ckparrothead

Wasn't he kicked off the team for getting into a fight with a basketball player? Nope. He got into a bit of trouble but he's very much on the team. He has 9 carries this year for 78 yards and a TD.

Well we kept the game close enough that we never saw Robert Davis play. Moral victory.

Fans aren't gonna like it either way. I think you can play well and lose 13-10, and you can play crappy football and lose 32-29...and the fans are going to be happier about the game in which you played pretty well and lost. If everyone was unhappy with the 14-13 SMU victory I don't think it is because of the low scoring. I think it's because the team looked like crap but won in the end against a winless opponent.

Are you positive we ever even made an offer? I was pretty sure Willie Taggart didn't.

My guess is we're going to get a close up view of Robert Davis this weekend. That's not a good thing because it probably would mean that we're losing by 20+ points in the 4th quarter. Then again, after the 39 yard run and the TD last weekend it's possible that Memphis starts getting him touches during portions of the game that matter. He's averaging about 9 yards a carry there which is what he did in high school.

I don't know why we're talking about the receivers relative to Taggart and previous coaches. We run the football 53% of the time and that's despite constantly trailing our opponents (145 snaps while winning, 331 snaps while trailing). Our quarterbacks complete 48% of their passes. This means we've got 134 receptions to go around, 87 of which are caught up guys like Andre Davis, Mike McFarland, Sean Price, Kennard Swanson, Marlon Mack and D'Ernest Johnson. Those guys would be catching balls no matter which pair or trio of WRs were taking snaps opposite Davis. Don't get me wrong, I've been a big fan of D'Vario Montgomery's since high school and believe it or not I've actually been looking at his work at Iowa State because he's a beast and could be an NFL prospect down the road...so I'd love to have him here. But his impact would be limited. And Sterling Griffin, I mean forget it he was going to follow Holtz no matter what I think.

Kid can't buy a break sometimes though. He is 24 of 30 (80%) for 234 yards (9.8) against Lakeland Christian, has 9 runs for 58 yards and 2 TDs on top of it...they lose the game 26-32. Similar to when he was 29 of 45 for 400 yards, 5 TD, 0 INT with 3 runs for 12 yards and another TD...and they lost 46-63. Gotta love high school football.

Definitely gotta reel in this recruit.

Robert Davis got some more touches against Tulane. They were winning 31-7 so they decided to get the freshman some more work. First thing he did was bust off a 39 yard run on 1st & 10, getting down to the Tulane 8 yard line. Then he ran for 6 more yards in the tight red zone. Finished off with the 2 yard touchdown. Man did he look good in both games. He was right in our backyard and we could've had him. I love Marlon Mack but you can't have enough good players. And Davis wasn't a competing recruit with Mack anyway. Davis could have come with the Darius Tice recruiting class. He'd probably be neck and neck with De'Ernest Johnson for second best back on the roster right now.

The thing I'm not sure I like really is this idea that 2015 is the year Willie is on the hot seat and he has to win a lot or get fired. Based on what the QB situation looks like right now I can tell you that 2015 isn't exactly going to be a banner year for South Florida football. So why bother waiting? I think rather you give him some time to work this QB problem out, until you sense the guy is just tragically inept when it comes to judging the position, recruiting it, and making start decisions. And admittedly, we're about halfway there on that.

If you go ahead and fire Willie Taggart right now I'm not going to fault you. He has committed sins and made mistakes. He looks in over his head at times. He's recruited well but not at the most important position on the field which I suppose means he hasn't really recruited that well at all. But if you're inclined to let him continue then you'd better give him the chance to work through this quarterback problem that he was handed by Skip Holtz and that he contributed to through his lack of plan at the position and his flippant quarterback decisions. The continued indecision at that position still bothers me. Mike White against Tulsa had probably the best passing day we've seen a USF passer have since B.J. Daniels. A week later he's benched. Steven Bench throws well in relief and then a week later he's benched. You make a decision to go with the true freshman and then you pull him during the game. Now I'm sure White will be the starter again. You can blame all of this on the quality of the quarterbacks and indeed with this crew you were probably never destined to get good performance in 2014. But a big part of the underperformance is Willie Taggart's indecision. If you commit to a guy, especially a YOUNG guy, you stick with him, let him work through his mistakes, and you reap the rewards later as the light starts to turn on. Anyway I say either fire him now or give him a couple more years to see if he can win with good quarterback play.

Lou Gherig

The more quality prospects you bring in the better obviously. But there are only so many seats so you want to be discerning. My gut tells me that while Brandon Ziarno would be a good one to try and secure regardless of anything else you do, the decisions on Kean and Hale would be dependent on what else you could reasonably go out and get. I'm not a recruiting expert so I don't know who is out there, who could be gotten, etc.

Thing is we need about four recruits like Brandon Ziarno. I'm not trying to give the impression this kid is the end-all be-all. Just saying we need to fill the roster with guys like him.

The one loss he had this season to The First Academy...he was 29 of 45 for 400 yards, 5 TDs and 0 INTs with 3 runs for 12 yards and 1 rushing TD. He scored 6 touchdowns, has an almost perfect passing day, and they lose the game 46-63. LOL.

Looking at an interview he did a year ago heading into his junior season. They ask him what have you been doing to prepare for this season. Very first thing he brings up is the weight room. The film showed it. That's the kind of thing I like. He's never really been a guy that was going to aim high as far as his school of choice goes. He mentioned FIU or FAU as the schools he'd like to go to but not for any specific reason other than that they're in south Florida. If you watch his 2012 tape it's easy to see why he wasn't on many colleges' radar. It's actually pretty amazing the kind of improvements he kept making from one year to the next, from 2012 to 2013 and then from 2013 to 2014. If he looked in 2012 or 2013 the way he does in 2014 then I think he'd have gotten more interest. This is a gettable prospect that Telly Lockette could bring in and I like him.

First off, it's not my job to have a plan for the quarterback position that Willie Taggart should have executed. It's his job. He interviewed for the South Florida football job. I did not. If I were to interview for that job I would **** well have a plan. Two unexplored avenues do come to mind though with respect to that position. First he had the opportunity to recruit Brandon Mitchell from Arkansas in the wake of his strikeout with Clint Trickett. I happen to know Mitchell would've entertained that idea but USF had no real interest. Now, Mitchell didn't light anything on fire but he did complete 57 percent of his passes at NCSU and he also converted 36.4 percent of 3rd downs on which he was given the ball. He also personally scored 9 touchdowns in 6 games, with 6 interceptions. That may not look like much but the fact of the matter is our quarterbacks completed 46.5 percent of their passes, scored a TOTAL of 7 touchdowns in 12 games and only converted 25.7 percent of their 3rd downs (putrid). Oh and they collectively threw 16 interceptions. We were beggars, and we decided to also be choosers. And that didn't work out too well. Another avenue comes to mind with respect to Tyler Harris, who was definitely onto USF but ultimately we said no thank you to him and he went to UCF instead. There was also a 6'6" kid at Western Kentucky that Willie Taggart himself had recruited that made it known he's transferring out of WKY, knew the system and could have been eligible to start by 2014. No interest. I don't know if that was good or bad but at worst you've got a different guy to sit the bench. And absolutely when you are bringing along a true sophomore Mike White whom Willie even admits he played too early in his college career, and he starts showing signs of improvement against playable teams like Connecticut and East Carolina, and then comes out and has a legit great game against Tulsa...you don't bench the guy one week later. And if you DO bench him one week later and you go to Steven Bench, and he throws some touchdowns and gives you some good signs that way, you don't turn around and bench HIM one week later too. That just shows that when he benched White in favor of Bench it wasn't because he thought Bench was any good. It was just because he was desperate. And that's what Willie's treatment of the quarterbacks has smelled like for two years. Desperation.

Incidentally the two games that USF broke that 17 point ceiling? They won both of them.

In a college football landscape that sees the MEDIAN (i.e. #64 of 128) teams scoring 30 points per game...USF has scored 19 points per game. In seven out of the nine games the offense has scored 17 points, 17 points, 17 points, 10 points, 17 points, 17 points and 3 points. And people are saying it's the defense. Starting to stink in here with all the bull **** I'm seeing thrown around.

I'm saying you either fire him now because you've decided he's done enough damage and set the team back far enough, or you actually give him the time he needs to work the team out of this and THEN fire him because it didn't happen. Trying to cut it somewhere in-between because of this idea that comes from the ethers that you've gotta give a guy exactly 3 years...you're not doing anyone any favors.

Maybe if he'd taken a good look at the qb situation before taking the job, he wouldn't have. How can you blame him for not having a good qb plan, or one at all, when he first took the job?? Plans are implemented by the tools you have available and the best made plans can bomb without the tools. And as far as not being decisive about that position, have you not being paying attention at all this year to the conversations here. To some he's been decisive to a fault, sticking with White until the fiasco in CIncy. The problem is that neither qb has stepped up definitively to grab hold of the job .... maybe Flowers will do that if given the chance ... and it is still possible that it clicks with one of the other two at some point to take the reins. Absolutely he should have had some ideas about the quarterback position even heading into the job interview. I'm in equities research. If I go interview for a job and they ask me for some stocks I like in a proposed sector and why, what do you think they'll say to me if my answer is "Hire me, I'll do some paid research, and then I'll let you know."? And absolutely he's been indecisive about the position. He was indecisive in 2013 and he's been indecisive in 2014. When you name a starter, you name a starter. Especially when it's a young guy. He screws up and you let him work it out. And when you decide a guy is too young to play, and you acknowledge that you could ruin him by playing him too early, you STICK TO YOUR PRINICPLES. He hasn't done that in either season. Back in 2013 he talked about his reluctance to put Mike White on the field because he was young, just a true freshman, and he wasn't ready. That lasted about 6 games and then he put him in for the 7th game, had him starting the 8th game. Of course prior to that he names Matt Floyd the starter, and that lasts all of one game, then it's Bobby Eveld, then it's Steven Bench, then it's Bobby Eveld again, and then finally Mike White. We're re-living that in 2014. Quinton Flowers is a guy that re-defines the term "raw" and he's a true freshman. You don't want him to play this year. So sophomore Mike White is the starter. But by the THIRD GAME you're already coming up with packages for Quinton Flowers? Really? And the kid throws more interceptions than complete passes. Big surprise. So then you go back to just playing Mike White. He shows improvement against teams like Connecticut and East Carolina. Forget Wisconsin, we were way outclassed in that game and we were lucky to keep it as close as we did. Then against Tulsa, Mike White leads the team on an incredible comeback, drops all those pretty passes right in Andre Davis' lap, and has a day that I'm not sure I've seen a USF quarterback have since B.J. Daniels, if not Matt Grothe. ONE WEEK LATER...he's benched partway through the Cincinnati game. Oh and then Steven Bench throws a couple of touchdowns against Cincinnati, gives you a little bit of hope there, and ONE WEEK LATER we're already putting that neon green freshman back on the field. This is not being decisive on the quarterback issue. Just because you're on the internet and you're part of the 60 nanosecond fan cycle of what have you done for me lately, doesn't mean that Willie Taggart would have to be changing quarterbacks every other pass play before fans start to sit back and realize he's even more indecisive and impatient than they are. For a COACH, Willie Taggart has been quite indecisive about this position for two years. Yes he's working with chicken **** and trying to make it into chicken salad. But he's not doing it as well as he could.

There are a couple of things I like about him. First off before we even get to his football highlights, I really liked his Elite 11 camp cutup. http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1063363/highlights/138696377 It was windy out there, look at the shirts flapping everywhere. One of the throws you can even see what the wind is doing to the football in the air. But that ball cut right through the wind and found it's target. I've watched the tapes and I don't think there's an arm strength argument to be made against him. He throws a nice ball with low trajectory. The ball doesn't float on him, it cuts through wind, good spin...and yes he puts some snap into it but there's nothing wrong with that. That's decisiveness and confidence in his accuracy. Height could be a concern but we're talking about college not pros. I really like his build and his work ethic. How do I know how work ethic? Because of his build and because of the way he plays. This guy is strong as an ox. Look at his calves, his legs, the muscle development. This isn't a guy that is naturally rocked up no matter what he eats or how he lives, he gets there because he works at it. http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1063363/highlights/167698375 Gotta watch the way he deals with pressure and noise around him. All that cutting back and forth, exploding this way or that, finishing off with the throw. For a guy like him that's all due to gym work. You mentioned ball placement and you're right on. The ball placement is really good but the way he leads receivers on the long ball without them slowing up tells you about his arm strength as well. Next thing that interests me is his punch delivery. Very short, over the top, very quick and he gets the ball there. It's not 100% consistent yet but there's visible improvement from junior to senior tape. Actually there's a huge amount of improvement all the way around in his basic physical abilities as a quarterback from his junior to senior tapes. That's one of the reasons I know he works at this. He's got natural quarterback sense and I believe he should be able to diagnose defenses and get the football out on time. I'll finish by quoting someone I know, whose evaluations I respect more than anyone outside of perhaps a Tom Luginbill. The reason I write that is because it describes how I see a Brandon Ziarno when I watch his tape. It's not the fundamentals or the accuracy, which are there and they're easy to see. It's the things that aren't necessarily coachable that draw me to him. He's not the best QB recruit out there, but I think he's the best one that USF is messing around with for the moment.

Freaking Telly Lockette, man. If anyone can pull Willie Taggart's arse out of the fire, it's Lockette. This Brandon Ziarno kid is instantly my favorite of the quarterback recruiting prospects, and it isn't even close. Go to work, Telly.

I like the look of Donavan Hale.

I agree but they don't grow on trees. You don't run across a Clint Trickett that often. Maybe Ryan McGriff from Florida? Only so many graduates that would potentially be looking to do this.