JON GRUDEN, the man whom Bryan Glazer, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ executive vice-president and son of owner Malcolm, called “the finest young mind in the game” had much to concern his mind when he began this season with the Bucs.

The head coach led his team to victory in Super Bowl XXXVII five years ago in San Diego, but he was widely tipped to be on his way out of Raymond James Stadium, with the Glazers having delayed pushing the exit button after a dismal 4-12 win-loss record last season.

In his first year in Florida he had placed a giant slab of granite in the locker room – “to be that blue-collar guy who’s pounding the rock every day, sweating in the mines, to keep chipping away at it”, the then Bucs receiver Keenan McCardell explained. On the first day of this season’s training camp Gruden played a masterful psychological stroke again.

“We went 4-12 last season,” he announced, placing emphasis on the collective because the relationship between head coach, staff and players was in danger of fracturing permanently. All inside One Buc Place, the nerve centre of the Tampa Bay operation, were united behind a single goal again. “The thing is that Gruden never quit,” cornerback Ronde Barber said. “He could have, but he didn’t. Instead he learnt and he grew, and so did this team. We did it together.”

Despite losing three of their final four regular-season games – the last two after clinching the National Football Conference South division title – Tampa Bay will face the New York Giants in a first-round playoff game today on home turf with surging confidence. On the same day that Eli Manning, the Giants quarterback, was magnificent in orchestrating his team’s heroic but unsuccessful attempt to prevent the New England Patriots from going through the regular season unbeaten – the Giants lost 38-35 in a compelling game – Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia was being rested against the Carolina Panthers along with several other key players.

Tampa Bay believe that they are Super Bowl contenders and have focused on the playoffs for weeks. Even for the (so far) perfect Patriots, this is the stage of the season that counts, and Gruden recognises the importance of having a full complement of players available, especially Garcia. “He’s a large man, who has made an enormous contribution to this organisation,” declared Gruden. “He’s Shaquille O’Neal, a man’s man, and a hell of a player.”

Last season, when rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski replaced Chris Simms, who suffered a season-ending spleen injury, Tampa Bay fell to their worst season since 1991.

Garcia was a big influence as the Bucs steadied the ship this season and began to set a course for Super Bowl XLII in Arizona. He completed close to 64% of his passes, threw for 13 touchdowns and his passer rating of 94.6 placed him seventh among the National Football League’s (NFL) quarterbacks. “Jeff Garcia has been the biggest difference on our team this year,” Barber said. “He’s allowed Coach Gruden to relax a little more because he has that type of comfort at the position [which Gruden] hasn’t had in recent years.”

When Gruden and Garcia came together for the first time in 1998, it did not go well. Having completed his first season as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Gruden offered the young quarterback a trial. Garcia had led the Calgary Stampeders to the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup, but wanted to make it in the NFL.

“Unfortunately, it was this bad, overcast and soggy day and I went out there in front of the entire coaching staff,” Garcia remembered. “[Gruden] had me do things that were not necessarily my strength, throwing to spots and assessing my arm, and the receivers, I think, were equipment guys. He wasn’t getting me at the top of my game, because I had spent a month celebrating the Grey Cup and wasn’t in the best of shape. Nor had I any idea about what an NFL workout was about.”

Gruden passed on Garcia, but Bill Walsh, the legendary coach of the San Francisco 49ers, recommended the quarterback to his old team. When Steve Young suffered a career-ending concussion injury, Garcia succeeded him, earning three selections to the Pro Bowl in each of the next three seasons.

When he came in for Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles last season, after McNabb’s campaign was ended by a knee injury, Garcia propelled them into the playoffs. Gruden finally secured his services in March last year.

“It’s easy to say what he has meant to this team,” Gruden said. “He has come in here and he’s given us stability at a position where you have to have consistent, quality play [in order to be able] to compete and to win.

“He has made a lot of plays not only athletically and with his experience, but he has made a lot of creative plays as well. He has avoided the rush and protected the football and he has really competed for us.

“He has sent some life through the football team and certainly through our offense. He is one of the reasons we have been able to compete week in and week out.”

He may have saved Gruden’s job also, but we can only surmise. Unsurprisingly, the Glazers have not passed comment.