Tampa, Fla. ? Just 20 months ago, his Tampa Bay Buccaneers were celebrating a Super Bowl title, and Jon Gruden was being hailed as a coaching genius. Now all the talk is about whether the Bucs simply are capable of getting the ball in the end zone and winning a game.

Gruden is 0-2 for the first time in his career, and the league’s youngest coach is battling a growing perception that his team is in ruins.

“I don’t have very many friends today, OK. I’ve got my wife, my dad who is a consultant, and I’ve got these players,” he said. “You find out who your real friends are when you get beat in a humbling, humiliating fashion.”

The Bucs have lost four straight games dating to 2003, a rollercoaster year that began with the Super Bowl in January and ended with a 7-9 season marked by Gruden’s ugly spat with receiver Keyshawn Johnson and the coach’s rift with former general manager Rich McKay.

Johnson was benched with six weeks remaining in the season. McKay was finished before the end of the year, too, leaving for the Atlanta Falcons.

McKay is the man who helped Tony Dungy build Tampa Bay into a contender. Gruden got the team over the hump, but now some fans fear he and new general manager Bruce Allen have gone overboard in putting their stamp on the roster.

Although Gruden, 41, rejects the notion he has a preference for older players, the Bucs have gone from having one of the league’s youngest teams three years ago to the oldest this season, with an average age of nearly 28.

Free-agent departures and a shortage of high draft picks — it cost two No. 1s and two No. 2s to pry Gruden away from the Oakland Raiders in 2002 — have been a factor. But the truth is, Gruden and Allen are mainly responsible.

There are plenty of subplots to Tampa Bay’s season: the departures of Warren Sapp and John Lynch, Keenan McCardell’s holdout, and questions at quarterback. But the main storyline is the extreme makeover that appears to have left the Bucs a shell of the team that dominated the league not too long ago.

“You have to look at whatever angle you see here,” defensive end Simeon Rice said.

“Right now, you could have a coach that looks like a genius or an imbecile. The story is out there. It’s in our power to really take this game, our own personal game, to the next level and do big things.”

The Bucs signed 13 free agents who were at least 30 the past offseason and left training camp with 16 overall, tied with New England for second-most in the league behind Carolina’s 18.

One of the newcomers, 38-year-old receiver Tim Brown, was released by the Raiders after being told he was no better than the fifth- or sixth-best receiver in Oakland. He’s starting in Tampa Bay, even returning punts, because of injuries and McCardell’s holdout.

Gruden and Allen worked together for four seasons in Oakland, thriving with experienced veterans often obtained at bargain prices, but the general manager bristles at the suggestion that the Bucs have become “Raiders East.”

“It’s a catchy phrase, but I don’t know what it means,” Allen said. “With the Raiders we believed in doing well with our draft choices. The way (Tampa Bay’s) salary cap was, the only thing we were able to do is go out and get a bunch of veterans. … What we need to do is play better.”