SoFlo All Day

I'd be down for that - the guy has proven his worth at UL and he's a perfect "buy low" candidate (meaning that due to his recent controversies he'd actually be willing to take the USF job to try and improve his image whereas previously we wouldnt be anywhere on his radar.) Gotta be aware of the baggage (looks like he got burned for being too loyal to a big name coach like Pitino) so the admin would certainly have to be more vigilant, but this could move could certainly provide big returns in areas where we are in need (fundraising, raising athletic profile/marketing). I'd say give it a shot.

When it comes to major sports I'd say Harlan is so/so in hiring - Antigua was a bust, but I'll give him a pass. Getting Charlie seemed like a slam dunk, but this past season was a disappointment. Gregory looks like he's on the up and up. Like how he handled the baseball coach situation this past year too. Not sure why people are giving Harlan credit for hiring Tags though...Woodard hired Taggart before he was canned in 2014. Fernandez has been here for like 15 years? I think that was all Selmon. Heard he's rubbed some large boosters the wrong way though...not sure what's happening behind the scenes there... Think Harlan has done well on the marketing front and the two recent scheduling deals for football seem pretty good. I think he's done a lot with a little considering that he practically inherited our athletics program in a crappy realignment environment for us. That said, if he does sign a long term extension - his legacy will be tied to where we go during the next round of realignment, getting the practice facility up, and progress on OCS.

Lightning playoff game at home that started at 3. The way Tampa has gotten hyped for these playoffs it can be hard to attract fans if you're another ticket in town especially if your event is almost at the same exact time.

Heard he wasn't all that great. Not going to miss a guy that goes out the way he did. I think the bigger thing is how the other O linemen responded to his accusations. Makes this guy look like a disgruntled diva who decided to take a parting shot out of bitterness because he probably wasn't good enough to compete for a spot that he thought he was entitled to. Moving on.

Same here. I think everyone can agree it was disappointing. Moving on

If they had been more consistent over the past 3-5 years then I would agree, but they haven't. The one thing that USF has going for it that UCF doesn't is the consistenxy factor - we have gone 29-9 in our last three seasons, UCF has gone 19-19. They had a great season and a few more trophies in the case (counting the two major bowl games and outright AAC championships and not counting CUSA or AAC co- champions here) but they are not light years ahead of us. If they rattle off another couple of 11 win seasons and we fall off (which I don't see either happening) then we should be concerned. As of right now, I think we need to chill a bit. It will equal out eventually because at the end of the day, these two programs are equal. USF hasn't tasted the highs that UCF has, but also hasn't seen the lows. UCF doesn't have USF's consistency over the course for many seasons.

Yep - Sherwin made a good point on Twitter about the 1-1. What's the buyout look like for that return leg at UCF? If it's low, then I would bet that Louisville buys it out and never plays that game in Oviedo and you could then argue that UCF is the one that got played. With our deal I think the home game is in between two at UL and each game has a $1mm buyout plus UL would forfeit another $200k in pay for actually playing the game in Tampa. The last game at UL probably gets cancelled and we get $1mm for that cancelled game but probably get two games against them anyway. I think Harlan learned from the MSU and Wisconsin debacles and positioned us well here.

Agree. Flowers' inability to hit a pass inside 15 yards really hurt drives. There were quite a few 3rd and 5/6/7's that dies out bc the passes were off.

Think we can be 6-1 or 7-0 going into the Houston game. Think we end up 9-3 at the end. Drop one of the two against Cincy and Temple, drop GT and Houston.

SAT of 1300* Dont think it will hurt the process as much. I think academic requirements were still higher than UF or FSU for athletes under Taggart and now Strong. Besides I think becoming more selective will help the university from the standpoint of having students that can be successful with the rigors of the rising academic standards. Also it helps the value of our degree and helps us shed that "lower tier" perception versus FSU or even UF. Its actually harder to get into USF than it is to get into FSU now. From a STEM standpoint, I think we may be surpassing the Noles pretty soon if we haven't already.

CCS can't develop players because a second string TE decided to transfer?? Seriously? Dillon was losing minutes in 2016 under CWT. He was gonna sit behind Wilcox under CWT or CCS regardless.

Heard rumblings about this a few weeks ago. Not surprising. Great talent, but he was losing reps even under Taggart once Mitch got here. Good for him for graduating and trying to get meaningful minutes.

Show out at the combine and get that paper. He deserves it not only for himself, but to support his family too.

Fair point about Flowers not being back next year - but I think the process becomes even more important when you don't have his improv skills to bail you out and simply outtalent the opposition. Your point about the Houston game being meaningless is only validated because of hindsight. At the time, we didn't know what was going to happen next making it very important. There were quite a few variables where that loss bites us in the ass. Just because it ended up not really effecting our season doesn't mean that it should be treated as no harm no foul. Again, process over result. Also, if you are a G5 school trying to get respect in a P5 CFB world you need every victory you can get. Don't care against who - you play to win and we should have against Houston. Also, he had D'onta Foreman to bail him out at Texas and I think had Garrapolo at another stop too . His offenses are too predictable and it showed towards the end of the season last year at Texas - defenses keyed into the fact that he runs four plays without any variations.

Don't want to keep harping on this - but if minor tuning is all that it would have taken to fix the offense then why didn't Gilbert put those easy changes into place during the season? Pride? Incapability to understand the talent on offense? I really don't care about the reason. All that matters is that it didn't happen. Another sign that he's not fit to be an OC. He inherited one of the most exciting and powerful USF offenses and ended up handcuffing their abilities throughout the whole season because of his play calling. If we can get some sort of buyout from a larger school for him I will consider that a win.

Against who? You're looking at the result when the process was way more important to look at here, especially given our weak schedule and the talent gap between USF and its opponents this year. We do not score 38 points per game and rack up 500 yds if we play a harder schedule. The offense never really got into rhythm. Besides the UCF game and the second half of the Texas Tech game, where Q either went superhuman or decided to go rogue from the play calling and try to will his team to victory, the offense was downright frustrating from the start and no real adjustment was made to work towards our strengths.

Its not just the fans - you could tell some of the players, Quinton in particular, were visibly frustrated on offense. He underutilized Johnson- the stats don't lie there - and tried to turn Q into a pocket passer. There were a number of different instances where he neglected our strengths in crucial situations in order to implement his vanilla offense and it didn't work - happened in the houston game once or twice in the first half and again late in the 4th. An offensive coordinator that calls 4 straight HB dives in the red zone on multiple occasions throughout the game especially when he has as elusive as a QB as Flowers is probably doing something very wrong.

Twitter blowing up about him leaving for LSU... apparently they are "closing in" on him...whatever the hell that means. I mean it is LSU the same program that fired Les Miles, brought him back and then fired him for real midway through the next season. But if these rumors are true and pan out then Christmas has come early in 2018. If he leaves we need to bring in Weist or Reeves ASAP....or promote King ( that would protect him from getting poached by Taggart too)

I wouldn't be completely upset if he left although I don't expect him to. He got 95% of his recruiting class signed so you won't see any prospect attrition upfront like with other programs in between coaches. Hooray for early signing day! Just gotta get a good hire to keep the players from transferring out. Also, the new coach would have a full year to build out his class for next year so that's a plus if you think Charlie will leave at the end of next season.

My concern is taking a P5 offer and having the league disband after 2 years, wasting resources that could have been spent to lobby for a better conference, but being stuck in the same predicament again. Outside of Oklahoma and Texas the Big 12 gets no respect in football even though it's a P5. Also those two teams are probably the conferences meal ticket to getting more TV dollars in the football side of things. Those two teams leave and the Big 12 essentially becomes the AAC 2.0.

In the bigger picture do we really want to accept an offer from a desperate Big 12? It's a power conference now but certainly the least powerful out of the 5 and most likely to disband if a couple of teams decide to split - Kinda like how the Big East on the football side was when it hit us up. Taking an offer from the Big 12 if they don't have their house in order financially might just be another dead end and a repeat of past mistakes. I wonder what it would take to join the ACC - I know there are roadblocks with FSU and Miami but it's a more sustainable conference than the Big 12.

I agree. Taggart was able to recruit the 2014 class after a 2-10 USF season and a UCF victory in the Fiesta bowl. They had a good season this year, but I wouldn't be scared of that program, their delusions of grandeur will bring them back to reality...that and losing key pieces on a defense that was already pretty bad.

Who cares - we can just claim a natty and call it a great season. Can we retroactively give our 2007 team a half-year national championship ring? They were ranked #2 for a while and had a stronger strength of schedule than #1 Ohio State at the time so they deserve it. Oh and they were undefeated too for a little while there too!! Hooray!

AAC is P6 at the top of its conference. The bottom of the AAC is no where near being as good as the bottom of the P5 minus maybe Kansas. Beating teams like ECU, Cincy, and UConn is not the same as beating P5 bottom dwellers like Indiana, Arkansas, or Vanderbilt on a week in week out basis. Winning a one off game against Maryland or Illinois does not mean that you can do that consistently throughout the season. On top of that, competeing with the top teams in conferences like that is a whole different story. Try going into Bryant-Denny, Death Valley at night, or Ohio State's Horseshoe and pulling out a victory. Very different from winning at a neutral site in a consolation game. This year's UCF team loses 2-3 games in a P5 and that's being generous. National Champs? *****, please.