ckparrothead

Chase Litton probably just became Marshall's starting QB for the next three or four years. Started today in place of struggling JMU transfer Michael Birdsong, went 24 of 31 for 270 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT, 5 runs for 27 yards. Never should've let him go.

This thread is thick with cognitive dissonance.

In all seriousness this should be a tremendous get for the Bulls. I just find it funny how many people ruthlessly went after the KID's character out of butthurt and now those same people are going to have to find some sort of rationalization so they can feel alright rooting for him as a Bull.

I just found this out and had to laugh. After all this time and so many people trashing Woulard, it's hilarious he's going to be a Bull again.

LOL ok. Team goes 13-1 with the only loss coming in overtime after they scored a touchdown and the other team decides to go for two points instead of going to double overtime, and had the best offense in FBS football, but they suck. Sometimes I think the people around here deserve a ****** USF football team.

I always wondered why the hell UVA kept on with Greyson Lambert instead of Matt Johns. Right away in that UCLA game it was clear that Matt Johns had the mentality to open up the offense and actually threaten the defense in all areas of the field. Then again it sounds to me like Mike London has really botched and mishandled the QB position up at UVA about as badly as Willie Taggart has in Tampa. I guess in a recent conference call with reporters the offensive coordinator said that Matt Johns sits atop the depth chart for now only because he just barely graded ahead of the rest of the quarterbacks, but that it's a fluid situation. Then the head coach Mike London jumped on and said the competition wasn't close, that they won't be heading into August with two guys fighting for the spot. That's what immediately preceded Lambert's transfer. South Florida is likely a year too late to try and recruit Lambert as a transfer. A year ago they were still running a pro style offense with an offensive coach that had coached in the pros, and Willie had a strong connection with Jim Harbaugh who at the time was a coach in the pros. Those things would have attracted a Greyson Lambert. Now, that's all gone. Harbaugh's at Michigan, Willie scapegoated and fired his offensive coaches, installed a decidedly not pro style system. and we're very likely stuck with Quinton Flowers. On the bright side, Willie is so indecisive that we'll probably see another quarterback take the field before the first game is even through.

Except when Marshall played tougher teams, like the 11-2 Northern Illinois program, they diced them up as well. Embarrassed them even worse than Florida State had done a few years ago, really. A good offense is a good offense. Asiantii Woulard was committed to a different coaching staff and when that staff changed, there was no chance of keeping him especially as he had made a name for himself at the E11 competition. I don't really have any desire to bring him up because this coaching staff didn't really have a choice when it came to Asiantii Woulard. The reason I bring Chase Litton up is because unlike Asiantii Woulard, Litton was a kid the Bulls could have kept. He was committed to this staff. They botched their handling of him. It was a relationship that could have been salvaged, and because it wasn't salvaged the Bulls have some pretty bad options at the quarterback position this year. Personally I think the handling of the QB situation has doomed the current coaching staff, and the only reason I could see them being kept in 2016 would be if the powers that be decide they don't want to buy out Taggart's contract and then turn around and hand out yet another one. But I do feel like their fortunes might be different if they'd resolved their situation with Chase Litton instead of turning on and demonizing a mere kid just because he got his nose bent by their handling of him.

Interesting QB situation up in Marshall. They pulled in a 6'5" & 245 lbs transfer from James Madison named Michael Birdsong, who sat out his required year in 2014. He seemed to be the coaching staff's intended ringer, the guy they figured would be the starter. But Rakeem Cato's primary backup last year Gunnar Holcombe actually had experience in the offense and so he had the advantage during spring practices. They also had a recruit they really liked in Cole Garvin. But true freshman Chase Litton appears to have blown the staff away to the point where it was really difficult for them to even temporarily name Michael Birdsong as the starting QB heading into camp. Because of Litton's progress, Garvin has now transferred, and most people around the program are looking at Birdsong as the placeholder until Litton takes over. Marshall's offense was the best in FBS football last year, and nearly as good the year before. They were probably the best non-P5 team in the FBS. That would be a hell of an offense for Litton to inherit.

I don't know what to expect this season, other than pain. You lose the best wide receiver USF has ever had in Andre Davis. You lose quite possibly the best offensive lineman USF has ever had in Austin Reiter. You also lose the best quarterback USF had, albeit on a roster full of sh-tty quarterbacks. You lose a legitimate NFL draft pick in Reshard Cliett. You lose the best corner on the team in Chris Dunkley. On the other side, Willie Taggart has done a good job recruiting non-QB positions for two years and some of those players were already starting to flower in 2014, guys like Devin Abraham, Marlon Mack, Dee Johnson, Nigel Harris, some transfers like Jamie Byrd and Rodney Adams. You've got some holdover assets that you can feel good about. Guys like Brynjar Gudmundsson, Thor Jozwiack, Nigel Harris and Sean Price. But it's difficult to get over the QB situation. And I'd like to know what their plans are for run/pass ratio with this new supposed Air Raid offense, because their best assets are their running backs...so it's entirely possible they're shooting themselves in the foot just because.

I don't believe Golson is coming to USF. I think he intends to go to a P5 team. I read a headline that mentioned that he gave Notre Dame a list of ten P5 teams under consideration and they approved all of them. That pretty much seals it. He's not coming to USF.

He has to go somewhere he can play immediately. He can't sit the bench. If he sits the bench he doesn't get drafted. At Notre Dame he was never considered a serious NFL quarterback prospect until 2014 when, after a tremendous amount of training with George Whitfield, he came out gunning and looking a lot closer to a pro level quarterback than people had imagined back in 2012. But that didn't last too long. He started throwing a bunch of interceptions and then lost his job to a young second year Malik Zaire. Those that watched Asiantii Woulard's E11 probably remember Zaire. He wasn't exactly Christian Hackenberg as a recruiting prospect. So if you're Everett Golson and you have a year and a half of college football play under your belt playing in a manner that really turned the scouts off, and only half a year of playing so well that they're really intrigued, and you're only 6'0" & 211 lbs? You need to go somewhere you play immediately, and you need to play really well. If you don't, you don't get drafted. A team will take a flyer on you undrafted, but that doesn't get you anywhere beyond training camp.

Bringing in Kinnan as a consultant concerns me. I'm sure he's qualified. But the fact of the matter is throwing away the coaches you got from your best friend Jim Harbaugh and bringing in your own personal high school coach on a volunteer consulting basis strikes me as kind of a desperate move.

I think one thing you're seeing with new articles and new quotes from Joel Miller is again the point I have to bring up with respect to Jim Leavitt's attempts to "cover up" whatever happened. A lot of people, even the ones that believe Leavitt deserved firing, do not believe what he actually did to Miller was not worth firing him. What they're upset about is perceived callousness, arrogance, the fact that he never fessed up to it, the perception that he may have been intentionally trying to cover it up, etc. Even the USF people that fired him say that's what it was all about. And to that once again I have to point to the quality of the people he was dealing with, the quality of the Millers, the people above Leavitt that fired him. I cannot fault him for trying to take control of a situation that was boiling up around him because of viperous personalities trying to take advantage of an opportunity.

Player development at the professional level is extremely important and it is for the most part what sets apart teams that consistently are at the top of the league from teams that are consistently in the middle or bottom. The salary cap and drafting system is set up to heavily handicap the teams at the top of the league. And from a pure X's and O's standpoint, until very recently the league has pretty much all looked exactly the same. Personnel acquisition (draft, free agency) is fraught with extreme ups and downs and very few teams have a real, consistent edge that way. The teams that are consistent are the ones that are teaching well, and teaching well all begins on the practice field in the very same drills you suggest as being unimportant to a professional. Gaining an edge to your technique and awareness is not like getting a college diploma. You don't earn it, and then it's yours and nobody can ever take it away from you. Your mind and body constantly ebb away at your technical edge and the only thing that helps you get it back is constant repetition, constant practice, constant correction. Why do you think guys like Tom Brady, after being in the NFL for over a decade, will take an off season to work with an old quarterback coach to help Tom re-learn fundamentals in his throwing technique that he seems to have lost? Why does Tiger Woods have a swing coach?

Is there anyone NOT leaving the program? Rats fleeing a sinking ship.

He was instrumental in drafting Aldon Smith #7 overall after his sophomore year at Mizzou and his coaching. It's too bad Aldon couldn't handle all the fame and fortune at the age of 21, but hopefully he has learned because he could have a very long career ahead of him. Then there is another 21 year old named Aaron Lynch. Perhaps you are familiar with him? He showed a lot of promise this year. Except that Leavitt coached INSIDE linebackers, and Lynch was an outside linebacker. Leavitt oversaw all linebackers. Not according to this, and other reports I've seen. Also, we both know that scheme plays a huge part in the success of any individual player. And Borland is one of the best in the NFL, but he is still second string? Come on, this is a reach. Leavitt did a good job with INSIDE linebackers, but wildly successful is a gross overstatement. WILDLY successful would have earned him a DC job in the pros with all his past coaching experience. http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2015/02/05/eric-davis-on-49ers-new-staff-players-want-winners/ Former 49ers linebackers coach Jim Leavitt has been hired as Colorado’s defensive coordinator, a source said. Leavitt, 58, was among the assistants the 49ers fired last month shortly after they parted ways with head coach Jim Harbaugh. Leavitt, who joined the 49ers in 2011, worked primarily with the inside linebackers and former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio oversaw the outside linebackers. From 1997-2009, Leavitt had a 95-57 record as the head coach at South Florida. Actually he was commonly cited as a potential defensive coordinator candidate but he wanted to go back to college, particularly since MacIntyre and Leavitt grew close to one another while MacIntyre was coaching San Jose State. So there's that. As for this idea that the defensive coordinator had sole control over outside linebackers while also functioning as the defensive coordinator, to where Jim Leavitt never coached any of those linebackers and had no influence on them, you're REALLY stretching things here. Just because Fangio had a more direct hand with the outside linebackers doesn't mean Leavitt didn't also coach them. Leavitt was the linebackers coach and he oversaw the linebackers unit. Yeah. Jim Leavitt has nothing to do with the outside linebackers. Riiiiiiiight. First of all, I never said nothing. But people much closer to the situation are saying this. Are they wrong and you are right? Based on what, exactly? Knowledge of the situation or a wild guess? Knowledge of the situation. All linebackers, including outside linebackers, went through linebacker drills in practice and in camp. That includes drills for tackling in space, as well as drills for coverage. Those drills were all run by Jim Leavitt. Anyone running those drills received coaching from Jim Leavitt on how to play in those situations. Even if Fangio ran additional pass rush drills for the outside linebackers, and ran the outside linebacker meeting rooms during review and planning, that doesn't mean they didn't receive coaching from Jim Leavitt. They absolutely did. Including during games, as the picture clearly shows. Leavitt's job was to coach all linebackers during the game because Vic Fangio was kinda busy being, you know, the defensive coordinator.

He was instrumental in drafting Aldon Smith #7 overall after his sophomore year at Mizzou and his coaching. It's too bad Aldon couldn't handle all the fame and fortune at the age of 21, but hopefully he has learned because he could have a very long career ahead of him. Then there is another 21 year old named Aaron Lynch. Perhaps you are familiar with him? He showed a lot of promise this year. Except that Leavitt coached INSIDE linebackers, and Lynch was an outside linebacker. Leavitt oversaw all linebackers. Not according to this, and other reports I've seen. Also, we both know that scheme plays a huge part in the success of any individual player. And Borland is one of the best in the NFL, but he is still second string? Come on, this is a reach. Leavitt did a good job with INSIDE linebackers, but wildly successful is a gross overstatement. WILDLY successful would have earned him a DC job in the pros with all his past coaching experience. http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2015/02/05/eric-davis-on-49ers-new-staff-players-want-winners/ Former 49ers linebackers coach Jim Leavitt has been hired as Colorado’s defensive coordinator, a source said. Leavitt, 58, was among the assistants the 49ers fired last month shortly after they parted ways with head coach Jim Harbaugh. Leavitt, who joined the 49ers in 2011, worked primarily with the inside linebackers and former defensive coordinator Vic Fangio oversaw the outside linebackers. From 1997-2009, Leavitt had a 95-57 record as the head coach at South Florida. Actually he was commonly cited as a potential defensive coordinator candidate but he wanted to go back to college, particularly since MacIntyre and Leavitt grew close to one another while MacIntyre was coaching San Jose State. So there's that. As for this idea that the defensive coordinator had sole control over outside linebackers while also functioning as the defensive coordinator, to where Jim Leavitt never coached any of those linebackers and had no influence on them, you're REALLY stretching things here. Just because Fangio had a more direct hand with the outside linebackers doesn't mean Leavitt didn't also coach them. Leavitt was the linebackers coach and he oversaw the linebackers unit. Yeah. Jim Leavitt has nothing to do with the outside linebackers. Riiiiiiiight.

He was instrumental in drafting Aldon Smith #7 overall after his sophomore year at Mizzou and his coaching. It's too bad Aldon couldn't handle all the fame and fortune at the age of 21, but hopefully he has learned because he could have a very long career ahead of him. Then there is another 21 year old named Aaron Lynch. Perhaps you are familiar with him? He showed a lot of promise this year. Except that Leavitt coached INSIDE linebackers, and Lynch was an outside linebacker. Leavitt oversaw all linebackers.

Seriously, what facts do you base this on? The performance of his units since he joined, and PARTICULARLY the development of young players. When he took over the 49ers linebackers unit they had Patrick Willis already an All Pro, and that's great. Leavitt can't say he "developed" a Patrick Willis. But NaVorro Bowman was a rotational 3rd rounder who just kind of looked decent on the football field back in 2010. Leavitt helped him develop into an All Pro. He also turned Aldon Smith into a wildly successful outside linebacker even as a rookie, despite his substance abuse issues. Oh and now Willis goes out for the year and the 49ers take Chris Borland in the 3rd round, and Leavitt helped him look like one of the very best ILBs in the NFL even as a rookie. The 49ers are actually thinking of jettisoning Willis because of Borland's development under Leavitt. And for all that, just as impressive is what Leavitt was able to do with underachievers like Aaron Lynch and Ahmad Brooks, as well as guys with truly marginal talent like Dan Skuta and Michael Wilhoite. Anyone that is trying to belittle what Leavitt accomplished as linebackers coach with the 49ers is absolutely deluding themselves to a remarkable degree, to the point where I either have to question how much that person knows about football, or I have to conclude they're sporting a bit of an agenda and are perhaps speaking out based on that agenda before they start to do some actual research. It happens.

Jim Leavitt was indeed a WILDLY successful linebackers coach at the NFL level. To deny that is silly beyond reason and speaks of agenda.

No the abridged version would more or less be: The behavior we've seen from all parties involved ever SINCE the episode that led to Leavitt's firing, overwhelmingly supports the likelihood that Leavitt was in the right. Not simply because he found success while nobody on the USF/Miller side did. But because of the integrity with which they've all conducted (or not conducted) themselves. Not to mention the huge legal settlement.

The most anyone can point to is the supposed "cover-up" and the fact that Leavitt supposedly never took responsibility. But using hindsight I think we can see all that is most likely a crock of sh-t. Since Leavitt left USF, he's been known as a ray of sunshine with the 49ers, an eternal optimist, the most lovey-dovey coach ever. He loves his players, they love him, and he's always finding the silver lining in every situation. He would talk all the time about how he's not bitter about what happened in South Florida, that everything happens for a reason. To this day he denies the incident. And it is hardly a coincidence that he became a wildly successful position coach in the NFL and is now back to being a defensive coordinator for a Power 5 (PAC-12) school. Meanwhile the den of vipers that he left behind at USF have wallowed in their own chicanery, showed themselves incompetent, more than a little conniving, and most importantly they had to pay Leavitt off to the tune of I believe $3 million for what they pulled on him. That's something that never gets the kind of import placed upon it that it should, and Leavitt was correct to bring this up in an article I read not too long ago about him in San Francisco. This is a school that gave Leavitt a budget of something like $30,000 to pay for his assistant coaches when he helped them start the football program from scratch. This is a school that had them all in trailers. They're penny-pinchers. For them to AGREE to pay Leavitt $3 million in a lawsuit settlement, there was definitely something wrong. They were on the hook for something and it was bad. Most fans just kind of brush that off because it's monopoly money to them. A drop in the bucket. I guarantee that's not even close to true for the people involved. And meanwhile we see what's happened with Joel Miller and his kin. How many years later and the kid is trying to blame this incident for his problems? His dad steals ladies' wallets at Wal-Mart. Miller went against the University's request and took the story to the media back then, and he doesn't seem to be any more of a stand-up guy now. And I'm not sure his dad could be considered a stand-up guy either. Keep all that in mind, when judging the extent that Jim Leavitt may have been attempting to gain control of a situation he could probably sense could easily spin way the **** out of control very easily. He's dealing with immature kids that blame everyone else for their trouble. He's dealing with shady parents. And he's dealing with a nest of vipers that are convinced they are the reason USF has a successful football program and Leavitt is the primary impediment to them taking "the next step". Can you blame the guy for trying to wrestle control of the situation a little aggressively for some people' taste? Look at the caliber of people he was dealing with! Just about everyone associated with the program love that guy and the ones that remain still love him, still talk about him. Player-friendly policies that he instituted were kept by Skip Holtz and so Skip is still loved by the players that played for him. You know who isn't universally loved by those players by any means? You know who I've heard leaders and starters on the team complain about for his willingness to shift blame onto everyone else but himself?

And everyone would just parallel park on Fowler?

It's depressing but smazza is right. The recruiting and in-season handling of the QB position has been flat awful. And it's their own doing for the most part. I appreciate that the recruiting at the other positions has been stellar but the team just lost two of the primary drivers of that success, Telly Lockette and Paul Gonnella.

The Vandy QB who's been playing WR for 2-3 years? Hell if I know. I just heard there was a transfer. I'm asking you guys.