When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gather in five weeks for the start of training camp, they'll be greeted by a more assured head coach eager to see how his young roster responds to pressure.
Raheem Morris, coming off a 3-13 debut season on the sidelines, said he has a sharper vision for the kind of team he wants to forge out of camp.
"In Year 2, you have a better sense of direction and where you should be,'' Morris said Thursday. "Before you become a head coach, you just think you know what you should do and hope it's right. Now, I'm at a different stage. I'm like (second-year quarterback) Josh Freeman as a head coach. I've got a direction and we know exactly what we want to do. Now it's up to me to demand that we execute.''
After the tumult of a 2009 season that saw the dismissal of both coordinators by November, the Bucs have enjoyed a relatively tranquil offseason. The main question mark is the status of left tackle Donald Penn, a disgruntled restricted free agent who has declined to sign his tender and may not report for training camp on July 30.
Morris said he intends to relax and get away from football for a few weeks. He was asked whether Bucs players should expect a more demanding head coach this summer.
"I don't know if you can shock these guys at this point,'' Morris said at the conclusion of mandatory mini-camp. "They kind of look at me right now and expect the unexpected. I don't think they were expecting what we demanded from them and what we got from them this week.
"Training camp for me is going to be about physical, it's going to be about violence. Training camp is a little different. That's when you take off your underwear, put on your big-boy pads and you put your face on people.''
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