BullyPulpit

Penalties were horrendous for the first two weeks. Bama was a pretty clean game and then we got sloppy again against Rice. It's a work in progress and something that we will hopefully continue to clean up. We are currently 126th out of 130 teams in penalty yards per game. It isn't that much of a shock that a team full of Naval cadets are the 3rd least penalized team in the country. Army is 4th and Air Force is 11th. Says something about discipline. WKU: 11-100 FAMU: 14-114 Bama: 5-40 Rice: 9-89

The Blue Bulls

Having a plan to stop the triple option is paramount. Given how stiff our run defense has played (top 20 nationally), I have high hopes for this game. Navy does appear to be throwing the ball a bit more this season than in seasons past, but I have to believe that we can stop them.

I have full faith that our years of winning only 1 game are behind us now. The level of competition wouldn't seem to allow for it.

FWIW, The Athletic (paywall) has us ranked 69th. We jumped 27 spots with the win over Rice. The Athletic 133: How much does Ohio State jump and Notre Dame fall? THEATHLETIC.COM The biggest lesson we learned is that Florida State is truly back to being one of the best teams in the country.

Talk about a sight for sore eyes....Moustache McDouchebag projects USF playing Auburn in the Gasparilla Bowl. I have to imagine that it would be well attended. Maybe Brian Battie can switch sides again prior to the game? Week 5 College Football Bowl Predictions: Brett McMurphy's Projections With Projected Spreads WWW.ACTIONNETWORK.COM Check out Week 5 college football bowl predictions, including Brett McMurphy's projections with Action Network's projected spreads.

Atkins is a good possession receiver, Simmons showed himself to be a decent down field threat tonight. Would still like to see someone else step up, but improvement was needed and improvement was found.

Just curious how you know definitively that he was not injured.

He was injured and knew Scott was gone and that he was almost assuredly going to be leaving. I don't fault him. I do wish we had the vision and cajones to have paid up for Deion. Colorado just announced that they sold out every game for the first time in school history. He is a media magnet and it is possible that USF gets a Big 12 invite with him at the helm. Oh well, let's go CAG!

From what I saw and read, they had a few interesting wrinkles, but they also had solid o-line play and a starting QB that completed 70% of his passes. They also had WR that could beat man-to-man coverage. At some point, we need to adjust the offense somewhat to fit what limited skillsets we have.

This is why you create a limited package of plays for talented/athletic freshmen that play to their strengths early on in the season. Then, as time passes, you incorporate them into the offense more and more if they earn it. I really get the sense that CAG's focus is on getting the basics of his offense in place. To me, it appears that he is doing this at the expense of placing some of our guys on offense in the best position to win. Where is a rollout pass for BB? Where is a halfback wheel? Where is a jet sweep? So far, the only real creativity I have observed was the Atkins WR pass. I hope this changes as we enter conference play.

You put them out there are select plays. These are guys that should be seeing 5 or 10% of the offensive snaps at this point. I don't necessarily mind saving them for conference play, but we better see some new blood out there on offense against Rice if we struggle to move the ball.

But you are using the first 3 games of this season to extrapolate to a season's total. The other poster made a good point that our defensive stats through the first 3 games last year were much better than the end of season stats. That could be the case again this season, although I doubt that. This defense seems more determined, competent, and deep than last year's iteration.

100%. It seems that CAG seems to have made the decision that he is going to install his offense this season and the players are going to have to figure out how to make it work for them. I don't like this approach as it can cost us games early in the season, but it could also win us some later this year and next. The real issue is that I don't see how he could change the offense much to suit our WRs skills, or lack thereof. The only thing I could like to see is maybe a jet sweep to Joiner and some BB rollouts. He can try to give him more time to throw, but it won't matter if the wideouts can't get any separation. We could probably also benefit from selling some play action a little bit more/better.

He makes a good point though. You don't want to compare season to season over 3 games because it doesn't suit your narrative. I agree that this defense feels and looks different and vastly better than last year's version. However, injuries and lack of depth could rear their ugly head again at some point. I am encouraged by what I have seen, but I think we can all agree that the real season starts on Saturday. Have to carry over the positive defensive momentum from Alabama.

This one is easy. Our offensive line was much better last season. Additionally, we had real playmakers and gamebreakers at the WR and RB position. While our RBs have been solid, none of them are Battie. Likewise, X and Horn are just amazing WRs. They are a big part of the reason why Colorado is 3-0. If BB still had those guys to throw to, I am certain that we would have beaten Bama. Our wideouts do not have the ability to get separation. Atkins, a former walk-on, is the only consistent one among the group. CAG needs to start looking further down the bench in hopes of finding a guy who can be a true #1. For Battie it is a shame that he ran off to Auburn. They don't know how to utilize him in their offense. I really think we could be undefeated right now if the three of them had just stayed in Tampa.

I love that he took ownership of the interception. I 100% agree with him that wasn't the time to go deep. Have to love everything he says and the way he handles himself. We are getting there. Let's hope the wins start coming. With that level of effort that we saw today they most certainly will.

Like most on here I'm happy with the competitive l this team showed, but I'm disappointed that we didn't try anything on offense. No trick plays, no jet sweeps, nothing. I know we don't have playmakers on offense, but I would have expected that we try something to catch Bama off guard. This game was winnable.

Great points. Our receivers are just not good. Three big drops so far. They can't get any separation. We need Bama to make some defensive mistakes to have any chance in this one.

It doesn't seem to be fazing the average consumer, as TV viewership appears to be way up over last season, and that is with a dearth of top 25 matchups. Is next year the year fans tune out college football because of the 'disaster' that is NIL? SPORTS.YAHOO.COM If anything, the era of NIL and the transfer portal is leveling the playing field at the top of college football.

There's this thing call TV coverage. You are paying for the right to attend live and that money doesn't go to the networks at all. Others are paying for the right to watch remotely. It's a necessary evil. No sense in getting upset about it.

Then what would be the point of people complaining?

UFC you say....the company that has a half-hour between fights and has events that go past 1 am? I know the events are less frequent, but there is a ton of downtime in the UFC.

But the stoppages (commercials) need to exist in order to pay for the product that we are consuming and line their shareholders pockets. This is sports capitalism at its finest. It may be frustrating to some, but nothing is going to change it.