usfgrad84

In my opinion he is the best player on offense. Maybe the entire team. He may not be the biggest or the fastest, but he always seems to know how to get open and I don't recall him dropping a pass either last year or so far this year.

Based on this I would say the game is on.

So in his first year Kelly was able to raise revenue at a rate almost 20% better than peers in his conference. Therefore, let's see if this growth is sustainable. Establishing a foundation to build upon is a good first step. Firing Strong when the concrete for that initial foundation and having to payout the large sum would have been a foolish business move at that point in time. Kelly was hired for his connections and ability to raise cash. His first year he was on point for the reasons he was hired. His connections then allowed him to make a hire of one of the hot young coach

Nothing you have mentioned is not even remotely business like. Especially when it comes to turning around a business. Your arguments are one track in an attempt to support a misguided opinion. As Trip mentioned, contributions up $10mill. Sounds like from a biz standpoint we are on the right track. There seems to be a plan in place. Let it play out.

I thought Kelly was a bit slow to make certain moves in the beginning, but to criticize him without knowing him and more importantly, without knowing what pressures and/or legal or financial constraints he faced when he took the job would have been moronic. A couple of years into the job, I can see his method is thought out and as far as I can see he seems to be on the right track. I have no problem with the job he has done given what the reality of the constraints he is given.

Things need to play out over the course of the season. It is foolish to base things on the result of 1 game in a year where you have a brand new coach. A year when players are learning a new system, have had limited practice time together and several players that were expected to be major contributors are missing for one reason or another. In addition to the 7 or 8 guys inactive, we had a few guys at key positions, that were expected to be important this year, decide to opt out of playing. There was a lot of returning experience and leadership on a ND team that finished near the top

I find this to be a ridiculous thread. It will take a year or two to get this turned around. For sustained success it will take stability in the coaching staff. Let's see where things stand after a full season and recruiting cycle. UCF turned it around. Cincy turned it around. We turned it around and there was no way to compete with what Oregon threw at Taggart.

...and how many times did he say "we weren't ready to play"?

Wrong. If you are weak and outweighed at every position and get run over and pushed back on almost every play it is a size and physical development issue. When a tailback blows up your linebacker like he is a cornerback how is it a coaching issue? How many times did we have 3rd and relatively short and most teams could run a 215lb or 225lb back and our biggest back is 175 lbs. I am not saying we would have won, but there is improvement.

I'm with you. Discipline is much better. I didn't see any moping at the end of the game. Let's not forget you are still missing 2 of your starting OL. Guys seemed like they were in the right place, just need some size and recruits. Maybe 2 years, but I can see we are on a better track.

I disagree. It was not the record. It was clear there was a downward spiral beginning during the back half of year 2. It was clear there was no energy at that point. It was clear there was a problem when he kicked almost a dozen players off that team. The time to do it was when the change was made at AD.

I think your memory is failing.

Need some RBs too. Hard to run a full playbook when your RBs are only 175 lbs. Tough to block on passing plays and tough to get the hard yards on 3rd down.

What's the story with Felix? I only recall 1 carry all season so far?

Slipping has been a constant for USF teams over the years.