QB Shaun King chats with position coach Clyde Christensen Friday at One Buc Place
Yes, it's a little warm here in Tampa. But Buccaneers head coach Tony Dungy has a message for all his newcomers -- don't think it's hot. If you do, you might be in for a rude awakening come July.
"Unfortunately, they haven't seen the real heat of Florida yet," Dungy said after Friday's first practice session. "Some of the guys have a false sense of security. But that's part of it, getting them to train a little bit in this heat.
"Their hustle and the attitude is very good."
Under sunny skies, the Bucs hit the field for the second day of this three-day mini-camp. After conducting position drills, the focus shifted to Les Steckel's new offense, which again looked solid against one of the league's top defenses.
"We have a lot in the offense and we're trying to get it all in and get it installed," Dungy said. "Then, as you start preparing for different teams, you've got a lot of weapons in your arsenal. There's a lot of movement in this offense. We're trying to create matchups and I think it's going to be very good for us.
"We hope to, because of our running game, get a lot of people defending inside and get some space on the outside where our receivers and tight ends can work. I think we'll have all those elements in place and then it's a matter of executing."
But only so much can get done in a three-day April session. Tampa Bay's primary objective is to get its new players acclimated to the organization.
"We're trying to get our young guys to understand how we do things -- what the schedule is, what they're going to be faced with when they come back for training camp," Dungy said. "We need to get them familiar with our offense and defense so that in camp we can make evaluations of who the good players are."
