Do What You Do
June 18th, 2023
Expectations.
Joe remembers when the Bucs were on “Hard Knocks” back in 2017. Joe enjoyed it and longs for the next time the Bucs are again highlighted if things happen to go south.
(That was the only time Joe had HBO since the screen flipped to black as “The Sopranos” ended.)
If Joe’s memory serves, in the opening episode, perhaps the opening scene, then-Bucs coach Dirk Koetter was addressing rookies in the One Buc Palace auditorium as the team reported for training camp.
Koetter told them — and Joe is paraphrasing — that if the Bucs didn’t think they could play, they wouldn’t have been drafted or signed. So keep practicing the way you played to max out your opportunity.
That’s basically what Bucs coach Todd Bowles said last week as underwear football season ended and the players scattered only to be seen next at training camp next month.
Bowles was asked what he expects from the rookies as training camp nears. Just what they did last fall, Bowles said.
“Just [demonstrate] what they showed on college tape,” Bowles said. “There’s a reason we took them, so we’re going to get in pads and hopefully they do the same thing.”
The NFL is not college. There ain’t no scholarships in the NFL. These guys will no longer be playing against children, but grown-arse men literally fighting for their careers.
What was overlooked by Bowles (and Koetter), or at least unspoken, is that can the assistant coaches put these players in position to use the skills they honed in college.
Players can just as easily be put in position to fail as they can to succeed. The road to the NFL can be a boulevard of broken dreams driven by bad coaching or by putting players in position to fail.
Coaches can ruin a player just as easily as a player can Pearl Harbor himself.
June 18th, 2023 at 12:19 am
“Joe remembers when the Bucs were on “Hard Knocks” back in 2017.”
———-
Me too, but what I always remember is when Winston called that jobber no-talent rookie QB a goat farmer, that will stick with me forever.
Little did he know an actual GOAT at QB would take his job a few years later.
June 18th, 2023 at 12:28 am
Well, another thing to think about. It could be good that we got some new coaches that may be more “hands-on” than this HC.
June 18th, 2023 at 1:06 am
Canales seems to be hands on.
June 18th, 2023 at 1:41 am
Hopefully everyone stays out of trouble and get in shape for TC. 🤞
June 18th, 2023 at 3:03 am
Just a thought but I truly believe that some players who were stars in college/high-school have been given preferential treatment and have had coaches give them passes on things.
Very few passes issued in the NFL. If players are given passes it soon becomes apparent. I hate to say this but I think our man D White is one who has been given some passes by Bowles. He is not really doing him any favors in the long run.
I played ball with a very good player who got a scholarship to a major school but never played there because he had been given “passes” on his academics. He could not read.
June 18th, 2023 at 7:04 am
The big difference for these players is the level of competition……they will not have faced any college opponent that possessed 100% top players…..
June 18th, 2023 at 7:05 am
I’ve got a feeling that Canales is gonna be one of those coaches that’s is a fast riser. I think he’s going to get the most out of Mayfield and the rest of what he’s got on offense. I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people, and the Bucs will take the division. I think we’ll keep him for one year after this one, but that might be it if Canales can put together two years in a row of consistent effective offense. It’s just a hunch but I think he’s gonna be a good one.
June 18th, 2023 at 7:27 am
I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up surprising some people & end up winning more games than people think.
June 18th, 2023 at 9:20 am
Rod Munch Says:
“… what I always remember is when Winston called that jobber no-talent rookie QB a goat farmer, that will stick with me forever.”
.
.
I’ll always remember him believing that a cockroach was giving live birth.
June 18th, 2023 at 9:47 am
Every year I add HBO so I can watch Hard Knocks & cancel it after the last show. Well worth $10 to me.
June 18th, 2023 at 11:15 am
Don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility that the Glazers actually move on from Bowles and hand the reins to Canales if this season goes as poorly as some predict. There’s a recent trend of hiring young and up-and-coming coaches over retreads, wouldn’t be shocked to see one here in Tampa soon.
June 18th, 2023 at 12:24 pm
Interesting.
June 18th, 2023 at 2:14 pm
garro – I worked at a fast food place when I was 17 as a cook, the guy that I took over for each day when I came to work was a 30-something year old former 2nd team All-American LB who had blown out his knee his senior year. Somehow his college education didn’t get him very far. I’m shocked that you would tell me that players might have been getting a pass and not truly held up to the same standards as other students.
Thankfully for him the internet didn’t exist yet so he still had some anonymity. I can’t imagine being in that situation now, where some snot nosed 17-year old walks into a place and has a camera and social media available to them, and start makes smart a– comments questioning his diploma.
Actually the guy was quite cool and well liked – reminded me of OJ Simpson, pre-murder.
June 18th, 2023 at 3:19 pm
Calling college aged players “children” is a little extra cheese on there, but I agree with the message from Bowles. Show us you can translate what you did in college well to the pro game, even if it’s in flashes/streaks at first there’s still plenty of time to keep refining and building on your year 1 self.
June 19th, 2023 at 12:06 am
An example of being wasted?
Tavon Austin.
The Rams could not utilize one of the most dynamic players of the 2000s. They even limited his opportunities as a return man.