“Well That’s Nice Of You To Try To Spin It That Way”
August 12th, 2016
Spin sniffer
It’s early in Dirk Koetter’s Tampa Bay tenure, but he’s quickly becoming one of the most refreshing and engaging characters in the region’s sports history.
America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, says he lives by the core belief “real recognize real.” It seems Koetter does, too.
Perhaps that’s why they’re such a great mix.
Yesterday, following the Bucs’ horror show with great silver linings in Philadelphia, Koetter joined the Buccaneers Radio Network for the standard postgame chat with host T.J. Rives.
Rives is known for being the ultimate Bucs homer. The team could be 0-8 (2013), 1-8 (2014) or dejected just minutes after an historic choke job to the Redskins (2015), and Rives always manages to find sunshine, daisies and rainbows to talk about.
That’s either in Rives’ job description or why he has his job. And that’s fine. He plays that role beautifully.
Koetter, though, doesn’t have much experience with Rives’ brand of analysis, and it showed last night.
TJ Rives: I know I’m not making excuses here, but you’re going to have mistakes in the preseason and in the first preseason game. That’s why you have preseason games to try to work that stuff out. Right?
Dirk Koetter: Heh. Heh. Heh. Well that’s nice of you to try to spin it that way. But you know, you can’t win games at any level of football turning it over five times, and having 10 penalties and putting your defense in a situation like that. So that’s disappointing. We talk about that all the time with our team. And to come out and have the turnovers and have the penalties like we did. That’s unacceptable.
Koetter is gem, a genuine navigating the wacky world of media and frowning on talking points like only he can. Joe sure hopes Koetter wins a whole lot of football games.
August 12th, 2016 at 2:40 pm
I like his candor, and it’s true. You don’t just wave a magic wand and these problems disappear. I’m sure they’ll be working to correct it but as HC you can’t just gloss over these issues.
August 12th, 2016 at 2:40 pm
I didn’t listen to the post game show. I’m curious to find out if Rives followed up by asking how he’s going to address correcting the penalties and turnovers moving forward.
August 12th, 2016 at 2:44 pm
Hmmnnn. Penalties and turnovers aye? Sounds like the SOB’s to me! (Same Ole Bucs)
August 12th, 2016 at 2:49 pm
We all know interview skills are vastly important for NIL success.
Who can forget the Lombardi, Shula, Landry, Parcels and Belichick post game openness.
August 12th, 2016 at 2:49 pm
@MJ- It’s hard not to beat that drum! We’ve been dealing with this since……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………um, yeah!
We gotta keep the faith though, man! 16 DASH 0!
August 12th, 2016 at 3:03 pm
I’m pretty sure I heard mike Johnson trolling the ronnie and tkras show today. At the end of the segment the dude says since it looks like we’re gonna be 3-13 who should we be looking to draft next year.
I really like Dirk and hopes he wins of course but also wins early. I feel like with some early wins this team will get the confidence and buy in and get rolling.
If they lose early on we’ll see if these leaders can hold this team together and make sure they don’t give up. Hope we don’t have too many mental midgets on this team this year.
August 12th, 2016 at 3:19 pm
It’s still early in the Koetter/Winston era. It will take most of the year for the team to really click. The biggest thing they need to do is win. Winning creates instant team chemistry. The hardest thing to overcome is a mindset. The bucs have had nothing but losing in their minds since they’ve been bucs. It will take time to change their mentality. Winning early will speed up that process. I hope Koetter gets the team firing on all cylinders by week one. His career depends on it. If this season starts off 1-4 he will start to lose the faith of the players. The way schiano and Lovie lost their teams. Koetter has 1 shot at changing the bucs into winner and that is the first quarter of the season. I hope he can do it and come out with some wins. I have faith that he will.
August 12th, 2016 at 3:25 pm
I excepted penalties and turnover just not from our starters….that was pretty concerning….good thing is dirk has 3 weeks to clean it up….the bad news is he only has 3 weeks to clean up the same problems that held us back last year….we’ll see….GO BUCS!!!!
August 12th, 2016 at 3:31 pm
I foresee a major rant coming out of Koetters mouth in the future. I can’t wait!!
August 12th, 2016 at 4:05 pm
I really like Dirk’s approach. I’m tired of clichés and lame excuses. Man this is refreshing!
August 12th, 2016 at 4:29 pm
I like it. You know he realizes it’s a problem and accepts responsibility for it. After listening to guys like lovie and rah it wasn’t always clear the accepted the problem or we’re going to try to fix it. All I ever got from rah was dumb rhetoric like” we wanna play fast, intense, buc ball and fly around da field”. Never answered a question just some jingoistic bs.
August 12th, 2016 at 5:32 pm
I like Coach a lot. I’m on board and willing to be patient this time. Even if it takes a couple years, this GM and Coach combo feels right. We all know what bad looks like. The d-line looked it’s best in years. That alone can win games. I’m stoked about our season. These bugs will get worked out. And Mike Smith is a gem. Coach is in competition with his defense. Koetter and Smith both hold each other to high standards. I was happy last night and guys like Bell will weed themselves out. Go Bucs!!!
August 12th, 2016 at 5:48 pm
I love this guy. He doesn’t have patience for stupid mistakes. I hope that pays off with this team. He isn’t sugar coating anything.
August 12th, 2016 at 6:59 pm
I believe !
August 12th, 2016 at 7:01 pm
I can’t wait to get so lit before the game and go scream and cheer in my section I swear we start so many chants right under the pirate ship the team feeds off that we need as many bucs fans as possible going to these games !!!! I’m forsure going to MNF!!!! I hope you all join me
August 12th, 2016 at 7:02 pm
Hey Johnson, go root for the Pats or somebody. Leave us alone. You Debbie Downer.
August 12th, 2016 at 7:06 pm
“How do you feel about your teams execution?”
“I’m in favor of it”
Could we have the next John Mckay on our hands?
August 12th, 2016 at 10:34 pm
Our Starters would of Won that game. End of story, bring on the next contest!
August 13th, 2016 at 12:07 pm
““How do you feel about your teams execution?”
“I’m in favor of it”
Could we have the next John Mckay on our hands?”
My all-time favorite John McKayism… On his kicker (either Pete Rajecki or Mirro Roder) missing a FG in pre-season:
Q: “Coach, the kicker says he gets nervous when you watch him kick.”
Coach McKay: “I hate to break this to him, but I plan on attending all the games this year.”