“I Don’t Care If It’s July”
March 25th, 2014
Bucs special teams chief Kevin O’Dea has no room for loafers
Lovie Smith is steadfast in his expectations: every single one of his defensive players will pursue the football all-out hard on every snap, and his special teams will be a relentless band of brothers.
The offense? Well, that’s a mystery. But we’ll soon find out.
Joe recommends this Buccaneers.com video feature on special teams coordinator Kevin O’Dea, a 20-year NFL veteran, who in addition to working with Lovie in Tampa during the glory years, also was in Chicago with him, among other stops. Prior to his NFL days, O’Dea actually coached alongside Greg Schiano at Penn State.
The link above is Part II of the feature. Joe found O’Dea’s takes on what makes a special team player and loafing to be noteworthy.
“I don’t care if it’s July,” O’Dea says, in illustrating how players who don’t play hard for their teammates are the wrong players to have. “Cancer” was his choice of word.
In Part I here, O’Dea details how his grading system for players is fully transparent, so the roster knows who is performing and who isn’t. For example, he wants Doug Martin to know who’s excelling at blocking on the punt return team. It’s part of Lovie’s philosophy of accountability and building chemistry.
March 25th, 2014 at 9:25 am
There are better ways to motivate people.
March 25th, 2014 at 9:35 am
Share your knowledge with us Biff!
March 25th, 2014 at 9:39 am
competition is good. point systems are easy to understand for all. I like this guy. keeping score is not a crime.
March 25th, 2014 at 9:48 am
Biff< really!!! they make multi million dollars he needs to be like this.
March 25th, 2014 at 10:11 am
Sounds great and all, but as we’ve heard and seen NFL players have big egos. Seems like a real fine line trying to find what motivates and what gets tuned out. Based on history I’d say each assistant coach will get a two year window to figure it out
March 25th, 2014 at 10:12 am
When I was a kid I got a shiny star sticker for brushing my teeth for a full two minutes
March 25th, 2014 at 10:17 am
Biff = accountability
March 25th, 2014 at 10:18 am
Shiny star sticker = accountability
March 25th, 2014 at 10:20 am
Can we stay remotely on topic, please. This is not a message board. –Joe
March 25th, 2014 at 10:43 am
who is our returner. Page? doesnt exactly strike fear….how about Jacoby Ford, dude is fast, just plain fast.
March 25th, 2014 at 11:13 am
Still irks me, when I recall last years training camp-When your boy Donald Penn-Was actually was walking around telling guys on the offensive line
“To Not Go So Hard in Practice”-“To Save it For the Season”..I was like dude WHAT!
March 25th, 2014 at 11:22 am
You are giving individual scores to a group. Each individual has responsibilities that differ in terms of importance. You need to measure the efficacy of the entire unit.
Players who score lower will learn to resent those who receive top grades and also the coach who is grading them.
The group watches film together right? They should each be allowed to critique their own performance.
It’s High School and it reeks of Schiano.
March 25th, 2014 at 11:48 am
^^ I think they’ve done this before, and it works… so your criticism might be, well… bullsh!te.
March 25th, 2014 at 12:04 pm
Orca, call em like you see em’ tough guy!
March 25th, 2014 at 12:44 pm
Accountability?
Trust Belief Accountability… proven formula for success! (if success = 11-21)
March 25th, 2014 at 1:51 pm
So I guess now after Schiano the words “trust” or “accountability” should be banned from obp? I’m sure no other coach has ever preached accountability to their team…