slowdown

I think Taggart has a good chance here because he is tougher than Skip and a little more sane than Leavitt. You can't overstate what Leavitt did here but he was able to do it because he was a little off. Taggart is going to maximize recruiting but also bring a style of offense that supports the defense, and we've put some very good defenses on the field historically. Run game and throwing to the TE's and RB's for short high completion rate gains. Defensively we will go back to an aggressive style that has served us in the past. If we can pair it with an offense that can stay on the field and slowly bring the talent level up through recruiting over the next few years, I think we will field some good teams in the short term and maybe some very good teams down the road.

Skip did well at ECU because he had some kid named Chris Johnson carrying the pill. Chris Johnson was in the NFL when Skip won CUSA in 08 and 09. Also was 08 when they beat Va Tech and WVU.

As has been mentioned, a lot of the best rivalry games don't have trophies. I don't think the Universities or AAC need to invest invest money just to force a bad trophy idea on the game. If a good fan idea develops then we can adopt it.

That is too general and conservative a statement for this level of football. Got to get the most out of everything. We have to coach up players to have the awareness of what their capabilities are with respect to where they and everyone else are on the field at the time. What makes sense for Chandler at the LOS on a fumbled snap under center is not the same as what makes sense for Watson on an empty backfield, deep drop when Lynch knocks the ball out of the QB's hands.

There is nothing wrong with training at a professional sports team training facility. We needed a new coach much more than a new training camp venue.

Doesn't matter how many butts in the seats there are. What matters is how many tickets are sold, http://www.gousfbulls.com/pdf9/1532885.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=7700 Butts in seats is very important when we are budgeting. Parking, concessions, and merchandise are all lost revenue with no shows. Equally important, real attendance reflects real demand, which is what will drive our ticket prices into a happy medium. When we sell 5,000+ tickets at $20 instead of $10, over 6 or 7 games a year, add in the concessions, parking, etc and we can quickly get in to tens of millions of dollars difference of what we can build

Bobby Bobby Bobby I don't see what Mike White has that makes him capable of successfully leading this team as a true freshman. He is no physical phenom. None of these QB's are going to look good without a solid team around them. It'd be very foolish coaching to put much responsibility on any of them. It comes down to managing the game. Bobby is smart and has experience at the college level and will have a Spring with Taggart. All that puts him as most likely to successfully manage the team IMO. White and Floyd may be pretty smart too I really couldn't say but the experience is going to go to Bobby at any rate. I'm not going to hold last year against Floyd, we were a lost cause by the time he go in there, the coaches and players all knew it so maybe he can come along. I don't see White being up to speed til mid season but Eveld and Floyd are going to continue to get better during the season as well so I don't expect that he will overtake them this season.

There are people on this thread "hating" on him?? yep, there are multiple people ITT making light of his optimistic goal/challenge. Making light is the same as "hating" on him?? Just a wee bit sensitive, are we .....? Yes, responding to your coaches ambition and positivity with a dismissive attitude will be henceforth know as "hating" on this board. Put it in your notebook.

There are people on this thread "hating" on him?? yep, there are multiple people ITT making light of his optimistic goal/challenge.

everyone hating on Coach T for setting a nice attendance goal sounds like a bunch of Skip Holtzes. Maybe he should set the expectations lower so we can be sure to meet them. And if we could get some participation trophies that would be great too.

to address one part of that, I don't think you can read much into this years recruiting class. It is obviously going to be a mix of guys that Holtz recruited to USF, maybe a few that Taggart liked at WKU, and then a few that Taggart will get to USF. However recruiting starts very early in a prep athletes career these days. Of course it is a concern that we are not going to get the best class that we could have but realistically after the season we had and the coaching change there is just no reason to think long term this is reflective of what our recruiting will be going forward. As far as I've seen the extent of Taggart recruiting WKU players is an offensive lineman who is actually very highly regarded as a player and was going to WKU because few programs recruited him due to academics and one RB. I think Taggart really wants to get a RB in, its quite crucial to have 3-4 RB's and at this point we have no RB's in the fold, but how do you put that on Taggart as he's had one high school recruiting weekend, and spent the rest of the time either touching base with the current commits, or during contact dead periods, or the first weekend with JUCO's. You've got to prioritize keeping the class together first so that was the right move on his part. IMO characterizing the recruiting class based on 2 recruits is overreacting We are most likely going to see better recruiting classes than we ever have before with either Holtz or Leavitt. I just see no way Taggart doesn't get more talent here than we've seen. To address the coaching and staff questions, from an operational stand point it'd be pretty easy to make the argument that due to limited resources at smaller programs the office guys are at a marked disadvantage at places like WKU compared to USF. I really don't think there is any reason to be concerned there. As far as coaches, at this point we are only looking at 3 of the 9 coaches coming over from WKU to coach here. Woodie is going to be the 4th defensive coach and will likely be the 2nd DL coach. And given our first two defensive hires, I'm not sure Woodie will be coaching at all. But Woodie was always coming over because of his recruiting abilities. That is something that's going to translate pretty well. If he was previously selling WKU, he's going to be better selling USF. The biggest questions are the two offensive assistants, Sheridan and Wells. And these guys are handling he most important offensive coaching positions. I can't do or say much to be reassuring here. I really am hoping Taggart has made good hires here. He must feel pretty comfortable though as he brought them over pretty quickly. But by far imo, these two guys are where your question makes the most sense.

he's been a great coach at a local HS for about 10 years. he's developed a couple of highly sought QB prospects ( Robert Marve, Aaron Murray ) and developed a lot of good prospects in general. nice offensive mind and obviously super highly respected locally.

I doubt many would know of him, but a solid candidate.

LL was never going to hold up for a full season at RB.

good example of how this board is overrun with cynics who offer no value to the program

unfortunately the Hudson hype really does boil down to a couple games. statistically those defenses gave up a lot of yards, Hudson only had one top 50 defense in total defense. they were a little better in scoring defense but still never inside the top 30. some of those defenses were even ranked in the 80's and 90's they were pretty good at creating turnovers which would certainly be welcome but Hudson wouldn't be my next choice

i really don't think UF is going to let go of Durkin, they know Quinn is not a long term guy at DC.

That is all. You get 9 total and the strength coach is separate. There is no set way to use your coaches so other than bringing in a DC its kind of in the air exactly what Taggart is still going to hire. In 2012 Taggart coached RB's himself and had no OC while he gave his DC and special teams coordinators no position responsibilities. Thats not very conventional. I'm not sure how he organized his staff in 2011. Some of what he did is probably due to the money he had to work with, I don't think he'll be coaching a position himself this year and he has a OC in name already.

he'd take it for the same reasons he'd take the USF DC job. its a step up, and more money. The SEC is king and TCU is just an also ran in the Big 12 anyway. when is the last time a Big East coordinator landed a head job at a major program outside the conference? From what I've seen recently the major programs are having no problems hiring the Big East Head coaches. Our best coordinators recently have left to take the same roles at Iowa St and Texas A&M. We even had an OC leave to be the QB coach at another team in the conference a few years ago. I do not see Randy Shannon as an exception when his only extra claim is that he has already failed as a head coach. We didn't even want retreads like Tommy Bowden and Fulmer here and they had much more success than Shannon. A major program simply will not allow it.

How would the USF DC job be better than almost any SEC DC job? SEC generally rules the roost when it comes to defense. I'm sure he'd love to come back "home" to Florida and he's very familiar with recruiting the area, but our advantages end there. We can't compete with Arkansas when it comes to facilities, pay, conference stability, and professional opportunities. Kids just want to play in the SEC. I'm more worried about it since they haven't named a DC yet. I'd say the only reason is that he'd be back home in FL, and not in that shizhole Arkansas. That, and the recently established fact that it's a DC job at USF vs. a potential position coach at Ark ... kind of a no-brainer imo. Several SEC schools pay position coaches more than we have ever paid a coordinator. And the gap between the Big East and SEC is only growing. Our assistant salary pool is not even sustainable if the conference devolves into CUSA Right now we look to have a pretty sizable amount of money for a DC but its only going to be on scale with what an SEC school could pay to have a very valuable position coach. If the money is close would you want to have more or less responsibility from your job? It really is going to come down to where Shannon is trying to go with his career. He could jump from SEC position coach to SEC DC and see the same pay as if he goes from USF DC to a non-BCS head job or USF DC to SEC DC. I don't see it as a no brainer at all.

Any reason why this would make a difference? Unless it's out of loyalty to the program I don't see why. It's not like he's the HC or this is the national title game. Plenty of coaches leave before their team's bowl game. It'd be helpful for recruiting to get him on staff as soon as possible. We could just as easily be waiting until after the Pizza bowl to hire Guidry. Got my fingers crossed so far for Shannon it hurts. It's a nice thought that Shannon and USF are just being classy and delaying an announcement until after his bowl game, and it is possible. However as you stated not only is he not the HC, he isn't even the DC and this isn't a big time bowl. So TCU doesn't gain a lot by Randy staying around and is hampered in one regard because until he leaves they can't go get the next best guy available either. This isn't a super hot recruiting time either so it isn't devastating but it does hurt some any time you have big question marks in your program. USF doesn't gain much by waiting. That leaves Randy Shannon who is benefited by allowing more job opportunities to come up and improving his salary negotiation leverage. Randy might say he wants to coach the bowl game as a pretty reasonable reason to keep his opportunities open for the time being, but its not that big of a deal for anyone involved. He is almost definitely our top target so we'd oblige this request but we may get burnt by it in the end.

it doesnt matter who the coaches are USF will not be locking anywhere down in recruiting until the stadium and trophy case are full. Evidently someone isn't paying attention to current events. yea, if we recently locked somewhere down in recruiting I certainly missed it. Catch up... Taggart has been here only a few weeks and has already gotten 5 commits along with a flip from Minnesota on a great local CB. Low expectations. No offense but 2 JUCO's, a non qualifier, a QB whose best offers were Eastern Kentucky and Marshall, and a Minnesota flip isn't locking it down. Only Godwin has any other good options. When we are getting the best out of an area you can call it locked down. And that isn't happening until fans actually show up and we have shown we can win something. Do you really expect him to lock down 4 stars in his first two weeks after our season last year and the BE implosion??? Really?! Did I say that I expect that? Why don't you go and read the original embedded quote and follow the conversation through. Taggart being here isn't going to magically make all the best players come here, which is an idea your statement supports. No coach is that good of a recruiter. Someone suggested I missed some current events implying something to the contrary of my suggestion has recently happened. That isn't so. I'm perfectly aware of the players that have committed and or signed in the recent weeks. They aren't highly sought recruits. Getting them here in no way signifies that we are able to get the best. Its an irrelevant aside to the original rebuttal of the notion that Shannon and Taggart would lock up 2/3 of the state by their names alone.

it doesnt matter who the coaches are USF will not be locking anywhere down in recruiting until the stadium and trophy case are full. Evidently someone isn't paying attention to current events. yea, if we recently locked somewhere down in recruiting I certainly missed it. Catch up... Taggart has been here only a few weeks and has already gotten 5 commits along with a flip from Minnesota on a great local CB. Low expectations. No offense but 2 JUCO's, a non qualifier, a QB whose best offers were Eastern Kentucky and Marshall, and a Minnesota flip isn't locking it down. Only Godwin has any other good options. When we are getting the best out of an area you can call it locked down. And that isn't happening until fans actually show up and we have shown we can win something.

it doesnt matter who the coaches are USF will not be locking anywhere down in recruiting until the stadium and trophy case are full. Evidently someone isn't paying attention to current events. yea, if we recently locked somewhere down in recruiting I certainly missed it.

it doesnt matter who the coaches are USF will not be locking anywhere down in recruiting until the stadium and trophy case are full.