Kickoff mystery solved

Okay, drumroll please....

Jon Gruden says Micheal Spurlock will return kicks on Sunday, filling the void created when Torrie Cox was lost for the season with a knee injury.

We'll have to be sure to spell his name right since he'll be on the field a lot. It's M-I-C-H-E-A-L. Yes, the "e" comes before the "a". Go figure. I apologized to him for getting it wrong earlier this week, for which I was jokingly chastised by the PR staff. My bad, Mike.

Gruden acknowledged Spurlock's inexperience -- he's returned only three kicks in his entire football career -- but the Bucs don't have a lot of choices and Spurlock's biggest asset is his versatility. He was a quarterback and running back at Mississippi and in high school.

He doesn't have experience "at this level," Gruden admitted, "but he has had experience doing this -- in his backyard, much like I have."

Hey, who knows? Maybe Spurlock will be the one to finally break the curse. As I'm sure everyone is aware, the Bucs have never returned a kickoff for a touchdown.

On a serious note, Spurlock did a decent job in his first foray into kick returning in the 2006 finale while playing for Arizona. He finished with three returns for 54 yards, including a long return of 21.