It is time for the USF Football program to put on its big boy pants.
Previously the media loved to talk about how young the USF football program is relative to its competition; therefore it was cool to mention how a young football program beat an established program such as Pitt, West Virginia, Auburn, FSU, etc. But considering the realignment conversations due to media contracts and the constant competition for student athletes it is important for USF to position and market the football program as best as possible.
Coming off a 5 -7 season in 2011 and missing a bowl game for the first time in five years, riding a 6 game losing streak with loses to Ball State, Temple and Syracuse(Homecoming) and not making any significant statements or moves signals that USF is not serious about its football program.
At this point one can not say with certainty whether USF will retain Skip Holtz at the end of the year. Doug Woolard stated the evaluation process will begin at the end of the year.
If USF plans to keep Skip into next year, in order to show that USF is serious about its football program I expect Chris Cosh will be fired in the next coming days and that the remnants of the defensive staff will be fired at the end of the season, this includes Rick Smith, Kevin Patrick and Vernon Hargreaves.
If USF waits until the end of the year to make a move then I would imagine the entire staff will be fired which makes it very important when the firing announcement will come. There will be a competition for coaches at the end of the season with Arkansas, Kentucky, Auburn and Tennessee potentially all on the hunt for new coaches and this does not include the collateral changes those hirings will cause. USF is clearly not in the driver's seat to hire a top notch coach with more money and reputation associated with the other coaching jobs.
Last summer Doug Woolard made a knee jerk reaction and signed Skip Holtz to contract extension after a losing season due to "other teams" being interested in Skip Holtz's services. Now it is time for Doug to determine what is more important; Proving he was right in signing Skip Holtz to a contract extension or Ensuring the image of the USF Football Program is preserved
The upcoming months will show whether the USF Football program has moved from the toddler stage to the adolescent stage. The decisions made during this period will be a reflection on how much USF values its football program. Without knowing who pulls the strings, it is fair to guess that more than the head football coaches job could be at stake.