Let There Be Light
July 27th, 2016
Temporary lights like these are coming to One Buc Palace practice fields for training camp.
When Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said during underwear football season that he was striving to find a way to keep his players out of the suffocating Florida daytime heat during training camp, he wasn’t joking.
Aside from having early morning practices when training camp opens tomorrow, Joe has learned Koetter is taking a major step in trying to keep his players cooled down, thus in theory, saved for the rigors of a long regular season.
Since the Bucs do not yet have an indoor practice facility — it’s coming, Buccaneers co-chairman Joel Glazer has assured Joe — the Bucs have installed temporary lights on the backfields of One Buc Palace so the team can have walk-throughs at night,under the lights during training camp.
The reasoning is that rather than have walk-throughs during the day under the sun, even if it is “only” in the 80s in summer, the team can instead be out there when it’s at least 10 degrees cooler and without the sun beating on them.
It seems Koetter believes every minute his players are not practicing under the brutal Florida sun is another minute of stamina the team may have in the fourth quarter in December.
July 27th, 2016 at 11:11 am
Just kick the Rays out of the trop they ain’t really using it anyway. All jokes aside the indoor practice facility will make a yuuuuge difference imo.
July 27th, 2016 at 11:13 am
Dang, why has no past Bucs coach thought of and started this common sense approach before? The hot sun beating down drains energy and stamina and is not the Bucs ace in the hole over visiting teams as parroted over the years. Dang!
July 27th, 2016 at 11:13 am
Truly revolutionary lol. Cant blame Lovie. I mean I sure as heck would have never thought to GET OUT OF THE SUN
July 27th, 2016 at 11:15 am
I think Koetter just doesn’t want to be out in the heat either, and who could blame him? Really, what’s the point? It’s not like we’ve had some huge home field advantage in dealing with the heat. We are typically 1-3 in the first month, so it could easily be argued it hurts us.
July 27th, 2016 at 11:16 am
37, it would seem most previous coaches had the belief that the players practicing in the stifling heat would make them “used to it” for the reg season. Its a bunch of crap. A person NEVER gets used to it. I like Koetters approach and think it will def help them stay stronger longer.
July 27th, 2016 at 11:21 am
@Bucfan37
Coach Schaino did, I guess some here where to busy making up lies and trying to call him “college” to notice!!!!!
http://www.buccaneers.com/news/article-1/Training-Camp-Schedule-Offers-Multiple-Opportunities-for-Buc-Fans/95e6fe6c-1672-46f3-b956-a6e232e526ba
July 27th, 2016 at 11:25 am
yeah, there is zero evidence that heat acclimation has made us a better home team. ever. even back in the dungy years, we didn’t get a playoff push going without first starting out with the customary 3-4 record. you know what creates home field advantage? talented, well-coached players
July 27th, 2016 at 11:33 am
Didn’t Dungy have night practices at the University of Tampa?
July 27th, 2016 at 11:57 am
Umm, do they not realize we have severe thunderstorms everyday in the summer in the evening and night and it only has to be like with in 20 miles or something for them to cancel or postpone. Dont know if the night practices are the best idea
July 27th, 2016 at 12:00 pm
No, the Bucs are pretty convinced they are holding practices in Phoenix. After all, none of the owners, management, coaches or players have lived in west-central Florida until a week or two ago.
Also pretty sure the Bucs have never heard of lightning detectors that have been on the market for years.
#Sarcasm
July 27th, 2016 at 12:03 pm
Sorry, I have to chuckle when I think about what camps must’ve been like in the 60’s and 70’s. Revolutionary? I don’t think that’s what the old vets think!
Hey, at this point, whatever works! If it saves a little in the tank, great. It’ll be criticized if we continue losing.
July 27th, 2016 at 12:32 pm
Whoa Joe, you dont have to let me know thats sarcasm you’re spreading it on pretty hard there bud. If they do realize that there are severe storms every night then its just a stupid plan by management asking for canceled practices
July 27th, 2016 at 12:37 pm
Seems to me it’s the cold weather teams that are the power houses of the NFL.
That’s all I got for you.
July 27th, 2016 at 1:11 pm
SOE:
The Bucs — this may shock you — have state of the art lightning detectors. Have had for years. If you ever go to training camp and one of those goes off, you could hear that thing halfway across Hillsborough County.
Lightning detectors are very common. Every high school locally (which also practices and plays games at night) has hand-held lightning detectors. Seen them myself. Have even seen Little League officials (games played at night) with them.
As far as the rain, coaches love practicing in the rain for wet ball drills you cannot duplicate by just dunking a football in a bucket of water (heard Bill Cowher talk about this once).
The Bucs practiced in the rain last year and no one melted and it was actually refreshing as the temperature dipped to about 70. If it rains on gamedays, the NFL is not postponing the game. If there is lightning, sure.
The Glazers are not going to spend tens (hundreds?) of thousands of dollars to put over a hundred of their employees in peril.
July 27th, 2016 at 5:19 pm
Joe
Im not saying they dont have good lightning detectors. Im saying that almost every night in tampa there are huge thunderstorms this time of year which would cancel a practice. Also I dont know what the radius for a lightning strike to be for them to come inside but I think its pretty large
July 27th, 2016 at 8:01 pm
“hell I’d piss on a spark plug if I thought it would work.”