RankBull

JoeB: I go to all home football games(missed 2 in 10 years due to work). Missed one MBB game this year(was at the bowl game). Attended 8 WBB games. Have been to all but one baseball game, but had to leave two games early to go to B-ball games being played the same night. Go Bulls!

He kind of rips the players in a public forum. I hope he pumps them up when they do well. He is stuck with some of the roster for a couple of years. I like his high level of expectation. I have been to most of the games and he is correct when saying we go through lulls during games. We do have some good talent though, that was in place when he got here, but we are not a deeply talented team. I for one am very excited about the future of the program. Go bulls!

Hey Wags: Congratulations and thanks for saving our bacon today. Keep throwin' strikes.

Lets not put too much emphasis on the success of our season, based solely on the outcome of this game. I looked back to 2004. Auburn has only lost one non-conference game in the last three years-2005 to Georgia Tech. They routinely smoke mid pack and below SEC opponents at home. I would put us no better than sixth in the SEC. My hope is that we win, but lets not throw in the towel should we lose. We need to go 4-1 in our OOC games, and then get to 5-2 in our conference games. A 9-3 regular season, as we continue to build, would be a great season.

S. Bien, A hall of fame post if I ever read one. Everything you said was right on the money. Back in 1997, when we were just starting out, my hope was we could be a strong division 1-AA program by now. CJL and the rest of the athletic staff have taken the footbulls to places way beyond my expectations. I feel like I am living a dream everytime they accomplish another milestone. GO BULLS!

Nice rundown Bully. It would be great to see the ladies get some recognition for their efforts. A ranking would be a good start.

Jose has the ladies moving forward. Lets see some butts in the seats Tuesday night.

My two season ticket seats will be full.

Ari: You should probably try calming down a little. You seem to be completely consumed by your hatred for our current coaching staff. I too am very frustrated by our lack of success, and anxious for that to change. You jump all over anyone who does not bristle with the same level of rage as yourself. I can tell you that there are no instant fixes for our situation, so we will have to be patient or find ourselves in your state. If we hired the best coach we possibly could it would still take us 2 years to build to the level of being a consistent contender and winner in our conference.

My thought is we will see coach McCullum again next year. I do not think our athletic department bottom line will allow us to pay two coaches, especially if we get an upgrade over our current coach. We may just have to be patient while this situation plays itself out. If funds were unlimited then we would bring in Woolard's guy and move forward. Our reality is different. Remember, no matter what your thoughts are about the coach we need to support our student athletes. Our kids give good effort. I think some confuse wins as giving good effort, and losses as a bad effort. In sports you sometimes give good effort and are just not good enough to win.

Once Smith convinces the OC Magee to run out of a pass blocking set, like we do, that will bring their average yards per carry right down. That brings thier third downs to long yardage and their offense to a grinding halt. All of which are good for USF. Go Rod go.

2006 statistics heading into the bowl game: Defensive rank in yards per game: National 24th, Big East 2nd Offensive rank in yards per game: National 42nd, Big East 4th Rod Smith nominated as offensive guru: Not hardly. Glad to see him go. Maybe we will finally stop running the quarterback up the middle, out of a pass blocking set, 4 out of every 10 plays, for 3 yards. I think we should expect more from our offensive coordinator than the inconsistent offense we have seen over the last two seasons. The 23 point per game average seems good on the surface, but 37 against UNC and 3 against UC in consecutive weeks gives us a 20 point per game average, but no shot at winning both games. We can debate his successes/failures all night, but the data shows he is barely average, and no where near the guru he has been portrayed as in this thread.

That play happened in the Syracuse game after a long drive. Rod Smith did trick plays many times in that same situation, and they would kill our momentum. Granted they did work sometimes. Usually you do trick plays to change momentum, it always frustrated me that he would call those plays after we had a 8-10 play drive going, and gut us in trouble. Remember the Amarri Jackson miracle ply against Cincinnati in '05 when he picked up a dropped reverse and then ran side to side and somehow scored a touchdown. We were in control of that game, but it was not in hand. The result was good but the risk of losing momentum was greater IMO.

That play was in the Syracuse game when we moved the ball right down the field and then got tricky instead of just staying within ourselves. Rod Smith did that kind of stuff on more than one occassion and killed long drives.

Rod Smith was the QB coach at WVU for less than one season in 2000.