Expect Different Results
June 8th, 2018
Interesting words.
Now Joe isn’t going to make predictions for 2018 yet, but Joe has noticed something that got his antennae sticking up. And the source is the mouth of Bucs coach Dirk Koetter.
Joe has to raise a hand and confess he blew it last year. One sign was there that the Bucs were going to disappoint and Joe just shrugged it off until it was too late. By then, the season was imploding. Just about every day in training camp, Koetter groused about poor practices; something was off but Koetter would not elaborate.
Right in the middle of training camp Koetter even had the team running gassers (which seemed to be some sort of punishment or motivational factor). Later, there was video on Buccaneers.com of running gassers when the practice field bleachers were empty, suggesting it happened during practices and/or walk-throughs that were closed to all.
Well, Koetter’s tune on team effort seems much different this spring, at least that’s how Koetter responded to a question from Joe yesterday. Joe asked about practice changes Gerald McCoy talked about on NFL Network.
“The guys are working hard,” Koetter said. “There’s no question, they’re working hard. You can only do certain things in OTAs and we’ve got a long way to go. But, the guys are definitely working hard. I like their attitude.”
Well, last fall he sure didn’t like the attitude. Could it be that the plan hatched by Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht is paying off? That plan to bring in hard-nosed, lunch pail grinders from winning programs and telling them to start fights is indirectly setting a new tone in the locker room and on the practice fields?
June 8th, 2018 at 4:37 am
I don’t get it. Licht gets praised for FINALLY bringing in “hard-nosed, lunch pail grinders from winning programs.” Yet no one asks ‘Why he hasn’t been doing that all along?’ Five years into the job he finally figures out that the Chris Baker type of FA isn’t nearly as good as the Beau Allen type of FA? Or that we NEED a guy like Ryan Jensen to anchor this OLine? A guy to provide some nastiness & some LEADERSHIP?
Or maybe it’s that the Glazer Boys have finally figured out that you really do have to spend money to make money. That quality FAs don’t come cheap in today’s NFL market, but that a few quality additions like Ryan Jensen & Beau Allen can make a world of difference to your offense & defense … and to your W-L record at the end of the year.
June 8th, 2018 at 6:01 am
I love the fact that the team is running gassers and being drilled to the detail it will only make them better. It teaches them early how to overcome adversity. It’s the end of practice and you have jacked the sled several times, your body is extremely fatigued and you start to question who would put themselves through such exhausting training, and is all this worth it? Well now coach blows the whistle to run suicides and your holding back from almost puking you dig deep within to find that last bit of energy to complete practice so you don’t let your team down. Sound familiar? As captain of a football team we would run stadiums and do three a day practices but it always made us better going that extra mile when it came time to finishing the game. You become mentally tough! This is all good stuff to hear about a football team we are all so passionately involved with. Go Bucs! Make every rep count!
June 8th, 2018 at 6:33 am
You are right Joe, The players did have an attitude!!!! It was like they were there to be on a tv show or something!!! IT was like that they were only there to be entertainment and run their own sketches for reality tv!!!!!!!! I am glad that joe is starting to catch on to this now!!!!!!!!! Attitude starts at the top!!!!! And when the priority is to “expand the brand” then that is what they got!!!!!!!!
I wish someone saw it a year ago!!!! Oh wait!!!!! Someone did!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! ITS Another, “Realist Repost”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Buc Realist Says:
April 10th, 2017 at 7:21 am
If the owners signed up the Bucs and are forcing it on them, then that is fine!! they can sell more jersey’s and the Buc fans out west will love it!!! But I will think of the year differently!!! My expectations for the team has changed!!!! The goal of going deep in the playoffs will change to “just being national recognized”!!!!!!
In other words I will give coaches and players a huge pass this year if we do the NFL’s longest commercial!!!!!!
I do not see how this helps the team on the field, and I do not see NFL’s best head coaches lining up to be on it!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!
June 8th, 2018 at 6:58 am
Maybe after Schiano’s “Toes on the line” and the way he was run out of town by people who seemed mortified that a Head Coach who could be such an authoritarian. It served as a lesson for every regime after that if they come across as an in your face, smash mouth, type of coach they could be run off in short time. Sounds crazy but I guarantee these new regimes had done their homework and were quick to learn that lesson.
Only thing is it backfired and we ended up with a mentally weak minded team. Remember, nobody liked Schiano. He was considered to be to brutal and rubbed against the grain. Isn’t that’s the biggest reason why they brought in Lovey Dovey, to sort of “Tony Dungy” the players. Poor Schiano, it’s possible had he remained, this weak mindset culture would never had festered, and we would have already made post season.
June 8th, 2018 at 7:11 am
@Trench War
You are right on!!!!!! The truth really came out during the Joe’s interview with Demar Dotson when they were trying to get stories of what a tyrant Coach Schiano was!!!!! And the most they got was that player had problem with Coach because they could not show up on time!!!!!!!!
The talk show domnik/rah was really a 3 year bachelor party that Coach Schinao had to clean up!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!
June 8th, 2018 at 7:13 am
Agree , defense on a lot of the free agent signings in the last five years. It coulld
also be that the Glazers had a sitdown with Licht and told him he was wasting their money and not making the team better with his free agent signings. We could have started this makeover last year if we weren’t wasting so much money on
Martin,Baker, Sweezy, and Ward.
June 8th, 2018 at 7:18 am
Last year Koetter ran Club Med. This year needs to be different or the coaching staff won’t be here next year.
June 8th, 2018 at 7:21 am
@Defense
I can’t see how anyone can say he figured it out, or mission accomplished when they have not even put on pads at One Buc yet!!!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!
June 8th, 2018 at 7:31 am
I don’t think brining in 4 free agents have changed the entire team with a few ota practices that would be nuts to say. Some work harder than others but they all know how to put work in during the off-season.
To me this proves it was all on Dirk last year, he’s the one who let the players have the Hollywood off-season and vacation like training camp and almost lost his job because of it. You Denman led from the players you get less. Demand more they respond like this.
June 8th, 2018 at 8:02 am
The Bucs need to take the same attitude as the 1980 men’s Olympic hockey team. Herb Brooks had the right idea…” Legs feed the wolf” wind sprints, gassers and running the stadium steps builds character and inner strength. Perhaps bringing in a seal team drill instructor team will help them achieve the understanding that the body can achieve when pushed to the limit. When you are in shape you can out play the competition when you can dig down and will yourself to succeed.
June 8th, 2018 at 8:45 am
Defense Rules hit the nail on the head. What the heck was he “waiting on”?! It’s not rocket science. Roberto Aguayo will haunt this GM along with some epic fails in FA.
This is the year, or, buh-bye!
June 8th, 2018 at 9:04 am
No more “mental reps”! Good work!
June 8th, 2018 at 9:16 am
Here is my version of a Bucs Realist take, !!!!! !!!!!! !!!!! !!!!!! Stop with the exclamation points dude it is so annoying.
June 8th, 2018 at 11:33 am
I never had issue with Schiano being a hard4ss.
It was more so that he couldn’t balance that with any other coaching ability. It was more so that his defenses were terrible and quit on him and he was the worst half time adjustment coach I’ve ever seen.
We literally averaged about 5-6 points per 2nd half under Schiano.
June 8th, 2018 at 11:49 am
that’s what every team is saying around this time of year…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!….#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!!
June 8th, 2018 at 1:19 pm
DR nailed it!
LC- I agree about Schiano. We needed the discipline, he just couldn’t figure out how to adjust from college to pros.
Oh yea and you nailed the 2nd half adjustments (or complete lack of)!
June 8th, 2018 at 5:43 pm
i think it’s less the new players than the different situation this offseason. this whole organization went into last season with the mindset that they were a superbowl contender that just needed to iron out some wrinkles. Swaggy Baker’s taunts to the Jags fans on Hard Knocks kind of said it all. This year they are coming in realizing that every season you start from zero and last year’s wins or strengths count for nothing. that the mindset that pushed a 2 win team to 6 wins and a 6 win team to 9.
June 8th, 2018 at 5:50 pm
defense rules: “Or maybe it’s that the Glazer Boys have finally figured out that you really do have to spend money to make money.”
are we still trotting out that easily disproven critique? post-raheem, arguably our worst seasons have coincided with celebrated spending sprees….Revis and several other high-priced mercs were prominently aboard Schiano’s sinking ship. Lovie’s first year was a free agent bonanza. Koetter’s first year saw the team paying the top dollars among FAs for Ayers and Sweezy. DeSean Jackson was arguably the best player in last year’s free agent class. The lack of big second contracts in recent years has largely been a byproduct of Allen’s and Dominick’s drafts and the team has had no qualms about giving second contracts to the few guys who warranted them. The Glazers were okay with paying everyone from Jon Gruden to Michael Johnson to not be near the team when they felt it was the right thing
this is not a money thing or a spending thing, and has never been aside from arguably a couple years following the Gruden firing