Jon Gruden will be instructor at camp

Former Bucs coach Jon Gruden won’t just appear at Storm coach Tim Marcum’s football camp this weekend.

He’ll be coaching at it.

Not long after agreeing to be the camp’s guest speaker this Sunday, Gruden, recently named as a Monday Night Football host, told Marcum that since he’d already be there he wanted to provide instruction to the campers.

“We’re excited for the young athletes to have the opportunity to receive instruction from a Super Bowl champion coach,” Marcum said.

The non-contact camps will focus on skills, fundamentals and techniques inside the St. Pete Times Forum. Athletes will receive training from high school, college and professional coaches, along with current professional athletes. The list of those expected to coach include Robert Weiner, a two-time state championship coach at Plant, Orlando Predators coach Jay Gruden, Storm quarterback Brett Dietz and AFL legend Lawrence Samuels.

For more information, email staff@timmarcumfootballcamps.com or go online to www.timmarcumfootballcamps.com.

Jon Gruden to appear at Marcum football camps

There is one surefire way to enhance the status of a football camp.

Produce a big-name speaker.

In that regard, Tim Marcum has succeeded.

The Storm coach, who is trying to stay busy with the future of the Arena Football League in limbo, will host a series of camps in June. At one of the sessions, former Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who recently was named as a host of Monday Night Football, is expected to take part.

“That’s a big deal,” Marcum said.

The non-contact camps will focus on skills, fundamentals and techniques inside the St. Pete Times Forum.

“It should be fun,” Marcum said. “I’m looking forward to it. Where else can you get instruction inside with air-conditioning?”

Gruden, who led the Bucs to a Super Bowl title but was fired in January, will be the camp’s guest speaker June 7, Marcum said. He will give insight on how to become a successful athlete.

You can read more about the camps HERE.

Former Tampa Bay Bucs coach Jon Gruden finds a niche on television

Say hello to Jon Gruden, television star. Soon, he may have his own sitcom, writes Times columnist Gary Shelton.

(Jon Gruden, on right chatting with Jets pick Mark Sanchez, impressed NFL Network brass with his draft coverage work. [NFL.com])

Jon Gruden photo gallery

Jon Gruden visits Steve Spurrier, South Carolina

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden on Tuesday made a surprise visit to South Carolina's practice at Jefferson High School to wish the team well in the Outback Bowl, according to a story in the The Daily Iowan.

South Carolina will play Iowa at 11 a.m. Thursday at Raymond James Stadium.

"It was nice to see Coach Gruden come out here," South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier told the paper. "They had had a very tough ending as we all know. It was nice of him and his boys to come out here and sort of pull for the Gamecocks."

Spurrier was a colleague of Gruden's when he coached the Washington Redskins from 2002-03.

Jon Gruden: Too early to name a Week 6 QB

Bucs head coach Jon Gruden said at his weekly press conference that it is too early to tell which quarterback will get the nod for Sunday’s game against NFC South rival Carolina. Starter Brian Griese left Sunday's game against Denver with an elbow injury and Gruden said Griese is questionable. While Jeff Garcia has struggled with injuries as well, he would be the choice is Griese is unable to play.

"We're going to address the quarterback situation as soon as we get all the facts," Gruden said.

"Obviously health is going to be an issue. Jeff did some good things. His health has been an issue and his return to health is something we're excited about. We'll evaluate and let you know on Wednesday."

While the Bucs only scored 13 points against Denver, Gruden didn't point a finger at his quarterbacks. Instead, he gave credit to the Broncos' defense.

"Brian played pretty well and Jeff played pretty well," Gruden said. "Denver used some strange tactics yesterday. They've been a man-to-man team throughout the first month of the season. Yesterday they rushed three 23 times. I thought under the circumstances both quarterbacks did some good things."

The only other player Gruden mentioned as questionable was linebacker Barrett Ruud. Ruud suffered a knee injury and was replaced by Adam Hayward.

Rodney Page, Times staff writer

Bucs banged up: Askew, Sims have hamstring strains

Bucs coach Jon Gruden was plenty happy about a lot of things from Sunday's dramatic, come-from-behind OT win over the Bears.

Gruden praised the poise of Brian Griese, the protection by the offensive line, and the emergence of receiver Antonio Bryant and Jerramy Stevens.

But the Bucs again left a game banged up, as Gruden said fullback B.J. Askew and defensive lineman Ryan Sims suffered hamstring strains.

Gruden said he doensn't know yet whether Aqib Talib or Joey Galloway will play this weekend against the Packers, but said Talib has a better chance than Galloway.

Here's some excerpts:

Gruden on Griese: "He was great down the stretch, it's hard to duplicate that. It's hard to beat what he did in the last 30 minutes, 25-30 minutes of the game."

Gruden on the protection: "I think it had a lot to do with our ability to come from behind and win. Any time your quarterback has a chance to see and go through his reads, have vision in the pocket, it certainly helps."

Gruden on difficulty running the ball vs Bears: "We had some good looks, some draw plays. If you watch the game, they have a guy in every gap on every snap and it's hard to run. It's hard. It's a loaded box, a lot of single blocsk, and they've got an extra man in support a lot of the time.'

More to come

-- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

Gruden on Cato June's arrest, Michigan job

Bucs coach Jon Gruden didn't seem to appreciate the tone of questions from a local television reporter about linebacker Cato June's arrest and the coaching opening at Michigan during Gruden's news conference Monday at One Buc Place.

Asked "Does Cato June have a drinking problem?'' at the start of the news conference, Gruden gave the reporter a hard stare before responding, "I don't have any comment on that right now other than we're very concerned. We're getting all the facts. It's a serious matter.''

June was arrested in Tampa at 3 a.m. and charged with DUI, hours after the Bucs' 31-7 victory over the Falcons Sunday in Atlanta.

The same reporter followed with a question about whether Gruden allows his players to drink on the team plane.

"I'm not going to comment,'' Gruden said. "I have a strong opinion on Cato June. He's a great young man and as we gather all the information, we'll make an announcement.''

Later in the news conference, the reporter asked Gruden about a report linking him to the head coaching job at Michigan following Lloyd Carr's retirement.

"I really don't know who you are, man,'' a perturbed Gruden responded, "but you're throwing me some fastballs.''

Addressing the question, Gruden said, "I have what I think is the best job in all of football. I'm very happy to be here.''

Gruden said the Bucs will address June's situation ''privately'' and didn't believe it would be a distraction for his team, which is 6-4 and leads the NFC South by two games over New Orleans and Carolina entering Sunday's game against Washington.

June isn't the only current or former Buc to have DUI-related problems this year.

Ex-Bucs receiver David Boston was arrested and charged with DUI in August in Pinellas Park after police found him slumped over the wheel of his SUV with the car running and in drive. A urinalysis later revealed that Boston had GHB in his system, and the Bucs released him.

Tight end Jerramy Stevens was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $3,160 after being convicted of DUI in Scottsdale, Ariz. Stevens was arrested in March, a month before he was signed by the Bucs.

(Pictured: Cato June. AP photo/Hillsborough County Jail. Click to enlarge.)

Gruden's news conference

HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN

(On injured players)
Greg Spires has a calf injury and he's currently being evaluated. Torrie Cox injured his knee; he also is undergoing some tests at this time. We are concerned about them. We'll update you when we get the results from these tests. Once again, we're very disappointed in the game yesterday. Our guys played very hard.

(On if he knows if Michael Pittman or Michael Clayton are any closer to returning to the field)
No, not at this point. Patrick Chukwurah and Brian Kelly are two other guys. We've got a number of guys that we have a chance to get back. I just can't comment on that until I actually get final word from our trainer.

(On what he liked about the first half of the season)
I've got to meet a lot of guys on the football team. We've used just about every guy on the team. We're playing hard. Our last three games have come down to the closing seconds. We won a game against Tennessee in dramatic fashion and had a chance to yesterday. We put ourselves in position for a finish in Detroit. Guys are playing hard. Some of the young players are getting better. I feel like if we can get some guys back in the second half of the season we can hang around and make this interesting.

(On Garcia missing some open men after seven games of being so sharp)
Well, you're not going to be perfect. You're going to miss a couple throws. Unfortunately, we missed a couple yesterday, and when we did put the ball on the money, a couple times we dropped it. So there was a combination of those two things in key situations that had a lot to do with us not winning the football game.

(On what hasn't been good enough in the first half)
We've got to get better in all areas. Obviously the last two weeks our turnover ratio is what's hurt us. We haven't acquired a turnover on defense and we've turned it over on offense. You can go through all the statistics you want, you can play fantasy football and draft whoever you want, but at the end of the day it's turnover ratio that decides football games. We've turned it over too many times in two weeks and we haven't got any turnovers. Usually that will do you in.

(On what he says when he sees a catch like the one Matt Jones made against them)
Let's go men. We need that. We've made some great plays throughout the season. You look at Matt Jones jump up and make a freak catch with his left hand and get two feet in. The play before that, we challenged, I don't know who caught it, I can't remember now but it was an unbelievable catch. The ball was in his face, he gets his eyes around, he somehow catches it and gets two feet in. You give them credit. They made a couple great plays and those two plays, signature plays, probably won them the game.

(On the red zone production)
We would like to be better, we would like to be better. We fumbled the ball on a first and goal at the one in Detroit. I believe yesterday at the end of the first half with no timeouts, some of the play selection obviously is a little lopsided in passing the ball. We have done some decent things, we have capped off some drives. Cleary, we can score more points than we have in the last two weeks.

(On WR Maurice Stovall)
He did okay. He had a couple penalties, the push off in the two-minute [drive], the holding call on the reverse, negated a 12 or 15 yard run. His inexperience showed a couple of times. I thought he played hard, made a couple of nice catches, played on special teams, got tired. We had to take a timeout late in the ball game to get our guys some air, Joey [Galloway] got tired. Maurice did some good things, and it was a good start.

(On turnovers)
We have done pretty well. Our quarterback went seven games without a pick. One of the interceptions yesterday, Glenn makes a great play. He is timely, he jumps, he takes a gamble and it pays off for him. The last interception of the game, the ball is thrown pretty well, we don't secure it, [and] sometimes that is football. Defensively, I think we have gone a couple weeks without a turnover. We have to obviously do a better job and find a way to get a couple in our favor.

(On the missed opportunities)
That is a golden opportunity. We didn't get it done. We had some chances to make some plays and we win the game. You were there, you saw the game, watched the film, our players I think will feel like, hey, we are a pretty good football team. We have to make a couple more plays. We are going to be alright. That was unfortunate.

(On Michael Bennett)
Well he didn't play a lot. I thought when he was asked to play he did a pretty good job. Obviously he's got some speed, like to see him catch the ball on the sideline, that's a 35 yard-play. I realize their low percentage, but when guys are open deep, that's not low percentage to me, that's high percentage, that's impact play making kind. People are going to blitz, if they're going to sit on you, you throw it over their head. We have to make those plays, but I think he's doing a good job and I believe he's going to be an asset to our football team.

(On DE Gaines Adams getting playing time)
I think the way he played yesterday, I think he has the right to be frustrated a little bit. But if you watch Greg Spires play, Spires will be frustrated because he didn't play too, he played very well. Sometimes there is going to be some frustration when you're not playing, but Gaines Adams did a good job when he played in the game yesterday. I expect him to be a real big part of the second part of the season; we're anxious to see what he can do.

(On DE Gaines Adams performance over the last eight weeks)
There are some aspects that I'm really excited about. He does give a good effort, is he leading the league in effort? Gaines you're not leading the league in effort. Kyle Vanden Bocsh from Tennessee leads the league in effort. I saw that last week and I think Gaines Adams had now a half of a season to get a feel for this league, who's in it, how the game is played, and I believe he's ready to take off. I believe Gaines Adams has an opportunity now to sit back and look back at the first half of the season and understand that he belongs in the league, he knows how to play, he understands our defense now, and we expect big things from him.

(On how he manages the rotations of the DE's)
We are going to do what we do what we feel is right with the entire group, that goes from Greg White to Kevin Carter, all the guys. It's not all about Gaines Adams here today, it's about our defensive line and we do expect Gaines to be an every down player and an impact player for our franchise for years to come. Whether or not that's this week or next week we'll have to see.

(On if he was surprised about Jacksonville running the ball in 15 consecutive plays)
A little bit, but when you take a look at the Jaguars football team, they have the components there to do that. They've got four great backs. [LaBrandon] Toefield is a heck of a back too, no one talks about Greg Jones, but when you have [Maurice Jones] Drew and [Fred] Taylor [and] Marcedes Lewis is one of the bigger more physical on the line of scrimmage blockers in the league and they are a big physical football team. So with the young quarterback, I think the big run, was the third-and-eight run, when they out planked us in a man-to-man defense, which is uncharacteristic of us, but they were able to get some three to four yard runs, set up some third and twos, go for it on forth-and -inches or fourth of inside one. I was surprised by that, but I though we did a better job in the second half, getting it squared away and playing better.

(On the Bucs needing to win the division to make the playoffs)
Again, if you win your division, you're in the playoffs. And every year it starts right there. New Orleans Saints, no matter what anybody says, they are a good football team. You know, Carolina has problems with now with injuries, too. Atlanta has had their share of injuries. So, there's blood in the water, I said it a couple of weeks ago, in the NFC South. Hopefully we can get some guys back and be a factor down the stretch.

(On the quarterback having a hot hand)
The way I see it, Jeff is always hot. Jeff's a heck of a player. When you get into a game like that when it's a blitzfest, you look forward to putting the game in your quarterback's hands and we want to do that every week. We consider him a great quarterback. I think he has been for the first eight weeks of the season. He's responded to a lot of change around him. It's been hard on him, it's been hard Jeff Garcia, okay? A lot of guys have come and gone and it's not like he's in his fourth or fifth year in this offense. He's reacted well, in my opinion, I think he's a great quarterback, and he's the reason why we will have a chance in the second half.

Transcription of Gruden's news conference

HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN QUOTES

MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2007

(On injured players)
Real quick, our injury list. It's hard to be official until I hear from the trainer after some of these guys have been examined. But Mark Jones injured his knee; he'll be out for the season. Michael Clayton is getting an MRI at this point on his ankle. We have a couple other guys that are being treated at this point, but those are the two significant injuries from yesterday's game.

(On if he was encouraged by anything he saw on offense in Detroit)
Well, there's a lot to be encouraged by. Earnest Graham had close to 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in his second career start. Jeff Garcia, I don't know if he was 20-for-20 at halftime or close to it. It's hard to imagine him playing much better. He did some great things. Obviously losing Clayton on the second play of the game didn't help. Hopefully we can get the full supporting cast healthy and ready to go here for the second half of the season to help him. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to finish some drives better, and we had a couple breakdowns, obviously, in special teams that hurt us. But there were some positive things to take away from the game, there always are. But there was also, in defeat, things that make it hard to swallow.

(On if there were breakdowns on the Bucs' defense)
Well, backed-up on one of the plays we had an issue with contain and Kevin Jones got outside to set up a first down. They converted a third-and-short on a naked bootleg by inches. Calvin Johnson hurt us on a couple plays, certainly a seam post where coverage was pretty good. [Jon] Kitna made a great throw and Calvin Johnson made a great play. Then on the end-around, the 32-yard run, we didn't have the best contain but Calvin made two or three guys miss in the process. I can't fault anyone's effort. I can't say we had dramatic breakdowns, but the Lions orchestrated a pretty good drive. I give them credit.

(On the offensive line performance against Detroit)
Well, all-in-all there were some good plays. The sacks obviously put a tainted picture on what was a pretty good performance. We had four 15 or 16-play drives. We had a couple penalties that were very disappointing. False starts, I think we had a roughness penalty and a holding call in the first half. We overcame a few of those penalties in route to a score. We did have some penalties, we did have a couple issues in pass protection, but I can't just fault the offensive line. We're in this together, and we could have got some help, I think, in some situations where we normally do.

(On if there is frustration involved with losing players to injury every week)
It's frustrating. It's not baseball. It's not Major League Baseball. You can't make a trade and just put a guy in your lineup and say, 'Hey, go play right field and hit fourth. No disrespect to baseball, but you've got to know the formations, you've got to know the snap count, you've got to know the audible system, the two-minute package, all the things that you learn in training camp and OTAs and things of that nature. But when you lose three running backs and three receivers and a tight end and a left tackle, a corner, a defensive end and Sabby Piscitelli's also been out for some time, they do add up. We will be tested, certainly, this coming week with the Jaguars. They're an outstanding football team and you'll see so tonight.

(On WR Mark Jones)
I believe it is Patella tendon, very similar injury that Carnell [Williams] suffered. When I get the final word from Todd [Toriscelli] will be sure to tell you guys on Wednesday. It is unfortunate. He was one of the top return specialists in football. Obviously, you can see where he ranks statistically yourself. Somebody will have to pick up the slack in the punt return and kickoff return aspect now.

(On where the team is)
We like our team. We are disappointed in the outcome of the game yesterday. We feel like four out of our first seven games have been played on the road. We would like to have won the ball game yesterday; we would like to have more wins than four. We are right in the thick of this thing. We have to roll up our fists and fight right now, like a lot of the other people sitting at home today. It is not easy, life is not easy. We have to overcome some dramatic loses to our football team, but we are confident we can do that. We will lean on our best players, and hopefully see the emergence of guys like Earnest Graham and Donald Penn, [as they] prove they can play in the NFL, and now they have to continue to prove it.

(On RB Michael Bennett's play Sunday)
We liked him. Obviously he got into a situation there on short notice. I don't even think he knows most of his coaches or teammates by name or number yet, but he got in and got three carries and was in on a couple of other pass action passes. I believe he played five or six plays. He's a guy that has kickoff return capabilities. I think Michael Bennett is meeting with our coaching staff right now trying to learn and get caught up in terms of our offense. We like to expand his role, clearly he's a guy with some speed and he's a great guy and a good learner and hopefully we can get him out there more next week.