Bucs have found a new formula for team building

I was chief among the Raheem Morris supporters since he was promoted to Head Coach in 2009. I had followed Morris’ carreer since rejoining the Bucs in 2007 after the defense fell apart during the departure of himself and a few other key coaches following the 2005 division championship team, a Bucs squad that had more potential to do damage in the playoffs than anyone has ever known. 

Instead the hiring turned out to be a failure, a learning experience for both Morris and the Bucs. A new formula has been created; and discipline and accountability are key ingrediants for building a youthful football team. Last tenure, there was neither.

Morris was a ‘players coach’, and there is nothing wrong with that approach. But it wasnt the rigth fit for a group of guys barely out of college. You heard the comparisons in age to the Green Bay Packers who were the leagues 3rd youngest team. But the youth on that team is made up of backup players. The Packers key core group of guys are veterans, not rookies and 2nd year players. 

If there was ever a time for a coach to be more disciplined, it was after a strike wiped out the entire offseason of practices. Instead, players got passes, and soft as a result. Look at the mistakes on last years team…the turn overs, the penalties. On a tour of One Buc, there was a nice poker table but someone wrote their name on the felt like it was a high school prank. LeGarrette Blount did, but this year you are hearing a new Blount. 

Even Aqib Talib is responding to the new atmosphere over at One Buc, and its refreshing. Will it turn to wins? Probably at some point, then again Ray Perkins was disciplined too.

NOTE: Today, 15 years ago exactly, if you were living here in the Bay area, you were getting used to a new phrase…”It’s a new day in Tampa Bay” 
Fifteen years ago, it truely was. The New Tampa Bay Buccaneers were born.  July 31st 1997, Tampa Bay stunned San Francisco holding the 49ers to without a TD and issued in the emergence of Pewter Power. The victory propelled the Bucs to a 5-0 start, a 10-6 campaign that resulted in the first playoff game in Tampa Stadium in 18 years.