slowdown

Leavitt was great he brought a ton of energy into the program which he had to, to build it as quickly as he did. On the flip he was always a little quirky which hurt him with the media, local coaches, and probably hurt a little bit in recruiting. I think his downfall was when the program begin stabilizing he never was able to step back and reevaluate. He rightly knew the team was best built around defense but he may have spent too much energy on defense and special teams and never looked enough at the offense, especially later when he had more money and could've at least brought in some better assistants for that side of the ball. The overall lack of coaching always left us asking our QB's to do everything. Holtz, I don't want to say too much just now. Its too soon. But obviously he made/allowed the defense to became way, way, way too soft. I wonder how much he and the staff believed in these players and the program in general. In recruiting I've heard that we barely went after a lot of the top locals, and were too critical in evaluating the local talent in general. He was more of a balanced mindset compared to Leavitt but I think he missed the mark on defense. His media relations were better but when youre losing the questions get much more difficult. Taggart hopefully is going to kill it in recruiting. I'm a little leery of the offensive staff but if he wants to focus on offense like defense like Leavitt did on defense, I think it will be okay so long as he brings in a top defensive coordinator. Seems to be a great personality too.

his injury pretty much killed any illusions that the prior offensive staff had any degree of effectiveness. would've never guessed that Floyd and Eveld received coaching. we scored 1 TD, in garbage time, after he got hurt this year.

Many say he's why Skip was so successful at ECU, but he's got the holtz taint on him. Hudson's defenses at ECU were pretty good at creating turnovers, but he never had a top 30 scoring or total defense and had some defenses ranked in the 80's. It's not a great resume with or without Holtz.

There hasn't been any of that in this thread........

It's like your just glossing over the fact that 13th best QB means only 12 people in the world do what he does better than him. He is still going to throw for 3500+ yards and 20 TD's. And Weinke helped him be the best rookie QB EVER. Weinke has also worked with Russell Wilson (8th rated), Josh Freeman (16th), Ponder (25th), and Tannehill (29th). Say what you will about these QB's relative to the other 27 starting QB's but Weinke must be pretty respected and knowledgeable if he's working with 15% of the NFL's starting QB's. More if you count Cousins who is now starting for an injured RGIII. I'm not sure what you mean about IMG being a business. Yes, they are a business. And business is good with guys like Brees, Eli Manning, and Alex Smith all also associated with IMG, although they were before Weinke's time. When you do work at the highest level you get compensated for it. It's also not just that Weinke was a Heisman and NC winner, but the type of player he was. He was the prototypical pro style game manager, coach on the field, mental giant QB.

Woolard did give Dungy a contract and Dungy signed it. It was for a nice consultant fee.

+1 I'll let you know how I feel about 11 and 12 win seasons with BCS bowl appearances when I've experienced it.

The assistant pool was going to increase to 1.9 million for this year any way. Taggart is going to bring in Blackwell and Woodie. Those guys are in the position much like Taggart where they can get a substantial pay increase, to compensation that is very fair for their experience, and still be making less than their former counterparts here. You can start them "low," probably 140 or less. KP and Scott look likely to remain, and probably at similar or slight pay raises. No reason to pay a TE coach 190k or a lame DB coach 210K or a guy who coaches only half the D Line 190K. Also, last years salaries also only total up to 1.8, so I think you can find another 150-200k to spend just by bringing in a couple younger coaches and using the rest of the money that wasn't utilized last year ( or we don't know how it was used, as it was allocated after the article was published). The question is USF prepared to buy Cosh out or are they handicapping Taggart with that salary? Can't see DW making Coach T keep Cosh... If usf comes up with that money, taggart calls plays which keeps oc pay low, and hires the right mix of young guys, I think their is good money there for a high level dc

Taggart's efforts helped WKU quarterbacks earn all-conference mention in three consecutive seasons - Jason Johnson (2000), Donte Pimpleton (2001) and Jason Michael (2002). http://www.wkusports...TCLID=204846346 Taggart might call plays I'd even say it is likely but it isn't very common for a head coach to burden himself with every day position coach duties.

he's coming in as RB coach. not to say it doesn't matter but it isn't the most difficult place to coach.

The assistant pool was going to increase to 1.9 million for this year any way. Taggart is going to bring in Blackwell and Woodie. Those guys are in the position much like Taggart where they can get a substantial pay increase, to compensation that is very fair for their experience, and still be making less than their former counterparts here. You can start them "low," probably 140 or less. KP and Scott look likely to remain, and probably at similar or slight pay raises. No reason to pay a TE coach 190k or a lame DB coach 210K or a guy who coaches only half the D Line 190K. Also, last years salaries also only total up to 1.8, so I think you can find another 150-200k to spend just by bringing in a couple younger coaches and using the rest of the money that wasn't utilized last year ( or we don't know how it was used, as it was allocated after the article was published). The question is USF prepared to buy Cosh out or are they handicapping Taggart with that salary?

Didn't Grothe play 1 season under Rod Smith, 2 under Greg Gregory, and 2.5 games under Canales?

I wouldn't worry about the recruiting part. Cristobal was considered a very good recruiter too. I cant see Davis being that much better than Cristobal while Taggart stands to be a very big improvement here.

i'd be seriously interested if he is interested. he has a very strong background and I think he might be the best mix of recruiting, contacts for building a staff, and affordability

This, those NC's were all Zook's kids except Tebow. Can he coach to win? That is another story all together The 2nd NC were not Zook signees. Louis Murphy, Cooper, J Cunningham, Pouncey, Pouncey, Demps, Rainey, Harvin, Brandon Spikes, Carlos Dunlap, Aaron Hernandez, Joe Haden, Ahmad Black, Janoris Jenkins, and Major Wright were all Meyer recruits. Their was maybe 3 or 4 Zook signess on the two deep.

You're being a might harsh dude. I always saw Lanaris as the next Ben Moffitt, but I don't think he has the proper instruction and schemes to allow him to be truly successful. The OP wouldn't agree with your response but he also wouldn't like mine concerning Leavitt. I think we should maybe pump the brakes a bit on calling out individual players. Coaches are men, they're over 40, they get paid crap loads of money to perform at the top. JMHO. Agreed. At fan fest, i briefly spoke with him as he was signing for me and he was very excited about his upcoming senior season. He was very polite and thanked me for coming out and supporting the team. Seemed like a very good kid. Our frustration should be aimed at the coaches who get paid lots of money to put these players in the best situation to succeed. And when politeness starts winning us football games, I'll change my tune. The guys' skill level is beyond bad. I'm sure he's a very nice a polite kid. But the fact is our defense starts at that position and they guy can't cut it. You ever notice how they pull him off the field in 3rd and pass situations. It's because they know they guy doesn't have the speed. I am dead ass serious when I say him off the field helps out the team wayyy more than on the field. Cowardly tough guy internet talk from a guy who obviously don't know what it is never won a game either.

Leavitt is a real dude. His feelings for USF are genuine and he truly wants to move forward and for USF to move forward. I don't think he'd put himself in that position to have to deal with that professionally every day. He doesn't need to and I really doubt he wants to. Besides that UCF needs to hire someone with a crystal clear background. Whatever your personal take on the Leavitt situation, they need to move in a different direction after having to deal with all of the O'Leary issues hanging over that program for the duration of his tenure. I just hope they don't move on Taggart who could really do some great recruiting there.

McCarney was great but he was never our defensive coordinator. He was here for one year under Burnham

I agree there are positive take aways. but is writing 25% of the game off the same as breaking down the stats? why should AA have the perspective that only the 3 quarters we won matter? our coaches and players can't afford to shrug it off, they've got to look at the deficiencies and work on those things.

yea, in addition to the altitude Williams hasnt been full go in practice due to ankle so he's especially susceptible to fatigue for the first few games

Punting seems like the easy call but they've never built their team out there around defense. They have this pretty unique wild offense attack and kind of soft defense. For most of the country running it 3x and hopefully getting a first if not, punt, pin em deep, playing d. That's sound decision making. But that's not how that team is built and how they are built isn't necessarily the best way to close a game. That is just one of the disadvantages of the type of team they have. Of course its all very easy in hindsight.

1) Could we afford to do that? 2) I believe there are NCAA rules about traveling which would prevent us from going early. The Gators left 3 days early to prep for A&M... They left Sep 7 @ 13:40..... http://instagram.com/p/PSNIJ1h-MZ/ Makes more sense but where is the date/time on there? Sorry. Got the link of off twitter which had the time. Idk how to link a "tweet," but its on Trey Burton's twitter. edit: http://twitter.com/TreyBurton8/status/244143157191790593

1) Could we afford to do that? 2) I believe there are NCAA rules about traveling which would prevent us from going early. The Gators left 3 days early to prep for A&M... They left Sep 7 @ 13:40..... http://instagram.com/p/PSNIJ1h-MZ/

Disagree. We have at least three guys that are more than capable of getting behind any defense in our conference and BJ certainly has the arm. Haha. Sure. I certainly hope it happens. But being "capable" don't get it done.

its a long season. we haven't looked that good. plenty of time to earn it.