Orlando Bull

Yep, Wally was good, but I think almost any DC would have been good (or fired) with Leavitt. He was intent on having a solid defensive unit. Holtz is definitely more concerned with offense, but, Fitch isn't getting it done. If one of Leavitt's DC's had under performed for this long, he would have been out.

you mean taking a knee and settling for a field goal from the opponents 2 yard line on second and goal with 20 seconds and 2 timeouts left and then losing by 3 points isn't on the coach? he coaches scared. or calling 27 pass plays in humidity where your QB can't grip the ball properly instead of running the ball when he is averaging 6.5 ypc isn't on the coaches? what a joke great coaches can turn around a program in 3 years or less. Rich rod is doing it in one year. bill snyder top 10 within 3 years without "his" QB and coming from 5-7. I completely agree with you, but, I see many fans talking about "turning around" the program. It wasn't broken. It didn't need to be turned around. We had 2 losing seasons under Leavitt. We went to 5 straight bowls. To me, it looks like Skip has turned it around... and not in a good way. I hate Leavitt for getting himself fired. Loved him as our coach, at least for where we were as a program. At the end of the day, the program was too fragile to go through that change. Slick- I'm not being sarcastic here, but, you have said many times that the people on this board are ignorant and we shouldn't question the coaches because there is no way we know what we're talking about. Just wondering what qualifies you to make such a statement? Seriously? I think Bull94 has been beating a very logical drum about how this staff has used BJD, but, please enlighten us about how he can't possibly be correct.

This. I dont see anyone that I would say is leaps and bounds better than they were when they got here. There is some improvement which is natural when you play the game every day, but nothing that shows me that a coach has been working on developing someone's skill set. Not at any position. That is disheartening to say the least.

Too much thinking, and too much ground to cover making up for the great white hope in Lanaris. If one LB is weak, it pulls the whole unit down. Sam needs to be in the middle and Juene needs to be at Sam, or play a nickel with Lejiste as a hybrid type run-stopping safety. I think lanaris probably works as hard as anyone and I like the kid, he plays hard, he's just not that good at what he needs to be doing in this defense. I hate to single out one guy, but, to me it look like offenses are picking on him as evident by his team leading tackles against Nevada... they were running right at him. Rutgers found the guy in the middle that he was supposed to cover and threw the ball there on third downs.

I think its mostly scheme... under Leavitt, it was sink or swim for the corners. Sometimes that led to the blatant exploitation of a Tyller Roberts, sometimes it lead to the development of Ant Henry, Jenks, Trade Williams, Jerome Murphy, Skinny Raymond, etc... Those guys getting it done also made for some fierce pass rushers. Those corners were all leaders too. Not sure why, but, they were the type of guys that the team looked to for direction. My guess is because they were put in the position to be a hero at any given moment. Gotta give some props to Nate Allen and jerelle young back there too. Lastly, I think Leavitt was a much better judge of defensive talent, and he was a good teacher (or at least surrounded himself with good teachers). I got back to a Selvie or Nate Allen story, and I think I can sum it up pretty well here... Leavitt took those 2 offensive guys, moved them to D, and made them coveted NFL talents. Skip on he other hand has done the opposite with someone like T-Rex... he may have been a stud lock-down corner with Leavitt, but, Skip would rather use his athleticism on offense for a handful of touches per game. How excited was Leavitt to pull in Kavon Webster? Who thinks that kid is living up to his potential?

At this point, I think most of us would be happy to win a big east game.

IMHO, Skip doesn't have any passion for this program. Its a job to him, and he doesn't know how to fake some intensity. From what I have read of Terry's posts over the years, there was some respect for Leavitt, but, I wouldn't think that he is a fan of the Jim. But, its easy to recognize a coach with passion and intensity. Players aren't going to respect a guy that is all rainbows and puppies on the sidelines and then crazy in the locker room... I don't think Skip is that guy, I think that what you see is what you get. It saddens me to go from one extreme to the other in our coaching staffs. I personally think that everyone should be intimidated by the HC, the assistants can be more friendly with the guys, but I miss the days when someone screwed up on the field and came back to the sidelines doing everything in their power to avoid bumping into Leavitt.

I think its stupid and not a good play, but, if the bucs continue to do it, I'd just send Cruz out on a deep ball and shove another touchdown up their ass. Not illegal, not sure I'd even say dirty, but, inappropriate in my opinion.

I'm thinking that talks must be going well with ESPN, or, the BE bashing has been put on hold... ESPN was almost creepily complimentary of the BE today.

So... if we played Sister Mary's school of the blind, Chatt, Wm and Mary, La Lafayette, Wofford, SW Fl Technical school for women, and Rutgers so far and we were 6-1, are you telling me that we should be happy? We had over 500 yards of offense last week, I don't have any idea how people are complaining about the offense.... oh wait, yeah I do, we can't move the ball if the defense has a pulse. It's not that our team and coaching is bad, we just need to get a softer schedule...

He's the guy for at least 3 more games, then it depends on what the plan is next year. If Floyd is going to be the guy, then he needs reps. If its going to be AW, make sure he signs, tell him whatever it takes, and ride it out with BJ.

And they had zero talent when Strong took over. Nothing.

Forgot to answer the second part on scholarship QBs here when Skip came in... when your starter is going to be a sophomore, you wouldn't necessarily need to stock up on QBs, and for reference, Landi was recruited as a QB and practicing at that position at the time, and he was on scholly, so, counting Carnes, that would be 3, exactly one more than Skip has right now with a 12th year senior starter. Its all a guess, but I firmly believe that Carnes would have signed with Leavitt.

Anyone who watches this team with regularity understands that this team routinely underperforms. The players appear to be motivated to play high profile games, but seem unmotived and unprepared in the other 10 games or so of the year. This team doesn't just need a coahing change it needs to change its culture. We should free up some money and hire someone to motivate the team... if we just had someone getting paid to do that... maybe better yet, a whole staff of people. Optimistic me says 8-4 with losses to UL, Cincy, and Pitt/Cuse. In reality, I don't want to think about it, I could easily see 4-8, 5-7.

See, that's ironic in this thread because Leavitt recruited Carnes. Skip couldn't keep him, but as I remember it, he was fully committed to Leavitt. Also, BJ was the number 8 dual threat recruit in the country. So... yeah... the whole 'Leavitt didn't recruit any QBs' argument has more holes in it than our secondary on 3rd down and long. LOLOLOLOL Carnes wasn't fully committed to Leavitt. Nebraska had other QB recruits. When those fell through they went after Carnes late and turned him. Carnes dropped USF, not Holtz. Revisionist history never takes a rest. How many scholarship QBs were on the roster when Holtz took over? You can even count Carnes, and the answer would be TWO. Tell me again how Leavitt had stocked up on QBs. OK, who would have had a better chance of keeping him, the coach he had a relationship with, or the guy that never spoke to him before?

And where is the long line of Leavitt recruits at QB? Ronnie Banks? Pat Julmiste? Grothe was the fifth option after the other "prize" recruits flamed out. Pure luck. Blackwell was OK. Guess what, he was a pocket passer and our offense was tailored to him. Grothe was a runner and our offense was tailored to him... one head coach... 2 different offenses... it must have been magic.

See, that's ironic in this thread because Leavitt recruited Carnes. Skip couldn't keep him, but as I remember it, he was fully committed to Leavitt. Also, BJ was the number 8 dual threat recruit in the country. So... yeah... the whole 'Leavitt didn't recruit any QBs' argument has more holes in it than our secondary on 3rd down and long.

Well, if he truly did intentionally make the decision to go after the guy in a dirty way, he is my player of the game for the night... the one guy that actually played at least one play with a little bit of emotion. Kudos to him. ... and no, I do not condone intentionally trying to hurt someone, but, you also can't play this game without emotion and worried about doing up-downs for penalties. If you're thinking about that, you're not playing instinctively.

Fire Holtz Fire Lanaris ??? Fire our DC Fire our AD Keep Genshaft out of it Pray that Woulard signs and start him as a freshmen QB next year If, after this season, we are 1 - 6 again in BE play agree that the coaches should go. But the AD's job is more than just the football team. The athletic facilities we have on campus now are close to spectacular. He was responsible, at least in part, for that. Our other athletic programs are doing well overall. Even the "fire Stan Heath" chants have stopped for now and basketball enjoyed a fine year last year. After the craziness that was the year of Leavitt's leaving, I don't think anyone thought that the hiring of Holtz was horrible. I remember seeing Doug (AD) after the signing of Holtz and he looked like crap. He worked his tail off making calls, visiting coaches, doing is vetting and, when all was said and done, made a decision that seemed reasonable. Sometimes things don't work out. It wasn't from lack of research and effort. He isn't a friend of mine so this isn't a personal defense of the man. But I did speak with him a bit about the process. I just hope that he has the cajones to fire a coach when it is called for. We may be getting close to that in baseball and, possibly, football (depending on the results at the end of this year). More likely Skip will get at least another year after this with "his" QB and mostly his recruits. Although Skip could argue that his 1st recruiting class wasn't really his class. So even more likely, if Woulard comes in to be our QB, Skip gets 2 years after this to right the ship. I agree with all of this, DW is doing a fine job in my opinion. Holtz looked like a very solid hire at the time. The mistake made in my mind was allowing him to bring in his assistants and giving him a ton of money to do it... it should have been... 'go find a BCS staff and we'll give you more money to pay them... if you bring in your guys from ECU, that's fine, but, we're not going to give you money to give them 50% + raises because they haven't earned that money at this level.. As for Woulard, I think the kid has nearly unlimited potential, but, he was 16 for 29 passing last night in a big loss. I'm going to try to get out and watch him later this year, but, from following his stats, he needs to be developed... has anyone seen enough improvement in BJ over the last 3 years to think that Holtz/Fitch/Vaas are capable of developing an elite talent at QB? Regardless of what I thin, Skip will get 1-2 more years whether we win another game,e between now and 2014 or not, but, Doug Woolard should put some VERY heavy pressure on him to make MAJOR staff changes if we lose more than 4 games total this season. FSU is going to make us look awful, I am scared. We also likely lose two more conference games. I can live with a four loss season and no changes. Beyond that, something's got to give.

1. leavitt needed to go long before he did 2. but holtz isnt the answer for me--his failure to bring a top qb from the start raised by eyebrows and failure every year since compounded concern 3. this program has grossly underachieved 4. we are similar to orlando school now 1. Disagree, I believe he could have eventually got us to the promised land, especially with a correction of his personnel skills. Can you explain why we were getting worse under Leavitt, if he was going to lead us to the promised land? When did we get worse under Leavitt? See, that is where some of us disagree... oh, you mean when his senior QB, Big East career yards leader went down 2 games into the season? Is that what you mean? A record Daniels will break in about 8 more games than Grothe. (Actually, maybe less games, Grothe got to play in 3 bowl games) Most of you are saying that BJ looked like a freshman against Rutgers defense the other night... you think he was better as a freshman when Leavitt got destroyed by RU? You'll blame that on the coach, but not Thursday night's game? I guess Urban Meyer is awful too, Florida got worse while he was there... never mind that his 2-time heisman graduated. I bet Florida is happy to be rid of that guy. Hell, USC got worse under Carroll, I don't think they won the national championship his last year, they had won it previously... epic fail!

I was the one that threw out 12-0... I THOUGHT that I clarified by saying that on a week to week basis, I expect to see the best we have and if I see that, I expect to win. I don't think I saw our best last night though and we lost... I'm not shocked to lose a game, but, if anywhere near our best had showed up, we would have won by 3 TDs.

If he could sell the program we would be getting 3 and 4 star talent and the stands would be mainly full. Take care of job #1 as a coach (duh, WINNING) and that takes care of the major part of selling a program. We have less fans in the stands with Holtz than we had with Leavitt because we win less and the team does not play exciting football. Therefore, I give him an F across the board. You know,I didn't really look at winning in the number 3 category, but you're right. Winning solves number three better than anything. Good point. I was putting more into the PR type stuff, where Leavitt was a failure. Skip is so accommodating to the media, he'll have to lose a long time before they're calling for his head. Leavitt was run out by the media as soon as they could. You need a Holtz type when the team struggles, as all will at times. But you're right. Win conference titles and you sell the program more than any interviews and friendliness. I don't know that Leavitt was as bad with the media as everyone makes it sound. Sure, he would rather be watching film than doing a presser, but, Greg Auman still seems to have a pretty good relationship with him... it was one reporter that consistently butted heads with Leavitt.

The kickoff was epic... pee wee coaching says... 'hey guys, Lamar and Hopkins are really fast and dangerous, don't be surprised if they don't kick to those guys' But, we looked totally surprised.

If he could sell the program we would be getting 3 and 4 star talent and the stands would be mainly full. Take care of job #1 as a coach (duh, WINNING) and that takes care of the major part of selling a program. We have less fans in the stands with Holtz than we had with Leavitt because we win less and the team does not play exciting football. Therefore, I give him an F across the board. +1

Hard to disagree with this. Urban Meyer did it for Chris Leak. good example. one of many And Tim Tebow Those offenses on those National Championship squads couldn't have been more different. Tebow was exactly the perfect QB for the offense Urban wanted to run. Urban once said that if they hadn't gotten Tebow to sign with UF that it would have set the program back decades. Probably some hyperbole there but probably some truth there too. Urban would still be winning at UF if he had BJ Daniels waiting to take over for Tebow. Daniels would have been a good fit for that offense.