bullsbucsfan426

That said, even if Holtz gets White as his QB....I'm pretty sure he doesn't look half as good against Houston as he did under Taggart. Holtz's offenses were PUTRID without a QB the caliber of Daniels to run them.

Yeah, but it's not totally necessary for them. Explain to me why, given the current situation they wouldn't just take Cincy and UCF? Cincy has consistently been one of the best teams in the AAC/Big East and is doing it again this year-not to mention if they become an elite Big 12 program, that hurts Ohio State and broadens the Big 12's reach into B1G territory. UCF has taken their opportunity and is holding it pretty hard. If we go into Orlando and beat them or play them close, I could see us making the combo argument, but USF still has a way to go to be a truly elite football program. Even with a great recruiting class coming in next year, we will have trouble in the Big 12. Look at WVU-they went from an elite program in the Big East to an average program in the big 12. We'd take at least 2-3 years to be successful in the Big 12.

If this is true I'm going to kiss Doug Woolard.

That offensive scheme produced 311 passing yards, two touchdowns, and another TD which was called back. Yeah, we're just terrible offensively.

He led us to 23 offensive points, and he made very few mistakes. The only one I'll put on him is the interception at the end of the game-the sack-fumble was just a brutal hit.

Even if it was he has 16 days to recover for the game against Memphis. Not too worried.

Not hard to say we're not looking forward to it. This offense will get better. We will not commit like 17 penalties for 140 yards again and the running game will look better. Now go savage some rogue knights for us-don't let them take control of this conference! P.S.-you're welcome to stick around. I definitely like your fan base, very classy fan base.

Lynch! Geez this guy needs to get his head out of the heat of the moment and just play.

THANK YOU JOYCE! Unreal, we're 2-0 in turnover margin against the top turnover team in the country.

Nothing rattles this guy. 18 years old and fearless against this dangerous defense.

JOK has three touchdowns and 225 yards. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Seriously enjoying the first competent QB play we've had in 9-10 games. It's just one game, but Mike White has the poise and IT factor that none of our other QBs have shown. It's thanks to him that we're in this game. Most important stat-ZERO turnovers. Even if we lose tonight I will be seriously impressed if we come out of it with no turnovers.

I'm thinking he's starting to make a serious case for the Lou Groza award.

This and then some. Football is not like basketball where 1 great player can make a huge difference, but still you have to have the right players in place that play a role on the team. Coaching all so comes into play, as having the right staff for those players makes a huge difference in winning and losing. Frankly watching USF I can't tell if the right staff is in charge, system in place, or players to make a huge leap of success if that great player comes along. Could be but I want to see more. Sad thing is, we had that player in B.J. Daniels. Given a decent offensive coordinator, we would have been talking about him in the same breath as Tajh Boyd, Ej Manuel, and other big time dual threat QBs. You only need to look at the drop off from him to Bench/Eveld/Floyd to know that. He made Fitch look like an almost adequate OC when in fact he was terrible.

In fairness if this team was clicking on all cylinders we would have one of the nation's best pass rushes and efficient qb play. We would likely be 4-3 as well.

Good God, the UCif combination? I hate that look.

Yeah, but black is just one of those colors that teams like to wear every now and then. It's intended to be intimidating.

do nothing and we will continue to stink THAT I GUARANTEE! I FEEL pretty good in my predictions for this progam So basically you refuse to answer my question. I'm waiting for an answer Smazza. Who's the offensive assistant we should hire to get our team better?

We lead the nation in interceptions (all of our starters in the secondary and some of their backups have interceptions) , forced fumbles, takeaways and turnover margin (+20). So you may not want that. Yeah, but you're boom-bust. We use a lot of tight end action in our offense. I don't know much about Mike White yet, but if you keep letting him dump off passes over the middle to the tight end, that's going to chew up all sorts of clock. All we have to do is just complete a lot of short passes and room will open for the running game-and Shaw, Davis, and Tice will be able to score on you in the red zone when you're tired. A time of possession and tiring the UH defense argument? I enjoy these so much. UH is 113th in the nation in time of possession, and we've been horrible at time of possession since Art Briles left, and yet we win. Teams actually do better when we lead time of possession because we're not scoring in under 2 minutes which is our usual. As for tiring our defense is out... only 2 teams have scored double digits in the 2nd half on UH: Rice and BYU, both at 13 points. One of Rice's TDs was on a blocked FG. We have 5 fourth quarter shutouts and 2 second half shutouts. So if you want to score, your best chance is early. Our defense gets a bad rap because of how poorly it ranks in yards per game (#94 at 440 YPG), but I'll take giving up that many yards as long as we're top 40 in points allowed (#32 at 22.3 PPG) and #1 in turnovers gained and turnover margin. Well, if it's blocked field goals you want, I'm sure Mike McFarland will be happy to be oblige. I took a look at your games against Rice and BYU. You want to know what they also have in common with us? Quality running games. I'm not going to pretend we're on their level, but I will say that we have good running backs and a propensity for running the ball. Shaw is highly underrated-he nearly cleared 100 yards against the best run defense in the country in Michigan State. He was clearly missed against UL. I believe him and Tice will be able to pound the ball in the second half, assuming you are right and we score effectively in the first.

We lead the nation in interceptions (all of our starters in the secondary and some of their backups have interceptions) , forced fumbles, takeaways and turnover margin (+20). So you may not want that. Yeah, but you're boom-bust. We use a lot of tight end action in our offense. I don't know much about Mike White yet, but if you keep letting him dump off passes over the middle to the tight end, that's going to chew up all sorts of clock. All we have to do is just complete a lot of short passes and room will open for the running game-and Shaw, Davis, and Tice will be able to score on you in the red zone when you're tired.

We need to counter by going all white. Angels against devils, let's do it.

In fairness, the Houston defense is a porous sieve. They're #94 in total defense in the FBS, allowing 439.7 YPG. Their offensive domination has permitted them to get away with that and it's probably why UH isn't ranked despite having just one loss. I'd throw in there though that their scoring defense is far better, ranked 32nd while allowing 22.3 points per game. Other useful stats: Run defense: 58th in the country, allowing 157.3 YPG at 3.73 YPC with 10 rushing TDs against. Pass defense: 109th in the country, allowing 282.4 YPG at 7.14 yards per attempt, with 9 passing TDs against. Biggest statistic here: Houston is #2 in the country for interceptions, taking 16 off 277 attempts. That's approximately 5% of passes attempted, and it's despite only being middle of the pack with 15 sacks. Also something to note. In red zone defense, they've allowed 16 Tds and 5 FG in 28 attempts. All ten of the rushing TDs scored against them have been in the red zone. So offensive philosophy here? We're going to have to chew up all sorts of clock and keep moving the ball against the defense. It's clear they wear down on long drives, or they wouldn't be giving up running TDs inside the 20 so much. That's our ONLY hope to win this game. White will need to be efficient-this is one game where we can't afford turnovers. We especially can't afford penalties here that take us out of scoring range. Do that and we have a chance. Don't do it and we'll get savaged. This is a major opportunity for Taggart to show off his West Coast offense. He can't waste it-Houston is a potential show case.

Fine, Smazza. Tell us the offensive assistant you would hire. We ain't landing a guy from Oregon or Baylor. Show me a coach who would want to be here and could make our offense run the way Taggart wants it to.

Could you imagine if we'd played this schedule and beaten FAU and McNeese? Or if we'd beaten Michigan State? I'd wager we'd be a pretty attractive bowl target. But we clearly need a good QB or we're not going anywhere.

I agree.This season is lost, and we knew this at the outset. It was going to be a rough year, no matter what. If the only talent we have is our freshmen, then we'll play them. We aren't losing ANYTHING by playing them. Moreover, Coach Taggart is bringing in the top returning recruiting class in the AAC. Will we have defections? Probably. But as long as Coach Taggart keeps showing a commitment to WINNING, I don't mind, especially on the offense. The players are going to get better. That's why you have practices and games. If this team shows some more progress, then I wouldn't rule out our chances against Memphis, SMU, and Rutgers. In the meantime, let's just keep cheering. We still have a future don't we?