Massbull

the fact is when things were going good he was alright however if things started to go bad he very often would spiral downward and could not pull himself or the team back. There were plenty of games when he would have a good start but as he faced adversity his performance declined. A classic example of that was the Cincy game. Just saying that CWT was looking for him to step up and take control of the team but he uneven play never allowed it. There were very few times I can think of when he made a critical play that turned a game around and put the momentum back on USF,s side. Tulsa & SMU are the only ones that come to mind. There were way more when he went the other way. It dot seem his teammates looked at his as the leader either.

MW is a classy kid but The writing was on the wall after last year , so this was not shocking at all. I think CWT met with Mike and told him what his role would be if he stayed and they mutually agreed the best thing for him was to transfer if he wanted a chance to start. He was given ample opportunity to seize the starting role and he couldn't do it. IMO it wasn't because of talent that he was so inconsistent a lot of it was his lack of mental toughness. He showed flashes but by the middle of his second year he should have shown marked improvement and didn't. I don't believe the coaches think Bench has the ability to step up be the guy but he is a solid backup. That leaves QF. A talented athlete who has huge upside, only time will tell if he lives up to it. CWT has no option but to give him the opportunity and they changed the offence to do it.

Taggart inherited one of the worst QB situations in D1. He recruited MW his first year QF (a highly regarded recruit)his 2nd yr and BK this year. So he is working on upgrading the position. MW was given every opportunity to lead this football team and never got it over the top,he showed some flashes but never developed consistency and I believe it had to do more with his mental toughness and athletic ability than anything else. CWT said many times he needs a QB who get him a few 1st downs with his feet. Also he commented many times that he needed MW to show that leadership fire. His performance in the Cincy game domed him. Him leaving was the best possible solution for him and USF. He is a class kid and I wish him the best. IMO he would not have recruited QF if was not planning to make some changes to the offence. Don't forget last year Flowers was a true freshmen trying to run an offence that is exactly opposite to way he plays. There is no doubt he is the stater this year and it will be the first time since CWT has been here that a stater will be named heading into summer camp and that should make a huge difference heading into the season. SB is a solid backup and I don't think he leaves knowing he is one play from being the starter. I was a little concerned about the stats from the spring game but from listening to the broadcast it seems the wind was terrible that day. Also having a full camp with him as the starter will be huge positive. I'm expecting much improved play from the QB position this year. I believe you need as much time as possible to prepare your starting QB so the faster he names A stater the better prepared he will be.

Fact is, USF wasn't in CUSA, they were in the BE & the perception Nationally was they were Knocking on the door of moving to the next level. That perception was destroyed by the SH era. BTW What can possibly be positive about having grown Only to go backwards. Implying that USF is somehow better off today because They went backwards makes zero sence. The University and Fans need to have much greater expectations!

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't a different player with a ax to grind against Levett go to McMurphy who then persued Miller to break the story. The Real a...hole here is McMurphy who used an obviously weak individual like Miller as a pawn to get Levett who he had a grudge against. For those who think CJL could not get this program to the next level you need to think again. After 13 years he was just starting to build the depth he needed to compete for an entire season. Didn't He had the highest ranked recruiting class at USF the year before all this went down. With one or two more strong clases and the improved facilities who knows what he would have done. Also there's no denying he left a ton of talent that was wasted by SH. From what I can tell there has never been any other complaints by any of his players about poor treatment to the contrary most supported him. IMO this was a complete setup. Unfortunately USF had a PISS poor AD & Levett handled the aftermath poorly. USF has paid a very big price because the collapse of the football program happened at the worst possible time. Hopefully they can turn it around and it not to late to get relevant enough to be attactive to a P5 conference .

My concern is it looks like the team is going backwards as the season goes along. Especially on the offensive end, they don't have a go to player.Hopefully the talent level increases with the new recruits next year.

Willie Taggart is nearly complete with his second staff shakeup in two seasons as South Florida's head coach, after hiring Ole Miss special teams coordinator Tom Allen as defensive coordinator. Former Purdue head coach Danny Hope has interviewed for the vacant offensive line coach position, according to a source. One source said Hope could be in contention for the offensive coordinator position as well, depending on how Taggart restructures his staff. Taggart fired three assistants following the Bulls' 4-8 season. He fired two coaches after his 2-10 debut season. Hope was 22-27 in four seasons as the head coach of the Boilermakers from 2009-12. He spent five years as head coach of FCS Eastern Kentucky, leading the Colonels to the playoffs in 2007. Hope served as an offensive line coach from 1985 to 2001 at Louisville, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Purdue. Hope, a Florida native, is connected to Taggart through legendary Florida preps coach Joe Kinnan, whom Taggart played for at Manatee High School. Hope was coached by Kinnan at Eastern Kentucky and later coached under Kinnan as an assistant. Kinnan stepped down as Manatee head coach before the 2014 season.

I believe the USF openings are attractive because Taggart has brought in a lot of talent in the last several Years.With better schemes and coaching USF could it turn around very quickly on both sides of the ball. Allen seems to make sense as he is coming from a top-flight program and has ties to the area which will help recruiting. The risk would be that he has not had any track record as to what type of defense he would run After reading the article Fickell may be available as it seems like Ohio State would not let Ash go. That being said if he did come I hope that he learned how to run an aggressive defense and has changed his philosophy enough to implement it. Has anyone heard any rumblings about the offense coordinator. I really hope it's not an old high school football coach with no Division I college experience I believe that would be a disaster. They need a guy who is a good play caller and Game manager and CWT NEEDS TO GET OUT OF THE PLAY CALLING LOOP. I believe last year's team had much more ability but the coaching and the play calling were absolutely atrocious. I was calling the plays correctly at least least 70% of the time. When you can't keep other teams off-balance it it's almost impossible to be successful.CWT needs to hire two solid guys so he can stick with his strengths which is recruiting selling the vision and let his coaches coach the talent he brings in.

Has anyone noticed how poor San Francisco's offense is,when I watch them play it reminds me of watching USF they are totally inept. it's why they are seven and six and out of the playoffs. That offence will not work in college and it's good that he's changing to the spread . However he needs to get a top-flight coordinator to try to bring stability or at least the appearance of stability to the program for recruiting purposes. Unfortunately I don't believe this is possible. I hope I'm wrong but time will tell. The most likely Senario is When CWT met with Harlen he presented this plan which bought him one more year,as I believe Harlen really likes Taggart and wants him to succeed. He sees him as a great recruiter and embasador for the university. It would make no sense otherwise. Harlen seems to be a no Bull kind of guy who wants to build a resume for bigger and better things. If he was going impose his will on the changes and undermind Taggart he would have fired Him and hired his guy. IMO this team had as much or more talent than everyone on their schedule with exception of Wisconsin and there is a ton of quality athletes still left. So I feel with right schemes and coaching this team could turn it around quickly.

IMO this is Absolutely a desperation move. It's very hard to envision how this can turn out as a positive for 2015. Cant imagine you could attract quality prospects with this much uncertainty not to mention what it will do to recruiting. I believe that Harlen put the pressure on and Taggart,s response mirrored his coaching decisions ,where he panicked under the pressure and almost always made the wrong call. I also believe his weakness in this area trickled down through his whole team and staff. He does a great job selling but lacks in his delivery. All this mess because of an "A H "reporter a weak student athlete and as history is showing the worst AD at a major University

The sign of a well coached team is they improve as the season progresses. 24 games and this offence cannot execute,in fact it has regressed. IMO Pop Warner coaches could effectively game plan for this offence, there is no excuse for the lack of offensive imagination. CWT needs to look in the mirror. This has to rank up there as one of the poorest coaching jobs in division one this year. His instincts in his play calling and game management are almost always wrong. He has let his players down and gave no help to any of his QB's to succeed. Not to bring up the past but For those of you felt Levett could hot get them to the next level he sure as heck would not have gone backwards. It's disgusting to hear O'leary be so smug. USF does not have another year to waist.

I am optimistic because I believe with Corey Allen and AC at full strength their guard play will be as good as any one in the AAC. If someone emerges as a reliable three point shooter they could surprise.

This is not Rocket Science! Leadership is needed and it starts with the coaching staff and then to the players. By makeing statements like "we need to learn to win" or "we need to learn to be mentally tough" just gives everyone an excuse for poor performance. You get what you expect and inspect. Expect mental toughness and reward it and things will change. I also agree that the coaching staff has let this team down with poor 2nd half adjustments especially on defence in the ECU game. It was refreshing to hear them acknowledge that and I hope they step up and lead the way. A teams mental makeup is a reflection of the coach. CWT needs to stop talking about what they don't have and start demanding what he wants. These players have all been winners at some point in their lives they need a coach who will pull it out of them. Right now I have confidence CWT can and will get it done. However we need to start seeing real progress not only in wins but in execution at the make or break points in games.

This is a 2 and 10 team comming off one of the worst loses in program history. The ugly- was the offensive play calling. They had established the running game and in the first quater used play action to get a 14 point lead and then they got super conservative and let Uconn stay in the game. There were at least 4 to 5 opportunities to put the game away but CWT would not run play action the on first down especially after they had Run successfully. He talks about putting a teams away but he plays close to the vest. I would like to ask him if he thinks it's illegal to pass on first down. Unless they find a way to get defenses from stackin the box and play honest there will be more ugly losses. The good - with time White can be effective,the freshmen running backs looked solid and the defensive front dominated.

It's seems impossible to me that this coaching staff in two years has not developed a serviceable offense. Regardless of the talent level,it's the coaches job to find the strengths and use them. Isn't this the most experienced OL in the confrence and USF has only had ONE SUSTAINED DRIVE IN THREE GAMES. I was really hoping for a change in expectations from CSH era but it seems CWT is exactly the same. It's great to be positive but it's time to affirm the truth and the truth is the offense is terrible , players are not giving great effort because IMO they have no confidence in the game plan and the COACHES are not recognizing the problems and making the Changes . Every team they play employs the same defensive strategy put 8 men in the box to stop the run on 1st and 2nd down and play press coverage on the outside PUTTING PRESSURE ON ON USF WEAKEST POSITION THE QB. What about play action on first down till they force the defense to change ie use the pass to set up the run that may take some of the pressure off the QB. AT THIS POINT THEY HAVE TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same over and over and expecting different results. This coaching staff is starting to look insane to me.

Total failure from the coaches down. How can the offense still be this bad?

This is a disgrace.

I Have to agree, that w/o solid (NOT GREAT) QB play it will be very difficult for USF to win 6 games. Neither QB distinguished themselves in the first two games. However we don't know if White would have continued to improve on his 2nd half performance in the WCU game. It is alarming that in the 2nd year of CWT system They are still trying to find some continuity. I still can't figure out what their offensive identy is. Maybe the system to complicated or they just don't have the personnel yet. Whatever it is at this point it is very frustrating.

No way he was thinking about being being criticized. IMO he made the decision to play conservatively and I have no reason why he would do it. He missed an opportunity on both those plays to show the offense and he believed in them to make critical plays. By punting on 4 the and 1 he gave up momentum and told the offensive line we don't trust you and by going for the FG he showed the he is not willing to put his foot on an opponents throat. Even had they made that FG it was a one score game. Only reason going for a FG at that stage of the game would have been if it would have made it a two score game. CWT seems to grow as a game day coach.

Great move if they win, the publicity will be awesome. If they don't win it's viewed as another stupid stunt like get on the bus.

Not to open up old wounds but CJL firing was terrible ,badly handled and at the worst time. He did not have enough time to build the depth he needed to compete for a full season as evidenced by the late season collapses. He was just starting build multiple solid recruiting classes and IMO he was 2 recruiting classes away from winning a big east championship and making USF a top tier program. If my memory serves me correctly he had just signed a top 30 class and they went 9-3 the year after he left. CSH devastated the program because he could not recruit the state of Florida and in hindsight that was one of the biggest mistakes of that hire. CWT has reestablished the recruiting pipeline, also he has brought in a quality coaching staff and shown he is not afraid to make changes as he did by firing the offensive coordinator at the end of last year. I believe in two years the program will back on the track it was on before CSH was hired

How about the Lite Bull Vodka & Crystal lite with a splash on cranberry (optional)

Hard to believe they will pay BB head coach more then Taggert . That's why Howland may fit , from what I've read he could take less $ from USF as UCLA would still be on the hook for the difference in his buy out. I know this could be viewed as a short term solution but if he turns the program around he could put himself in position where USF would pay him considerably more money. The money he was making at UCLA will never be a realty for him again so he could be affordable to USF. IMO you need to hire a person with a proven track record, someone who has had sustained success. Usually these people have proven they can build a winning system and can do it again. Having led 3 teams to the final 4 Howland fits that criteria. Time will tell but I hope they go for a proven commodity & not potential for this hire.

Got to give the guy a chance seems like he has done everything right to earn a shot at leading a D1athletics dpt. My only concern is that as a west coast guy comming to an east coast school does he have the contacts or can he develope the contacts he needs to grow the on field profile of the athletic department. My sense is that confrence realignment is not over and USF will not only need a financially strong athletic but one that can attract TV revenue. That can only happen with successful Sports teams. Hopefully he will rise up to the challenge and lift USF Athletics to new heights .

After the last season it's hard to be very hopeful or opptimistiic. However here's my opinion, if the offence is only 50% improved they will win 4 games. If the offence shows 100% improvement (as terrible as they were last year this is very reasonable) they will be 500 or better. To do better than that the offence has to far exceed all expectations. IMO Bresnahan is a good coach and will put together another solid defense. We should know most of the answers by week 2 and I believe there still a year or two away from being able to compete with teams like Wisconsin