USFBulls727

They definitely do. Something we definitely don't do

You had me double checking the scores

Kudos to the board for not pointing to Georgia Tech's demolition of Bowling Green as proof that they are an absolute powerhouse this year.

A "Girls of Rio" thread would have all kinds of potential...

You are making this up, correct?

Wasn't sure where to put this, but.... I guess their SOS is better. The preseason ranking didn't hurt either http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/24815987/cfp-director-bill-hancock-says-there-path-ucf-knights-reach-playoff

I couldn't tell you. Nas Gone To Paradise posted the link to it, otherwise, I would have never seen those rankings..

Sagarin has us at #55

These rankings have us at #55, and South Dakota State at #56. SDSU is 2-0 with wins over Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Montana State. Am I missing something? SDSU did beat Arkansas Pine-Bluff 90-6. Also 2-2 Texas A&M one spot ahead of 4-0 LSU is interesting.

There are issues with the offense right now, no doubt, but it looks like the O Line and maybe some of the play calling. Not sure if it's all on Blake. CWT's offense was horrid the first 1 1/2 seasons, but Q was there the whole time with CWT....and there were certainly growing pains there as well,.. Blake is still very new to working with this first-team offense. He's 4-0. Give it time.

Actually, from 2015-2017, he's had a total of 24 attempts, and he's had very little time with this offense. Hard to believe that him having a rough game or two comes to a shock to anyone. I think he has tremendous upside, and will put up big numbers again, but the occasional growing pains shouldn't surprise anyone. Somebody brought up a legit question: With a struggling o-line, should we bring in CO and his running ability? Plus, CO has had a full year in the system. I say stick with Blake. The staff went with the guy they think gives them the best chance, and Blake is that guy. Pulling him now would be a REALLY quick hook IMO.

Our wins look worse and worse every week

The two plays to Salomon, against Illinois late in the game, and against ECU, there was NOBODY on him. Just a miscommunication on defense. We won't be able to count on that happening week in, week out.

They were saying that ECU was ranked last in the FBS in 2017 in defense. I was wondering throughout the game, did they become the '85 Bears in the offseason? Seemed like they had us locked down all night, and about 40% of our offense came on two plays...

Second straight week that he said something like..."We weren't ready to play tonight"

Not comfortable with the thought of Houston's offense against our defense. Luckily, Houston's defense apparently isn't great this year either though, and we can score when we're on. Should be fun.

Really, we were very fortunate that GT coughed it up late in that game when things were on the verge of looking kind of hopeless. We probably got past Illinois because of a blown coverage late in that game. Tonight, another blown coverage on the Salomon TD was huge in getting us by another mediocre team. Hopefully the high-wire act doesn't continue throughout the season like this.

On a positive note: The defense looked good in spots, particularly Hampton (aside from the blunder on the first ECU drive). Loved the aggressive playcalling on defense later in the game. Got pressure on the QB on several occasions, and forced some bad throws. 13 points is the lowest opponent point total in nine games. We held their QB to well under 50% completion percentage, and their rushing attack to 3.4 YPC, but season lows for our opponents. Pessimistic view: The team looked mostly listless for the second straight week, especially on offense. The coaching staff isn't getting the most out of this team right now. It was as if our offense had never seen a blitz before. Really no creativity in the play calling to get things rolling. Running game was mostly getting stuffed all night, and Blake simply didn't have time to find an open receiver on many occasions, and often looked rattled. Coming into the ECU game, Houston was the next game on the schedule that scraed me, but with the way we played tonight, Tulsa is. While there were bright spots on defense, we gave up more yards to ECU than North Carolina A&T did. Bottom line: We're 4-0, but what we saw on the field tonight likely gets smoked by Houston and UCF. Strong got another W, and therefore gets a pass here, but this team is under-performing. We've shown signs of a dynamic offense this year when we had to, but it seems we get really vanilla on that side of the ball when the defense is holding up. I'm very high on Barnett, but he's obviously going through some growing pains here at times, which is understandable. I think he will be blitzed heavily after opponents watch tapes of ECU. I can see why some would be down on this team right now, but we are 4-0, and have shown flashes both on offense and defense. I still see us being undefeated going into Houston, but it's getting harder and harder to imagine us getting out of there with a W.

What happened to Horne?

Tyre McCants left his house at age 18 and told his dad: "You're the man of the house now"

I get a kick out of seeing their McCants responses. They must read our McCants threads... https://247sports.com/college/east-carolina/Board/59438/Contents/ECU-Football-Three-keys-to-a-victory-over-USF-122266053/

I feel this will be a blowout win for us. NC stunk last year, and were projected by many to continue stinking this year, and they were VERY depleted Vs. ECU. And remember, the Pirates lost to an FCS team in week 1. I realize that we have our own issues, but we will be fine this week. Our offense put up over 600 yards on a bad day, on the road, against a team that's probably about as good as ECU. This should be an absolute field day for Barnett & company, and they may very well cover the spread. The staff admitted they didn't have the team ready for Illinois, so I'm sure they got their **** together this week, and will be ready.

Houston winning that game took a minor miracle (4th & 24), and that was a VERY good UCF team that beat us in a game we were in until the final minute. Illinois on the other hand, that was on Strong and company, and he said as much. He didn't have them ready, and it showed. Some on this forum rated the coaching an A for the first quarter of the season. I would probably go with a B mainly because of that Illinois game. They have shown the ability to make in-game adjustments though, and we're 3-0. BTW, I don't see this as a 50/50 game. It's probably more like 80/20. If we blow this at home somehow, being 21.5 favorites, I'm sure you will have a lot more people backing everything you just said.... .

There have been occasions where we knew we where headed for a beatdown. Surprised they don't know..