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BUCCANEERS TRAINING CAMP QUOTES MONDAY, JULY 28, 2008
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HEAD COACH JON GRUDEN
(On today’s practice) “Well it was the first day of pads and we’ve got 25 new players. I think everybody somewhat is measuring the tempo that we want and it’ll be much better tomorrow morning. There were some good things early, physical things, but our red zone, 7-on-7 was sloppy from an offensive standpoint. When you throw two interceptions, miss two open receivers and you drop two passes, that’s going to make for a bad period. There were some good things. I think we’ve got to obviously pick it up the second day tomorrow.”
(On Earnest Graham starting) “Well I’m not going to get into who’s starting and all that right now, but obviously if you watched him today he made some great runs inside the red zone. We worked exclusively in the plus-20 area today and he made some outstanding runs and a couple good blitz pickups. He’s a heck of a back.”
(On Jeff Garcia’s first day) “Well it’s great to have him back and he looks good, I’ll say that. He’s a difference-maker for us and he’s a tempo-setter. We’re just glad that he’s back and I’m sure there will be a celebration and a wild one indeed tonight at the hotel.”
(On if the team was sharp in pads) “Well as I just said, we have a lot of new players. Some guys on other teams have a different padded tempo. Here, we try to keep things face-up and try to make it physical but it’s not full-speed tackling. Usually the first day the players are getting on the same page in terms of the tempo. It’ll be much better tomorrow.”
(On Phillip Buchanon) “He was a big asset last year. He and Aqib [Talib] and Ronde Barber are very good players and Eugene Wilson is doing some excellent things at the corner position too. Phillip is having an outstanding camp to this point.”
(On if he said anything to Garcia in regards to the Favre situation) “Yeah, I do, and the story is going to continue to be bantered about, and rightfully so. But Jeff’s our starting quarterback and I’m sure he’s available for an extensive interview later.”
(On if he’s tired of the Favre questions) “I’m worrying about our football team and I’d really just prefer keeping this conversation to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Jeff Garcia, as you saw, was our starting quarterback today. We’re in the fourth day of training camp and we want to play a lot better football than we did last season.”
(On Antonio Bryant) “He just had some cramps yesterday. He’s struggling a little bit from the standpoint that he’s trying to cross-train right now. We’re really pleased with him. He’s done an excellent job. When you’re trying to play the split end position for the first three months and trying to kick over and play flanker, there can be some wires crossed.”
(On Aqib Talib) “He’s doing great. We’re really impressed with him. He had a couple big splash plays yesterday and his talent is easy to recognize. Again, he’s got to master the defense and Raheem Morris is doing a great job with him.”
(On Joey Galloway’s status) “All flights are cancelled again today. It’s been frustrating from the standpoint that we miss him. You’re talking about Cadillac Williams, you’re talking about Luke Petitgout, our starting quarterback just got back last night and obviously Galloway – four key guys that we need on this football team. But hopefully he’ll be back towards the end of the week.”
(On Earnest Graham) “Yeah, he looks good. He’s a good back. He’s no mystery to anybody anymore. He’s a really good football player and that showed again today.”
(On Derrick Brooks giving Garcia a handshake) “I think they were going to try to have a standing ovation for him, a little sarcasm from the defensive standpoint. But Jeff used a quick count and we couldn’t all quite get synchronized in terms of our celebration antics. It wasn’t very good. It made it look like the coaches were disorganized, but really it was Brooks’ celebration that was disorganized today.” | |
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