Wildrover

Such a strange though timely thread for me to read for my first time back since the end of last football season. Before that I hadn't visited in years. The incompetence of the offensive side of the ball motivated my drunken return one night after watching what should have been an easy win be anything but (not sure which game it was). Anyway, I can agree with Jim for so many reasons, he's not a whiner, its just hard for those of us who were there the night WV came to town and Ray Jay was sold out and we were witnessing, unknowingly, the immediate Zenith of a very young football program. What do USF fans have to really look forward to? Even if they go undefeated it will be a footnote as the powers that be celebrate themselves in the club they structured to keep 'up and comers' out since college football, as Chris Fowler once put it "is about tradition" (my political history is a little rusty but isn't the reinforcement of the ruling class the whole idea of fascism? but I digress). I moved away in 2009 fully intending on coming to one or two games a year. I have only been back in FL once. I do go out of my way to watch on Saturdays but I have also started a family. I have two young kids and live several states away. While I was changing USF was changing too, they changed their trajectory, they went from being on the rise to taking a step back, into a place they really can't get out of. their level of competition has gone down and the college football community once again sees them as part of the JV league. That in and of itself would pose its own problems but to have to bear those in a finicky sports town where you once had moved past those problems into the top tier, well, whether any of us like it or not, that just takes a lot of the shine off program and makes it hard to get excited about the upcoming season. I'll still watch as I always do but that's about it. Everything else is simply taking time away from the other, more important things I have to do. $0.02

I say you are wrong. I think he is too rooted in his way and incapable of adapting to the players and game around him. I would use the fact that he was favored in every game at the beginning of the season and started and was expected to finish ranked. but didn't as evidence to support my claim. What evidence do you put forth to support your belief that he is actually a good coach for this program? I stand by my earlier statement, Florida athletes are just that, athletes, they are fast and nimble, not big bruisers but this offense insists on a 3 yards and a cloud of dust philosophy. Flowers should have been invited to New York but wasn't because this coaching staff held him back. We'll have to wait until next year, at this time, to see who is right. I guess the one thing going in my favor is that I would be more than happy to be wrong..............................I win either way.......................you can't say that.

ESPN are fascist, they believe in the idea of the ruling class. Thus their attentions fall on those who 'matter' and everyone else is filler to them. As long as there is a P vs G system it will be this way. Learn to live in the modern college football version's of the 19th century European political order. My only hope is that in time, (rhetorically speaking of course) heads will begin to role and the masses will revolt and demand better.

Then why wasn't he hired away?

Context matters,

I'll take a different perspective. I for one think he's still here because no one else took him because they see that a 9-2 record with this schedule and those players is actually underachieving. The defensive is better but that was a very low bar. The defensive last year was just awful, now they are very okay. The offense on the other hand has taken some huge steps back. The offense if very predictable but more importantly very predictable with players not well suited to run such a vanilla offense. Next year this team takes a HUGE step back and is lucky to go 6-6 and we are all calling for Strong to go. This year he won ins spite of his coaching, not because of it.

It also says something about our coaching. We haven't played a complete game all season. In my opinion this team, in many ways, has regressed under the new administration. Our defense is much, much better but the penalties, conservative play calling, special teams etc... If we had last years offense with this years D does anyone get the least bit nervous about this game? Highly doubt it. Yet, here we are, many reasonably predicting a loss even though a lot of the talent on O was here last year. We were hyped and picked to win the AAC before the season for a reason. There just wasn't much attrition from a loaded O that could score at will last year. Expecting maybe a slight step back with the loss of Mack and Adams I guess is reasonable but to see the inconsistency, the dropped passes the conservative and very predictable play calling has hurt not helped and thus, why a USF win will be considered an upset.

I thought this was all good until I got to here. Although I've seen some minor adjustments here and there I have not seen a full fledged shift toward calling plays that exploit our players strengths. We've had a lot of games that were much closer than they should have been and the fact that Tulsa was close, even after Houston should tell us something. If you are correct about number 5 above then you are right, no way UCF wins but regretably, I haven't seen any evidence to support this conclusion and a lot of evidence to the contrary.

its the inability to adapt, as evidenced by the same dumb play, for a loss,, over and over again that's frustrating. If running up the middle is getting good positive yards than by all means but when your offense if constantly looking at 2nd and forever and third and forever, then you aren't playing high percentage football and against a good team you'll likely lose.

I guess that is the elephant in the room, what happens when we face another defense that isn't half bad?

they should merge our posts, I think I was typing my post as you were typing yours. My feelings are the same. although not quite the hero (did anybody ever have any doubt what would happen on 1st and 10) it did look a little better in terms of playing to strengths

Although not quite to the extent I'd like as a fan, I'm willing to admit that I saw a lot more exploitation of the edge with bubble screens and short quick passes to the edge this game than I think I've seen all season long (probably combined). While I'm eating a small piece of humble pie I do feel a sense of "I told you so" given how they all worked. But, given as Gilbert has shown no flexibility through the first eight games of this season when it comes to his limited playbook I'm willing to say hats off in terms of his willingness to look at last years tape and use what worked. At least a little bit $0.02

Saban also called out the academic integrity of our institution so yeah, call him out too

true, no rule that says we have to stop there right

Can we really blame him for everything, CCS last presser made it sound like he thought everything was just fine. We just didn't break one like they thought but other that all was good (the loss, the million punts that game, the total inefficiency and proficiency for that matter doesn't seem like that big of a deal to him).

it all does sort of beg the question though, why would strong hire a guy that has a background of running a spread offense and then not let him do what he's good at? Why would Gilbert want to work for a guy who won't let him run the offense he wants? This is his second stint with Im after all, why follow Strong to USF after what happened at UT?

your system? I'm not saying this out of harsh condescension but as a serious question. I remember the Dolphins a few years back were having a tough time with everybody. They took a hard look at themselves and said we need to get the ball in the hands of our best players. this led to the development of the wildcat IIRC. And didn't this come to jesus moment happen after the season started? Anyway, you have to give Taggert some credit here as well. He tried to put his system in place and it almost cost him his job. It wasn't until he changed it to fit the strengths of his players did it not only save his job, it got him a better paying, higher profile one. It did take a couple of seasons though didn't it? Why would a head coach be so stubborn when it comes to 'systems' and their attachment to them? I guess the immediate answer would be that changing schemes every year is too much work and arguably too much work to be done successfully every year but I'm not sure I buy that. Teams change schemes all the time when a new coach comes in. If the group of players can a learn a whole new scheme in the off season why can't the coaching staff?

when we kicked the field goal I knew it was over even though it wasn't. It's weird how the universe just sort of told "yeah they're still up but its not going to stay that way". The frustration and concern started after the first offensive series when I realized no lessons were learned after last week.

thanks Brad, man its good to back!

The title of the thread was supposed to be Gilbert needs to go but after several (more than recommended) well made Fuller's ESBs, and the emotion associated not only with yesterdays tough loss but by watching this fun to watch offense get turned into something else over the season, I failed to proof before I posted and since I can't figure out how to edit the title its left up as a punch line for some, source of confusion for others and embarrassment for me. good times.

you did warn us but it seems too soon

For the most part I agree but how do we know this is the case? I've talked to D1 players at other schools before about this very thing and you might be surprised the things they say. According to them, hearsay i concede, if you have a strong personality coordinator and a fairly meek HC then its entirely possible that the coordinator is running the show on their side of the ball. Of course having said that, its still up to the HC to fix it and if they aren't up to it then they do still own the issues and incompetencies of the support staff regardless

BEER

yeah, fire him too!!! Wait, I may have missed my thread

For the first couple of years yes, after he had that long talk with QF and he decided to let him be him, we quite complaining as much. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm