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Zuttah Can Think On His Feet

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By ROY CUMMINGS The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 2, 2008

Updated: 08/02/2008 12:13 am

LAKE BUENA VISTA - Coming into training camp this year, Bucs offensive line coach Bill Muir had high expectations for rookie lineman Jeremy Zuttah.

They weren't the kind of expectations you might expect.

Muir didn't expect the Bucs' third-round draft pick to drop in and immediately steal someone's starting job. He simply expected Zuttah to arrive here having already mastered Coach Jon Gruden's playbook.

Talk about high expectations. Gruden's playbook is the Rubik's Cube of the NFL. Most players need months to decipher it. Zuttah needed only a few weeks. Muir wasn't surprised.

"We did our homework on this kid," Muir said.

Zuttah did his, often at Mach speed. He graduated from Rutgers, the school he chose over Princeton and Harvard because it afforded him the chance to play Division I football, in 31/2 years - with a degree in economics.

"He's brilliant," Gruden said.

No exaggeration there. Zuttah scored close to 1,300 on his SAT. When he piled on the courses in an effort to graduate early, his grade-point average actually went up.

"I guess I'm pretty good under pressure," he said.

The pressure's on now. The Bucs are working Zuttah out at three different positions - right guard, left guard and center. All this after he spent last year playing tackle.

It's like trying to learn Mandarin Chinese, Mongolian and Hebrew all at once. It's not a problem for Zuttah, though. Like the playbook Muir threw at him two months ago, he is mastering it quickly.

"I don't know how he does it," Gruden said. "It's amazing. I mean, our playbook is so thick and tedious. And we've thrown a lot at him. But he's picked it up."

The process starts with memorization of terms. From there, Zuttah moves onto concepts. By the time he sees it all in action a couple of times he usually has it down.

It doesn't all come naturally to him. Zuttah says most of his down time is spent studying the Bucs playbook, memorizing terms and understanding concepts. Sometimes even that is not enough.

"I have a little notebook that I keep," he said. "I go through that as much as I can. I mean, there's so much to it, so many adjustments. You just have to keep at it."

Zuttah does have a built-in edge. He says he has always been pretty good at solving mind puzzles and winning strategy games. Figuring out something as complex as Gruden's playbook was nothing new to him.

Zuttah is more than a brainiac, though. Sure, he spends his spare time playing chess and collecting Japanese comic books, but for a guy who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 303 pounds he is as athletic as they come.

He was the only offensive lineman to run a sub-five-second 40-yard dash at this year's combine, and only one offensive lineman Jake Long bench pressed 225 pounds more than Zuttah, who lifted the bar 35 times.

That said, the Bucs were a little surprised when he threw the pads on. They didn't expect him to be as physical or as polished as he's been.

"Some guys are just instinctive," Muir said. "Arron Sears, he's an instinctive guy. Jeremy Zuttah is just like him. The learning aspect of the game is not a problem for him.

"And that's a good thing. If you're smart and tough you usually get better and you have a good chance to make it in this business. So, yeah, this kid's got a chance to be something."

Zuttah is prepared if he doesn't make it. He figures his smarts and his economics degree will probably take him somewhere. As of yet, though, he's barely put a thought toward where it will take him.

"Right now, my mind is on football," he said. "But football's not forever. And this NFL thing is not guaranteed. That's why I got the degree and graduated early. You've got to be prepared for whatever happens."

Smart move.

Reporter Roy Cummings can be

reached at (813) 259-7979 or

rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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