Perhaps it's more than the steeliness he learned at age 8, kneeling in Florida groves all day and picking oranges and grapefruits until his entire body ached. Perhaps it's more than the aggression he acquired through southern-fried football, at Bartow and Lake Gibson high schools in Florida's famed Polk County, then at the University of Mississippi. Perhaps it's more than the studiousness and diligence he began to display upon first signing with the Steelers four years ago as an undrafted free-agent.

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Maybe one of the last stumbling blocks in right guard Keydrick Vincent's path to better blocking was all mental.

After all, he spent months in the offseason and continues with telephone conversations each pregame Saturday night and follow-up Mondays with the folks at LGE Performance Systems in Orlando, Fla., toiling to improve the strength within not only his 6-foot-5, 325-pound physique but his soul as well.

Then again, maybe not.

"Mental training?" right tackle Oliver Ross said with a quizzical look. "I don't know about that."

"Yeah," added defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, overhearing this discussion yesterday, "he learned how to read. Before, all he knew was X's and O's. Now he knows the rest of the letters."

Does Steelers offensive line coach and assistant head coach Russ Grimm see a difference inside the heart and mind of the cartoon character of a fellow whom teammates call Shrek?

"Uh," Grimm said, mulling it over carefully. "No."

Well, the new training means more than a little to Vincent.

When Kendall Simmons crumpled in training camp with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, this backup fellow stood tall. He reacted in inimitable Shrek fashion.

"I just laughed," Vincent said yesterday, preparing to return with the Steelers (10-1) Sunday night to play Jacksonville (6-5) in a Florida that continues to shape him. "Because I knew what I could do. It was just a matter of me showing people.

"There are still a lot of chapters left in this story."

The book on Vincent, though, is entitled "Mental Toughness Training: Achieving Athletic Excellence." It's an 18-year-old manual written by Dr. Jim Loehr. He's a sports psychologist and co-founder of the LGE Performance Systems facility in East Orlando, about a half-hour drive from Vincent's Bartow home in the county that produced Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis and Philadelphia receiver Freddie Mitchell (Kathleen, Fla.), Buffalo halfback Travis Henry (Frostproof), Chicago kicker Paul Edinger (Lakeland) and former Pitt and NFL star Rickey Jackson and ex-Steelers tackle Wayne Gandy (Haines City), among others. Vincent read Loehr's book this summer, took to daily workouts at Loehr's facility, practices the preachings still.

Vincent's ex-girlfriend, a former Ole Miss golfer, turned him on to the facility that has trained such golfers as Nick Faldo and Mark O'Meara, tennis star Monica Seles, speed skater Dan Jansen, Indy 500 champion Eddie Cheever Jr. and NHL players Eric Lindros and Mike Richter. He started reporting there barely two weeks after last season ended. "I was just so angry," Vincent said, referring to the 6-10 Steelers season and his own play in the nine games he started.

The regimen began with him watching game films in the company of strength and conditioning coach Mike Florence, who then helped Vincent to arrange goals, areas to address and a plan. Vincent's weak points? "A big secret," he said with a Shrek smirk.

"There's a lot of mental toughness work," said rookie tackle Max Starks, who joined Vincent there soon after being drafted last April. "Game-type situations that we work on in our conditioning and training."

"Definitely, the mental approach is part of it," Florence said on the telephone. "It's important. If you don't have the proper mind-set in training, it's going to be hard to get in there and be productive."

Vincent has paired with Ross on the right side to help solidify a line that paves the way for the NFL's No. 2 and AFC's No. 1 rushing attack, at 156.7 yards per game. He likely will confront former Steelers teammate Jason Gildon on pass plays Sunday night. ("It's going to be fun seeing him on the other side," Vincent said.) He surely will use his size and power and mental toughness against a Jaguars defensive line that continues to play well despite seven different starting lineups in 11 games.

He has come a long way from the Polk County, 200 miles down Interstates 95 and 4 in central Florida, where he was too big to play youth football (5-11 in sixth grade and 6-4, 280 in ninth), where he plucked grove citrus because it was a family thing to do, where he switched from defensive end to a spot on the offensive line that, Vincent admitted, "I'm still learning."

Even if it takes twice-weekly calls from LGE's Florence to go over a checklist of conditioning, preparation and work routines. "Just focusing on the things we're supposed to be doing to get ready for the game the next day, and then on Monday or Tuesday referencing things again, keeping accountability," Florence said. "The testament to all this training is he's been prepared to step in."