NCBull

I see this as probably THE biggest game of the season, taking everything into consideration.

We are not eliminated from bowl eligibility, so this is a do-or-die game

We get to see Matt Floyd (or Eveld) take the reigns and try to show us something different at the QB position

Hate Cosh as much as we do, the defense did come through last game. Can we continue?

Last but not least, it's Miami.

At this point in this particular season, agree. It would be a silver lining to a very dark cloud to beat Miami this season.

...I have nothing to say. He needs to be fired.

Sig pic change imminent.

And is he really the guy we want handling punt returns? If he's going to be the #1 receiving target, let him concentrate on that role.

Then again, at least he's actually catching the punts...

Depressing.

I wonder if WVU would be this good if they were in the Big East.

Sad that this is where we are right now.

"Another Moral Victory"

Ouch, that stung just typing it...

Good read as always from V5...keep up the great work guys.

Woolard's always seemed like a decent AD to me, so extending Skippy's contract this past summer really puzzled me, and it still does. Greg helped answer it by finding out Doug got an extension at the same time, but even that doesn't explain why Judy agreed to it. Ineptitude is an easy answer (and it might be that simple), but I also wonder if maybe Skip was getting sniffed by another program and Doug wanted to secure him here before he left (great call, ahem). But I haven't read anything that suggests that.

Tough to remember that even a year ago after the Notre Dame win and hot start this board was worried about how we could secure Skip and who might steal him away. Now we'd sell him for a song.

Wait till we lose to UCF next yer. Heads will begn to explode.

This...and it's not going to even be close. Humiliations galore!

Don't get this...BJ is the least of our issues. I guess you could argue he is an issue...but he's so far down the list it's silly to bring it up. I think he's one of the few positives going on right now. Leave him in and let Floyd get his fumbles....er, reps next season.

Touchy!...too close to home?

No super fan here...just trying to be a little realistic. I'll join you in calling for Skip's head if the season doesn't straighten out. But it's just two losses....keep those season tickets.

Epic stupidity alarm is blaring.

7 - 0 wasn't an option? Honestly, this year is already a failure...

Huh? To both points?

Losing to Ball State is only slightly better than loosing to a 1-AA. I honestly hope we aren't competitive in the Big East. If we end up going 2-1 against Rutgers, UL, and Cincy it says more about the terrible state of the Big East than our program.

Lots of BCS programs lose to non-BCS or even FCS teams (see: Virginia Tech, Michigan, Pitt). I doubt many of their fans then say dumb **** like "I honestly hope we aren't competitive in the Big East." Enjoy a season of pulling against your team then...nice.

And to address the other point: there wasn't a 7-0 option because we lost a Big East game already...

7 - 0 wasn't an option? Honestly, this year is already a failure...

Huh? To both points?

4-3 in conference would be equalling our best BE finish ever and (probably) get us to a bowl. IMO that would be a wildly successful season with the way this team looks right now.

We know we can't get rid of skip.... but skip should seriously be considering firing cosh.

Here's something at lest in the world of reality.

Seriously? You don't see another win on the schedule? We lost by 4 points to Ball State. Yes, Ball State. But... We had the lead with just over a minute to play. The bulls are playing down to the competition and were likely looking ahead to next week's game. Maybe they just weren't prepared for this game. We were not blown out. We lost by 4 points... No, we should not lose to Ball State, but it's one game. Unless we're playing for a NC the only games that matter are conference games. A loss to Ball State hurts, but again, we're not playing for a NC this year...

No I don't. They might luck in to 1 or 2 but I can't say, oh they should be beat this team. FSU will easily hang half a hundred on this defense. This team realistically could be 1-3 right now, if not for some bad coaching by Nevada and some late game heroics by BJ.

This is a bad uninspired football team that plays with no emotion. Just look at the sidelines during the game, nobody seems to care.

Nevada win contradicts assessment of bad uninspired team.

I have a hard time calling Nevada an inspired win by a good team.

That is one of the luckiest wins we have ever had. Barrington said himself he didn't make a good play on his forced fumble at the goal line. He just happened to kick the ball out the back's hands. The DB made a poor play on his dropped INT that landed in Hopkins hand. The defense gave up the 2nd most yards in program history.

We didn't drive the ball down the field with authority to come back and win that game. BJ made a few good throws and Davis had a great game, but to call that an inspired win by a good team? No way.

agreed. After the Nevada game I did say that it was a great comeback win, but inspiring, NO

"Contradicts" does not mean the opposite is true...of course this is not a good or inspired team and that's not what I said. But no more so was it bad or completely not inspired at Nevada either. We were down 21-6 in the first quarter and down 11 with four minutes to play, on the road for crying out loud...got to be at least a little fire in the bellies to pull out a win.

Can Leavitt ever come back?

Allegedly, no. I know, it's kind of a slap in the face.

I'm the green-goggled optimist on here today and even I don't see this happening. But I hope we can all at least say we'd like to see it happen.

OK, fair enough, I get it...today is a day for bashing and negativity. I've got plenty of that myself about this team, but I'm just waiting until we get into conference play. Maybe the reverse mojo will help!...instead of starting out 4-0, 5-0, 6-0 and crapping the bed in conference, maybe we'll crap the bed out of conference and compete in the Big East!

Ok, that's too optimistic even for me....

You can't honestly believe that we can win the Big East? We just lost to a non-BCS team. We are two minutes and a lot of luck away from being 1-3.

If you are a recruit can you possibly take Skip seriously? We are on a collision course to be the fifth or sixth rated football program in the State of Florida. Given the state of play yesterday it's entirely possible and in fact likely that UCF and FIU would beat us.

I understand that it's unrealistic for USF to ever be consitently on par with UF and FSU. But given the demise of the U's brand and the hotbed of recruiting at our doorstep we can and should be the 3rd tier team in Florida.

Perfectly possible to win the Big East on paper. And we have the talent. If we crap the bed in the Big East again, I will join in the fire Skippy crowd. But the goal at the beginning of the season--win a conference championship--is still within reach.

BTW, we are also one minute away from being 3-1, and six minutes away from being 4-0...neither of these losses were blowouts at all.

Has Skip assisted you in writing this? He said the same things last season and how'd that work out for him?

Hey, I don't think Skip gets a pass at all on any of this, and the contract extension was just plain stupid. And this team looks awful overall, no doubt. But we're .500 right now....just like we pretty much always are at the end of every season. Right now for wins/losses, this team is right at par. Hell, if we keep it up we'll match our best Big East record ever.

Just saying...it's two losses...well, three after next week. Then the bulk of Big East play which is where this season will be evaluated as a success or failure.

At some point its not about the current record, but the quality of play displayed on the field. Anyone that has any semblence of knowledge of football can look back at these last 4 games and see thrr are problems. Once you get into conference play the intensity gets turned up. An intensity for winning which this coaching staff has yet display in more than 2 seasons hrt.

Yes, all clear. But USF has never been a predictable or consistent team. Not saying that somehow we'll go from crappy to great...but even with the level of play we've been in all 4 games. And do you really see the conference play from Temple, UConn, and a non-VT-playing Pitt to be THAT much more "intense" than Nevada or Ball State? I'm just not at the abandon ship phase after two losses that we were in the game almost the whole time despite playing as bad as USF ever has. To me, if we shape up and the coaches make even moderate adjustments, we have a chance of being competitive in a very ****** Big East.

Now if we spiral into the same conference collapse we had last year, the pitchforks and torches are on me.

Not much reason for Stoops (or anyone decent) to come here, really...

We're basically playing 9-on-11 with the soft zone on almost every single play. It's like we're just conceding 3-4 yards on every play, and more if they can beat our sketchy secondary (which even Ball State did, for chissakes). But then again they stood our pass rush up too--a MAC line! If we would just bring some real pressure this D could be at least decent. Right now, they're not even being allowed to have that chance...the soft playcalling is making them look like a Division III squad.

Yes, let's be like this guy.

Seriously, how can anyone think this is a good idea??

Lots of justified negative reaction on here today...and clearly some big changes need to happen to turn this team around for any level of success in 2012. Granting a blowout next week vs. FSU, there are still 6 conference games left to play in what is currently the softest BCS conference. From this 2-2 (0-1) start, what conference record would you consider to be a successful season for the Bulls?