The Great 8

I hope we lose. **** these coaches.

If only he'd taken the time to master last year's offense. Change it up when you lose your perfect fit for the GCO senior QB. What a fool.

They're probably regretting dodging the University of Washington even more. They really are pansies. Opted out of UW and USF.

He looked great in the TBT earlier this season. That was a cool experience. My guess is he simply doesn't have the size to play the way he does in the NBA and succeed.

I don't know what you guys are really complaining about here. The best G5 teams this year have beaten nobody worth a ****. If we were 8-1, or 9-0, while defeating Wisconsin and Michigan State, who were originally on the schedule, we'd be top 10. Instead, we've lost to the only team we've played with a winning record. UCF's strongest win is Memphis, whose decent, and then Maryland who's... not. G5 teams can get in if they win with SOS. This isn't rocket science. The shady part is how easy it is for P5 teams to dodge G5ers. See Wisconsin and Michigan State this year. This needs to be rectified somehow.

Massey has UCF at #17. The composite has UCF at #9.

Dunkley made the switch pretty well late in his career. So did Lamar. But yeah, putting McCants at RB is a mistake.

These rankings are all wrong..

In what universe do TBP members provide as in-depth analysis of USF games as TDS does? That's literally false. Simply because nobody here is paid to analyze a game with as much scrutiny and put it to paper than they are. Not because folks here aren't capable.

Did you see TDS article about the offense against Houston? Gilbert has an offense moving the ball almsot purely because of absurd talent stockpiled under Taggart. We're moving the ball in spite of Gilbert's playcalling to some degree. Not because of it.

SMU is the last chance, besides USF, for UCF really to lose. Let's go SMU!

Because he bounced it outside. Gilbert called up a run into a brick wall. Tice recognized it would've gotten him 2 yards. And instead went outside the tackle and got 10. Just followed it up with a boneheaded fumble that Gilbert will probably use as "told you so" fodder.

That it was a pretty anemic attempt to score late. Even Q was shaking his head at CCS.

So much fail on the last play. Q clearly wasn't happy with the play going into the snap. He gave some grumpiness toward CCS after the play. While Gilbert/Strong finally did try to punch it in at the end, it was a straight up the gut call. Tice's run only got as many yards as it did because he decided to bounce it outside. Why Gilbert can't understand that we run better outside the tackles is beyond me. I almost wish Q would just audible out.

Tice looks like an NFL back this year. Mack leaving was the best thing to happen for his career. On the other hand, Strong coming was the worst thing for DJ's prospects...

I'd love for UF to take Willie. Someone else to take Strong. And us to get... Leavitt.

There's a lot of talk about the coaches not adjusting their systems to the players, about how naive it was for Gilbert to not even watch tape of GCO before deciding his system, and so forth. People have been clamoring to see more out of the offense all season. Some were grasphing at straws saying it was smartly being held back so we didn't show tape. We know for sure that's not true now. All of the above are fair assumptions to make of smart professionals. But, I'd like to understand... Are football coaches objectively smart people? Or do they just have "Football IQ" and not real world IQ? Do we expect too much common sense and cognitive ability out of Strong and Gilbert? My theory is to be a successful coach you don't need to actually be a smart man at all. You need to have a persona that connects with kids (i.e. recruiting and amping them up) and a "good enough" ability to pick plays. But, things like pattern recognition are weaknesses where for an engineer they're key strengths. Thus, you have guys who don't take the time to adjust their systems to their players. Thoughts? Do we have objectively smart people coaching our team? Maybe it's not ego, but mediocre intelligence leading to our "poorly" performing units?

What was the number?

This. You could've made this thread on Friday and it'd have been true.

Sorry, "being a fan" isn't defined. I understand being a fan as being able to see the pros and cons of my team accurately. For my next prediction, we beat UCF. And everyone else left on the schedule.

You went from we're going to beatdown Houston to hopeless against UCF. I see you're the bipolar type?

Maybe you'll put down the koolaid a bit and question our fearless leaders. If we use this as ammunition to go undefeated the rest of the way and win the conference, then that's fine. I'd rather have our mouths smacked by Houston than UCF.

Yeah. It was inflated by cupcakes. To be clear, we do have great offensive talent. Gilbert just is inept at using it. Hopefully he sticks around long enough to recruit the players for his vision because he's proven an inability to adjust his system to his players.

Unfortunately, it played out exactly as predicted. **** Gilbert.