Buller64

Sounds like another QB battle only this time in a good way. 64% completion rates, over 100 yards, touchdown passing, interception each. Looks like the difference betweem GB and TM is going to be the range of throws they can make.

Last year against BYU we played poorly in the first quarter, outplayed them the rest of the game, and had a chance to take the lead in the 3rd quarter before fading down the stretch. That was at altitude (4,333 feet or a little more than 4/5 of a mile). In the Florida heat (especially the humidity) I think conditioning will make a significant difference. Add in better talent, more depth, and better assistant coaches and USF has a very good chance of winning that game. I think this game goes down to the wire with USF being able to eke out the win.

This is just too easy. That would be until the end of game 1.

The way I see this playing out is that the top schools of the PAC and B12 will merge into a 12 - 14 team new conference. The new arrivals and teams not pulling their weight will be left behind. So out of the PAC I see Arizona, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and one other merging with OSU, Kansas, Baylor, Texas Tech, and two other B12 schools (Probably K State and Iowa St.) leaving the rest to fend for themselves.

I wonder if they are going to make their deadline. Looks like there is still a lot of stuff to be done and training camp opens in a couple of months.

Initially O thought a OCS was a waste of money. We had a pro stadium available and the cost was low. About 12 years ago I changed my mind on this OCS stuff. Not because of atmosphere or finances, but because of the success of UCF in building a fanbase. I saw how the IPF improved their recruiting and how the OCS was building a fan base. They had no fan base at all when they were playing in the Citrus Bowl, just a few diehards. Once they opened that OCS their student attendance increased by a lot and since then their season ticket base has been slowly but steadily growing. I think that the most important part of an OCS is that it helps to build a fanbase. Students who attend games on campus become fans and when they get settled in on their careers (about 3 - 4 years) they start buying tickets. That's why I think we need an OCS. Its not going to pay off immediately but I think the dividends to it will come about a decade after it opens. Most of the schools (those who are not national powers) live on a fanbase made of alumni and I think that OCS is the reason why they have that fanbase.

Strange, I heard we were going to try and hire this guy:

The only surprise to me is that I thought Scott was going to wait until the end of the season. Generally firing your DC in season doesn't really help much unless its early in the season. Spencer is now officially the worst DC in USF history and now outranks Breshnahan, Cosh, and Woodie. I don't think it much matters who they hire, at 120th in scoring defense and 125th in total defense (out of 130) things can only go up.

Defense has been a problem for years. This has been going on since Holtz and not just for USF, but for many other teams as well. I think the issue is the lack of overall talent available. The best players are going to offense in H.S. so the defense is thing for most college teams. In addition, we tend to think of how defense was played many years ago. The changes in the rules have made playing defense very difficult. This is why offense seems so much better these days. The rules now favor the offense, defense is constantly in a state of catch- up. USF is trying to address that by changing player positions. We have at least one safety and one corner (I think this is Hill) who played on offense last year. (Heard that statement in the NCST game) They are going to have growing pains as they learn the position. Unfortunately, because of how thin we are on defense, they have to learn in game instead of just in practice. They're getting massive and difficult on- the- job training. They have played 3 top 25 teams in 4 weeks. USF has never had that tough of a schedule before. To do it with a thin defense where players are in new positions is going to make it look bad. Patience is required under these circumstances. They are getting better, just not quick enough to satisfy the instant gratification guys. Defensive line and linebackers are small, we did not address this in the portal, probably because there wasn't anything there that was better than we already have. Remember, its not just us choosing, the player get a choice too. The recruiting class this year will not be large but I think there will be more talent in the portal as teams have to shed numbers to get back down to 85. This will create some opportunities. Lack of tackling will be a problem all year. USF is so thin that the coaches can not risk injuries in practice so they are most likely not even running tackling drills. This is where most defensive players get hurt in practice and when you are thin, it has to go and just hope that the players learn while playing. Will USF defense improve? Yes, it already has gotten better. But you guys have to remember that the days of shutdown defenses is basically over for everyone. If the defense can reduce scoring by about 7 - 10 points a game in conference we have a decent defense (this would be about 27 - 30 points per game). Then next year we can hope for moving it down to the mid to low 20s which is where defenses should be. It's getting there

Doesn't matter who the QB is, our defense is swiss cheese anyway.

I know we had a real good chance with Huggins. He was coming off his one year NCAA suspension and on national television said that he was really interested in the USF opening. I don't remember us actually ever talking to him. We hired Stan Heath instead.

USF hasn't really done anything in the second quarter. Seems like a pattern, did nothing in Second against UF and NCSt too.

Simmons thinks that the talent level between FAMU and USF is about even. Says a lot.

Good thing for Alabama that Richardson got hurt last week. Even though they have picked off Jones 3 times they only lead by 2. Maybe last weeks game was better than we knew. It does look like Alabama will hold on.

No. Its not listed.

I was just checking to see if my ESPN+ account was working and I noticed that they were broadcasting Tulsa at USF in soccer. If there is 150 people there I would be surprised. The men's team isn't looking too good, their passes are either off target or too hard.

Once again its the right side of the Defense giving up the yards on runs.

Probably will, on both plays it was the left side of the OL that collapsed. Once was the tackle the other was the tight end, need a back to double team there.

Ok, I waited a few days before posting because of all the doom and gloom that constantly prevails on this site. I went into the game looking for progress and saw some areas of progress and other areas in need of improvement. Here is a breakdown. QB - Grade C- - Fortin did not play well, McClain moved the offense into the red zone twice before making an ill-advised pass to end both drives. Completion percentage for both QBs wasn't that good RB - Grade D - Blocking by the backs was not very good, while we could get to the outside on occasion we had no inside (inside the tackles) run game at all, our best runs were off tackle plays WR - Grade B - Receivers ran their routes and got open, They even made some plays on poorly thrown balls OL - Grade B- - NC State did not have a sack in the entire game, The number of pressures were low, the run game needs some work, maybe its the backs, but I did not see OL pushing the defense off the ball, a distressingly high number of runs were 0 or negative yards DB - Grade D - There was a lot of trouble covering receivers, especially downfield, safety's did not provide a lot of run support probably because they had to play a bit deeper than normal to aid the corners, This group has speed and some size but they still learning how to play LB - B- - They were all over the place trying to make plays, this sometimes put them out of position, tackling was much improved, you didn't see the broken tackles as much as last year, it was more getting there through blockers that resulted in big yardage DL - C - The only reason the DLl gets a C is because the left side of the DL did ok, the right side of the DL was continually being blown off the line of scrimmage, NC State only had success running to the left with misdirection, rushing the QB was decent and improved as the game went on, most of the pressure came from the left side of the line (the right side of the NC State OL has two pro prospects so that needs to be considered) ST - Punting was good and coverage was decent, no evaluation on kick-offs or punt returns, Kick returns were not good, NC state got to the returners far too easily Coaching - Much improved over last year. While the performance wasn't that great, this year the players knew their assignments, took better angles, and the lines used good techniques, On defense pass coverage was poor but not because players didn't know their assignments they just don't seem to know how to cover and react, Spencer is in a tough spot, you need more pressure on the QB but you also need more people in coverage while the DBs learn. Offense, play calling needs some work still, fundamentals are much better than last year, Attitude is also much better I know that USF got creamed but I was looking for improvement and I saw some, right now USF is going to beat badly by the P5 schools, but this is not unexpected, I was actually encouraged by the fact that there were some plays out there. Remember we are trying to play P5 schools with Big Sky level talent in far too many positions.

Thats the third open pass Fortin just missed.

They probably know. I think this falls into the category of they don't care.

Besides Fortin at QB do we have an official announcement on the other starters?

I have Hulu with Live TV and the ACCN is on that, along with BTN and SECN. It has all the ESPN and FS as well, except for ESPN+.

The biggest issue I have with Fortin is that he seems injury prone. Hurt twice last year and got hurt when he played at North Carolina. He does seem to play well when healthy but he doesn't have a great history in staying healthy.

Not sure what his practices look like but he led the Bears in receiving yardage again. He also got to play with the number 1s this week. Starting to look like RA is going to make the Bears. Certainly he will be on the team for the last preseason game. I think last cut day is August 31.