
There are ways to use utility players and they don’t have to have great hands. At the very least you keep them and develop the same way we are being force to be patient with this sorry team.
October 23rd, 2014 at 10:52 am
@scotty
If the games were only 5 mins long we’d be 6-0.
@87
Did you see yesterday’s PC? Lovie wasn’t excited when they asked him about the PED suspensions. He said they were (fully) aware of what they put in their bodies and chose to do it anyway. I call BS on that. As the report was trying to ask Lovie how 2 players could take a banned substance with a full medical staff and trainers available. Lovie cuts him off and basically said “we educated them but they decided to do it anyway” doubtful at best. Losing a lot of respect for Lovie each day that passes.
October 23rd, 2014 at 11:00 am
Ya want know what will soothe my negative talk? A blowout win over the Vikes.
No close win, battle to the end. Blow them out and I’ll shut up.
I don’t expect that to happen though. I’ll take an ugly win at this point. They need to come out and blow this team out of the water to get some of us fans excited again.
We deserve a blow out by this Bucs team, the way they’ve been playing.
October 23rd, 2014 at 11:53 am
“Bucs fans scream that the offensive line is why Martin can no long run effectively but if that is true, then why is Rainey averaging nearly double the yards per carry of Martin running behind that same line?” – Joe
Easy explanation there. The offensive line isn’t opening lanes for Rainey either. Watch the tape. Rainey makes contact almost immediately when he runs.
He gets a lot of yards AFTER contact because of his elusiveness.
Martin is more of a power runner who needs lanes. If he gets a lane, he’s explode. Once he gets rolling he is hard to tackle.
Rainey uses twists and turns to get yards, and speed. Different types of backs.
The offensive line still sucks. Rainey will be lucky to reach 800-900 yards during any season. Give Martin a good oline, and he’ll reach 1500 yards.
October 23rd, 2014 at 12:03 pm
Martin gets through some holes…then he always seems to fall down on his own, without being tackled. Someone explain that one to me if he’s so great?
In fact I’ve seen quite a few Buc players slip and fall without being tackled this season. WTH is that all about anyways? I know the rest of you have seen it too.
Why do they keep falling down all the time? Tanking it?
October 23rd, 2014 at 12:50 pm
i like 87…….
bout time some people start calling a spade a spade.
lovie smiling and excited just makes me wanna hurl. no win this weekend=canceling dish netwrok and switching to the dolphins for this long time bucs fan.
Sunday my wife (a jets fan) had a great day with our daughter (a dolphins fan, but she’s only 5) were mentioning what a great Sunday it was…not having to watch our two POS teams get smacked around while missing out on beautiful S. FL beach time.
lovie, we got better things to do with our Sundays. win or suck it.
October 23rd, 2014 at 2:19 pm
I wish all the people that say they are jumping ship would just do it, so they can stop talking about it on very post. Just saying.
October 23rd, 2014 at 2:41 pm
Let Eric Page come up and return punts, Eric Pages punt return average is almost 2 1/2 yards more per punt than Holidays and he had more punt returns over 20 yards than Holiday. The big stat is Eric Page don’t fumble like Holiday does. You have several receivers barely contributing let somebody else have a chance, it worked out for Murphy.
October 23rd, 2014 at 3:20 pm
Eric page don’t score neither do what’s ur point?
October 23rd, 2014 at 4:03 pm
he has more returns for more than 20 yards than holiday
October 23rd, 2014 at 8:19 pm
Lovie said he brought Page back because he needed players with hands and can catch the ball. He didn’t do a bad job at either return job. Most of the time he didn’t have anyone blocking because “we tried to go for the block punt” Schino said in a press conference. Give Page a legit chance not just three times like in the first preseason game. Even if the Bucs do win what does that say when your facing a team that is 2-5?