USFBulls727

I had the same feeling about Taggart's 2015 team. Felt like we were getting close even before that Syracuse game. Getting a similar feeling here. Hopefully this defense looks better in conference play...

Or this.....

Defense won't let that happen. Love the fact that we have a competent OL though, something we haven't had in awhile. Timmy is **** good, and HAS to have the job locked down at this point. Noticed in the first half that either the WRs were not getting open, or Timmy wasn't finding them. Every play broke down and Timmy had to make something happen with his legs each time. Aside from that disastrous 1st quarter, the offense looked pretty good. If the defense somehow finds some semblance of competence, who knows...

40 new players on the roster this year, Freshman QB, and we were within one of of #15 BYU. Maybe it's just me, but it seems way too early to be calling for Scott's head. Everybody had us at 1-3 at this point coming into the season, and that's where we are.

Every time I see Romney throwing deep, I just assume there will be a WR 4 or 5 yards behind our defense catching it

Hopefully the Big12 is looking to replace Kansas with a new door mat

I remember Darrell Scott trying to hurdle a FAMU defender and took a helmet to the nuts in the process. He was rolling around on the ground for about 5 minutes after that. He great a great game other than that though.

Agreed. Was having Holtz flashbacks when that decision was made.

Florida sticking with Jones at QB over Richardson as long as they did wasn't all that brilliant either. It felt like the score could have been a lot worse for us if they stuck with Richardson. Whatever the case, I think we have the talent to do well in conference play.

Agreed with you 100%. I believe this offense will be quite good once we settle on a QB (McClain), and are going against defenses that maybe aren't quite as stout as we faced today. Saw flashes vs. NC State, and saw more today. There is talent and a lot of fight in this team. Florida & NC State is a rough way to start the season with 40 new players on the roster. I would put the "Fire Jeff Scott" crap on hold for now.

3rd down inside the 5, and they snap it over McClain's head for a big loss. A perfect microcosm of USF football in recent years.

Feels a little weird saying this, being that we've been outscored 80-3 so far this season, but the offense has shown flashes of competence, and may end up being decent this season. There is clearly some talent at WR and RB, just in way over our heads today, which I thought we all knew coming into today. We'll see what happens starting next with FAMU. I must say though, this looks a little more like a Globetrotter's game than I thought it would. Some of the TDs given up were just way too easy....

Watching Wisconsin-Penn State. I normally don't pay attention to things like this, but I can't help but notice that Wisconsin seems to consistently be the whitest team in the FBS. Is that just my imagination, and if not, why would that be the case with them?

Good point, but I doubt any of the former Big East programs are bleeding money though...

Yep. I believe we were being shut out in that one before before bringing Mike White in to save the game .

Absolutely. Will be interesting to see who gets the nod next week at QB. I think either guy could be good in this offense, but I love the possibilities with McClain in there.

Coastal Carolina crossed my mind too. West Florida as well. They won a Division 2 National Championship in their second or third year in existence I believe, if you're talking about ANY College Football team, regardless of division...

That crossed my mind as well. I read an article leading up to gameday mentioning what a well-oiled machine the offense was in practice with Fortin, but they seem to write similar hype pieces every year leading up to game 1 (along with the amazing change of culture by whatever coach is in place). I'm not ready to write him off quite yet though. Could have been jitters. We're just one game in. Still a long way to go.

Frustrating for sure, but I haven't lost interest yet. We were never going to win this game....I think most here knew we would be overmatched against what might be a very good NC State team coming into this....but we had several opportunities to at least make it look a little better on the scoreboard. I didn't think the design of the offense was bad, just had too many misfires by both QBs tonight, including a couple of deep balls that might have gone for TDs. Also had McClain just seemingly panic and make a couple of bad throws in the red zone, but there's clearly a ton of potential there. I still like the potential of the WR corps, and can see the possibility of one of these QBs settling down and being effective in this offense. This doesn't feel as hopeless as our 2019 opener against Wisky, where there was ZERO signs of that offense being any good. We WILL get smashed by Florida in another game in which we will be badly overmatched, but at least wait until conference play before deciding whether there's been any improvement or not. We knew coming in that we weren't there yet. Many predicted 1-3 through four games. Too early to be calling for Scott's head.

I was hoping we wouldn't suffer a 49 point blowout like we did against Wisky, and BAM!! Jeff Scott and company delivered.

The phrase "culture change" almost makes me nervous anymore when it comes to USF football. I'm reminded of Charlie coming in and changing the culture by kicking a dozen players off the team, banning earrings, basically creating misery and sending the program into a nosedive. Also found this thread about Skip coming in and changing the culture here. We all know how that turned out....

I used to get a kick out of Taggart doing things like having the offense throw a deep ball to the end zone with a 16 point lead on the last play of the 4th qtr vs. ECU. He did something similar vs. UCF as well. Used to totally piss off the other team. I'm certainly glad that Willie passed through here. He brought us Mack, Adams, Q, DJ, and I believe McCants as well (or was that Holtz?), among others, and eventually delivered the best offense we've had. The one glaring mistake he made, IMO anyway, was sticking an inexperienced Raymond Woodie in at DC in 2016. That might have been the difference in us winning or not winning the conference that year.

Exactly. Taggart being one of the few willing to bring Q in as a QB seems to get overlooked. Taggart and his staff also created an offense that seemed almost custom-built for Q in the GCO, and put a lot of talent around him. There is plenty reason for Q to be grateful to Taggs as well. Not sure why some on this board refuse to give Taggart any credit for what he built here.

At bare minimum, I'd like to see competent OL play. Win or lose, if we have that, that's a start at least. If Fortin is on his back with his helmet on backwards after every play, it's going to be tough to watch. That has driven me nuts with this team in recent years. BTW, regarding that Wisconsin game, I remember CaliBull hyping Kerwin Bell's offense in the lead-up to that game, predicting unreal numbers, then after the blowout loss, he's like "Alright I'm out". Just a lesson to temper your expectations a little I guess. I bought into the hype too. Hopeful this year, but ready for anything.

I remember somebody starting a similar thread here, "The thrill is gone", or something like that a year or two ago. Not a good sign when the diehards are talking like this. We can only hope that this is not a repeat of Wisconsin a couple years back, when there was enthusiasm around the possibilities of Kerwin Bell's new offense, then we went on to have all that enthusiasm absolutely beaten out of us in week 1, and aside from the BYU win, it never really got a whole lot better (not to mention the losing streak to end '18). The Covid rules made last year unwatchable. I literally watched about 5 minutes of USF football in 2020, in the 4th quarter of the UCF game, and couldn't even finish that. I'm not all that thrilled about this upcoming season either, for all the same reasons that you listed, but I am curious to see what they look like. I can only imagine what the morale will be like if this NC State game looks anything like that 49-0 disaster...