Superhippy

It's not a sweeping statement though. 6 out of 7 games this year the Bulls have fought hard and given 100% effort the entire game, and even in the NC State game, they were giving the effort, they just got whooped. This isn't the 1st game that the Bulls have shown that they have a different attitude as a football team, It's just the 2nd (Western Carolina too), time where that fight resulted in a win. It's easy to say "I won't make any judgements until the team starts winning consistently." but you can see the signs of a bad to mediocre team on the right track of becoming a great team, and vice versa. Look at Muschamp and Florida. The signs were there from early in Year 2 that he was tanking that program, but most Gator fans didn't want to accept it. Same deal with FSU and Jimbo. The record didn't show right away but he had been hauling in massive recruiting classes, and anyone paying attention knew that FSU was on the brink of being a monster again. USF is on that track.

I would bet that Temple makes a bowl game. They lost today but all they need are 2 more wins between UCF, ECU, Penn State, Memphis, Cincy, and Tulane. Tulane will be a win for sure. They will win atleast one of those other five games. Otherwise that's pretty much a spot on assessment of the AAC. The bottom 4 teams are awful. The middle 5 are all about the same. ECU is clearly #1. Memphis is clearly #2. I don't think a bowl game for the Bulls is really that unrealistic either. Cincy is just a better version of Tulsa. Awful defense, solid offense. We will score points on them, we just need to force a turnover or two and get a couple of stops. SMU is a disaster. Houston is average. Memphis is very solid. UCF offensively right now may actually be worse then USF. Winning 3 of those isn't that crazy.

You obviously didn't read anything I wrote. Like I said, this isn't the most talented team out there by any means. Far from it. We have 1 great WR, 1 average one, and nobody else. Our O-Line ranges from mediocre to awful depending on the week. Our D-Line is the weakest part of our team and never creates any pass rush. Our LB's are extremely inconsistent and often times end up frozen just watching the play go on in front of them (and a few seconds later, behind them). We have next to no depth on this team as well. The team though is still fighting to the very end, and giving 110% effort on the football field. That's a total 180 from where we were only a year ago. That may sound like some moral victory garbage, but as the talent Taggart recruited starts to develop, and new guys are brought in, they will be brought into a program with a never say die attitude, and not one of a bunch of wimps, which is what they were. That alone is a massive accomplishment, regardless of whether it was against a bad Tulsa team or not.

Come on man. If this team was playing for 60 minutes and the coaching staff was perfect they would be 6-1 right now. You have to look at where they came from. Last year most of the time they didn't even play 10 minutes of good football, and sometimes it wasn't even that much. It's process. The bottom line is that they are a much improved team over last year. You can deny it if you want but it's pretty obvious.

Me too!! I think any sane person would be going crazy in first half. But, no need for snap judgments before the game is over. Should be analogous to not judge the success of this season until it is over as well. This game really is (and I think will be) a microcosm of our entire season. There are times when it looks like the same old Bulls, but they aren't. They are not a great team by any means but they are far from the 2-10 abomination that we saw last year. Just a below average team that is fighting for wins any way they can.

Good - Biggest comeback ever for USF. Bad - 5 - 10 yard cushions on Tulsa WR's every play. Ugly - 2 bad turnovers. They should have cost us the game.

The first half was an utter failure and had to be recognized as such. If we had an another success like that we would have lost by 40. That's why you play 60 minutes. We all say the same thing when they are winning in the 1st half and then blow it later, it holds true in the reverse scenario as well. The Bulls outplayed Tulsa today. We gave them some easy points in the 1st half due to turnovers but otherwise we beat them in every phase. Their QB is a good player though, I feel bad that he is stuck on that team.

The one thing I can say without a doubt after the 1st 7 games this year, is that Taggart has changed the culture around USF football. They may not be the most talented by any means. The coaches may make some bad calls. WR's drop some easy passes. The O-Line still can't block that well. They don't quit though. This game today was won because even though we were down 20 the players kept fighting and believing they could win. It sounds corny, but it's true. Just compare this team today to the one that faced McNeese St. in game 1 of the Taggart era. That team just gave up. I'm not 100% sold on his in-game coaching style like many on here, but as a leader for our team and program, I think he is doing an amazing job.

This win is huge because reaching a bowl game just got a whole lot more realistic. We play Cincy next week, and their defense is even worse than Tulsa's. If we can beat Cincy, and beat SMU (who is the worst team in the nation), then all we have to do is win one game between Houston, Memphis, and UCF. The biggest thing Taggart needs to do is make sure his team does not come out lethargic. This is the 2nd game this year (NC State too), where they came out extremely flat. Against NC State it burried us. In this one we came back. They need to start playing a full 60 minutes.

Mike White. Nope. Andre Davis. Hell Yea. He will be a steal for somebody in the 3rd to 5th round.

FIRE THE MAN. WE CAN'T EVEN BEAT LOWLY TULSA ON THE....... Oh **** look at that we won. GIVE THE MAN A RAISE! THE MAN IS OUR SAVIOR.

That's cool. Half the Bulls fans on the board quit at halftime anyways and probably don't even realize they won the game. They are too busy writing a letter to Harlan about why Taggart should be fired after losing to Tulsa.

BULLS WIN.

It was the right move there considering how the Tulsa offense looks right now. At the very worst we go to overtime.

Awesome. I'm happy for all of the Bulls fans that toughed this one out and kept watching.

Hey props to all the Bulls fans that quit on them at halftime. You look like a**holes now.

What did I just say about play-action.

Tulsa is completely selling out on the run on 1st and 2nd down. A play action fake on 1st down that drive and it could have easily been a 40+ yard play.

This is just Western Carolina 2.0. They are allowing every single pass to be completed in front of them, but the problem is every single play is going for 8 - 15 yards. You have to move up. If they beat you over the top, that sucks, but letting them move down the field like this is just giving the game away,

Easy money this week on USF for 1 reason and 1 reason alone. Teams that play Tulsa this year on average score 11.5 more points then their average point totals, in every other game. If that holds true then we score 30 this week. If we score 30 this week we win by no less then 13 points. The Bulls young defense is really starting to click and I just don't see Tulsa scoring very much this week.

anybody who puts any weight into this just doesn't get how recruiting rankings work. you can recruit 10 5 star receivers and finish near the top in rankings. doesn't mean you have a good team. a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. we had 1 scholarship QB on our roster when Taggart arrived. he was so good that he lost his job to a walk-on senior and a option qb transfer. Honestly the graph, and everything we see in College Football says the exact opposite though. Recruiting is EVERYTHING. -Out of the teams who ranked less than 60th in recruiting, only 11 finished ranked on the field in the Top 60. -Out of the teams who ranked higher than 60th in recruiting only 13 finished at less than 60th in the actual rankings. Look at Ole Miss right now. In 2011 they ranked 20th in recruiting. 2012 - 40th. 2013 though they were 7th. Now in 2014 all of that talent they hauled in including 4 5-Stars has them sitting as a legit Top 5 team. Same deal with Florida State. In 2011 and 2012 they pulled in Top 5 classes. Now they are a Top 5 team. The graph says from 2009 on we recruited at about 56th in the country and that was when we played with teams outrecruiting us like Cincy and West Virginia. Taggart right now is recruiting at about a 30th - 40th level, and we are in a conference with teams recruiting close to the 100's. If Taggart keeps up the recruiting, the Bulls are just going to out-talent 7 - 8 teams on our schedule every year, and those other 4 - 5 games will come down to coaching.

Taggart's missing his best player by far on offense (Andre Davis) and the offense is already much more productive then it was last year. If we actually had receivers that could catch the football, we would have beaten Maryland, and would have given Wisconsin a much bigger scare too. Now we are getting Davis back for the ECU game and having the combo of Davis and Adams is actually pretty solid. Those two are going to help spread the field and open some running lanes for Mack, not to mention may give McFarland a little bit more room to make some plays. Davis is that key. He had 740 receiving yards last year on the worst offense in D-1 football. If Taggart could somehow find a way to beat ECU, this fan bases tune is going to change really quickly. The conference beyond ECU is really awful. And a 1 loss in conference USF team, with a win over ECU, would most likely take the title.

I think we get completely blown out because out pass defense this year against good QB's has been horrible, but if Taggart could ever find a way to win, then we will legit have this team in contention for the AAC. Tulsa is horrible. SMU is the worst D-1 team in the country. Cincy can score some points but has one of the worst defenses in the country right now, and not just when they are facing Ohio State. Memphis is playing good defense but still has offensive woes. Houston looks about the same as last year. UCF is not nearly as good as last year either. ECU is BY FAR the best team in the league. Hopefully we show up to play.

Not surprised. Just from watching them play us, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't even close to the awful WCU team from last year. Same deal with NC State. I made a teaser bet which pushed NC State to 24 point underdogs against FSU because it was so obvious that NC State is light years better then they were last year. Brissett makes that much of a difference for them. From watching a little ACC football this year, NC State looks like the 3rd or 4th best team in the entire conference. I was telling my FSU friends that they need to relax about the close game for this reason. I will also say the Bulls have once again caught a much tougher schedule then expected. WCU is a solid FCS this year. Maryland looks very good and only has one close loss to West VIrginia. NC State is a potential 10 win team. Wisconsin is good like always. Uconn sucks, and even though the score was close, we dominated them. Hopefully after the ECU game, when the level of competition really goes down this Bulls team starts to look much improved. I think they will.

We will know more about Cincy after today, but from what I have seen their defense is atrocious. I would bet on this Bulls team, scoring 28+ points on them and I'm not kidding. Total swiss cheese. You are probably right but I would still like them to beat OSU today. I would too, I just highly doubt it. It will be a fun one to watch though. My guess is something like Ohio State Wins 45 - 35. Ohio State's defense isn't that great either.