Mike Sullivan Promises To Bring Preparation
February 15th, 2012
One thing that drove Joe absolutely wild about the Bucs during the Raheem Morris era was the simple lack of preparation.
Whether it was either not preparing, or preparing a gameplan that was both ill conceived and/or ill-executed, it was often an embarrassment.
Season after season, game after game, it was as if the Bucs gave their opponents a touchdown lead (or worse) to start the game.
In 2010, the Bucs often righted the ship on defense, changing and adjusting as the game went on and then Josh Freeman would work his then-magic in rallying the team from behind.
While Joe gave props to Morris for adjusting on the fly, if he and his staff done a decent job in preparing in the week leading to the game, he and Freeman wouldn’t have had to pull Houdini acts all the time to rescue the team.
Noted local scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune often rails how Morris (and fired offensive coordinator Greg Olson) never scored touchdowns in the opening quarter.
So today when new Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was introduced to the local pen and mic club, most of what he had to say was empty phrases and cliches, nothing at all specific. He admitted that was on purpose, but Joe finds the CIA classified information act is a bit weak in the middle of February.
But there was one thing Sullivan said that was of substance and struck Joe:
“We will not be out-prepared.”
Thank you! Now, granted, that’s an empty phrase at this time of the year as well. As baseball Hall of Famer Pepper Martin once said, “I have an old mule I can train each day every day for a year and he still won’t win a Kentucky Derby.” Fair point.
But Joe nearly applauded to no one in particular while hovering over his laptop watching Sullivan when he brought up the subject of preparation. The Bucs had little to none the past few seasons.
Preparation will be a welcome habit around these parts.
February 15th, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Drove who???
February 15th, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Preparation alone isn’t the issue Joe. Raheem certainly was in OBP early before sunrise each work day, but all the preparation in the world couldn’t save him.
To me its more about the adage that “perfect practice makes perfect, not just practice.” I think you were on to it with the coaching staff last year was “preparing a gameplan that was both ill conceived and/or ill executed.”
Our “scripted plays” last year were a joke. I have full faith that this year, it will be a different story.
February 15th, 2012 at 4:50 pm
Joe,
What names if any have you heard for our open ( DC, QB, RB, OL & Special Teams) coaching slots????
I read today that we had been denied by the Dolphins to talk to Darren Rizzi for DC and also heard that Coach Schiano was now talking to Bill Sheridan (former DC for the Giants & now at Ohio St.) about the DC.
Some names I’ve thought about for DC are Greg Mattison, Chuck Bresnahan, John Marshall, Ron Zook, Al Groh, Mike Singletary, Jim Leavitt & Eric Mangini.
February 15th, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Mark:
For your own sake, quit thinking.
There’s a guy out there that has worked with Schiano that is out of a job and is well-known to be one of the better defensive minds in the game.
Not sure if he wants to come to Tampa Bay or not.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Maybe with Coach Sullivan we can attack the defense and not just run the play. We have some big WR lets attack with them to block certain players. Maybe say a less than perfect health CB, S, LB on the opposing team. I am not advocating injury to any player theirs or ours. But you attack the SS and CB with running plays when they have a know issue. groin, hamstring shoulder w/e, Then when the #2 guy comes in because the #1 is getting a breather. You attack them again. Smash mouth power football. And when you do pass their players will be tired and possibly hesitant.
Of course this is always a two-way street whats good for us is good for them..
But what do I know.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
@ Joe
Tom Bradley?
February 15th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
gotbbucs:
Yup.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
The fact that Bradley’s name hasn’t been leaked yet is probably a good thing.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
“Won’t be out-prepared”, if we win or have significant improvedment just by way of preparation, that doesn’t bode well for Raheem and Olsen in terms of professional advancement.
I’m really curious to see what this, assumed same, basic group of players does this year.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
One thing that I kept on thinking during that press conference was that there is no way that a guy like Mike Sullivan could have handled being on Morris’ staff. It would have driven him absolutely insane to be part of that circus. After hearing guys like Schiano and Sullivan talk, and actually make sense while they’re doing it, it’s no wonder we ended up where we ended up in 2011.
If the leader of a group doesn’t have his sh!t together and lets things slip it trickles right down the food chain, and I think that’s exactly what happened to this team last year. Stupid is as stupid does. That very first press conference introducing Morris as the Head Coach should have told us all right there and then what we were in store for.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:57 pm
“One thing that I kept on thinking during that press conference was that there is no way that a guy like Mike Sullivan could have handled being on Morris’ staff.”
You mean Schiano and Sullivan can’t invent their own language with each word beginning with a Y?
February 15th, 2012 at 6:05 pm
I like what I am hearing…I will say I had a wrestling coach say “we will not be beat because we are tired” and we never were…of course we lost a lot of matches, but never from being gassed. I wish he had used the “prepared” coaching style instead. I have not had six pack abs since then, but our team was not exactly stellar.
February 15th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Gotta be better than that preparation H we got last year.
February 15th, 2012 at 7:19 pm
@Big Picture Guy
BS Raheem was prepared, how many pressers did he have no answers for what was wrong?
I don’t live in Tampa but from what I hear from my friends he was out at Drynk/Cheap and other trendy South Tampa bars like that on a REGULAR basis. Don’t think we’ll be hearing that about Schiano.
February 15th, 2012 at 7:31 pm
@ Joe
Please dear God…let it be Tom Bradley…..the architect of ” Linebacker U ” !!! ….for this team, that would be perfect considering most of our linebackers wouldn’t be playing arena league right now…
February 15th, 2012 at 8:36 pm
So Sullivan said he would be prepared!
That’s weird, if I was starting a new job, I’d announce that I was planning ta take it easy, and just pray that I could adjust on game day! I’d say that I would let anarchy reign, til it was money time! Then I’d try ta make up for slacking off all week by running a buncha gimmick plays!!
Nah, you’d kinda expect him to say that.
And honestly, with his strong military record- I bet he brings it to the table.
February 15th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
Sandusky was the architect of “Linebacker U” but don’t think he’s going to be available for quite some time.
February 15th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
Yeah but can he go almost a whole season without an offensive touchdown in the first quarter?
Hell, anybody can play good if your prepared. Its the nightmarish no first downs till almost halftime that toughens up your team.
Not so sure about this guy. That jui jitsu may have prevented his uncles from applying the proper assaultive seasoning.
February 15th, 2012 at 8:56 pm
And, I heard his Grandmother ran upright!
Just dont know what you have till its gone……………
February 15th, 2012 at 9:09 pm
Bradley would be amazing!! I wonder what the hold up is, it seems like a slam dunk logically. Maybe he wants to HC somewhere? Though I would imagine all those jobs would be filled by now. Or maybe he has the Butch Davis syndrome and doesn’t want to coach at all after the stress of the situation in Happy Valley. Who knows.
Make it happen Bucs!
February 15th, 2012 at 9:46 pm
I don’t know enough about Tom Bradley to judge. A quick wiki look up tells me he coached with Penn State, but mentions no NFL experience.
Not being in the know on this matter, I pose a question to those who are:
Players say the biggest adjustment from college to the NFL is the speed of the game. If a coach has never been exposed to this speed, how can he coach well enough to compensate for it?
February 16th, 2012 at 1:13 am
@ Pete
“Players say the biggest adjustment from college to the NFL is the speed of the game. If a coach has never been exposed to this speed, how can he coach well enough to compensate for it?”
Big difference between being on the field and watching from the sidelines. It’s not like the players are going to be moving slower on his side of the ball just because he’s coming from a college background.