Bullpride08

We have a ton to lose since Lou doesn't even know the **** offense yet- although that maybe a good thing. :-[ On a serious note, and let's not get onto tangents about QB's. There is alot of talent, and potential on this team. I think Bull96go summed it up best about the staff. He has zero problem with defense because after all the losses they will find the answers, the problem is on offense. This team has the potential, and we'll get where we need to be. I do agree that at a minimum Rod Smith needs to be searching for a job in December. Two QB's with good skills, and talent, and yet after 4 and three years in the program respectively I haven't seen either Banks or Julmiste make one modicum of improvement, in fact quite the opposite both their games appear to have deteriorated. A good QB coach should be able to detect throwing hitches, tendencies, and mental fatigue in his QB's. If not then he's not a good QB coach. I am sorry but with some just decent QB play this team should be 4-2! Next year we'll have Johnny Jones, Time Jones, to compliment a maturing defense. Things will steadily improve on that side of the ball, in fact I saw quite a bit of improvement on that side of the ball in the UL game- the defense actually looked better in the UL then they did all year against 1-A opponents. The tackling was better, the technique was better, but the opponent was that much better AND the offense was so horrific that the defense was just continually forced to face one of the top 5 offenses in the entire nation! Defense will improve and dominate again soon, now the question is whether the offense can get to that level. We'll never be great if our offense can't step up to the defense's level. Unfortunately, as 96 said, we've seen too much inconsistency on that side of the ball. It's probably time to show Hobbie the door as well, definitely keep Franks (he's done absolute wonders with the way Crossley's improved his technique and running, and how he's got Hall on board so quickly is also amazing), and Dawsey (I know the drops are glaring, but our WR's are finally running good patterns, and actually blocking down field when Pajic was coach they looked like all the WR's were playing a sand lot flag game). A lot of potential we just need to harnass it properly.

Uhhh, we were playing a vanilla offense against Tenn Tech, but that was because Banks played 3/4's of the game. Denson was a fabulous HS QB. He has impressive speed, and elusiveness, better than MB. His accuracy was better when he was on the run, then in a pocket stationary position so anyone that saw him play in HS would know that's going to be the million dollar question. Will our offensive staff work with Denson's strength, or will Denson be capable of holding in the pocket and consistently delivering quality passes. No question Denson right now is probably one of the top 7 or 8 athletes on our team. However, can he be consistent at QB. If he was able to play today I would bet that Denson would be starting because he has blazing speed, can run the option, and if you roll him out he's unquestionably a better passer than PJ is, or well at least was in HS (I can only compare him to his HS days). Now Beastie said he never made it in College at Auburn, well beastie Auburn has 5 back-ups ahead of Denson, and all of them run a pro-style offensive set, and all stand taller than Denson, and all were as highly rated as Denson, and probably none were as athletically gifted as Denson. SO, if your Auburn coaches do you try and spend the time to develop Denson from a mobile, rollout, throw on the run, improv, speed option type QB to a pure drop back pure passer, or do you concede that you already have five other back-ups with those attributes and it would be better to use Denson's amazing athleticism at another position versus trying the experiment of developing his QB game. That was Auburn's consideration, and obviously with all that depth it made sense for Auburn to move Denson, not because he couldn't be a great QB, its because its the path of least resistence and Denson could probably help on the field at other positions faster than at QB. Now at USF Denson suddenly becomes a priority. In the spring, with Banks gone, Denson will be running with #1's. He'll be the man, and with the prospect of Hill being an early enrollee practice could get quite interesting at the QB position. If developed properly, and with the right system there's no doubt in my mind Denson could be a very good college QB, however USF shouldn't spend forever trying to create a QB that isn't there, or re-developing an offense for him that will never work because Denson's skills are so profound it's better to just take the risk of him transfering again and move him to another position. Reality says that fire Smith, and get a real QB coach into this program and watch PJ improve, Denson improve, and the freshman coming in ready to contribute immediately. Right now, I stand before everyone stating that this Rod Smith has let this program down, and is not a good QB coach. Furthermore, the future recruits are not even Rod's recruits so losing him won't necessarily mean we'll lose either of those players.

Here's the problem with that assertion- Gachette is also coached by Rod Smith. To date I have seen nothing but disappointment from QB development. Smith has had Banks for four years, and PJ for three years, and since last season it actually appears as if their abilities have deteriorated. So far we've watched Smith take a few QB's with some decent athleticism and make them into nothing spectacular. I am not sold on Smith's ability to develop QB's, PJ should be further ahead at this juncture, ditto for Banks, it's almost appalling particularly enlight of his comments in the Trib about these guys looking better in practice. Come on Smith, there's noticable throwing hitches in PJ's delivery. Is he trying to tell me that none of that exists during practices? Fire Smith, and this offense could be much better. Inserting Gachette would get us no further than PJ has, and frankly with Smith pushing him I am afraid of the outcome.

why are you saying Leavitt's bottom falling out? There is no coaching issue, this team will get better the problem is most of the solid 1-A, BCS talent on this team is either 19 years old or younger, or are new on campus and team. Give them time to learn and gell, we've risen in stature faster than our talent and recruiting could catch-up. That's the facts, pure and simple.

The future is fine. The problem is simple. All those mistakes on the field weren't caused by bad coaching, or bad players, simply put our talent has yet to grow-up and catch-up to our lofty ascension up the 1-A ranks. Our position as nearly a BCS program is great, but most of our athletes, true athletes that are worthy of that stature are either 19 years old or younger, or just arrived on campus. Most of our seniors, juniors, and 5th years were recruited when USF was 1-AA. Give it two years, and another solid recruiting class this year, and folks will be singing the praises of this staff as the talent matures into the players they're capable of becoming.

Thanks, but even with your projections that puts us into a much better attendance then last year....i.e. an increase. Next year contains UCF in the schedule, and a few BE foes. That might be just enough to boost attendance.....even if they don't get their **** together.

FIRE WOOLDARD, HELL FIRE LEEROY SELMON....FIRE JUDY GENSHAFT. **** is there anyone immune from firing on this board? Here's a little secret for you boys, USF likes to make its football games a profitable endeavor. For example, even if its a home and home series OKST still gets expensed travel costs, and compensation. In fact, when big teams visit smaller schools often smaller schools must often pay for the visit- usually a percentage of gross. There's a good chance that FAU might be paying more than they make for this game and series.

They play whomever makes an impact. That's the line of our coaches. They are returning Chris Carothers, Mike Miller, and Frank Davis. I think all three, sans Miller at center, could be supplanted by some of the younger more talented players on the depth chart. The coaches have lauded Marc Dile, Walt Walker, and Griffin. I think if Haupt was to get in during Jan., then he'd have a great shot at contributing right away. I've seen enough video of DeArmas to know this kid is a fabulous difference making OL, could play tackle or guard. He'll play early in his career.

It would be shocking, the NCAA is much stricter about football games then basketball for a number of obvious reasons- longer time, weather, the set-up, overconsumption. I still want an on-campus stadium, I get enough consumption during tailgating anyway. Kiz's, stats illustrate that the move to C-USA caused our attendance to bump up an average of 3000+ a game. Who knows if that includes the latest numbers, or the C-USA games we played as non-conference opponents. Since attendance has gone up each of the past three years, and it seems pretty certain this season could jump our average to nearly 31k, then it stands to reason a move to the BE could see a similar pop in attendance. Which would bring us into the 34-35k range (AVERAGE). Add more winning seasons, a few bowl games, and more TV with games against perennial ranked opponents and I could see us averaging 40k+ in fans by 2008-09, and that would be an ideal time to discuss an on-campus stadium.

It is indeed a good B-Day for Selmon- no one has called for his head or firing on this board in the last 12 hours. Congrats LRS, the man's incredible!

Go back to sleep Smazza, there's nothing to see here.

I think with USF's attendance possibilities you almost have to start out at 50-55k seats, with some boxes, and a press box. That alone is in the neighborhood of $90-100mm. Next year if our team is halfway decent I see at least two games that should demand at least 40k in fans- UCF, and WVU. Bring those two in, and suddenly we're looking at 40plus attendance for at least two games per season. That alone is enough for USF to conduct a feasibility study on this idea. Again, if you can put 40k in a stadium on a regular basis, and 10k are students, and you get say 25k that are fully paying at $25, then you generate $3.75mm a year at an bear minimum in attendance alone. Consider full concessions, full parking- 10k cars for $10 for six games is over $600k. Remember, concerts, shows, and events to rent it out. Also, the box leases, and other sports can use it. For example, let's say it costs 98mm to build (probably on the high side if its 50k seats, but it would depend on the style. We'd probably need to raise about 20% of the capital to even begin considering the finances- that's about $20mm. Realizing that this deal would be financed with tax-exempt muni's, I just looked at the assumed underwriting rate on a Single A rated MB. It's approximately 6%, with a 30 year maturity. Therefore financing say $75-78mm in bond proceeds would cost approximately $5.5mm in debt service annually. So the debt service to own it at this level is approximately $5.5mm per annum. Revenue Certainty: 1. approximately $3.5mm for ticket sales, bump it to say $4mm if you charge student's $5 a ticket or get attendance to bolster to 27,500. 2. Parking, say 10k at $10 for six games is $600k. 3. Concessions- on campus so no more beer sales- a few sodas, hotdogs, peanuts, etc., as someone stated $5/person in attendance provides approximately $1.2mm per annum. 4. Add in incidentals- advertising, luxury box leases, and naming rights. Assume advertising is going for $10k a game with a few dozen advertisers, the luxury box is an unknown (and a variable cost because if they don't build luxury boxes hard costs reduce signifcantly, if they do- and they only would if they were previously committed- then the revenue stream is identifiable) for argument sake we'll ignore and call it the Athletic Department's Holiday Party Cash Flow. Naming rights, depending on the size, quality, and concert potential I'd assume we'd be lucky to find one for $1mm per annum. Revenue: Ticket Sales $3.75mm Concessions $1.2mm Parking $ .6mm Incidentals $2.5mm CF $8.05mm DS $5.50mm OCF $2.55mm There is $2.55mm that must go to operations, maintenance, reserves, and incidentals. You can expect that travel, equipment, and at least one team is going to cost us about $400k to get in for a visit. Then you must consider security, ticket counters, concessions, management, clean-up, etc. (Note: the assumptions made are on the aggressive side). Generally speaking USF could build it's own stadium predicated on the following premises: 1. They have one year averaging at least 40k fans, and at least 25k paying fans that pay an average of $25 a ticket. 2. That USF is capable of raising at least $25mm in private equity before raising it in the capital markets. 3. That a stadium holding approximately 50k people can be build on-campus for about $90mm. 4. That naming rights, luxury boxes, and advertising can be sold out, and provide the necessary ancillary income. 5. That the program is maximizing income generation in other areas- conference affiliation, bowl revenue, and traveling games. Before USF could build an on-campus stadium they would need some certitude that those five caveats could be met or exceeded. If so, then build away.

I wouldn't say good team, because good teams play well. We've got a very athletic, and talented team that hasn't learned how to play well yet. They're getting there, and you see development every week, but when it all comes together- well your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully this Friday because were going to need a great effort to win.

Howie you da man. This program could use this boost. I think our OL could be on **** good footing with DeArmas, Haupt, Griffin, Dile, and Springfield manning the line in the future.

Bullsgrad95, I would say more than few tackles, and throw-in a couple of missed passes as well, but you are right. Everyone is acting like Army just trucked us. Lest we forget that Army didn't change their gameplan much from the first to the second half, however in the first half we held them to 16 yards rushing. Some crappy mental lapses on defenses, and poor tackling allowed them to get some big plays, and our offense didn't capitalize when the opportunity was present. We're not as far as many would think, but we still have a long way to go before we're a good team.

Bullheaded, I have no problem with anything negative about this team. I live a life, I have a wonderful family, good job, mine doesn't revolve around the Bulls winning as to whether I'll have a good or bad year. Which is why if people are going to be openly critical then they owe it to themselves and members of the board to be intelligent about their responses. Fine be critical, but don't be stupid about it, and you're wrong there is more than one or two that are making knee-jerked ignorant responses. There's actually a couple of dozen, and when UCF fans are forced to be the voice of reason for USF fans then some of us have a problem. I don't call everyone out when they disagree with me, I only call ignorance when I see ignorance. Ignorance is like comments such as; 'FIRE HOBBIE TODAY', 'www.firejimleavitt.com', 'stupid play calling', 'bad coaches', etc. I do believe we could improve on Hobbie, but we also need to recognize the REAL problem with this team and not hide behind some battle cry of "Fire So-and-So," because I don't think we played well. I was never on Hobbie's bandwagon, but I must admit, and everyone must admit, his play calling has improved this year, and there's been some tangible improvement in general operations of the offense. Also, when he has a QB connecting you see what our offense is capable of, for instance TCU- we really made a ton of mistakes but still racked up 560 total yards! Again, I am not saying Hobbie should stay, or that he should be summarily fired, but some people must recognize that right now it has zero to do with Hobbie the reasons were losing. If our offense continues to improve throughout this year are people still going to demand Hobbie's head because they don't know any better than to find the real culprits for our lack of execution? What if PJ has one of his good games, and we run up 500 yards of total offense on UL, this is a distinct possibility since our offense's problem is stopping itself, but we lose by 3. Do we continue to demand Hobbie's resignation? That's my point, if you're going to criticize Hobbie when he's down, and demand his firing, then you need to give him kudos when he comes off and runs a sound offense. To me, right now, the only coaches that clearly need to be fired are Smith and Frey. I like Greg, but this is the second year in a row the OL has not played consistently, and he's not getting them to respond properly. He's got the most senior and cohesive unit on the team so his excuses are moot- over half our offensive penalties have come from this unit this year!!!!! That's not acceptable, the kids can take the blame, but when they're that experienced and decently talented it must fall back to the OL coach. As for Smith, I just don't like the way he handles the QB, he's screaming at PJ on the sideline, he gets too huffy on the sidelines, and honestly he's had PJ for three years in this system, and the hitches PJ has are high school caliber stuff- throwing off the back foot, improper release timing, holding the ball wrong. If someone was watching over you at work, you would expect that if you had something go wrong, or had a bad month or season, they would give you at least a fighting chance to improve, and get better. To me the problems are glaring. They stare us in the face that it shouldn't be a big finger pointing campaign except at the athletes on the field. They need to make plays, Camon can be better but at his size perfect technique is required on every play, ditto for Verpaele, and our LB's. It's obvious our DL isn't going to dominate anyone this year so our backers need to improve and make plays- because of the size that comes from perfect technique, using their speed to fend off blockers. Until that happens it could get ugly it could go well it all depends on how our athletes respond.

NOPE, in fact Andre Hall has actually slowed down his run to the holes the past few games. Initially he was hitting the holes so fast there wasn't any holes. The WR's are blocking better down field. It's being done with Crossley in the game as well as Hall. A good example is our ability to go wide running sweeps, and option plays effectively. You can't succeed on those plays without superb receiver blocking. We're getting it. I am not sure if you remember last season the WR's would miss blocks, their footwork was atrocious, they'd be off their routes and at the snap they'd get blown up, and never get into their routes. It was actually an effort in futility because the receivers looked horrific, even Whitaker for all his size was a bad blocker. I remember in the 2nd quarter on a toss sweep to Crossley who rumbled forward for 12 yards inside the 10 yard line, it was a combination first Bain came across and sealed the inside with a great cross block, and Garris crossed out and closed out the corner. It was pretty, and last year what would have happened is we would have never had our receiver in motion, by the time the slot man got to the inside he would get brushed aside by a bigger player, or blow the block, the outside receiver would miss the corner, and thus not sealing the outside lane for Crossley who was able to pick up 12, instead last year he would have rumbled ahead for like four, mainly by rumbling, and stumbling forward with his big body, but on that run Crossley went 8 yards before he was even touched! What I like is that the WR's have potential, and now that they're running good routes if we can just get the ball delivered to them properly we can make some plays. I remember last year on slant patterns part of the problem the QB's had was they didn't know if or when our WR's were going to make the turn inside, and usually what looked bad looked even worse because a player was usually not around as a pass was bounced to an empty area that should have been occupied by a receiver. Now our guys are breaking from the line quicker, they're not getting jammed in fact corners are starting to play off them a bit because we're burning deep. All around good play, and good job by Dawsey. Now if he can help recruiting he'll be worlds better than Pajic ever was to this team.

You're **** straight because anyone that suggest's Jim Leavitt should be fired or his head should be on the chopping block is ignorant, and shouldn't be posting in the first place. Whatever, the ridiculousness of the sentiment here is sad, we aren't even close to a position where we should be demanding the firing of a coach that's done wonders for our program. We've had a few players that haven't executed and haven't performed, it's difficult to point fingers at the coaching staff, albeit maybe Rod Smith, when PJ has absolutely missed open WR's. There's nothing the staff can do when Camon turns out to be a bust, and absolutely no one wants to step up at SS so we shove in a true freshman. There's absolutely nothing we can do when Battle, after three years of solid play, suddenly disappears at gametime, and Searcy, after an amazing spring practice, suddenly was a no show in the fall (he's still here just a shell of the player many saw in the spring). I don't know what's happening, and the coaches have tried frickin everything. You see them shuttling in players with no conscience, they played 6 different DT's on Saturday. I suppose some expectations were given that were not met. What do you want to say Doug when you have two DT's, including LRS, that are RS-Seniors, and playing horrendous football, getting blown off the ball, absolutely zero pass rush, and then it exposes our smallish LB's, and safeties. The offense has been close, but inconsistent play from an OL that we all expected to be solid- one drive they absolutely blow the competition off the ball, the next its an illegal procedure penalty, then a missed block for a loss on the run, then we're facing 2nd and 3rd down and 15+ yards to go, not PJ's forte (although oddly he executed it against TCU in those positions). Bullsheaded, I am not going to sit back and read this seriously overblown, overreactions and pointing fingers at parties that are not to blame without making comments. Call me an idiot, but there's too many knee jerk reactions on this website, I mean a thread that says www.firejimleavitt.com, come on, we need to be a bit classier, and smarter than that. I do agree that Hobbie deserves some blame, although surprisingly this has been Hobbie's best year thus far, but it might be too little too late. In the end it's players that were expected to make plays and step up not doing it. It's difficult to blame the coaching staff at this point because in the past CJL and crew have been able to get the most out of players. You almost have to sit back, and wait it out to see if these players will develop as expected or if our issues are more glaring. In the end coaching changes on offense seem almost a necessity at this point if for no other reason then to improve the talent level of the staff, bring it on par with the defensive unit. Do not fire Dawsey, and Franks, they've done an oustanding job this year, what Franks has done with Crossley has been magical, and actually seeing receivers sustain blocks down field is freshing and was once rare to see in RayJay. I am pissed because some prudence needs to be practiced on these boards, and then we shouldn't swarm to the feast like vultures, and pile on. If some are going to talk, talk intelligibly.

Yeah, right....Hobbie's not leaving in mid-season, and he's achieved enough this season to earn the right to stay until the end of the season. What reports are you reading about CJL altering the gameplan? We ran the ball almost the entire first half, just because they stuck it in on 1st and goal on the one doesn't suddenly make Leavitt the genius and Hobbie to boob. I am not defending Hobbie, but on the same token much of the sputtering this year has not been his fault. Jesus Christ if Peyton catches the 44 yard TD bomb, and Gramatica makes that FG, our offense would have scored 45pts, and put up over 500 yards of offense on a major change in philosophies from the beginning of the season. Hobbie should at least get some kudos that despite poor execution and dumb plays his offense has still made dramatic steps from last season and the TennTech game. I am still wondering when people will start questioning Frey, and the lack of consistency from a very veteran OL, and Smith who continues to lay into PJ on the sidelines when its unnecessary and simply embarrasses the kid further. If you asked me to fire two coaches today I would show Frey, and Smith the door, and probably keep Hobbie. On a positive Dawsey, and Franks have done an outstanding job. It's easy to see how good of a coach Franks is by watching Clenton Crossley. The last few years Crossley had a habit of putting his head down as he hit the hole, rushed to the hole, and basically used his size, and strength to bowl ahead for 4-5 yards. OK stuff, but Crossley's better than that. This season suddenly Crossley's keeping his head up, lowering his center of gravity, he's waiting for the holes to open up before accelerating through. The results are Crossley is getting many more yards per carry, and he's had some big breakaway runs. He looks great. Dawsey, well he's still working on the dropsies, but we're better in that area than last year. The area that's real impressive is the downfield blocking, and route running by our WR's. I've never before seen our guys run such crisp routes, and consistently sustain blocks downfield. Last year you couldn't get to two mississippi before the WR's would lose their blocks. It resulted in minimal gains, and a less effective running game. Anyway, Hobbie has done a terrific job this year, and I didn't see it in him last season. If you noticed our team was also using wrist bands now so PJ can call the plays to them instead of everyone staring at Smith for the play. However a ton of ground had to be made up by Hobbie so it was easy to look good, and therefore he should be watched closely.

exactly, how do you get out coached when your team still rattles off 21pts in the second half- it should have been 28pts, and almost 240 yards. We adjusted, but there was personnel issues on the field and allowed Army to exploit and get back in the game. You can try like hell, but Leavitt can't hide the fact he's got two safeties that weigh lighter than the hooters chicks during the halftime show. Bobby Ross is an excellent coach, he saw and he exploited. All you can hope for in Leavitt's position is the players step up and make plays.

Thank you, some cooler heads are prevailing. CJL must realize after the Army game that having three LB's weighing 220lbs or less, with two safeties around 6ft 180lbs a piece isn't going to cut it. The hope was the senior DT's would help lessen the blocking burden, but the DL has been extremely disappointing thus far which is why our staff has played Ramon McCollough, Searcy, Cray, and Chance to try to find anyone that can do more than Battles fat butt has achieved. As of yet still no answers. They tried to go to nickel packages to increase speed, then to power packages. My guess is we'll see a switch at SS, force our LB's to drop back about 2 more yards from the LOS to lessen the chance for the blockers to be effective, and allowing speed, basically we'll forfeit two yards to eliminate the big gains. I'd continue rotating LB's, and DL's and safeties until someone steps up consistently. Start sitting Camon for series..... The defense will improve it will just be a slow maturation. The offense must continue to make strides. As for our offense the only area we need to make improvements are QB, and OL. If the OL blocks a bit more consistently, and eliminates mistakes, and PJ starts relaxing in the pocket doesn't throw off his back foot, and eliminates mistakes this offense could really chug along. This is going to be baby steps, and no one should get so frustrated that they start making rash or inaccurate statements about the coaching staff or blame.

A sad thread, and some of the replies are sadder yet. Problem with USF this year, is players not making plays. Period end of story. Talk about firing or issues at the end of the year, but players are not executing properly. If some of you knew what the sam hell you were talking about it could be an intelligible thread, but there is a ton of improvement in this team over the past three games, unfortunately not enough to overcome the talent gap. Sorry, until your youth develops properly, and we develop more size inside this team is not going to be a good football team. Deal with it. We've got some fine athletes, loads of speed, and good talent, but we've got gapping holes that must be address over a long haul, not one week. Some of you can spend the entire season screaming about our coaches, and pointing fingers but it will get you nowhere. Unfortunately some players that were expected to step up never did on defense, and the coaches have tried desperately to do what it takes to motivate them or find someone else to replace that player. To no avail thus far. The idiots that scream for Hobbie's head really amuse me. The guy realized against USM we absolutely allowed PJ's arm to give that game away. Hobbie vowed he wasn't going to put the Army game into PJ's hands. We broke rushing records for USF, we ran up 35pts, and hell a missed FG, and stupid INT and we would have scored over 40pts! Yet, Hobbie could not overcome four or five missed passes that PJ threw (he had to throw sometime, hell even option teams throw the ball 12-15 times a game), and he couldn't prevent the defensive meltdown. I am not saying Hobbie isn't a coach that doesn't deserve critiquing, hell I've been riding his ass as big as anyone, but jesus anyone that knows football realizes that this loss had little to do with the offense, and everything to do with the defense. ****, next thing you know we're going to blame Hobbie for our Men's Soccer team loss, and for issues in Fallujah.... Sorry folks, but the fact remains that the issues with this team are talent related. Until we can fill the gaps with the appropriate talent every USF game will be difficult to watch, or at least a nail bitter. The positive is many of the answers are actually on the field, or on the bench, the negative is they're just not physically ready to be every down players- examples like Danny Verpaele, devon Davis, etc. On a positive, and for any a**hole that wants to post JL's head is on the chopping block, without CJL at the helm USF gets blown out by USM, and Army instead of missing an on-sides kick to potentially tie, and we lose against TCU. That's a fact, few other coaches can get the most out of his bunch.

Bob, You're half right, but it has nothing to do with intelligence. Our young defensive backers are just not big enough, and experienced enough to sustain a run game against an Army team that one thing can be said about them is they are technically sound ball players. We had chances early on to put the game away and force Army to win by throwing the ball, but unfortunately we didn't capitalize and they were allowed to stick to their gameplan.

It's asinine that this topic is even on this message board. The problems with this team can be summed up real easy. On defense, we're too small at the backer positions, from LB to safety. It isn't the coaches fault, they've been trying their asses off to find combinations or some players capable of making plays, but with LB's that weigh only in the 220lbs range, and two safeties in the 185lbs range, its no wonder that Carlton Jones broke all those tackles. Those spots are very young, and we've just got to wait for these guys to develop. Youth, and inexperience has finally caught up with USF on defense. Sadly, something that was largely unforeseen by fans was our diminutive size at the backer positions. To compensate it was assumed that the DL would help carry the load and eliminate the pressure on the linebackers to roam free and use their speed, however that hasn't been the case Battle has completely underperformed, and seems to be a shell of the player from the previous two years where he was developing nicely, Terrence Royal at DE is now officially a bust (my suggestion to the staff is move him back to OLB where he was a demon when he arrived at USF, at least it would give us size at the backer position), Searcy after having a bang-up spring has absolutely disappeared (I think he's hanging out with Ramon McCollough another DT disappointment). Kobel at DE well lets just say Craig's talented but limited, he's strictly a pass rushing specialist, Simmons will never be a upper level 1-A DE, Tavarious Robinson has been up, and he's been down this year. To sum it up our DL has been decent run stoppers, but to average to compensate for the size, and inexperience issues in the defensive backfield. We needed this experienced DL to step up, and outside of LRS Jr., and Kobel they've been disappointing. Four losses hurt this team in the off-season more than we could imagine. Johnny Jones, Tim Jones, Feldman, and Jason Allen. Allen had a season ending injury, he had the size to drop back to LB, and help out at speed rusher to give us some size and experience at the backer spot. JJ, well lets just say Danny Verpaele versus 6-2 220lbs JJ is a big difference at this point. I said at the beginning of the season if JJ played this defense would be good, without him all bets were off. Well, the difference is massive and what's more disappointing is back-ups like Antonio Warren, Jeremy Burnett, and Drametrice Smith let little bitty Danny Verpaele beat them out. Tim Jones hurt because he was the model of consistency and intensity on the DL the past two years. The guy was a solid DE, and could move into DT on passing downs. Feldman's loss hurts because we don't have a big enough TE to really be effective along the OL. Ruegger is more in that H-Back size, and Ruegger's gotten knocked back a ton blocking along the OL- it wouldn't have happened with Feldman who's a very solid blocker- it's been his forte and the reason he was starting as a freshman. That sums it up too small and inexperienced on defense to be effective. Nothing the coaches can do to change that because ultimately it's a gap in talent, and until we can fill those gaps with talented athletes we're going to take some lumps and even the best coaches in the world can't compensate for that. The best the coaches can do is continue to coach perfect technique, continue to push and motivate the players, and hopefully they will start responding and will improve for later years when our team will be physically ready. On a positive note help is on the way. Johnny Jones will be ready to play next year, and I watch Carlton Williams sitting on the sideline in street clothes and the guy absolutely towers over Camon at nearly 6-3. The LB'ers are all young, and they'll get bigger, and stronger. This is all just going to take time to fully develop this talent. As for offense, well it can be summed up best in the game against Army. Coach Hobbie, and if you're going to criticize him for the bad then you must give him credit for the good, did a fantastic job game planning for Army. Afraid to have another debacle like USM where PJ's arm almost beat us exclusively, he gets this team completely into a ground pounding unit, running amazingly well. We actually ran for 372 yards!!! We almost had three runners over 100 yards!!!! Yet in the end, it was still four plays in the passing game that were our demise- PJ's INT on the two yard line- and for you criticizing the call it was a sure TD, it was automatic, if PJ put any type of decent pass on the ball he had Ruegger wide open without anyone within 5 yards of him. You call those plays to prevent teams from stacking. The second was the drop by Peyton, and the third was Joe Bain's drop in the second quarter. The fourth was the sack on PJ in the third quarter, and actually the one in the second quarter. The coach can't win with those types of breakdowns. Those don't occur and USF breaks Army's back going up 24-7 in the first half. That's the problem with this offense, we're overcompensating for a noticable weakness.

It's a secret but it's this weekend versus Army. If you see coaches, or players walking around with a big dude, yell go BULLS! He's from Merritt Island, and he's friends with Danny Verpaele so that might help us slightly. Overall, in these circumstances UF usually wins these, but I'm hoping to change the record.