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USF's Defensive Turnaround

bullsmeanbusiness
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bullsmeanbusiness Toro Magnifico

bullsmeanbusiness

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Posted

At last, Willie Taggart's weekly refrain about poor tackling and gap control no longer are audible.

The buzz over the resurrection of the "Bull Shark" defense has drowned it out.

After three games, USF ranks first in the American Athletic Conference (and 14th nationally) in run defense (89.3 ypg). This time last year, after three games against a similar level of competition (Towson, Northern Illinois, Syracuse), the Bulls ranked 10th in the league and 82nd in Division I (161.0 ypg).

"It's just the energy and the will that we have on the defensive side," senior FS Tajee Fullwood said following Friday's 47-23 victory against Illinois, in which USF held the Illini to 67 rushing yards (45 on one play).  

Coach Charlie Strong suggests energy and pride have converged to spark the apparent resurgence. Fullwood is among seven senior first-teamers maligned almost weekly last season, when the Bulls surrendered 482 yards (nearly 200 on the ground) per game.

"It's a combination of both because Coach BJ (Brian Jean-Mary) is very aggressive, and he has a way of getting the players ready to go play," Strong said, referring to his defensive coordinator.

"You look at his defense, a lot of the players we have are older players. They've heard a lot about the defense and what they didn't do, and now they're just working hard and proving to everybody what they can do."

The sturdiness doesn't stop with the run defense. The Bulls' eight interceptions are the second-most in the country, behind only Central Michigan (nine), and they rank 17th nationally in pass-efficiency defense (95.30). 

AND ABOUT THAT OFFENSE: Despite two shaky opening games and a flag-infested opening half Friday, USF's offensive numbers remain solid.

USF is 13th nationally in rushing offense (281.3 ypg) and 14th in total offense (522.3). The passing numbers have taken a mild dip (241.0 ypg, 60th nationally), but the Bulls remain among 29 teams averaging 40 or more points a game. 

INJURY UPDATE: Strong said he expects to have everyone available for Thursday night's AAC opener against Temple, but said WR Deangelo Antoine didn't practice Monday morning. Antoine hobbled off the field in the second half and didn't return. 

Strong added WR Darnell Salomon, who didn't suit up against Illinois (unspecified reasons), will be available Thursday.

ODDS AND ENDS: Actual attendance for Friday's game (per the Tampa Sports Authority) was 27,619. ... Fullwood ranks ninth nationally in punt returns (18.6 yards per attempt). ... Senior Jonathan Hernandez currently leads the AAC in punting (42.7 yards per attempt). ... Fourth-year junior WR Stanley Clerveaux's two catches (for 12 yards) Friday were one more than his career total entering the game. ... When asked Monday about the Bulls' 16 penalties against Illinois, Strong said, "It's more of just looking at 'em and make sure we play better football and be a better disciplined team. There's no reason for so many penalties."

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Calibull Toro Magnifico

Calibull

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The only reason we didn't have a great defense last season was because Woodie was incompetent.  I said the entire offseason that the defense would be a lot better.  Just because of competence.  Everyone was wondering about talent.. etc... it was there... except the coach was... well... he was "special"...  

 

 

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Bull Dozer Toro Magnifico

Bull Dozer

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24 minutes ago, Calibull said:

The only reason we didn't have a great defense last season was because Woodie was incompetent.  I said the entire offseason that the defense would be a lot better.  Just because of competence.  Everyone was wondering about talent.. etc... it was there... except the coach was... well... he was "special"...  

 

 

 

The play calling and alignment alone are what killed us last season.  Woodie just isn't DC material and was in waaaaayyyy over his head and it showed.   The tackling looks much better which I know CCS and BJM put a big emphasis on since they arrived.  Also, being able to call a good game and put your guys in a position to succeed leads to better tackling because they start the play in a more advantageous alignment.   

 

I really hope Temple tries to just line up and kill us with an unbalanced line like they did last season.  We will eat their lunch all night if they think that's working this season.....

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Calibull Toro Magnifico

Calibull

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5 minutes ago, Bull Dozer said:

 

The play calling and alignment alone are what killed us last season.  Woodie just isn't DC material and was in waaaaayyyy over his head and it showed.   The tackling looks much better which I know CCS and BJM put a big emphasis on since they arrived.  Also, being able to call a good game and put your guys in a position to succeed leads to better tackling because they start the play in a more advantageous alignment.   

 

I really hope Temple tries to just line up and kill us with an unbalanced line like they did last season.  We will eat their lunch all night if they think that's working this season.....

Yeah... I was thinking that as I read this.  I hope Temple lines up in the unbalanced bullcrap.  Not happening this year.  I also think the Temple game was personal for these guys, they'r going to roll them.

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Bull Dozer Toro Magnifico

Bull Dozer

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Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Calibull said:

Yeah... I was thinking that as I read this.  I hope Temple lines up in the unbalanced bullcrap.  Not happening this year.  I also think the Temple game was personal for these guys, they'r going to roll them.

Yeah, all that crap they were talking about USF being soft and defenders diving to get out of the way of the FB.....  The defense is going to be out for blood Thursday.

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BDYZR Toro Magnifico

BDYZR

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10 minutes ago, Bull Dozer said:

Yeah, all that crap they were talking about USF being soft and defenders diving to get out of the way of the FB.....  The defense is going to be out for blood Thursday.

Any chance you could find that quote and send it to DC CBJ?

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MMW Grand Bull

MMW

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, bullsmeanbusiness said:

The buzz over the resurrection of the "Bull Shark" defense has drowned it out.
 

This is not the Bulls Shark defense.  It is much better.  I was never sold on Alan.  He was better than Woodie but that is a very low bar.

I hope we can continue to tackle and hawk balls once we get in conference play.  This defense is starting to look like our defenses of old.  I am really impressed with our ability to stuff the run, especially on first down.  We seemed to always give up 8 yards last year on first downs.  We would only get off the field when the other team screwed up.  It didn't matter since we were scoring at will but it sucked to watch.

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horny_gimli Collaborator

horny_gimli

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Posted
1 minute ago, MMW said:

This is not the Bulls Shark defense.  It is much better.  I was never sold on Alan.  He was better than Woodie but that is a very low bar.

I hope we can continue to tackle and hawk balls once we get in conference play.  This defense is starting to look like our defenses of old.  I am really impressed with our ability to stuff the run, especially on first down.  We seemed to always give up 8 yards last year.  It didn't matter since we were scoring at will but it sucked to watch.

This. All day, this. I had enough faith in the offense last year to pull out some wins (memphis, SCar) that should have been easy with a little bit of defense. 

However, it's soooo nice to know that in a close game you can rely on your defense to come up with a stop and you can rely on your offense to score.

I feel like this might be the most complete (if not outright best) Bulls teams we've ever seen (now that we know Gilbert was sandbagging with the playbook).

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Calibull Toro Magnifico

Calibull

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15 minutes ago, MMW said:

This is not the Bulls Shark defense.  It is much better.  I was never sold on Alan.  He was better than Woodie but that is a very low bar.

I hope we can continue to tackle and hawk balls once we get in conference play.  This defense is starting to look like our defenses of old.  I am really impressed with our ability to stuff the run, especially on first down.  We seemed to always give up 8 yards last year on first downs.  We would only get off the field when the other team screwed up.  It didn't matter since we were scoring at will but it sucked to watch.

Indeed... 

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Apis Bull Toro Magnifico

Apis Bull

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Posted

This all just proves how bad Woodie actually was. 

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