Buller64

When was the last time RJ saw a win from the home team?

To be fair to him I do see a lot of Double teams on him too. I think this year is the year where he learns how to deal with all the attention. Remember when he was at ND the opposing teams didn't scheme to neutralize him, they are here. He needs to learn how to adjust. This will make him a better player. Remember Sapp, all american freshman, seemed to have disappeared during his soph season at Miami too. Also look at Clowney (sic?) at SC, seems to be missing after his big year last year too.

JUCO can help fill some spots but doesn't seem strange that JUCO teams never seem to build any ability to self sustain? CJL used a lot of JUCOs when we came to he Big East and got short term success but couldn't get to last. He was let go just when he finally moved from JUCO fixes to build from freshman. Don't know if the change over would succeed or not but you can't build a real program using JUCOs, even with two years of eligibility their knowledge of the system is less than someone from the beginning. Off the top of my head I can't think of a perennial top 25 team that relies on JUCOs.

I think that CWT did build a program at WKU. Petrino is continuing what he started. Kiffen didn't work out in USC. Holtz didn't work either (and its not working in LA either). With a few exceptions I think coaching belongs to certain areas of the country. How many times has a successful coach moved from one part of the country to another and not succeeded? While coaches that move up the coaching tree that are successful tend to stay in the same geographic area? Consider Brian Kelly, has never coached outside of Big Ten territory, Bobby Petrino, never coached outside SEC territory, Charlie Strong, also SEC territory. Holtz moved from ACC to SEC territory and failed (also failing at La Tech). Kiffen moved from SEC territory to Pac-12 and failed. Saban was a SEC coach, who had fair success at Michigan State, but has excelled only when he got back to the SEC. In fact, only Urban Meyer has had success outside of his coaching tree (Big Ten territory) and even then he left Florida and Utah pretty bare. Dare I say George O'Leary is another example of a good SEC territory coach turning around another program in SEC territory (I know Georgia Tech is ACC but it has an SEC flavor). This is why I think CWT can succeed here, he is a Florida and SEC territory coach, that's where is he is coaching and that's where he has coached and recruited in the past. Even when he coached at Stanford his connections were to Florida. CWT is a Florida coach and he is in his element. He is not going to be perfect and not all decisions will be uncontroversial. I think I should also note that Leavitt was the southern recruiter when at K State.

It is easy to see that this team is not where we want it to be. It is easy to say fire _____. It is easy to blame the past coach. However, it is not so easy to see what is really happening. What is happening is that CWT is building a program that will be self- sustaining. When fixing a program it is often necessary to tear down what has existed before and start new. This process is painful for those involved, results usually deteriorate, and it is very frustrating. When observing this process you need to look at where the changes are being made and determine if it is an improvement over what has gone before. This is a judgment call since there is always resistance to real change. That is what is happening in USF football. What CWT has done is determine where changes need to be made (and they are extensive) and how these changes are to be made. Most of this work was done over the summer and the implementation of the changes began with the fall practice. If his plan is to work he needs to stick to it, regardless of the early results. Those of you who have gone through major overhauls at their job know what I'm talking about. This is not done quickly and painlessly and a football team isn't any faster than changes in the corporate world. So with that said what do we know of the CWT plan. One, he wants to build the program from beginning to end. This means that you don't go after temporary and quick fixes like JUCO players, that only delays the implementation. You don't adjust to the talent level that is currently here because that delays the development of the newer players as they are constantly learning a different system. It is CWT's plan to improve the program by immersing players in it from the very beginning from frosh to seniors. This means that by the time players are seniors they know the program very well. But in the short term you take some lumps. Two, he wants to alter the strength and conditioning program. The results from this won't be seen for over a year, this takes time for the program to work and show results. Three, he wants to change the attitude of we competed well to WTF??? we didn't win? That's a cultural change and will require getting rid of some deadweight but first you need to identify it. This process is already happening. We already lost some players to transfer, we will lose more. You need to hold players accountable. Some players have already had their playing time reduced, a couple of players have been benched, and few players have received punishment drills in practice. Others are getting better and getting more time. This one can only be evaluated by observing who gets how much playing time. These are the observable changes that I have seen since the start of the season. I'm not privy to what's going on in the locker room but I do know that coaches are not happy with performance and there will be changes made as soon as they have the ability to make those changes (i.e. the replacements know enough to play). Bottom line is that this is a work in progress and the team will take a couple of steps back before it goes forward. The encouraging part is that we are seeing signs of the program moving forward. The use of Bench (even though he is not ready yet), Tice being looked at as the number 2 running back instead of Pierre (who wasn't getting the job done), more frosh working in the secondary, more rotations on the Dline, etc.

I suspect that White may be the starter before the end of this season. In practice he is doing better than the other 3 QBs according to reports. The only question is if CWT will burn a redshirt on him or not. I know he burnt Tice's redshirt yesterday but that's because Pierre is not getting the job done and CWT needs a number 2 for Shaw. The same might be the case for Bench, Floyd is basically done at USF, Eveld is a senior. if White continues as he has been he will be the number 2 QB and might get some starts at the end of the season in preparation for next year. JUCO is not an option. They are short term fixes to become competitive but do not contribute to the development of a program. We just have to accept that CWT is building a program and not just trying to be competitive. He wants to build a perennial power here and that takes time.

The talent isn't there for the defensive and offensive schemes. The first game against McNeese was a case of not following the assignments (CB stated that in the paper). if you observed you would have noticed that the next game (Michigan State) some of the first game starters were sitting on the bench. There are more frosh playing as they learn the system. Adjusting to the talent isn't going to fix the team and will only slowdown the transition. CWT is in rebuild mode and it takes time, but you are not going to get it done quickly. The team is improving (if the team that played against McNeese was playing yesterday we would have lost by 100). CWT has to change attitude (no more we competed well), build strength (not CWT's fault that the lines are being pushed around, give a year to build some strength on this team). The talent level is low and what talent we have is either seniors or freshmen (which tells you a lot about recruiting). Kragholtz did a poor job on this team and you can't fix all the problems in 4 games. Its going to take a year to develop what talent we have and to bring in more talent. One plus, I think that CWT has 23 schollies coming up. Combined with the 15 scholies that were his last year (the other 10 were Kragholtz recruits that CWT had to take to maintain program credibility). This means that about half of the team will be CWT recruits next year (but not yet developed) so the later part of next year will give us a much better look at CWT talent. I don't expect any real progress until year 3, although I'm still hoping for two wins this year (Memphis and UConn) and about .500 next year but bowls will be year 3 unless CWT is better than I think he is.

Expect to see a lot of changes over the course of the year. The frosh are starting to learn the system and they are playing harder and trying more than the "experienced players". Over the next few weeks you will see more frosh playing. CWT has a plan and is sticking to it. Yesterday we saw some evidence of this changing of the guard. Everyone tends to focus on the skill positions but if you looked at the lines and DB you would have seen frosh getting some playing time. This is going to increase as the year goes on. The end of the season will have a different set of starters than the beginning of the season did and it won't be because of injury. I know a few of the coaches and at least one of them looks like he is ready to go postal on these kids (he won't but you get the idea). The common theme I get is that they are not fast enough, strong enough, and have not been developed at all. The coaches I'm talking to says it takes about a year to get any real development done strength wise, speed you need to compensate for but it requires players doing what they are told (which isn't always the case). The offensive coaches also point out it is a complicated offense that takes time to really learn but once it is learned and you can use a larger portion of the playbook it puts a lot of pressure on the defense. Apparently the offense is designed to force a mismatch on skill players and it is up to the QB to recognize that mismatch. Our problem is that we don't have the skill players to consistently get that mismatch and the QBs are still learning how to identify it. Once again more patience it takes about a year to learn, and a couple of games to get the real feel of the offense. This is why CWT was so patient with Floyd and Eveld before he decided that they really didn't have the skills for the offense. A third problem that the team faces is that they had to take players they didn't want. Not all of the recent recruiting class was CWT and coaches choices but since Kragholtz had offered the scholarship they had to honor it. Over the course of the season they hope to pressure some of the non- performing players to transfer to other schools (decrease playing time, extra reps and scut work during practice) which will free up scholarships and allow CWT to recruit better players. The coaching staff expected this year to be bad (although not this bad) with a movement to about .500 next year. It is the third year that they expect to really start getting some serious results. The coaches were trying to let fans know it was bad but apparently the fans didn't catch the hints, "surprised about the talent level", "no one is really standing out", "we need to build more skill", "players are not developing as fast as we hoped", all hints that this year was going to be bad (coach speak).

Actually, the all frosh backfield was when the Miami passing game began to slow down. Not sure if the frosh are better than the starters or if the Miami receivers were gassed.

Its not hard to figure out what CWT is doing, Yeah he is burning some redshirts, but this year is lost anyway. Get the experience and start to bring the younger guys around. The team will be better next year for it. The second offensive touchdown occurred in garbage time but there were a few frosh playing on both sides of the ball. Coach is checking out what he has got and what he is going to need. CWT is already working on next year and the first step is to figure who is good and who isn't. If White continues to get better in practice we will see him later this year. Coach is beginning to separate the players from the scrubs.

The Good - Marcus Shaw - over 100 yards in the first half The Bad - The rest of the team - can't block, run, pass, catch, tackle, or cover other than tat we have a pretty good team The Ugly - A two yard punt (makes everything else only bad not ugly)

1.5 Ints 2.0 defensive touchdowns I'll take the over on ints and a push on the defensive TDs. One area where USF beat Miami - hiring bad coaches. You guys hired Shannon who was a bad coach but good recruiter. We hired Holtz who was bad at both. 2.5 sacks definitely the over Bench is more elusive than eveld but he will get caught a lot.

There were these two fellars standin' on a bridge, a-goin' to the bathroom. One fellar said, "The water's cold" and the other fellar said, "Not very deep though". I believe one fella come from Arkansas. Get it? fixed

1.5 Ints 2.0 defensive touchdowns I'll take the over on ints and a push on the defensive TDs. One area where USF beat Miami - hiring bad coaches. You guys hired Shannon who was a bad coach but good recruiter. We hired Holtz who was bad at both.

The question I have is whether CWT can keep the recruiting up. The freshmen that have played have done well, not sensational, but better than you would expect out of freshmen. As they gain experience play will improve - slowly. There is also the advantage that we play in the AAC, it would not require a tremendous effort to improve quickly in this conference. IF CWT can continue to develop the freshmen and continue to recruit good talent then USF will improve quickly, if not then it will take a long time. Remember that CWT stated that he was shocked at the level of talent, we thought he meant good talent, he was being kind about bad talent. Just as a point of comparison I think the coach who should not be named took this team down further than McCallum did the basketball team and it will take as much effort to get it going again. The biggest advantage is that CWT is a very good recruiter and has over 40 scholarships in his first two years for recruiting which means he can improve the talent much more quickly.

Last two games: Opponents offense 21 points Opponents defense 28 points Think this says a lot.

We are just going to have to live through this. A pattern that I have noticed is that the few remaining players from CJL and the newer players from CWT are playing hard and making a few plays. We all know that the coach who must not be named did not recruit very well, did not instill hard work effort, and this years team is mostly made up of those players. I suspect that as the year goes on we will be seeing more freshmen (I noticed more playing tonight) and that the play will slowly improve. I suspect that next year will be much improved over this year and that the players that CWT has recruited for next year are not wavering over their decisions (at least not yet). This team lacks talent and it will take time for that talent to be upgraded.

The Good - Marcus Shaw, Bench shows some potential, Elkino Watkins played well, The DBs are showing improvement The Bad - No playmakers on the receiving end, Defense still doesn't step it up on third down The Ugly - The Offensive line continues to claim this spot, at least this game it took a bit longer before they got ran over can not handle the blitz Overall the team has not shown much improvement and it is still only individual players out there, there doesn't seem to be much team play going on

This is not the worst team in 10 years. This is the worst team in USF history. I've seen every team and almost every game and this is the worst I have ever seen.

Offensive - F Two positives: Shaw put forth great effort again and got results, the other positive was that Bench's one pass attempt hit the receiver, who was unfortunately out of bounds Defense - B Played well especially the DBs although that could have been poor play by the MSU QBs Special teams - D Not much shown on kick-offs nothing great or bad. Punt returns was sporadic Durden needs to make better decisions but does show potential, Kloss on target, Ciabatti very inconsistent

The Good - Defense improved a lot over the last week. DBs maintained tight coverage on the MSU receivers. Shaw played well again and today Lattimore stepped up The Bad - Durden showed some moves on punt returns but needs to be more aware of where he is on the field. The Ugly - The offensive line was very ineffective in todays game, they seemed little more than speed bumps to the MSU Defense. QB play, Eveld didn't have much time, but when he did he still couldn't get the ball to the receivers.

well the defense played good for one quarter last week too, lets see if they can keep it up.

there is no sign of blocking on the O- line, At least make them run over you.

well here goes the defense to pieces

Well at first down on that drive guess that counts as improvement