What does Noah Spence say about offseason training with Gerald McCoy? Joe has the answer.

Gerald McCoy spoke yesterday about training this summer with rookie defensive end Noah Spence. It was Spence who asked to train with McCoy, whose offseason regimen is well known and intense.

Today, Joe asked Spence about that time together.

Before Joe gives Spence’s reaction, here’s what McCoy said yesterday when Joe asked if Spence had trouble keeping up with him. McCoy was a little smug, as well as complimentary.

“A lot of people do [laugh], but he’s great,” McCoy said of Spence keeping up. “He pushed himself and he told me, he said, ‘I don’t know why people go to pay all these different guys to do all this training when you can come right here,’ and I was like, ‘That’s how I feel.’ It wasn’t anything special, it was just – I kind of go into a trance when I train. A lot of guys say like, ‘Man, what’s gotten into you?’ I have a lot of motivations to why I go so hard, and all those motivations hit me at once while I’m training. You see guys smiling and stuff and I got into a zone where I’m not really talking to anybody and I’m pushing people because my belief is people shouldn’t have to motivate you. You should learn to motivate yourself and push yourself. That’s honestly kind of a method behind the madness why I train by myself. I believe that it’s great to have people to push you but if you can’t push yourself, nobody’s inside your head in the fourth quarter when it’s really hot and the defending super bowl champions are driving to win the game. You’re inside your own head so nobody’s going to make you go, you have to make yourself go. And I truly believe that, and Noah brought that same thing when he came out there to train so that’s why I’m really excited to see what he can do.”

So Spence, did McCoy wear you down? Did you have trouble keeping up?

“No. No. I did the workout with Gerald workout and then I went and did another workout after that,” Spence said. “I would do two-a-days every day, so it wasn’t like Gerald was killing me. But I loved it. I just wanted to come out and get some great work and be challenged as much as I could. I lost some body fat and put on some muscle. So I wanted to get faster and stuff like that. I definitely feel the difference.”

Spence went on to say he loves the hunger on the Bucs’ roster. “You don’t really get that out of every team you’re on. I definitely get that from these guys,” he said.

Cool and confident, Spence said he had no trouble sleeping last night. “Practice is practice,” he said, “but for sure you could feel the extra energy today. Oh yeah, everybody was amped up.”