CyberBull

Watching RedSox baseball is like watching a devilish high comedy. I honestly don't know how RedSox fans maintain their sanity or self respect. I suppose that laughing at the inane conclusions to Red Sox attempts at glory makes it all palatable.

RedSox fans are continually duped into thinking they finally have the proverbial winning lottery ticket in their hands. It is hysterical to watch them get close and then watch their winning ticket get blown away.

RedSox Nation always seems find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and I am sure the same will happen again.

My prediction:

Bottom of 9th, Game 7 and it’s all tied up at Busch Stadium. Alan Embree comes in with two outs and the bases loaded. He works a 0 -2 count on Carlos Beltran who is struggling to just make contact. Embree looks off the pinch runner on first but then inexplicably halts his delivery to look off the Biggio on second. The home plate umpire raises his left-hand and just like that, the Cardinals win their first World Series since Lonnie Smith, Wille McGee and Jack Clark roamed the outfield for the Redbirds.

The RedSox are the first team in Major League history to give up a walk-off balk to lose the World Series. How perfectly Boston.

BTW, I am not one to pat myself on the back but not even Stephen King could come up with a darker ending to pain BoSox Nation for yet another generation.

Oh btw...am I bitter?

Army, Rams and now this......you figure it out  

The goal was to win another World Series championship. The opponent whether it was Boston or Seattle is meaningless. The Yankees did not get it done.

I suppose that for Bosux fans, beating the hated Yankees is like winning the World Series. So I guess.....congratulations are in order.

Do they give out rings for winning the AL pennant?

Why?

Because w/o Leavitt's hardwork our future conference opponents  would be SMU, Rice and Tulsa.

Why?

Because the man deserves our loyalty.

Why?

Because he recruited out of a **** trailer for 7 years and got this program into the BCS?

Why?

Because he is not Doug Graber, Ernest Givens and the other assorted hasbeens or never were that applied for this job.

Why?

Because all the supposed coaching mistakes are in your head? We lost 4 games last year and stole a couple of games lesser coaches would of let get away.

Why?

Because the Army game was the first game we should of won that we lost.

Why?

Because he has put two together straight top notch recruiting classes and is assembling yet again the best ever class for 2005.

Why?

Because he is not Steve Spurrier.  Why SOS? Based on the little patience given to Leavitt why would you ever consider wanting to bring in SOS? Afterall, he "only" won one national championship game despite having Top 10 recruiting classes year after year. Then again, despite the mythical recruiting championships, SOS hates/hated recruiting. How many big games did his constant QB switching cost the Gators?

Why?

If some of you football geniuses are so eager to get rid of the founder of this program after 5 bad games, how much time do you give the next poor sap who gets this job? Do you fire him after his first game?

I don't think I have ever been more embarrassed to be a Bulls fan. Not due to the action on the field but by the behavior of some our "fans" who seem to have forgotten that we were playing Kentucky Wesylan just 8 years ago.

If you don't know what I am talking about, go to TBO.com.

Thanks for "representing" and nice job.

>

When have we ever won a game we were serious underdogs for?  Pitt was a good win, but they were by no means a great team that year.  Every SEC team we've played has stomped us, embarrased us:  Ark, OK, SC.  Now we're losing to teams we should beat.  

No Marquel, No JR, No Kawika...we have noone to rescue us from our horrible play anymore and it shows.

Nice job. You rip on a coach who has run into his first bad year and dump on a defense that has won us countless games.

PJ is not a D1 QB.  Our receivers play scared.  Our offensive playcalling was not the problem

Our receivers play "scared" b/c they never get the ball thrown to them. The only way you can improve is with game day experience and repetition. The young receivers have been waiting for two years for someone to throw them the **** ball.

Some of you guys crack me up. Leavitt has given you 7 great seasons of good, sometimes exhilirating football yet you are not willing to give him a down year to rebuild and retool.

I am not a tow the party line kind of fan but some of the criticism leveled at JL are just absurd.

Two Frosh QBs are not going to cure what really ails this team.  Poor defense and no playmakers on either side of the ball is the problem.  When was the last time we got an interception or made a big catch?  Never.  Hobbie can be the greatest Offensive mind of all time, however with our Div III QB and stone hand receivers, we ain't doin' nothin'.  I'm sure we tried to recruit better players but apparently we did not get any of them.

If the freshmen QBs beat out Julmiste or Denson that must mean that they can at least make simple completions. That is better than we can do now.

As far as big catches, there were plenty of big catches such Jackie Chambers grab in the TCU game. Our receivers played great that game b/c the QB was actually getting them the ball consistently. We have good receivers they just need more attempts and experience.

The problem with this team is the QB play. It doesn't take advantage of other team's mistakes and as a result games that should be blow outs remain close games. The failure to deliver the ball as a result keeps the defense on the field. For an undersized defense that is built on speed that is bad news.

The only positive is that the young defensive players are getting more reps than they would if the offensive was even half way decent.

The playcalling has been bad but if you are going to be fair you have factor in who is throwing the passes.

Some of you guys have been really spoiled.

Cyberbull, I agree with you that it is hard to fire a Coordinator in the middle of the season, but that is what i'm talking about.  Everyone knew this was a problem LAST season.  

So why didnt CJL get something done in the offseason.  That is what I don't understand.  Option 1, you get rid of him, or option 2 maybe you think to yourself, its not Hobbie's fault its the offense, we will try changing the offensive scheme to accomidate the talent we DO have, not the talent we someday HOPE to have.  But CJL did neither, when it was obvious something needed to change, that is part of the reason I think its CJL not getting the job done, not Hobbie.

suspense: when I was in college I had terrible car. I knew it was terrible, my girlfriend and all my friends knew it was terrible...the car itself knew it was terrible. It was just a terrible car.

However as much as I would of loved to get a car that was not nearly as terrible I couldn't afford it. Sure I could of traded it in for another terrible car but why?  At least with my terrible car I knew what was wrong with it and I rationalized that eventually when I had enough money I would make the jump to a real car that had nothing terrible about it.

What I am trying to convey is that although Jim Leavitt got a nice salary increase, his assistants were near the bottom of  C-USA in salaries, and I can almost guarantee they will be last in the Big East.

Getting rid of Hobbie just for the sakes of change is a bad idea. Who exactly are we going to be able to attract with the chump change salary we are paying?

We could go the young assistant route, however do we really want to debut in the BE with a green behind the ears coordinator who we got on the cheap?

We have to hope that at the end of the season CJL is given more resources to make the necessary upgrades and adjustments on his staff. This also means that us fans can't complain when the cost of attending games goes up or if other programs like basketball and baseball suffer b/c football is eating up more than their fair share. It's all about choices.

With the right players  this system has worked before and it appears that with Grothe and Hill we may finally get some relief.  

It really wouldn't surprise me if the entire staff returns back next year.

The sky is no longer falling.  It has now officially fell.  Anyone that can't see that has been fully blinded by their green and gold glasses.

The sky has been falling ever since Leavitt signed his fat contract and decided that he didn't have anything left to work toward.  His motivation of getting a big pay day has been met and he no longer has anything left as incentive.  He's making more money than he needs, more than he ever thought he would and a helluva lot more than he deserves.  It's time to cut bait and start over.

Everything that this program had built up to prior to giving away the farm to Leavitt is now gone.  This is worse that our first season in division I.  it is ridiculous and inexcusable.

Thanks for your "contribution".

What was the last time an offensive coordinator got fired at midseason?

Exactly.....

Hobbie is not going anywhere. I hate his playcalling as much as anyone else but why waste your time for something that is not going to happen. Furthermore who is going to take his place?

Rod Smith?

Shouldn't we fire him too with Hobbie?

The bottom line is that Leavitt is not going anywhere for the forseable future.

couldn't happen to better organization.

....that we lost one we should of won.

No disrespect toward Army b/c theydeserved to win the game but we had this game in our hands and it shouldn't have been that close.

This team has no confidence this year.

The call for a pass in the endzone was terrible and as usual we saw no imagination in the playcalling department.

Memo to Coach Hobbled: when you are moving the ball almost at will on the ground you do NOT have to resort to gimmick plays to score points.

There were some very suspect gimmick calls with reverses.  You don't run that crap against a team that doesn't over pursue.

Exactly.....That is just basic football. There needs to be some changes on how we call football games.

UAB has improved and we regressed from last year

what a bummer

UAB has a QB, we do not.

Now that deserves, a "what a bummer"

In two years, boy that's a toughy since all three have some special attributes, and you never know if one is going to really step up and move ahead of the pack.  Conventional wisdom says that I would expect PJ, as a 5th year senior, should be the man in two years.  If he continues to build on his positives and eliminates the turnovers, and miscues he could be a good one.  He needs work, there's no doubt about it, but in two years it would bode well for this program if we had 5th year senior PJ running the show, and guys like Hill, Grothe, and Denson waiting in the wings to carry on a tradition.

Great answer regarding PJ making the job his for the next 2 years but I am pretty sure that the job is going to be wide open for the Fall 2005. PJ is going to have to finish strong and lead us to a bowl game for the job not to be up for grabs.

Personally I don't care who QBs as long as we win.

Typical of Rivals-- a player they rate as #9 gets lowered as soon as he commits to a "lesser" school. The rating systems are so full of this same type of discrimination towards schools like USF. I don't think they understand how this lessens the importance of their own ratings when they obviously try to mold their ratings to make the traditional powers appear to be out recruiting the other teams.  That has been my pet peeve about Rivals from the get go-- they just don't give USF any credit and lower the ratings of players committing to us as soon as they see we have locked in on someone.

IF-- god forbid-- the Gators sway Carlton Hill over to their camp, you watch the reaction on Rivals-- Hill will be back to his previous rating (if not higher).

PS-- It is Courtney Denson, not Henson.

Actually.....it was Insiders not Rivals that knocked the kid back a few notches. However your sentiment still rings true.

The rankings are fun to talk about but are pretty much worthless in predicting success. In many ways it's similar to the SATs for undergrad or the GRE/GMAT for graduate school.

I made similar comments on another thread, and smazza began his personal attacks on my wife and I again, so watch your back Cyber...

I never had any problems with smazza so I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Besides deep down he knows I am right....

Frankly, I don't care how we get into a bowl, so long as we get there.  If that means rooting for all of the other competition to get eliminated, then that's what I'm rooting for.  Right now, we're in for a bunch of nailbiters the rest of the way.  I truly believe we can beat every team on our schedule, but we're also capable of losing to every one of them.  Therefore, I'm hoping for all the help we can get.  

USFFan

I agree....for our first bowl game I'll take it anyway I can. Hopefully it won't be on XMAS day b/c that won't work for me but any other day and I am buy 12 tickets the first day they go on sale.

This is the wrong attitude.  At some point you have to make a sacrifice to get it right.  The penalties are insane.  Put the younger guy in.  He's not as bad as you think most of the time, and will play hard and avoid penalties.  It doesn't have to be forever.  This team needs players with focus and discipline, that are willing to show it!

Treading a fine line between discipline and overeacting.

IMO I would rather take the penalties with the chance to win, over playing the younger players and having no chance to win. In addition, the younger players are more likely commit more penalties b/c they are not ready to play.

BTW, when I posted that our penalties are getting better I was referencing the Personal fouls penalties. We had at least 3 or 4 per game last year as opposed to this year where that number is down dramatically.

One more thing, one of the symptoms of a one dimensional team on offense are penalties along the line. Teams do not respect our passing game so they are loading up the box and sending more players than we can block. Thus instead of letting play (or players) get blown up our players are doing whatever they can to hold the line. I don't think I am exagerating when I say that we could of been called for many more holding penalties against Southern Piss.

If you haven't figured out that smazza will blame anyone he can anytime USF loses in anything, you just haven't been paying attention. The worst part of losing is having to read his flurry of doomsday threads when we lose.

Take that any way you want Steve but you know it is true. You seem to enjoy a loss more so than a win since it gives you the ammo to fire away at anyone you want to that is associated with USF. Your glass is perpetually half-empty when it comes to USF IMO.

Think about it this way-- we were something like an 8.5 point underdogs in the game. We beat that spread-- a moral victory perhaps-- but it does show that our team at the least showed up to make it close. We had lots of opportunities to win. But if you choose to look at everything as being doom and gloom-- so be it. Had we won the game-- do you think anyone would have been so down on the team? Hell no. The last time we hosted USM, we made just as many mistakes if not more. But we pulled that one out barely and suddenly everyone talks about what a great win it was. There is a fine line to doing what is acceptable to some "fans".

EDIT

-- Steve Mazza-- do not take this as a personal attack. I am also referring to other fans who suddenly show up any time the tide turns against USF. You are by no means alone in this task and some posters simply love to talk about the negatives of our program. Those same people are much less likely to talk about what is going right. I can only imagine how many of the posters who love to use the old "Shankiago" term are just dying to throw that one out this year when he finally misses a kick that is important. So far, he has done well except for some fairly long FG attempts (perfect on extra points I believe). But hopefully you understand what I am referring to -- there are certain players, coaches, etc that certain posters can't wait to ***** about when the opportunity arises. Last week-- Julmiste had a great game for the most part and was instrumental to that victory. He wasn't perfect by any means but without a loss to provide the proper back story to why "so and so sucks"-- that post doesn't get made. The penalty issue seems immune to this however and has been a fan favorite when it comes to beating down the Bulls (and perhaps rightfully so as we have to get that under control-- somehow). Anyway-- I appreciate it when you don't just throw out a comment like-- "where is the talent" without adding some sort of commentary to back it up. When I think about the talent-- I think about the progress SJ Green has made this year-- he has done great compared to last year. Others have also had their moments and I find more people willing to talk about what is wrong with this program and ignore those things that are going right. Short of the handful of holding penalties (or what was called a penalty) on the offensive line-- they have done the job this year. They can't pass the ball though-- they can only give protection to our QB. As a team sport-- any number of items can derail a team. Our problem isn't always a consistent one that can be pointed to (some might argue the QB is the only problem) and when the offense is clicking-- their are no visible problems to be found. But one weak link on any given play can cause a breakdown. That is a performance issue no doubt and something we need to get better at-- something that may only get better via experience/time. So the talent can be there-- but without the experience, it can be nullified. Lastly-- comparing USF with USC is beyond ridiculous. We do not get the talent level they have-- they are the best or one of the best teams in the country. When someone says we have great talent-- they are not saying we have Miami talent-- but we have CUSA/Big East level talent. That isn't the greatest or even equivalent to SEC talent. But the trend is upward and as we grow, so does our recruiting and talent level. The key is having the patience to understand that every game is just another step on our path to getting to the top of the food chain. The leaps we took early on were far easier to achieve than the ones as we get close to the top level. It is the law of diminishing returns in full effect. We truly are in a baby steps type of scenario IMO. There will be plenty of disappointment along the way peppered with times of joy. If it were easy to do, wouldn't all the other schools be able to do it, afterall?

It's funny how tells us to be objective yet mentions USC in the same breath with USF. We could hardly stay on the field with South Carolina nevermind the real USC.

There is a lot of young talent on this team but it takes time for them to become good college football players, b/c last time I check I didn't many USC (the real USC) recruits mention us on  in their Top5.

sorry smazza you are way off base...

smazza must not know anything about football b/c otherwise he would know that our WRs can put up ig numbers if our QB can't hit the broad side of  a barn.

come on smazza I thought you were a football coach and had a clue....nevermind.

@^@#$^!!$&*^%

Catch a clue.  It was one comment out of an entire post that was very complimentary of USF.

Why?  I don't know.  I couldn't think of anything to compliment USF on...other than it sure rents a nice stadium.

BTW, did you guys catch all the Big Least bashing that went on this weekend?  OMG, Gameday alone went off on your new league.

Hey, I think it will be a helluva basketball conference.  But don't bank on keeping that BCS bid long.

I would still rather be associated with West Virginia, Louisville, Pitt, Syracuse and UConn than SouthernPiss. At least we don't have to spray the visitors seat for lice when they visit RJS.

Have fun in C-DOA.

Another stupid ignorant Southern Piss fan w/o a clue.

Cry us a river. I never met a more ignorant group of fans than the white trash that hails from Nowheresville, MS

Psssttt....the game is over so hitch up your double wide to your rusted out truck, spray down your arm pits and mullet with Aqua Velva and haul your ass back to the rundown trailer park you call home.

The original post was dripping with sarcasm and a condescending tone that USM obviously have well rehearsed. It's sorta of sad in a way, b/c all this unfound feelings of superiority after a 7 point victory. Whatever gets you off....

BTW, I offer this comments with the best of intentions.

Actually I think the penalties are getting better.

Last year we were overun every game with 4 or 5 personal foul penalties. That has vastly improved this season. The most damaging penalties have been holding, encroachment and illegal substitution.

I am not going to blame our kids for pass interference those are part of the game.

Look......I am not saying we are there yet but there are no easy answers. This problem really started 3 years ago when we stepped up in competition. Sometimes you have to credit the other team for forcing a player to hold. Sometimes our players just get beat at the line of scrimmage or in the secondary.

No not really.

There is a big difference between a starter committing a mistake and a untested rookie not being ready to play.

If the older player commits a mistake you move the ball back 10 yards and you live to play another play. In contrast the young OL is going to be more prone to completly miss on a play due to inexperience or being physically overwhelmed. When that happens your QB gets killed and the cost is more than just 10 yards. If we have to bring Banks in our season is essentially over.

I guess you can call me being pragmatic but that is where we are right now. If the young guys were ready they would be in there....I mean CJL is not exactly an idiot.