Lovie Says DE Is Gholston’s Job Now
October 6th, 2015
Lovie Smith details Will Gholston’s new status. (Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
Damn that former Bucs rockstar general manager Mark Dominik.
His late fourth-round pick of 2013, Will Gholston is now the apple of Lovie Smith’s eye, so Lovie explained last night.
No Buccaneer plays harder than Gholston, Lovie said on the Buccaneers Radio Network.
Gargantuan Gholston (6-6, 280 pounds), was transitioned full-time to defensive tackle through training camp. He was a guy considered only to be a defensive end in a pinch, but now he’s the starter there. Lovie said the move to start Gholston in place of George Johnson against the Panthers was long term.
Lovie said Gholston played “winning football” against Carolina and earned his new job before Sunday’s game.
“Played the run well. He’s a tough matchup when he’s over a tight end. You know, he’s going to win most of those,” Lovie said of Gholston. “It’s hard for a tight end to block him in the run game. We’d like for him to be aligned to a tight end the majority of the time.
“But it’s more than just playing the run. He did a good job with the pass, also. No one plays harder than Will. You saw him running down, pursuing, trying to make plays, too. Good start for him.
“And I made this statement that since I got here last year, no player has made more improvement than Will Gholston has. It’s good to see him earn a starting spot and play that well.”
Lovie went on to stay the Bucs will try to keep Gholston in his primary new role since he’s a starting defensive end. Lovie added Gholston plays the pass just as well as he plays the run.
Joe’s glad to hear of Gholston’s continued development. Remember, Gholston, 24, took over as starting left defensive end last season after Adrian Clayborn was injured. After nine starts, Gholston then lost his job to Jacquies Smith, and then the Bucs pushed him to defensive tackle. And now he’s back at DE.
Gholston batted down a Cam Newton pass early in Sunday’s game. He also leads all Bucs defensive ends in combined tackles with 14 (eight solo and six assists).
October 6th, 2015 at 8:54 am
Thrilled to see another Incompetent Lovie Smith FA in the great George Johnson riding the pine for our 5th and a cool $3mil/yr. Didn’t Dominik draft Gholston?
October 6th, 2015 at 8:57 am
Isn’t Adrian Clayborn starting for Dan Quinn’s 4-0 Falcons? But hey, we have the great George Johnson keeping the bench warm for a cool $3mil. Hat tip Lovie!
October 6th, 2015 at 9:00 am
Funny how the best players on this team are the ones Schiano brought in, I think We made a mistake firing him, all that nonsense about the line stunts to get more pressure, seems to me it was the right call cuz the dline couldn’t sack my grandma right now. Who knows where we would be right now if Schiano was still here. My gut tells me we would be playing much much better sound fundamental football and probably tied for the division lead. And sorry but Glennon is a better quarterback right now than Winston is. Simple as that.
October 6th, 2015 at 9:04 am
Hey some good news!
October 6th, 2015 at 9:07 am
Of course Glennon is a better QB than Winston right now. Winston has played only 4 NFL games. However, we know where Glennon’s ceiling is. We do not know where Winston’s ceiling is. Give Winston 19 starts then come back and say who is better.
October 6th, 2015 at 9:09 am
Gholston showed flashes as a rookie I’m glad to see he’s developing.
October 6th, 2015 at 9:15 am
Speaking of Atlanta who’s their defensive coordinator?
October 6th, 2015 at 9:39 am
Always liked Gholston!
How many FA’s has Lovie missed on for DE? How many decent DE’s has he let go? I don’t think he’s a very good judge of talent. Jennings over Verner? Jenkins over Banks? C’mon!
October 6th, 2015 at 9:52 am
Ok, put down the haterade and let’s all call it what it really is. Lovie was able to take Gholston’s game to the next level through GREAT coaching and GREAT player development! Through this GREAT coaching, Gholston was able to outshine and outperform George Johnson and WON the job which is WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN regardless of WHAT MONEY WE PAY any free agent!
I mean you girls act like no coach ever misses through free agency. It happens all the time people! Lovie hasn’t even had a chance to really draft any defensive talent yet!
No matter what ya’ll girls think(which let’s all admit, means JACK SH!T to EVERYONE else but yourselves) Lovie is NOT going to get fired(yet).
If he loses the locker room and the players HAVE OBVIOUSLY quit(look at the situation in Miami) then I’ll jump on the “coaching carousel” bandwagon and even HELP TMAX print those billboards(with my wang).
“It’s as simple as that” – Lovie Smith aka “I might lose the locker room if Ryan Leaf 2.0 keeps throwing 4 INT’s EVERY GAME!!!”
October 6th, 2015 at 10:02 am
Good move….Gholston is getting better & better.
October 6th, 2015 at 10:14 am
It’s THE CLEVELAND SHOW, starring the voice of Lovie Smith!
October 6th, 2015 at 10:21 am
How many sacks does Gholston have?
…
…
Siege this!
Go Sucs!
October 6th, 2015 at 10:25 am
I think we can safely say that now the 2015 UFA class is as big of a disaster as the 2014. Bruce Carter, Henry Melton, George Johnson, and if I may Godsder (who the Colts didn’t even want anymore) Two straight years of wasting money and honestly not bringing in ONE good starter. Folks that hard to do, even if we could make decisions, I mean put all the UFA’s in a hat and draw them out would have been better but these two guys are “experts”? Nice catch by Tim Wright last night, great production out of Mark Barron in St. Louis, Clayborn has started for the newly improved atlanta defense. Penn is protecting Carr’s blindside just fine. I wonder if Licht will get to jump into a pool again this year. Think of this too, we have played the easy part of the schedule, (Hou/NO/Tenn) and now Jacksonville.
October 6th, 2015 at 10:28 am
The battle of the C+ defensive ends finally has a winner. Sweet! Smooth sailing from here on out.
October 6th, 2015 at 10:33 am
former Bucs rockstar
general managerHead CoachMark DominikGreg Schiano…since based on the results of the Morris/Dom drafts vs the Schiano/Dom drafts it’s fairly obvious who was responsible for player selection in the drafts. Agree with you on both counts Supersam…this just makes the season even more frustrating for me considering what may have been had we not had media/fan dipsh!ts running the guy out and ownership that was more concerned with hiring a name to sell merchandise and tickets than continuing to build a team through good drafting.October 6th, 2015 at 10:41 am
The caption should read. Please Lord, let us win so our good friend and buddy Lovie does not get his a$$ fired!
October 6th, 2015 at 10:46 am
Let’s stop calling Adrian Clayborn good please. He does NOT start for the Falcons (Vic Beasley & Tyson Jackson are listed as the starters), and he has 3 tackles and 1 sack in 4 games.
October 6th, 2015 at 10:52 am
Thank you @bucsfish. Love when hate trumps facts, maybe watch. The games before commenting.
I always thought Gholston was a going to be a steal where we got him. He underacheived a bit at MSU though. Hopefully he can succeed now with a starting role.
October 6th, 2015 at 11:17 am
Now we just need to bring back sidbury jr who also had a good preseason. He hustles every play and i have no bias against tj fantinukin (sp) but sidbury showed flashes while tj cant stay healthy
October 6th, 2015 at 11:17 am
Facts are that all our good talent schiano was the one that drafted them he wasn’t a good coach but he was a heck of a talent evaluator that’s why belichick has him in the scouting combine every year with him . what it seems like lovie is just to stubborn to wanna win withsomeone else guys he tried to find a replacement for banks he tried to find a replacement for ghoston he tried to find replacements for the offensive line and for Glennon for Doug martin for Tim wright the list goes on I could only imagine if we could of let Glennon start the whole year if he could of made improvements in his game as the year went on and waisted our first somewhere else .
October 6th, 2015 at 11:20 am
Even conner Barth the kicker he tried to replace and look resigned because all the rest of the kickers brought in her suck schiano was not a good coach he was stuck in the 90s with his play calls but he was a great talent evaluator
October 6th, 2015 at 11:51 am
@bucs55 uhhhh not sure if you ACTUALLY remember the Schianno days… But we passed up on a few QBs to take Glennon… To say the least. Let three ends walk including Bennett who had added up to ten sacks total by a few games into season. Meanwhile in Tampa we started Clayborne and Bowers… Over Bennett… Who walked for pocket change. Schianno actually said that he says Bowers as a ten sack player. Great judge of talent. Also, evudent by these moves on end it’s fairly obvious that he didn’t have much say in the talent that was brought in anyway, I mean Dominik had been there for years and clearly had the most control of personnel in the franchise. You’re a fool
October 6th, 2015 at 11:51 am
William Gholston is a beast and has been dominating the line of scrimmage. I first noticed how well he playing in the Saints game. Gholston was manhandling his blocker and collapsing the pocket. He did the same in Houston and back home. I remember reading that Gholston had attended a month long pre-training camp defensive end mini-camp. His dedication is really paying off. You don’t see him with a stamina issue. Maybe this team should take notice to all of the Mark Dominik draftees and waiver pick ups who are left. Where is Akeem Spence? Doug Martin, Luke Stocker, Gerold McCoy, Lavonte David, Johnthan Banks, Danny Lansanah, Keith Tandy, Bobby Rainey, Demar Dotson and Bradley McDougald. Mike Glennon was never given the opportunity to meet his full potential.
October 6th, 2015 at 11:56 am
@bucs55 those were just a few examples I could think of so don’t act as though that is the entire list of Schianno mistakes, just some glaring ones that led to a 4-12 season. Last year’s draft was mostly Schianno/Dominik influenced as neither Licht nor Lovie had sufficient time to prepare for draft/hire their own teams in Tampa (I believe this is true but I might be wrong.) So it’s not a coincidence that Licht drafted 4 great picks in a row this first draft that he was in control of. We have the best judge of talent on the team right now, and the only talent that matters is in the draft and undrafted free agents, that’s where your franchise players are found. In free agency? You get people to plug in for short periods about 99% of time. Most teams are not looking for franchise players in free agency, so as far as I see I do not care about how well they judge talent in free agency as long as Licht can keep bringing in rookies who play like free agency veterans anyway. *drops mic*
October 6th, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Brindza GONE! Johnson GONE! (benched, but hell that’s the same to me)
Now paging Jenkins….GONE!
C’mon Lovemiester pull the trigger. Show the grapefruits!!!
October 6th, 2015 at 12:36 pm
“I (DON’T) know why”
“Great production from Mark Barron” HUH!? He’s got 18 tackles and 1 illegal sack! NO passes defensed, NO interceptions, NO forced fumbles, and most of his tackles were after a catch got made on him. Sounds like the same dude to me.
October 6th, 2015 at 2:54 pm
i’m racking my brain for any quality Unrestricted FA pickups in the 21st century besides Simeon Rice in 2001 and Vincent Jackson in 2012. we’ve uncovered our share of undrafted contributors (earnest graham, bennett, penn, jacquies smith, etc) and we’ve made some impactful trades (galloway, winslow, revis…not always all-world guys but they came in and manned the top of the depth chart productively for multiple seasons.
but UFAs…..an ugly history. from gruden’s band-aids like griese, garcia, tim brown, and charlie garner to schiano’s eric wright\dashon gholson\carl nicks gems all the way 2 the last 2 dumpster-fire FA classes by lovie….we just seem allergic to talent
October 6th, 2015 at 4:25 pm
@TheCollegeBuc
And whom are these QB’s Schiano foolishly passed on to get Glennon? Do you think Matt Barkley is better than Glennon? How about Ryan Nassib? What about the guys drafted before Glennon…EJ Manual? Gino Smith perhaps? Face the facts Glennon is by far the best QB in that draft class (maybe better than most of not all the ones the following year as well), and thankfully for the Bucs Schiano was smart enough to take him knowing full well the Buc’s starter (Freeman) was going into a career killing freefall.
October 6th, 2015 at 6:55 pm
I agree that im glad we drafted glennon to backup freeman bit his decline had a lot to do with schiano….im not saying he would have been a top 5 qb but schiano sure didnt help him progress, im actually willing to go as far and say schiano played a huge role in his decline
October 7th, 2015 at 11:29 am
I broke down this week’s game this morning and Gholston really ‘POPS’ on film. He dominated the point of attack and while he didn’t register a sack, he pushed the pocket in the Danny Lansanah sack. He also would have had the Gerald McCoy sack if GMC wasn’t so dang quick. Gholston was there a second later.
October 7th, 2015 at 11:38 am
James Walker Says:
Of course Glennon is a better QB than Winston right now. Winston has played only 4 NFL games. However, we know where Glennon’s ceiling is. We do not know where Winston’s ceiling is. Give Winston 19 starts then come back and say who is better.
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Don’t want to see 19 more losses right now. Glennon should play and Winston should watch. Glennon can be above average under Koetter. His ceiling is higher than you think.
October 7th, 2015 at 11:41 am
Anddddd. How many ints did Glennon have his first year? I think Winston already surpassed that total.
October 7th, 2015 at 4:54 pm
BoJim, I’m glad you asked.
The Bucs finished their 2013 season 4-12, 4-9 with Glennon at quarterback. Glennon finished his rookie campaign with an 83.9 passer rating, completing 59.4 percent of his passes (247 of 416) for 2,608 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Glennon was named to the Pro Football Writer’s Association’s All-Rookie Team for his strong first year performance.
The Bucs finished their 2014 season a league worst 2-14, and 1-4 with Glennon as the quarterback. Glennon finished his short second season campaign with a 83.3 passer rating, completing 57.6 percent of his passes (117 of 203) for 1,417 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.
To sum it up, Glennon has gone 5-13 in 18 starts (27%) with an 83.7 passer rating, completing 58.8 percent of his passes (364 of 619) for 4,025 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
Winston has gone 1-3 in 4 starts (25%) with a 71.2 passer rating, completing 54.9 percent of his passes (73 of 133) for 965 passing yards, 6 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.