It seems Derek “Old School” Fournier, of WhatTheBuc.net, has heard people say how Cleveland quarterback Jake Delhomme will lead the Brownies to a win over the Bucs. “Old School” is revolted by this comment and can barely contain his outrage in this video.

If all the chatter about Bucs rookie wide receiver Mike Williams is correct, you will learn a lot about him in the coming weeks and, hopefully, years.

Anwar Richardson, of the Tampa Tribune, had a sit down with Williams and among other things, learned that Williams had some key connections as a kid growing up.

Anwar: Do you remember your first date?

Michael: Oh, yeah. I didn’t think it was a date at first. My friend set me up on a blind date. We ended up talking on the phone and liking each other. I said ‘Let’s just go get some lunch,’ and then it was a date. We went to the Cheesecake Factory.

Anwar: You had Cheesecake money back in high school?

Michael: No way. My coach was the manager of the Cheesecake Factory and I got everything for free.

How cool would that be if you had a connection to free grub at a quality joint like that growing up?

Some other things Joe learned in the interview, which is well worth your time reading between halves of college football today: Williams once played offensive tackle, was a lethal shot on the Syracuse Orange basketball team, and fans can turn to Williams with cell phone problems as he had a job working cell phone technical support.

This Sunday will be a jarring day for Bucs fans: No Bucs on TV for the 2010 season-opener.

But there is comfort for Bucs fans just around the corner. After years of sellouts, Bucs fans Sunday will be able to reunite themselves with Gene Deckerhoff, radio voice of Bucs games.

In many respects, Deckerhoff is Bucs football. So much so that Rob Shaw of the Tampa Tribune, the pride of Terre Haute, Ind., and the Tampa Bay version of Johnny Palmer himself, decided to put fingers to keyboard and bang out a story about how much Deckerhoff’s voice resonates.

And just like he has done for every Bucs game since 1989, Gene Deckerhoff will be there to call the action as the play-by-play announcer. But he won’t do anything different for this blacked-out game.

“If you’re a radio announcer, you think that every Bucs’ fan is listening to the radio,” Deckerhoff said. “The last thing on my mind is who’s watching TV and who is not.”

The 65-year-old veteran broadcaster will still do the same things he does for every game: spend six to eight hours doing preparation work, then four hours and 20 minutes in a recreational vehicle making the drive from his home in Tallahassee.

It saddens Joe to realize Deckerhoff is in his mid-60s. Joe hopes he and his golden voice can work Bucs games for years to come.

You have heard it. Joe has heard it. The Bucs will be a young team this year. But how young?

Consider the information passed along by eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed. He has the numbers and when the 45-man roster is announced, literally 25 percent of the Bucs will be rookies.

The Bucs have 12 rookies, plus first-year RB Kareem Huggins on their 53-man roster heading into Sunday’s opener against Cleveland.

Damn that’s young. And we all know how well rookies play in the NFL.

As Joe stated before: next year, maybe. Two years from now, certainly.

This year? Well, make sure you have ample cold adult beverages nearby.

Joe’s real curious to see what Buccaneers are wearing a helmet on Sunday for the season-opener against the Browns.

The announcement doesn’t come until hours before the game.

Joe’s eyes are the running backs. With the head coach championing the presence of “Insurance Graham,” just how many ball carriers will get a sniff?

Cadillac Williams is the workhorse (how scary is that).  And after him comes the no-experience running backs trio of Kregg Lumpkin, LeGarrette Blount and Kareem Huggins. This isn’t a scrimmage, so there’s no way all of them are wearing a helmet. And Joe wouldn’t be stunned if only one was.

Does Raheem Morris send a loud message and keep Sabby Piscitelli on the farm for the afternoon?

Joe isn’t seeing all five safeties being activated, and Cody Grimm and Corey Lynch have special teams value.

And given the recent minor injuries to Davin Joseph and Keydrick Vincent, Joe thinks it’s possible the Bucs could go with three reserve lineman, versus the typical two.

Some stuff to chew on as Sunday morning approaches.

The Tampa Tribune dynamic duo, Woody Cummings and Anwar Richardson, make their official calls on the 2010 season in this TBO.com vlog.

Oh, the drama.

Joe won’t spoil their takes for you. Click the link above and check it out.

For those wondering, Joe will make his call on the 2010 season tomorrow.

Joe has received a mountain of e-mails from confused readers over the availability of the Bucs this Sunday on the glorious NFL Sunday Ticket, the greatest invention man has concocted since the bottle opener.

Simply put, if you have the NFL Sunday Ticket and you live outside the Tampa and Orlando TV markets, you will be able to watch the Bucs game against the Browns Sunday. In fact, it will be the only way you will be able to watch the Bucs game, short of going to the game or waiting until midnight to watch the tape-delayed video stream on NFL.com.

This past week, Joe’s good friends at WTSP-TV Channel 10 have featured the The Blackout Tour. For one Ch. 10 feature, award-winning reporter and Badger state native Preston Rudie contacted the programming department at CBS headquarters in New York, the network which will broadcast the game, and confirmed the only way to view the game in the state of Florida (outside the Tampa/Orlando TV markets) will be via NFL Sunday Ticket as all local CBS affiliates in Florida will be broadcasting the Miami-Buffalo game.

Just to reinforce Rudie’s information, Joe reached out to Greg Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of public relations, via Twitter. Aiello confirmed Rudie’s information, that the Bucs game will be available on NFL Sunday Ticket outside the Tampa/Orlando TV markets.

@JoeBucsFan Quick question Greg: Blackouts on NFL Sunday Ticket (GREAT service!) only applies to TV market of home team, correct?

@gregaiello That is correct.

So there you have it. Both the NFL and CBS programming have confirmed that the Bucs game will be available in the state of Florida, only to NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, only outside of the Tampa/Orlando TV markets.

You know, like (ahem) Lee Roy Selmon’s in Fort Myers.

(Tip ‘o the hat to Preston Rudie and Greg Aiello.)

Pat Kirwan and Jason Horowitz of CBSSports.com peel off the onion skins of the Bucs season-opener with Cleveland Sunday. Joe is a big fan of Kirwan. His Sirius NFL Radio show, “Movin’ the Chains,” co-hosted with Tim Ryan, is an absolute must-listen for real football fans. Joe has never heard Kirwan dish out as harsh criticism on the Bucs as he heard in this video. Kirwan backs up his points with solid analysis and it’s difficult to argue with what Kirwan says. After viewing this piece, what say you Bucs fans?

Since he’s bankrolled by the Disney syndicate, Adam Schefter has to produce loads of daily content. In an effort to fill his quota, Schefter recently tried to make the case why last year’s dormant franchises can win their divisions.

Stretching for a way the Bucs can beat out the Saints and Dixie Chicks, much less the Panthers, Schefter believes the answer lies at the feet of Bucs rookie wide receiver Mike Williams.

In recent seasons, we’ve seen two Steve Smiths — one in Carolina, the other in New York — perform at a Pro Bowl level. Now, two Mike Williamses — one in Seattle, the other in Tampa Bay — could be on the verge of becoming their teams’ No. 1 wide receivers.

The Mike Williams in Seattle has lit it up this summer, becoming the type of wide receiver the Lions thought they were getting when they selected him with the 10th overall pick in the 2005 draft. The Seahawks believe that, if he can keep the edge he has had all summer, Williams can catch 80 passes.

The Mike Williams in Tampa has impressed the Buccaneers from the time they drafted him. One Bucs official said midway through training camp that Williams already was the team’s best wide receiver.

Everything Joe has read and heard about Williams has been nothing but positive. Joe would love to see Williams torch opposing secondaries for years to come. First, however, Joe would like to see Williams dominate in a regular season NFL game before anointing him a savior.

Speaking on Sirius NFL Radio earlier this year, Joe recorded Josh Freeman talking to Bill Cowher about how he expects to run and audible more this season.

That got Cowher all excited, and Joe, too. If you missed it, click the link and take a look.

It seems Browns head coach Eric Mangini believed Freeman. Mangini told the Browns media, per the Cleveland Plan-Dealer, that he doesn’t see big gameplan differences for Josh Freeman or Josh Johnson.

(On if there is much of a difference between the preparation for the Tampa Bay quarterbacks Josh Freeman and Josh Johnson)- “There are similarities which is a positive thing. With any two people there’s going to be differences, but they create a lot of the same challenges. They are both very effective with their feet, they both can throw on the run well. I think both players have the ability to make plays outside of the standard way to make plays. But that consistency actually is a plus for us because you’re not preparing for one guy who is one way and one guy who is completely a different way.”

While Joe’s very skeptical that Freeman will play Sunday, Joe would expect to see a more comfortable, confident Freeman take off and run more often, especially with his very inexperienced receiving corps.

Joe came across an interesting piece on Yahoo! Sports that suggests the West Coast offense is dying.

As a result, the Tampa-2 defense is dying.

Farrar notes that the Tampa-2 defense was devised specifically to stop the West Coast offense. With the West Coast offense fading, so too is the Tampa-2.

Elements of the Cover 2 can be traced back to the Steel Curtain defenses that helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win four Super Bowls in the 1970s. The idea took off when Tony Dungy (who played on two of those championship teams) was hired as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996. Dungy and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin (who worked together in Minnesota from 1992-94) implemented the scheme and developed a variant called the Tampa 2, in which the middle linebacker would drop into deeper coverage, and the outside linebackers would be directed to watch for intermediate hook-and-seam routes. In the meantime, cornerbacks would re-route outside receivers to the intermediate halves played by the outside linebackers.

The Cover 3 defense: by losing a safety up top, a 4-4 stack allows for deep coverage, better run defense, and versatility in the middle of the defense. The strong safety can read as a force defender, provide a run fill inside, or take a flat in coverage.

But as Kiffin has said, “Cover 2 became a lot better when we had better players.” That’s true of any scheme, more so with the Cover/Tampa 2. When the Bucs were killing offenses with it, they had potential Hall of Famers in their front seven (tackle Warren Sapp and linebacker Derrick Brooks) whose talents were especially suited to these schemes. Many teams that played copycat without the same talent failed. Dungy’s 2006 Indianapolis Colts team won the Super Bowl despite having one of the worst run defenses of the modern era. That’s another problem with the Cover 2; run support from your safeties can be tough to find without breaking out of the box. Even the post-Dungy Colts are augmenting the front four by going with more blitz looks.

So could it be that when Ronde Barber joked the Bucs were going to play a “Tampa-2.1” defense, and Raheem Morris stated he would be trying different things, that in fact the Bucs were not going back to the future but trying to be innovative in an effort to adjust to the ever-changing schemes of the NFL?

Bucs coach Raheem Morris apparently wanted his team to get used to soulless football earlier today by having the Bucs work out in the Fruitdome. A JoeBucFan.com commenter suggested it was a way for the Bucs to get used to Sunday’s crowd noise. The St. Petersburg Times produced a video about the surprise practice move.

One of Joe’s favorite sportswriters has penned a telling feature on wide receiver Mike Williams for the Buffalo News, the rookie’s hometown newspaper.

This is an insightful read that Joe suggests you check out.

Williams delves into his mother’s regular coaching influence now, as well as when he was only allowed to play football with her at home until he turned 10 years old.

Williams also explains how he wants to fly under the radar, “I’d rather nobody know who I am.”

The kid hasn’t played a real game, but there’s a massive pile of hope sitting on his back. Joe is pulling for him.

It seems, per reports on WDAE-AM 620 and from cool cat Joe Smith with the St. Petersburg Times, the Bucs are leaving the comforting confines of One Buc Palace for the tomb better known locally as the Fruitdome.

Why?

Joe was under the impression that Raheem Morris wanted the Bucs to embrace the heat? Hard to do that at the Fruitdome.

Joe is also convinced that Kellen Winslow and his gimpy knee won’t enjoy practicing on the turf.

The Bucs can’t be practicing at the Fruitdome to get used to playing on a baseball infield because Kardashian-chasing running back Derrick Ward was cut.

Could the Bucs be practicing at the Fruitdome to endear themselves to the charms of the ceiling rings?

Or could Raheem Morris hope to channel the vibes from Merlot Joe?

This is all very strange to Joe.

This week Joe heard his friend and former Bucs QB Shaun King talking about how a quarterback’s throwing thumb will take a couple of good shots during a typical NFL game.

And King, speaking on The King David Show on WQYK-AM 1010,  said that in the case of Josh Freeman’s busted thumb, it surely would take that many or more blows because the Browns would be going after it on Sunday. 

That caused Joe to take pause. The thought of the Browns gunning for the thumb of Raheem Morris’ groom gave Joe a painful shiver(though nothing like the kind felt during a Rachel Watson sighting).

So Joe turned to former Bucs defensive end Steve White, a JoeBucsFan.com columnist, to get his expert take on a defense’s attack plan on an injured quarterback. 

White said he’d expect the Browns to make a greater effort to swipe at the ball when near Freeman, “so even if you don’t get the sack you might get a hit on that bad hand.”

But White downplayed a bit the effect of the Browns targeting Freeman’s thumb, saying it would get hit regardless and “Freeman is just going to have to be able to deal with some pain for the rest of the year.”

Joe is still having a hard time fathoming Freeman playing on Sunday, especially after he sat out practice on Wednesday. Joe’s just not seeing it, not a 22-year-old QB with a yet-to-be healed throwing thumb.

Frankly, Joe was always under the assumption a team employs a backup quarterback because said team thinks the QB can win games. Well, with Freeman’s messed up hand, this should be Josh Johnson’s time to prove his value. 

If he can’t perform well against the Browns at home before 49,000 raucous, Bucs-loving maniacs, what good is he?

Ronde Barber, taking a break yesterday from senselessly whining about Aqib Talib’s punishment from the NFL, gave a very intriguing take on why newcomer Sean Jones’ won the starting strong safety job.

Speaking to the Cleveland media, Barber explained that Jones is the first guy to bring a level of physicality rivaling John Lynch’s to the safety position since the Bucs icon left Tampa Bay after the 2003 season.

Barber propped up Jones and landed a swipe at Sabby Piscitelli. Not one to ascribe motives without just cause, Joe recognizes that Barber may not have meant to take a backhanded jab at Sabby here. But it’s still a jab worth noting.

“He brings a physical presence, which we haven’t really seen his type of physical play since [John] Lynch left. You know, we have Tanard Jackson; You know, he doesn’t mind throwing his body around. But he doesn’t have that body type to do it like Lynch used to do it when he was here, at least that I’ve seen,” Barber said.

“Then Sean [Jones] came in and, you know, that’s basically how he became our starting strong safety. Jimmy Lake, our DB coach, asked for physicalness at the position, and he showed it. Obviously, he’s a great teammate. You know, I think he would have accepted it either way. But he just came in and worked, you know, brought his attitude into this building, into our defensive backs room. It’s going to help us.”

First, Joe is pleased to hear that Jones is so physical. Joe saw some of that in practice, as Jones always seemed to be the only guy hitting a bit when drills weren’t live. This is high praise from Barber and should make any Bucs fan excited.

Second, Barber saying that Jones is a “great teammate” and would have “accepted” not starting, is an arrow to the gut of  coach-trashing Sabby, as far as Joe is concerned.

It almost make Joe wonder if Sabby will be out to pasture when Talib returns from suspension.

There were few Bucs fans who shed a tear that the Bucs cut ties with wide receiver Michael Clayton. But intrepid Bucs beat writer Tom Balog of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune believes that move could backfire.

While Balog readily admits that Clayton’s dropped passes were lethal, Balog writes that Clayton’s locker room presense was significant. Given the fact the Bucs are counting on young receivers, including a pair of rookies, Balog is of the impression Clayton’s absense could hurt more than it can help.

There is nobody on this team for all these young guys to lean on, especially at the skill positions. Tight end Kellen Winslow, maybe the team’s best player, is the offensive unit’s version of Barber.

Worse yet, Winslow has a repellant personality, as far as I can tell.

Teammates might rather seek out Danny the groundskeeper, for personal help, than approach Winslow.

Joe’s had this discussion with Balog before, specifically about Winslow. Joe had mentioned once to Balog that he seems to get along with Winslow quite well, which came as a surprise to Balog.

But Joe has heard this discussion before and really Joe doesn’t have an answer. How important are leaders? Consider the Bucs were beyond horrid last year. Where were those leaders?

While Joe sees where Balog is coming from, Joe is also of the belief that this leaders premise may be a bit overrated.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also wants you to know THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

Things are looking up when you start cutting your Pro Bowl players.

Oh, make no mistake about it, Clifton Smith is damaged goods, and we can probably thank Carolina Panthers gunner Dante Wesley for that. His ridiculously early, incredibly tasteless hit probably stunted the career of one of our best kickoff returners ever.

Let’s put it in perspective: the guy who ends a 30-year drought for kickoff returns in Bucs history cannot even make the team the next year. We’re talking about Micheal Spurlock, of course.

Why? Because he is replaced by a high second-round draft pick from App State (should have been in the App store on iTunes for $2.99), and that’s the way it works in the NFL. But this second-round pick, Dexter Jackson, finds the Sunday League a lot harder than the Saturday one, and after half a season the Bucs decide that a guy on their practice squad who did pretty good in the preseason deserves a shot again, because it can’t get any worse than a guy who runs backwards.

Enter Clifton Smith, who simply returns a kickoff for a touchdown to spark the biggest comeback in franchise history, and starts another comeback over Detroit with a PUNT return for a touchdown. His two returns land him a role in the Pro Bowl.

That’s right, Pro Bowl; and around here, Pro Bowl players don’t just grow on trees. We only have three left; a replacement (Davin Joseph), the Browns’ former tight end, and a guy who’s been going to Hawaii since the 90’s.

Now not all of Smith’s problems stem from that hit in the Panthers game that was the first of his two concussions. He is also recovering from gout. But the bottom line is that there are other options on the team for a change. And that is a great sign when you can let go of a Pro Bowl player because you know there are guys on the roster just as capable of doing the job.

Sammy Stroughter, Micheal Spurlock, Preston Parker, all guys who emulated the main character in this story in one way or another.

Parker is like Smith, in that he impressed his way into the Bucs organization with great hustle and play. Same with Stroughter last year, a late round draft pick by the Bucs in 2009. Spurlock has returned, but he brings with him something he did not have before, the ability to play a roster position other than returner.

With the Bucs coming off a season in which their special teams actually outranked their offensive and defensive units, kick and punt returners will have an even larger role in the positioning of opening drives for the team. The Bucs ranked second in special teams in 2009, and their only fault – a last place finish in FG percentage – figures to improve greatly with a full year of Connor Barth.

How a full year without Clifton Smith goes, however, remains to be seen.

When Ronde Barber was a Bucs rookie in 1997, Bucs fans could find tickets to the season-opener on windshields of parked cars in shopping malls, or so the fairy tales go.

Now, Barber, perhaps in his final NFL season, begins in much the same way: Before many fans disguised as empty red seats at the CITS, notes eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.

Tampa Bay’s 35-year-old cornerback broke into the league in 1997, the last season the Buccaneers had a home game blacked out locally. Sunday’s season opener against the Cleveland Browns already has been declared a blackout by club officials and Bay area fans will instead see the Dolphins-Bills game on CBS at 1 p.m.

“I’ve come full circle,” Barber said Wednesday. “Weird isn’t it? This is a weird town in that regard. When I first got here, there weren’t a whole lot of people in the stands. In 1997, there was nobody here. The Rays are the second-best team in baseball and they can’t get 20,000 in the stands. It’s a deadly storm. The (economic) downturn coincided with our team downturning.”

Deadly storm for the Bucs but pathetic for the Rays. Long ago Joe grew weary of the excuses and whining people invent for not going to Rays games.

As long-time Tampa Bay radio personality, sportsaholic and hardcore Rays supporter Tedd Webb said recently of the miserable Rays attendance, “this just isn’t a major league market.”

Bucs fans who can’t go to the game Sunday, can’t take advantage of The Blackout Tour, there is hope.

The Bucs games will be streamed (legally) on NFL.com beginning at midnight.

Mike Florio, the creator, curator and overall guru of NFL.com decided to put on his Edward R. Murrow hat and had a nice piece of information that the NFL will repeat what it did last year, offering — for free! — blacked out games some 11 hours after kickoff.

Last year, with the threat of a high number of lockouts looming, the NFL modified its blackout policy. All blacked out games were available in the local markets on a tape-delayed basis, via NFL.com.

Starting at midnight, the blacked out games were available for 72 hours, with the exception of the three-or-so hours of Monday Night Football.

NFL spokesman Dan Masonson tells us that the league will apply the same approach in 2010. Thus, if our friends in Tampa can find a way to avoid all media for 11 hours after kickoff of the Bucs’ home game against the Browns, the Week One contest can be viewed on NFL.com as if from scratch.

There you have it. No need to monkey with some crappy Internet connection from Hong Kong streaming in a poor video quality of the game with many buffering delays. NFL.com will have the game available in sweet HD online.

JoeBucsFan.com analyst Bob Fox expects an ugly start for the post-McNabb era in Philly

Joe knows many of his readers love to bet on football games.

Now Joe is sure all of his readers fly to Las Vegas to wager legally, versus calling the guy whose phone number changes every week and repeats back to them things like, ‘So that’s a 50-timer on the Skins’ or ‘That’s a three-team tease – Bills, Saints, Niners.’

To please the gambling crowd, Joe has turned to superpicker Bob Fox. A writer for various sports publications over the years, Fox flashed his stellar picking skills back in 2008 on JoeBucsFan.com, when Joe had a contest here among local sports media personalities.

Fox will be here to give you a few games every week.

By BOB FOX
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Green Bay Packers 27,  Philadelphia Eagles 17
 
The Packers haven’t won a NFL game in Philadelphia since a couple of weeks after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. That’s a LONG time. There is also the memory of the 4th-and-26 playoff game in Philly a few years ago, when QB Donovan McNabb brought back the Eagles in miraculous fashion. That was yet another NFC Championship game when a late Brett Favre interception was the difference between winning and losing. The Packers’ offense is almost unstoppable right now, but the Eagles will try and slow down QB Aaron Rodgers and company with heavy blitzing pressure. The Packers’ defense was ranked No. 2 overall in the NFL last year, but struggled against high octane passing offenses. The Eagles can pass pretty well with QB Kevin Kolb, but I see the Packers forcing a mistake or two into the willing arms of someone like 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Charles Woodson. I see the Packers ending their 48-year curse in the City of Brotherly Love this weekend.

New Orleans Saints 27,  Minnesota Vikings 13
 
The 2010 NFL season begins with a game that pits the two teams that met for the NFC Championship last year, also in New Orleans and at the Superdome. QB Brett Favre of the Vikings was hit hard and often during the game last year by the Saints defense, badly spraining his ankle, severely bruising his thigh and having a couple of gashes on his forehead. Favre also threw two interceptions in the game, including the one that took away any chance of the Vikings winning in regulation, as the Vikes were near field goal range then, before losing in OT. Even without the likes of S Darren Sharper (who is on the PUP list), expect the Saints to give Favre another dose of what worked last January. I expect the physical Vikings defense to try and do the same against QB Drew Brees of the Saints. However, Brees has more healthy offensive weapons than Favre now (minus WR Sidney Rice for instance), and I expect the Saints to get behind their boisterous home crowd and beat the Vikes somewhat convincingly.
 
Cleveland Browns 16,  Tampa Bay Bucs 13
 
This was a game that a lot of Bucs fans figured to be a victory when the schedule was first announced in April. However, QB Josh Freeman has had very limited practice after breaking the tip of his thumb in the second preseason game. The Bucs expected Freeman to be ready for the opener vs. the Browns, but that looks ominous right now. Speaking of QBs, Bucs killer Jake Delhomme is now the QB of the Browns, and has looked very good this preseason, after looking horrendous in 2009 as the starting QB of the Carolina Panthers. I expect this game to be close, so QB play will be very important. Bottom line, based on the what I have seen (and not seen at QB), I have to side with the Browns this Sunday in a close game. 
  
Ohio State Buckeyes 27,  Miami Hurricanes 20
 
There are a number of great college football games this weekend, including FSU at Oklahoma, Penn State at Alabama and this one, a game between the participants of the 2002 national championship game. Ohio State is ranked No. 2, while Miami is ranked No. 12. The Buckeyes are led by QB Terrelle Pryor, who can make things happen with his arm or his legs and is a Heisman candidate. Things should be hopping at the Horseshoe in Columbus, but a road game has never bothered the ‘Canes.  Miami got a flavor for the Big Ten when they played Wisconsin in the Champs Sports Bowl last year, and were physically beaten down in a 20-14 loss. The Canes are led by QB Jacory Harris. If Harris can play within himself and not force things, the Canes have a chance to upset the Buckeyes.  However, I see Pryor having the better game at QB, and the Buckeyes will make most of the 100,000 plus fans at the game very happy in an Ohio State win.

If you were yearning for a refresher course on what the Bucs are trying to do with their football team, Raheem Morris explained that in part today when speaking to a Cleveland reporter via conference call.

Joe transcribed the defensive mastermind/head coach’s answer to a media member who essentially asked Morris what he sees in this year’s Browns.

“They’re very similar to what we’re trying to do, as well. They’re in the stage that we’re in, building a lasting contender, getting young players to come in here and develop them, coach them with their guys, coach them with their talent, and have all those guys coming in and form that family unity that we seek and everybody seeks that’s coming from where we come from as far as the turnaround,” Morris said.

Joe much preferred the head coach’s violence and victories talking points last year. This “lasting contender” and “family” chatter sounds more suited to a college softball team.

Joe had trouble typing this headline with a straight face.

Sorry, but Joe doesn’t really believe the spirit of Josh Freeman’s comments today when he spoke of sitting out today’s practice with his busted thumb bandaged as all part of “the plan” leading up to opening day, so Woody Cummings of TBO.com documented.

Freeman, who has been nursing a fractured right thumb (throwing hand) sustained early in the Bucs’ second preseason game on Aug. 21, returned to the practice for the first time Tuesday. On Wednesday, he stood with the quarterbacks during the pre-practice warm up with his right thumb bandaged and without pads.

The decision not to practice on Wednesday was predetermined, Freeman said.

“I’m good,” Freeman said. “It’s part of the plan; no setbacks. It’s part of the plan. It’s called a plan because it’s put in place before something happens. So it’s a plan.”

Now Joe’s not calling Freeman a liar. This all comes down to how one defines plan.

Joe is quite sure that the plan always called for Freeman to sit out if he had trouble with his still-mending thumb. So in Joe’s mind, this is an awful sign yet still part of the Bucs’ plan.