The fast and furious

Jon Gruden, the Bucs' always emotional leader, coaches at a pace this side of greased lightning.

[Times photos: James Borchuck] With his trademark all-black outfit and reversed visor, Bucs coach Jon Gruden points the way for his new team during minicamp on Friday.

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By GARY SHELTON, Times Sports Columnist

© St. Petersburg Times
published April 6, 2002

TAMPA -- You have two minutes to read this column. The clock is running.

Move it. NOW. Hurry through the lines. WANT to get the point. Come on, focus. GO. Fly through the metaphors. HUSTLE. Turn the page and read the jump. FASTER.

From now on, it seems, things are going to be done a little quicker around the Tampa Bay Bucs, and the volume is going to be turned up. Just ask the blond-haired guy with the backward visor. But not right now. Right now, he's busy trying to shout down the airplane that's landing next door.

Jon Gruden's coaching tenure with the Bucs began in earnest Friday when the team began its first minicamp under its new coach, and history should remember the urgency and the uproar of the day.

Gruden fires up his team during Friday's minicamp.

It was loud, and it was fast. Chucky was playing at fast-forward, running his players from drill to drill, and play to play, as if he were intent on cramming three hours worth of practice into two hours on the field. There was a new teacher in class, and his first question was whether the students had finished the textbook yet.

There was a different tempo to the way the Bucs worked. Over the past few seasons, such practices in shorts and helmets were quiet times. Players moved as slowly and meticulously as a waltz, with the voice of one coach, maybe two, sounding during each play. Then would come a pause and, shortly thereafter, another attempt at another play. Things moved as slowly as science class.

Friday, it was like a punk band playing its instruments as fast as possible, and every coach seemed to have something loud to say to somebody along the way. A large clock in the end zone ran during each drill, hurrying players along through motion and noise, shifts and movements, and somewhere along the line, someone slipped the fastbreak into the Bucs offense.

"I think tempo is important," Gruden said. "Players at this level deserve organization. They expect a brisk tempo. When we get more players into camp, you'll see it pick up even more."

Translation: It better.

We are learning about this new coach. Already, the stories are flying about his intensity, about his impatience, about how he wears out a path to the general manager's office to ask about the availability of this player or that one. We know about his imagination, and the regard other offensive coordinators have for his schemes.

What, then, should be the first impression of his first day in front of his full squad? Maybe this. Gruden seems to coach very much the way Sandra Bullock drives a bus. He coaches as if he can't wait for this offense to get better. Which, in a way, makes him very much like everyone else around here.

"Our goal isn't to make a couple of first downs and punt so we can put the defense on the field in better position," Gruden said. "Our goal is to possess the ball, to move the chains. And when we get into the red zone, we want seven instead of three. We want to score.

"Right now, this defense is the best barometer our offense has of how good they are. Our goal is to make our offense the best barometer the defense has to go."

Let's be honest. Gruden has a few miles to go to the end zone. He's trying to bring offense to a barren land that has only recently learned of the concept. He's trying to make a playoff team improve without a backward step, which history says is difficult. He's trying to mold an offense, and right now, there isn't enough clay to work with.

This is no time to take the team picture. The Bucs will continue to tinker with their roster throughout June and July. They could use another wide receiver, maybe two. They could use another tight end.

"We aren't finished," Gruden said. "We have a lot of stones to overturn to see if we can find another player."

In the meantime, he coaches as if he were trying to get stampeding cattle to run a little faster and, blast it, in tighter formation. Players moved quickly, making a minimum of mistakes. For the first time, you think, maybe the offense can look confusing rather than confused.

There is a bit of frill to the Bucs offense, too. Shifts. Motion. Imagination. Who knows? Perhaps even touchdowns. Whatever will this town make of it all?

"It's an excellent package," quarterback Brad Johnson said. "There is so much motion and shifting. It's just a way to get into the play. We might have 75 ways to call a hook pass.

"He is going to talk to you in the classroom. He's going to repeat it. He's going to come out here and tell you before the huddle. He's going to talk to you through the play and after the play. You're going to hear it five or six times. And you're going to watch the film and hear it again. What he is is a great teacher. He's going to tell you the history of the play, the evolution of the play, how defenses have changed the play."

In other words, Gruden has their attention. How could he not? He is part professor and part preacher, part guide and part teacher. Watch him as he stands, dressed in black, and works the middle of the field. Watch him applaud, yell, contort, pump his fist.

Yes, there is a long way to go.

Perhaps that explains Gruden's hurry.

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