For Bucs, This Minicamp Is A New Beginning

Even in a football-mad town like this, the first minicamp of the year is hardly stop-the-presses news. As we know so well, though, things haven't been normal around the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a couple of months.

So the Bucs began more than just a three-day voluntary minicamp Tuesday. It was a passage. Monte Kiffin is not a part of the Bucs for the first time since 1996. Jon Gruden is gone. His playbook, too.

Chris Hovan gets the locker at the back left corner of the dressing room where Derrick Brooks used to reside. Quiet professionals like Warrick Dunn and Ike Hilliard are gone. Jeff Garcia is gone.

"I was telling the guys that this is like spring practice in college. Everything is new," said defensive coordinator Jim Bates, who also is new in town.

The new starting quarterback, Luke McCown, was a popular stop for scribbling scribes, loaded with questions. Gruden's offense was renowned for its difficulty to master. The new offensive coordinator, Jeff Jagodzinski, has a simpler format in mind.

"We might have a play last year that would take 10 seconds of the play clock to say in the huddle. Now it takes four words to say what it used to take 10 words to say," McCown said.

"We'll have fewer plays and verbiage. I can remember three years ago, the last game of the year against Seattle here. We had 220 pass plays alone installed for that game plan. From what I understand now from talking to Coach Jags, it probably won't be half that now going into a game."

On the opposite side of the locker room, converted linebacker Jermaine Phillips talked about life under his new coordinator after playing seven years for Kiffin.

"Right now, it's like learning a different language, but we're learning it," he said. "Everybody is buying in right now."

Everyone will be watching Bates a little more than normal. He has been handed the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, since defense has been the identity of this franchise - dating even to the 0-26 beginning.

"Everything that makes a good defense, Tampa Bay has exhibited over the years," Bates said. "Monte and I are good friends. He is probably the No. 1 defensive coordinator in the league over several years, but we're just doing our thing."

So the "Tampa 2" is out and Bates' attacking style is in. The emphasis on lighter, more agile defensive linemen is out, while the "help wanted" sign has been hung out for men with beef, attitude and ability to stuff the run.

There is a lot of justifiable skepticism about what this new crew can do, but for now it's about new beginnings. The Bucs had grown stale, a treadmill team that had fallen from the NFL elite.

We'll know soon enough what all the changes mean to the bottom line, but for now it's a lot more basic than that. There are new people to meet, new things to learn. Whatever happens down the road, things had to change. One look around the locker room, and the Bucs have at least accomplished that.