FAB 5. SR’s Buc Shots

• On the heels of Father’s Day, which was last Sunday, kudos to former Buccaneers wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, whose son was a highly touted recruit at the University of Nebraska under head coach Mike Riley, who was Johnson’s offensive coordinator at USC where he became the first overall pick in 1996. Johnson removed his son, Keyshawn, Jr., from the Cornhuskers program with Riley’s blessing for six months to help him focus on school and maturing after his son was cited on suspicion of marijuana possession.

Ex-Bucs WR Keyshawn Johnson and his son – Photo by: Getty Images

“You’re in college now,” Johnson, Sr. said in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald. “You’re an adult. You’re not a kid. You take a look at it from afar and let me know how important it is to you.

“One thing you will not do as my son is you will not embarrass Nebraska, you will not embarrass Mike Riley and you will not embarrass this family. If you mature and you’re ready to resume your football career and academic goals, then Nebraska will be ready to embrace you.”

Johnson said his son, a freshman wide receiver, will stay enrolled at Nebraska, but will not play football in 2017. The elder Johnson said that it was his decision and Riley’s decision to pull his son from the football program.

“I never asked him,” Johnson Sr. said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think that decision was in his hands. He squandered that decision. He still wants to play football, and he still wants to play for Nebraska. But if you don’t do the things you’re supposed to do, under the guidelines of me, it’s not going to happen.

“There’s no ‘Mike Riley is good friends with Keyshawn, so his son’s automatically going to play.’ That’s not the game. That’s not why he went to Nebraska. He went there to work his tail off. To have an opportunity to be successful, but when you don’t do that — and you squander that — what are you going to do?”

The younger Johnson said on social media that he plans to “bounce back,” and that’s a good thing. In a day and age where an increasing number of kids have a sense of entitlement and parents seem to believe that their kids can do no wrong, it’s great to see Johnson provide some tough love to his son. Here’s hoping Keyshawn Johnson, Jr. can learn from this and become a better student, a better football player, and most importantly, a better young man from this learning lesson.

Chicken Scratch by Thunderbird /Price: $12.99
Why we like it: This seasoning is SEC tailgate tested. That’s how this Nashville, Tennessee company actually got the motivation to start. The owner would tailgate at various SEC games for years and people said he needed to open his own restaurant selling the wings he made (seasoned with this). Chicken Scratch is tangy and spicy with the right amount of sweet. Dust your chicken or pork with this rub. To really enhance the flavor, it’s recommended to cook with a healthy portion of wood (fruit flavored) like pecan since this rub was developed with a penetrating smoky taste.

Pick up some Chicken Scratch by Thunderbird at Just Grillin, which is located at 11743 N. Dale Mabry Hwy in Tampa, just 15 minutes north of Raymond James Stadium. Or shop online at JustGrillinFlorida.com

• In studying the quarterbacks I compared Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston to in Fab 1, I feel his game most closely resembles that of Green Bay’s Brett Favre. Although Winston is operating in a vertical play-action offense that might closely resemble that of Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger compared to the West Coast offense that Favre played in under Mike Holmgren, Favre often eschewed the staple quick slants and pushed the ball downfield to wide receivers Sterling Sharpe, Antonio Freeman, Don Beebe, Robert Brooks and Bill Schroeder on Cover 2-beating go routes and deep posts, and tight ends Keith Jackson and Mark Chmura up the seam.

Favre had the same type of daring playmaking ability that Winston possesses and a gunslinger’s mentality. The exciting aspect about the start of Winston’s career is the fact that he threw for a combined 50 touchdowns in his first two seasons. Of the five quarterbacks I compared him to, Ryan threw 38 and Favre threw 37 TDs, respectively, in their first two NFL seasons.

• Earlier this offseason, Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter said he wanted Tampa Bay to be known as a “bad ass” football team. Third-year left tackle Donovan Smith was asked for his own definition of what a “bad ass” football team looked like.

“Someone that’s going to go there and fight, grit, down to the nitty gritty and go after them,” Smith said. “Lean on teams, get after them; make them feel us all four quarters that’s what it means to me.”

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• While the Buccaneers are considered to be a young team with quarterback Jameis Winston and middle linebacker Kwon Alexander entering their third seasons in the NFL and Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans entering his fourth year, Tampa Bay has plenty of veteran leaders, too. Right tackle Demar Dotson, defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and linebacker Lavonte David are homegrown leaders, while veteran leaders like defensive tackle Clinton McDonald, defensive end Robert Ayers, Jr., cornerback Brent Grimes and wide receiver DeSean Jackson have been added in free agency over the last four years.

Bucs DBs coach Jon Hoke – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Entering his second season in Tampa Bay, veteran Bucs defensive backs coach Jon Hoke is impressed with the increasing number of leaders at One Buccaneer Place.

“It’s good – this time of year it’s easy to be a leader,” Hoke said. “It’s always when adversity strikes when [leaders step up]. We have the core guys and I think we have guys that when adversity does strike will be good leaders. Just from the places I’ve been, this is very good.”

When injuries hit and adversity struck last year during the team’s 3-5 start, Hoke noted that the leaders on the team stepped up and helped the Bucs finish the second half of the season 6-2, including five straight wins during November and December, which tied a franchise record for most consecutive victories.

“That’s a tribute to the players as much as anything else,” Hoke said. “They did it. They have to go out and play and they are a very resilient group. They knew their ability because they showed flashes of it at times, but we just didn’t have it on a consistent basis. Once we improved our communication across the board and once we trusted the system as much as anything else, they put themselves in position to make the plays they made.”

• The latest Pewter Nation Podcast debuts on Friday on PewterReport.com. Be on the look out for that and give it a listen this weekend and let us know what you think. Our Pewter Nation Podcast listenership, PewterReport.com’s web traffic and the number of Twitter followers and Facebook followers continues to grow thanks to you – Pewter Nation – and we greatly appreciate your support. To follow @PewterReport on Twitter please click here, and to follow us on Facebook please click here. Thank you for your time and patronage and enjoy the first official weekend of summer!