Bull94

Why do you guys blame this on PJ? We've known for sometime that he can't and shouldn't be expected to carry this team. How come our coaches don't know this? They are the ones to blame.We have a top ten RB in the nation who averaged over 4.0 yards per carry in this game. Why did the coaches panic and throw the ball 37 times? We weren't out of this game when they decided to start slinging it. Look at WV. They run the same offense and were getting it handed to them by UofL. They seemed to be in much more dire straights and yet they still stuck to their strength (running the ball). Did they panic? No. They continued to run the ball and got right back in it. Lay off of PJ. He would do fine if the coaches realized our strength is in running the **** ball. Enough of the "we need a heisman QB in order to be successful" crap. A power running game and a stout D is all you need. Don't start the desperation passing unless we are down by 4 TDs with 6 minutes to play!! Whose fault?? PJ 35 pass attempts AHall 19 carries WV QB 27 pass attempts WV RB 31 carries By the way their RB is a freshman. NOT A TOP TEN RB IN THE COUNTRY and yet their coaches have a clue who needs to touch the ball!! And their QBs had a lower completion percentage, less yards and the same amount of TDs and INTs as Pat and yet they still won and are now 6-1. Our coaches need to get a clue.

Agreed. 37 pass attempts way to many. Horrible play calling. we need to throw as little as possible.  15 times per game max. We had plenty of time to get back into this game without feeling like we have to pass all day. Julmiste passes+carries = 55 Hall/Ponton receptions + carries = 29 Hall and Ponton need to have more total touches then PJ. I feel sorry for PJ that the coaches can't put him in a better situation to suceed within his abilities. He can't be expected to carry this team. Horrible gameplan.

I don't understand why you bring in an option quarterback deep in your own end and pass the ball 3 times. idiotic. I think Denson could be effective as an option QB with his speed. Put both Ponton and Hall back there and shove it down their throats. Play smash mouth. Enough of the spread until we get a QB who can pass consistently. It's time to fit the system to the players. It's obvious these players don't fit the system!!

I sometimes wonder if these guys who write these articles even follow the sport. UCONN's QB is out for the next 6 - 8 weeks after breaking his collarbone during the 'Cuse game. Don't they think this may have an impact on their season? They have to start a freshman now. We're going to earn their respect!! http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/8950299

It's definitely not a marketing ploy. ESPN is strong arming cable companies to pick up their new station. They have been horrible for most college coverage. Unless you are a national program. I remember when we had a good many basketball games on locally. In fact most of our home and away games were shown. That will never happen again because of ESPN. They don't want local games to compete with whatever national game they are showing. They buy all the rights to these games and then don't show them or force you to pay a premium for pay-per-view.

It's been done at the basketball games and it seems to sound louder than green/ gold chant. They should put it on big screen and get it going when we need a big defensive stop. something, anything to try and get the crowd into it.

I like the SOUTH FLORIDA chant. one side South, the other side Florida.

The line has come down from 9 1/2 to 8. That makes me nervous. Those sun sports guys are based in orlando. they have always been associated with UCF. natural bias pick.

Zoomer, I bet they bought blocks of 20 to help fill in the gaps like Eric said above. I sit in 135  and had quite a few around me. It's better to have them filled than empty.

I think the BE is actually a hinderance here. Alot of these guys who were on the bubble to go pro out of high school now realize how dangerous it is to play against real competition. I think he may be afraid that his game will be exposed and all of his weaknesses will show against top notch competition. I've read an article that says the new rule for the NBA with a 19 y.o. age limit will cause alot of these kids to go to prep schools so they can still dominate against lesser talent rather than play in college and have their weaknesses exposed..

Mike G, There are plenty of unknowns. There are plenty of knowns as well. 1) Dungy was to stubborn to admit that he could not oversee an offense and this cost him his job in Tampa. He hired guys who would run an offense his way. If he had swallowed his pride and let an experienced offensive mind  direct the offense then Tampa would have been much more successful under him. Successful head coaches delegate authority and realize their strengths and weaknesses. I hope CJL is a great offensive mind but if he's not then I hope he is willing to swallow his pride and bring an experienced guy in to do the job. I think Smith was hired to run CJLs offense the way CJL wants him to.No questions asked. 2)Knowns We know that Smith has exactly 1 year of  experience in running an offense and that was in 1997 at Franklin H.S. Hardly BCS college level experience. We don't know if he was to blame for Banks/Julmiste not progressing but somebody needs to take responsibility. Why not the QB Coach in charge of developing talent? He had no other job. Who was responsible for recruiting these guys? Leavitt? Hobbie? Smith? Didn't they have the foresight to realize it probably was a long shot to have a guy that threw 10 passes his senior year in high school run a spread offense successfully at the BCS college level? Sorry but responsibility for the QB failures start at the top(CJL). I'm willing to bet that CJL didn't hire a guy with no college experience to run a BCS offense without having full oversight himself. It would be wrong for him to run the offense because CJL is a defensive guy. Before being at USF, the last offensive experince he had was probably playing in high school. He is not trained to think offensively. He should concentrate on the defensive side and let someone who knows what they are doing run the offense. I'm behind the Bulls 100%. I continue to donate. I attend the games and cheer for our teams. Questioning what could be the most important hire in some time for our football team is not micro- managing every GD detail. Let's hope CJL got it right.

Sorry. I was talking about the O.C. hires and the hands-on way Dungy ran the offense in Tampa. My bad. I just hope CJL is not making the same mistake.

For 6 years? The head coach has no responsibility for the offense? Who was directing that offense?  the Glazers? Were they the ones calling 2 draws, 1 screen and punt for field position? Maybe I was wrong about Dungy's offensive conservative side all along.

I don't know if the owners told Dungy he couldn't change the offensive scheme but I wouldn't think they would assert that much control. Maybe they did. I think it was Dungy who ran the ultra conservative offense not the owners. I also think Dungy hired "yes" men to be o.c.'s. Never really giving any power over to them. He has a great Defensive mind but when it comes to the offense he lacks creativity. I don't think he was willing to admit that here. I believe he oversaw much of the play calling and strategy when it came to the offense. He built great D's but imagine how great those teams could have been if they hired someone like a Gruden with some creativity to be O.C. and Dungy gave him full control. Even with the limited talent on the offensive side, they could have achieved great things. I have the utmost respect for CJL and think we can be quite successful on Offense with the right players. I am behind him 100%. I just hope he isn't the stubborn type that feels it is his way or the highway as far as the offense is concerned. I think some of the best coaches realize their shortcomings and aren't afraid to address them by bringing in guys with strengths to match their weaknesses. They generally don't succeed by bringing in guys to amplify their weaknesses by being "yes" men.

I just hope CJL didn't hire Smith to be a "yes" man. If he wasn't willing to give more control to an experienced offensive coach then we could be in trouble. Dungy was so stubborn in Tampa when it came to the offense. Didn't matter who he hired, if he was under his thumb, the offense never worked. I'm not a big fan of the spread but it can work in the right situations. I just hope CJL is flexible enough to realize you can't fit a square peg in a round hole. I feel like this is what we have been doing for 2 years now when we use a t-wing QB to run a spread. CJL should realize his strengths are on the defnsive side and hire someone to take complete control of the offense. Look how well Dungy's offense does in Indy when he has no control of it. He better start recruiting guys to fit his system or change his system to fit the guys he is recruiting. Good head coaches know how to delegate authority. I hope he isn't trying to be a control freak.

BullDoug, The split can mean much more than $20-$40k. I'm not sure of the split either but if the BCS pays $14.5m and the representative gets half ( $7.25m) that leaves another $7.25m to split. 6 ways amounts to $1,208,333. 7 ways = $1,035,714. That's a difference of $172,619. Not an insignificant sum. Plus you have 1 more team vying for the $7.25m each year. I still believe we should add one more to round out the league though. Army and Navy have a much higher following nationally. Didn't ESPN just sign Army to some special deal to show their games nationally? I don't think they would do this for the other CUSA teams even if they were independents. Army and Navy have much more prestegious programs. The SEC should kick out Vandy and invite a more competitive team but they won't. I think they have won like one conference game in the past 10 years.

I could see adding 1 more to replace Temple but they have already replaced the 3 that left for the ACC. It worked fine before. I don't see any need to split BCS money any further. The BCS tried to have ND join a conference and they balked. I would have liked to see them stick it to them. I think the settlement wasn't as harsh as it should have been for ND. If they make the BCS once in 10 years they basically break even. Any less and they make more $$. A watered down league might allow you to have a championship game but would it amount to greater per member revenue after the split? Probably not. Army and Navy have far greater national appeal than any of the others mentioned. They may not add to the strength of schedule but they sure would add to the character of the league. Any deals associated with Army and ND for that matter can be worked around. Both VTech and Miami used this league to grow into big time programs. Why not follow their lead? Don't cheapen the league by adding these others.

There are plenty of alums that live down here too. I'm starting to see gear all over. I have 6 buddies who would buy season tickets if we played at the palace and they all went somewhere other than USF. How many would come from St Pete and Clearwater? Much easier for them to get downtown. By the way the sundome isn't owned or operated by the school. Let them buy their own nice seats and scoreboards if they expect us to play there. I see plenty of students at the local bars in Southie, channelside, and ybor(all of which are spitting distance from the palace). If they can make it for drink specials, they can make it for a few games downtown. Imagine the recruits coming in and seeing the venues we play in. Ray Jay and the palace. Blows any venues in the rest of the state away.

I was just trying to point out how fortunate we were to have played in RJS. I think it was a good thing for Brighthouse to step up and sponsor the spring game. God knows I give them enough of my money. I think they look at it as a long term commitment. Channel 47 looks like it will be dedicated to local sports. Finally we may actually see some basketball and football away games on T.V. ESPN has killed local sports coverage. USF B-Ball used to get tons of play on T.V. locally until ESPN was concerned about taking eyeballs away from their game of the night. I think Brighthouse realizes this was a long term investment. The more attention they can get for USF football, the more they can charge advertisers for USF away games. And the less likely I am to sign up for satellite service. Just think if all diehard fans switched or stay with Brighthouse because they carry USF B-ball and football games. I pay $60 a month. Times that by 4,000 and you get $240,000 a month. Well worth the $20,000 dollars to promote USF football.

An interesting side note. Pitt's spring game was held at a high school field. Wannstedt's first year and Heinz field was closed. They had 8,000 show up. Normally their spring game is held at their on campus practice facility. http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap-pitt-springgame&prov=ap&type=lgns

Not to say the 2 are anything alike but what if Duke had given up so early? Look at where their program was before Coach K. Very successful. Much more so then ours. Do you think they were all calling for his head after his 3rd year? I bet they were but cooler heads prevailed. Imagine if they fired him for not making the tourney and having a losing record in conference. I think coaches need time to develop programs just like players need time to develop their games. Remember Swifty his first 2 years? I guess Coach K would have been considered a failure until his 4th year since his record only got worse each year until the 4th.17-13 (6-8), 10-17 (4-10), and 11-17 (3-11). They went to the NCAA finals, 2nd round and elite 8 in the 3 years before Coach K. It's not like he inherited a team that hasn't been to the NCAA's in over a decade. They were there 3 years in a row. They won the ACC tourney 2 of 3 years and placed 2nd in the third. Overall record was 73-24 with a conference record of 24-14. His first year was the only winning year of the 3. Of course he did inherit an elite 8 NCAA team. They received an NIT bid. His only of first 3 years. Overall record 38-47. Conference record 13-29. He never made it past quarterfinals of conference tourney. All this with a program with a rich tradition. Bottom line is it will take time to build this program. We're not starting with anything close to what Coach K had at Duke and he went 11-17 (3-11) in his 3rd year.

How do you thing Seth got his latest gig?

beastie, Seth had 7 years to beat Cincy. Couldn't get the job done. Seth had 7 years to beat a top 20 team. Couldn't get the job done. Seth had 7 years to make it past the 2nd round of CUSA. Couldn't get the job done. CRM has been able to do all of these in 2. Seth had 7 years to get an NCAA bid. Couldn't get the job done. Seth was able to get us into the NIT 2 times in 7 years. One and done. Again if you think this is a successful 7 year run then I think you have pretty low expectations. He couldn't match the previous coach. Not even close. He resume doesn't even compare favorably to the current coach anymore. Funny thing about that not being able to beat Cincy excuse. Seth was known for excuses at the end of every year. He always had a reason for not succeeding.

Triple, I agree totally. This year was much more enjoyable than going one and done in the NIT. Great to see we actually can play basketball in the months of Feb and Mar. beastie, If 2 more games had gone our way, it was very possible we would have made the NIT. That means CRM would have been able to go as far as your beloved Seth in just 2 short years of rebuilding. It took Seth 7 years with all of those big time recruits and he couldn't beat Cincy, get us past the 2nd round of CUSA, or beat a top 20 team.  2 NIT bids - one and done. No NCAA's. That's your idea of a successful 7 year run? Would that have been enough to convince you? Gettiing an NIT invite? After all that is all Seth could do with this program.

Some people need to give our CURRENT coach some credit for what he has done. Again, I am a results oriented guy. Potential means nothing unless you actually can tap into it. These recruiting rankings are subjective. Did you notice how Seth's only top 150 recruit just left the team? In his second year, CRM is starting to build quite a resume. He beat a top 20 team, took us farther in the CUSA tourney then we have ever been, and beat Cincy who we haven't been able to beat since 1988. Most exceding what Seth was able to do in 7 years. I wish Seth the best of luck. He wasn't able to produce results here. It was time for him to move on. I was suprised he actually got what was considered to be a promotion. I thought he would have headed for the booth like so many other unsuccessful coaches do. He'll make a good analyst some day. I for one am pretty excited about the future of this program. I think those that are so negative about CRM and so in love with Seth should just go and root for V Tech. I have Gator alum friends who are more positive about our program here at USF than some of you. Sad.