CyberBull

I love 'fans' that love to nitpick and complain  after a victory. Brilliant

Family and friends seems a little harsh and unfair....b/c some of the coaches he hired were good recruiters and solid coaches. I just remember how long it took Willie to complete his staff.

seems to me that Taggart should have hired a bonfide play caller this offseason like he did with Allen on the defensive side of the ball. Not sure if he was handcuffed b/c money or lack of interest from quality offensive minds due to a potentially lameduck season...or both. Either way....Taggart as a play caller is not working....which is a shame b/c his kids like him and he is a great recruiter....and still learning on the job.

what exactly will firing him right now accomplish?

his players are still playing hard for him....and who exactly would take over?

I hope all you "fire him now" guys realize that if we keep churning through football coaches after just 2-3 years no talented young football,coach is going to want to potentially come work here. Otherwise we are going to have to overpay for an old retread who will likely make recruiting phone calls in between holes on the golf course. 

...agree on running our QB more, but it's not the fast break on grass tempo we heard about all off season. 

Quick note on playcalling: When Willie was hired there were some bigger name and most importantly ....EXPERIENCED....Offensive and defensive coordinators names being thrown around  to come in and help mentor a very young head coach. Instead the old administration decided to go cheap  and which ultimately led to Willie calling the plays today. Remember that a young Jim Leavitt had a couple veteran coaching hands on staff...where Willie was forced to go with the kiddie corps b/c of money. 

I think we nitpicking here....there are MUCH bigger problems than kids dancing on the sidelines trying to pump up,their teammates and thee loyal fans that show up to these games. 

All we heard this offseason was how we were going to play faster and get more plays per game.

2013    62 plays/ game

2014    63 plays/game

2015    70 plays/game

we may have an extra WR out there ...and more spread out and a lot less motion....but it looks like the same offense to me. moreover, we are still seeing delays in getting the play in from the sidelines again, especially in the second half during Memphis.

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/plays-per-game?date=2015-10-08

You are right that is a far-fetched idea..... ;^)

IMHO....I just don't see that happening. Flowers may be ineffective....but he has at least kept us in games....and has a higher ceiling. 

Bench seems to have disaster associated with most of his decisions on the football field. The quickest way for games to go from tough challenge to impossible is to literally and figuratively give the game away with turnovers. 

If the game is close, then it means we are running the ball effectively and maybe got a couple easy TDs off play action. If that is that case....I keep doing what is working and let QF manage the game. 

However, if we fall behind big early ...I agree with you. Let QF use the entire playbook and see what he can do. IF anything else it lets you know what he can do. I see no sense in playing Bench short of injury.

There have been whispers about this before from other folks...don't give Jones too much credit for an original idea.

In terms of UCF fans accepting Leavitt...think about it like this: they had no problems with O'Liar's shady reputation prior to arriving at UCF. Similarly, they have no problem with his shady reputation while at UCF.

What Leavitt allegedly did pales in comparison...and UCF fans would quickly jump on board.

It's what lemmings do well.

...so true. That Taggart really pisses me off. He inherited so much QB talent from Skip Holtz...and he still felt like he had to start a freshman.  

Tom Jones's Two Cents: Three things that popped into my head

1 I would not be shocked if former USF football coach Jim Leavitt makes a run — and perhaps a successful one — to become UCF's coach if this is George O'Leary's last season there. Yowza, imagine how that would burn the USF folks, which might be half the reason Leavitt would want that job.

http://home.tampabay.com/sports/news/two-cents-tortorella-right-call-for-team-usa/2247259

Could you imagine? I think this would officially push me over the edge...and I am as a patient and loyal USF fan as there is nowadays.

Anybody else see a lot of missing friendly faces in their sections this Saturday?

My section  lost a ton of die-hards this off-season who had been sitting together since our days in Tampa Stadium.  I am not sure if they moved their seats …were out of town for the holiday …or just finally gave up…but it was sad to experience USF put up 50 points and only have the 7 folks in my group to high five and cheer with in my surrounding area.  My section was seemingly immune to the decreases in season tickets and while we started to see some seats free up last year…the turnover this past offseason is alarming and makes the cost of the mismanagement of the program perfectly clear.

The sad part is that I used to see a lot of these folks at past bowl games ranging from El Paso, to Charlotte to Tropicana Field.  It makes me wonder what our turnout will look if we make a bowl game this year…..might not be pretty. 

......the geniuses running USF Football can at least hold out until after Elkino Watson's funeral.

I think you meant "...geniuses ruining USF Football"

Winning a conference championship.

Not even close.

Beat FSU and all we hear is that FSU was over-rated and rebuilding post-Winston.

Win conference and it shows that the program has finally put together that elusive first full season.

Listen to the audio, and how Taggart responded

 

http://www.thebullspen.com/topic/100711-willie-taggart-aac-coaches-teleconference-audio-only/

 

Completely reasonable, obviously bothered response.  Nothing that should have ignited Gonzmart to superimpose his love for Ybor City over the tragic death of a USF football player that was murdered in Ybor City.  Sad and ridiculous at same time.

When I first read the quote that USF players were banned from Ybor....I told my wife this is not going to end well. Unfortunately my gut feeling was proven correct.

I guess the question I have for Gonzmart is whether he was offended by the Times reporter who prefaced his question with the comment, "Ybor is known to be a very dangerous place..."...or something to that effect. Is he going to stop advertising in the Times?

...and before anyone thinks I am bashing on Joey, he did nothing wrong with asking his question the way he did b/c it's a known fact that Ybor is a dangerous place.

Willie did what is right, he told his players they have no business down there. I stand with Taggart 100%.

Once again the USF program, as little as it is, feels the pull from a donor it relies on and makes a decision against its coach.

Ybor City is NOT the problem, hip hop get togethers in Ybor late at night with a mainly African-American audience IS the problem. Blaming Ybor City is a PC tact to avoid the troublesome nature of what specifically occurred, i.e. A-A youth who have grown up without much male parental guidance or societal restraints on their abhorrent behaviour. TRUTH be damned, lets blame a city and ignore the elephant in the room.

I think you hit on about every negative stereotype. Good job.

I understand people are upset at Watson's death and yet another lesson form USF on how not to do public relations...but your comments says more about you and how you view people with different life circumstances and cultural differences than any useful contribution to this discussion. There is no elephant in the room or PC tact...but rather a murderer on the loose who has no regard for human life. Nobody died b/c of hip hop ...

BTW....I think we need an intervention with Joey Knight.

Brett McMurphy started this way...with a slight jab here, little jab there that earned a few giggles at USF's expense. He hate grew stronger as USF's administration and Seth Greenburg's teams gave him all the source material he needed to poke fun of USF....and he eventually grew powerful enough to bring down USF's rising football program. 

I like Joey. He is a good reporter and I've seen growth in his work. However, when he takes cheap jabs like this when the fanbase is down it makes me wonder what is going on. Does he feel like he can do more than just cover the Bulls? Afterall I've seen him do non-USF beat work like Rays. Someone needs to tell him that you can become a great journalist and eventually get a bigger than 'just covering the Bulls' with talent and hard work. Taking cheap shots for a living may have gotten BMM noticed...but while alot of folks respect his sources....I don't think most college fans 'like him'. 

Keep Joey Away From the Darkside

My $0.02

What I find funny is that people that I have known for years and had that "just a commuter school" attitude about USF don't say much when either their kids do NOT get admitted to USF despite have great grades and test scores....or.....have now actually taken the time to appreciate what USF has to offer now that their kid turned down UF, FSU or other in state schools....to ATTEND USF.

Good stuff Brad. Brings back some  great memories....and I hoping to spend more time on this board again. 

For me the start of USF Football will be forever linked to the birth of my daughter. She was six weeks old when we attended our first game ever against Kentucky Wesleyan. It's a sobering point nowadays...especially when Mr & Mrs Cyber had a long drive home last weekend after dropping her off at the college off I-10. Hoping it's a happier ride home in two weeks

I don't think anyone really questioned his "arm", just his touch, accuracy and decision making.

He had 20 attempts last year. Hard to really say anything about his decision making, accuracy and touch based on such a small number of passes, where most of them came in cold and windy SMU a few days after his brother passed away. It can't get any worse than the QB play of the last three years...and at least Flowers can make things happen with his feet. 

The biggest concern for me right now is his lack of experience. He is going to make mistakes like any young QB...the questions are whether they will cost of games and will he use these mistakes to improve his game? 

I never said there was an agenda, I just said I deduct points for making up a knowingly false answer.  I'm sure if he were reading this he would agree he could have answered it better.  Fortunately for him, most people don't know much about the Bulls.

1. Not sure what you are pointing as false

2. I don't blame him for pivoting his response to a more positive direction b/c I'm not sure what there is to gain with a more factual response.

I just hope that when and if we ever get where we want to be that our fans are more appeciative of the process. Our fans started taking the program for granted even when CJL was here.

This was a tough question:

Q: How did the program go from a No. 2 national ranking and solid attendance in 2007 to where it is now?

A: I wasn’t here, so it would be unreasonable for me to speculate. But I can tell you the nature of college football has its ups and downs. Any program, outside of a handful, has had dips. I like to look at how fast this program (entering its 19th season) has come up in such a short time, how many bowl games it has been to, how many great moments it has had. Look, we know we can do it. The great challenge, the thing that energizes me every day, is the opportunity we have to do that again. But make no mistake. We want to create the great program, not just the great season or the great game.

Nearly impossible for him to answer, but he loses points with me on the old nature of the game, ups and downs. Nonsense - it was a manmade disaster. Unfortunately, he can't say that.

Or he could have said we lost the next 3 in conference games and it hasn't been the same since.

Yes, except that too wouldn't really answer the question truthfully.

I think you are over thinking his answer....b/c as you said yourself this was a tough question which was almost impossible without throwing ppl under the bus. Don't think there is an agenda from Harlan... He is just trying to get things done.

smh .... Another one of those "making a mountain out of a molehill" moments on the TBP.

Blaming the team's lack of success on player's feelings toward one another is lame and insulting. Saying WKU players care more about each other than Bull's players is insulting too. Does he really believe that or was blowing smoke, I don't know. But if he's going to talk about it going slower than he thought it would he needs to man up and shoulder that responsibility like he did after that first loss year one.

...if it wasn't bad enough that Taggart single handedly killed Greece's economy, caused the no-name tropical storm that is currently flooding South Tampa and suspected of leading the recent Dept of Interior hacking that compromised millions of personnel record....now we find out that he was responsible for ruining team chemistry! WTF Taggart?

Fire Taggart, Bring Back Skip!

I thought Chris Cosh hacked the interior...

...you could be right.

From what I read online, Cosh exposed thousands of emails ranging from meeting notes to sensitive defense matters. Supposedly one the emails released seems to infer that USF has planted a sleeper agent at UCF. It's not entirely clear but supposedly a former high level USF football coach has infiltrated UCF's program and charged with taking down the program's defense. Taggart is a freaking evil genius...as this unnamed "former" USF operative is an expert in knowing how to destroy defenses from within...

' As someone in higher education, Baxter is a red flag for me. I'd rather see CWT give a scholarship to a kid who doesn't have the possibility of being lost to grades down the road.

Agree but I think USF offered him initially last Fall when he was on track to qualify. However it seems that between now and then he must of had some GPA killing classes that wound up killing his chances of ever qualifying. I imagine that if he would have gotten straight A's in his summer coursework it might have allowed hi to squeeze by....but it wound up being more of a Hail Mary attempt than anything else.

I'm not sure why folks are getting so worked up....it's not like we are losing our best recruits to grades as we did back Leavitt's early days where 5-7 NQs were the norm. Every school loses a talented recruit or two every year. Baxter wasn't the first NQ and won't be our last.

This will only hurt if Baxter turns out to be the next Jerry Rice, otherwise we are going to be ok.

smh .... Another one of those "making a mountain out of a molehill" moments on the TBP.

Blaming the team's lack of success on player's feelings toward one another is lame and insulting. Saying WKU players care more about each other than Bull's players is insulting too. Does he really believe that or was blowing smoke, I don't know. But if he's going to talk about it going slower than he thought it would he needs to man up and shoulder that responsibility like he did after that first loss year one.

...if it wasn't bad enough that Taggart single handedly killed Greece's economy, caused the no-name tropical storm that is currently flooding South Tampa and suspected of leading the recent Dept of Interior hacking that compromised millions of personnel record....now we find out that he was responsible for ruining team chemistry! WTF Taggart?

Fire Taggart, Bring Back Skip!