BucsandBulls

I am not sure how much overlap there is between members of this board and Twitter, but last night there was a live 3 hour long airing of grievances on there that made this message board look like we all homers who wear green and gold goggles. I get that people need to vent after a loss and as long as you continue to support USF on gameday I won’t gatekeep USF fandom, but my god it was embarrassing how irrational fans can be. It just showed how much typical USF fans don’t understand the game of football other than Winning Good, Losing Bad. I am glad we have someone like Brad moderating this space, so we at least have some semblance of reason most of the time and not senseless bashing of USF players, coaches, and admin. I am all for criticism as long as it is well thought out and helps to impact change and improve the results in the future. But things like making a pipe dream wishlist of coaches we want to hire (none of whom would actually come to USF anyways) when we lose 1 game is why our fan base gets mocked incessantly. So here is my breakdown of the game which I think will refute a lot of the panic that was occurring both here and on twitter since about 5 minutes into the 1st quarter. Fair warning this will be LONG. First of all, off the field I think we are doing everything right with fan engagement, student support, donor relations, facilities plan and OCS. Unfortunately, most of this doesn’t matter if we don’t get wins, but it’s still important to recognize process over results. And we didn’t always do these things right when we were winning, which is why we didn’t capitalize on those results and turn them into continued sustained success in the past. Also huge shout out to the student section for coming back out strong after the rain delay; that was great to see. I hope they come back out strong for Howard and the rest of the season and aren’t deterred by this one game’s result. On the field, we lost a blowout to a better team, simple as that. I know it was especially deflating because of expectations this year and conditioning from the past couple seasons of losing in similar fashion. But I don’t think it was nearly as bad as it felt and feel hopeful still for the rest of our season to be competitive in conference and hopefully make a bowl game. BYU may be the best team we play all season, Florida looked good too, but no one in conference looked unbeatable (think Cinci last year) and OOC Louisville looked vulnerable. Should be able to get a better judge watching them and UCF on Friday night. We got boat raced in this game and that has happened too often recently, but most of it looks correctable in this case versus being a talent/depth deficiency in the past. Just remember in 2015, we were 1-3, coming off two atrocious seasons, and ready to bench Flowers for Steven Bench and fire Willie Taggart before we got it turned around against Syracuse and went on a nice run in conference play. I have a similar expectation for this season, which hopefully starts against UF or Louisville (more likely the latter) or in conference play. My biggest concern after re-watching the game this morning was defensive play calling. There is no excuse for DC Shoop not being able to get the plays called in timely. I’m not sure if it was a communications/head set issues, coaches not knowing their assignments for calling out offensive personnel/formations, DC being up in the Box, or missing a key defensive leader on the field in Grier or what, but that needs to be corrected ASAP. Besides leading directly to several of BYU’s big plays, this also sapped the confidence of defensive players and did not allow them to be aggressive. This was on defensive coaches and not the fault of players. BYU recognized this and jumped on it with up-tempo offense too compounding the issue. I fully expect other teams to try to use tempo against us until we prove that we have this figured out. The good news is this very correctable. 1st long TD, we blitzed from the backside of the play and were rotating the safeties away from the play side. I think we just got unlucky and got caught in a bad play call. It happens. Ideally, LaPointe should have taken a better angle and turned this into a 30 yard gain instead of a TD. But BYU#12 will play on Sundays, so not going to complain too much there. LaPointe led the team in tackles and had an int, but he also missed a couple crucial tackles on big runs and a maybe a blown coverage for a later td too? He has been coming off injury, so I expect him to shake off some rust and return to form as the season progresses. 2nd TD drive, talk about football being a game of inches, a bad screen/flat pass to the RB for BYU almost makes this game 7-7, while the same thing for USF unfortunately makes it 21-0 one drive later. My takeaway from this drive is that we still don’t show enough situational awareness/intensity on 3rd and 4th down. After the overturned fumble, we still had 3rd and 11 and let them convert on a draw, and also let them convert on a 4th down later in the drive as well. I’m not sure what more can be focused on here as I see CJS on the sidelines getting the redshirt players involved and firing up the defense for “money down”. The actual TD was similar to the 1st where our defensive numbers didn’t seem aligned correctly and there was no shift/check with the WR in motion. BYU’s Tight Ends also did a good job blocking our DB’s. 3rd TD (offensive turnover), I’ve seen it discussed on the board already, but Xavier Weaver just needs to make the block. He still had a big game though, but could have been even better for him with a 4th down and TD drop. He is going to have a monster season though and you saw flashes of him and Gerry connecting. 4th TD, this was an up-tempo problem again. BYU converts with a big run 3rd down then immediately goes no huddle. We don’t get the play call in, blow the coverage, easy TD. 5th TD Good play design by BYU which stretches our zone coverage. Hard to tell without being involved with the team and coverage calls which DB was meant to be with the wheel route. The only TD that I feel like BYU truly “earned”. 6th TD, long TD run where we need better gap fits from Linebackers and Safeties. Not to harp on LaPointe, but this is a tackle he needs to make and our CB gets picked by the ref too. 5 TDs allowed by defense is obviously unacceptable no matter how they happen, but BYU has a monster OL and TE’s, a couple good RBs and 1 WR who hurt us early. QB Jaren Hall had a pretty easy night where he didn’t really have to make any tough plays, but was nice to see the INT, a sack, and quite a few TFL’s (Tramel Logan stood out to me). Talent wise we looked alright. Get the play calls corrected and get off the field on 3rd downs (big IF) and we will see night and day improvement. Offensively, I don’t have nearly as much to judge on or obvious concerns to share. Score got out of hand which throws the gameplan out the window. BYU sits back in coverage rushing 3 or 4 DL all night and throwing the ball downfield gets pretty tough. That’s why we saw a lot of check downs to RBs. Play timing, a few overthrows and a few drops looked pretty typical for a week 1 performance for any team. It will be concerning if it continues all season. Run game was disappointing early on, which put us in some bad situations and had hoped to see better from experienced OL. The pass protection was good (1 sack allowed), but nothing to write home about since BYU didn’t really try to pressure us too much. Similar to our Defense we need to see more intensity and attention to detail on 3rd down conversion attempts. I thought play selection was not particularly bad or good. We targeted our playmakers (Weaver, Horn and Ajou) quite a bit and tried to get them the ball with screens and end-arounds etc. Unfortunately there is only 1 ball to get spread around. Execute a little better with more effective early down runs, eliminate drops, and GB hits Horn on the 1 deep ball against the man blitz and we probably have another 14-21 pts easy left on the field. Overall definitely disappointed in the result, but we kept fighting and even had the smallest glimmer of hope of clawing back into it until the 3 and out and the snap sailed over the punter’s head for safety. Think we will be in line for a fun season with some very manageable improvements against lesser competition. Go Bulls!

There was someone wearing 99 in the game, I am guessing someone else switched to that number after he didn't make it in and roster hasn't been updated yet.

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Hopefully BYU only has one kickoff all game.

I don't have a strong feeling either way, but I will say that an injured slot could have a larger impact in a dynasty/keeper league because you can now stash a guy away for a whole season who may have been drafted low due to injury. I kind of tried to do this last season with Deshaun Watson (decided not to keep him anyways this year), but at least I had to waste an active roster spot to do it all year.

1) South Florida2) 31-233) Joiner4) Weaver5) 402

I like this rule change.

I am on the complete opposite side of the OCS debate from you, but even I had to upvote this post. You make some great points. My one question would be is why doesn't playing at RayJ provide a UNIQUE once in a lifetime experience to which they cherish and want to share with their children? . I can tell you it certainly did for me and my family when I was a student. I have plenty of pride, traditions, and memories from games at RayJ and so does my family who have maybe been to campus once or twice. My parents who have no affiliation to USF still attend games, because they started attending when I was a student. No one was complaining about the atmosphere when it was packed with 65,000 fans and students had to camp to get tickets. I think most people who were students during that time still feel the connection, but were spoiled with the winning and the opponents. I think even if we had an OCS tomorrow, we would still be lucky to get 5,000 students there. They just don't care about football anymore for whatever reason. I do enjoy going back campus and have been back for several events (other occasional sports, business recruiting, just to visit, etc.), but I don't think we have that amazing of a campus. Its fine, but what's really that special? Castor beach, Marshall center, MLK plaza? All are nice but not particularly unique. If it were really that great I would be going back more often just to visit campus or being a season ticketholder of other olympic sports. But all of my best memories from my college days are from RayJ or off-campus parties. I like the idea that an OCS is an investment to build brand loyal students and alumni, and that model definitely worked for other schools in the past, I'm just not sure its a reality for USF in today's environment.

If you can convince me that building an OCS meaningfully changes USF chances to move to a better conference, then I am all in on the OCS. But its just speculation, even by those who are tied in. I personally believe that we were passed over because an overall lack of commitment from the University itself to Athletics (and some poor back luck timing of bad USF football teams). While an OCS would be a good demonstration of that commitment I think there are much better uses of funds that would demonstrate the same thing and would like to see us use the threat of an OCS to get a better deal with RayJay/TSA. There is no reason we can't create a better USF gameday atmosphere at RayJay and increase the bottom line for both USF athletics and TSA. I get that this has been tried before, but I really believe a renegotiated true partnership is the way forward, and we have the athletics personnel in place now with the connections to get a better deal done. I get that the Bucs will always have first priority, but technology and innovation have already created meaningful easy opportunities with the green lights for example, or the expanded digital scoreboards. TSA has to come to the table or they will lose our revenue, something is better than nothing. Some other potential ideas that would all be much more feasible than taking on 100M+ of debt for an OCS: Removable USF green and gold tarps for the upper decks, enhanced tv production that digitally overlays USF logos to endzones or sidelines for games we can paint due to Bucs games (pretty much all professional soccer games do this for advertising), a removable Bull skull to go over the figurehead of the pirate ship, USF flags to hang from the ship, expanded tailgating hours in particular lots, and a USF entrance outside the north endzone, which used to be used for construction/storage (maybe even throw in a USF bull statue).

The exception is that 1st round picks can be kept for a 1st rounder, right? May I suggest a fairly drastic change that 1st rounders CANNOT be kept. This would also create a de facto time limit on how many seasons in a row a player can be kept as their draft round moves up 1 round each year. Perhaps implement to start next year (if others like the suggestion) to allow owners to better plan their keepers/draft picks this season. Also if two players share the same round does the second player use the round before or after? Finally, do we have some potential draft dates available?

I'm in, Keepers are set. Will send payment shortly if they can't be taken out of my 2020 2nd place winnings.

Congrats on the repeat. I knew it was over after Kamara. With the way our keepers are setup in this leagye, can't you technically keep them with your highest available draft picks? Not that I'm complaining if you choose to not keep them.

Andrew Mims already looks like the new successor.

The blocking can be beyond the line of scrimmage, it is all about where the ball is caught.

Nick Roberts I agree constantly takes bad angles and does not have the speed to make up for them in either pass coverage or run support. I don't think he would be starting if not for lack of depth. Expect Lapointe, Townsell, or Curry to play in his place as they get more experience. Evans has gotten beat a few times but also a few nice interceptions. Up and down play which is what I expect out of a younger player (true sophomore). Someone who can be coached up and developed.

What have you seen from Sails that makes you think he isn't NFL caliber? By far our best defensive player, while I agree the rest of our DBs are lacking. KJ is aggressive in run support and don't remember him giving up any big passing plays. Maybe 1 td against ND? I will happily put a friendly wager on him getting drafted and/or making an NFL roster if you would like. Mike Hampton is the one who has really regressed this year after having a few good seasons. He is giving up 2-3 blown coverages a game. Maybe you are getting confused because 0 (Evans) and 8 (Townsell) both play DB as well and our Jersey #'s aren't the easiest to read., but 9 has continued to impress.

Thanks, my ticket rep confirmed this on a call as well.

Does getting a refund on 2020 season, mean you have no opportunity to purchase single game tickets?

I think that would really depend on how USF chooses to set it up. Buccaneers have their own App, but it essentially runs on an underlying ticketmaster App. So all you need is a ticketmaster account. I would guess USF would be the same but more uncertain there. I have seen other mobile ticket options where no App is required at all for transfer/scan. There is just a link in text or email that pulls up a ticket in your web browser.

This is not some hypothetical, the Buccaneers/Tampa Sports Authority already have a similar (if not the same app). Someone else mentioned they did have legacy cards for season ticket member holdouts, but for the overwhelming majority of fans, ticketless mobile entry was required. Love it or hate it, the #1 reason for this is it allows the team to control the secondary market. No more buying from a scalper on the street corner. I attended nearly all Bucs home games last year, but was gifted or purchased single game tickets. For every ticket I was required to use the mobile app. I can only speak to my experience with the app at Bucs games which I imagine will be similar to USF due to the common relationship with Tampa Sports Authority. Yes you were required to have a data connection (cell or wifi). You might have a nervous moment where things spin while loading, but never had an issue pulling up my ticket app while waiting in line at the gate. No you you could not screenshot tickets because the barcode changes periodically. I have used mobile entry in other instances where you could screenshot, but with Bucs you specifically could not. You can have multiple tickets on one app. You just group your party together and swipe your finger to move from one ticket to another for scanning. Transferring tickets could be done via email or phone #. But the other party then has to download the app to receive their ticket and scan it. Happy to answer any further questions to help alleviate concerns. Again none of this is official policy just my expectations based on Buccaneers use of mobile technology.

This is already what happens. I would suggest some sort of wristband for club members that you attain once upon SCANNING your ticket to prevent duplicates, but I think someone might have replied in a previous year they did not have the ability to do this.

Wow. How did CMC not get kept?!

They are already this way for Buccaneers games, so pretty sure the stadium can handle it.

Thank you much!

Got a link? When I try to pull up last season's page I get an error.