ckparrothead

Willie Taggart has committed two sins in my opinion since joining USF. 1. He had no idea what he was going to do at QB when he took the job. Or if he did have a plan, it wasn't a good one. 2. He's not been decisive about that position since coming here. He waffles. He commits to one guy and says this is the guy period, but then he takes that guy out to try another guy. Then he takes that second guy back out to put back in the original guy. He commits to never playing the freshman because he doesn't want to throw him to the wolves, then breaks that commitment. Two years in a row he's done that. There's no decisiveness with respect to the quarterback position. You could make a case that these are fireable offenses. He's building the program with some good recruiting and I think he's got some good assistants, but they're no closer to winning because of the two issues above. They've been wasting time, not building toward anything. If those are fireable offenses then so be it. Get him out. Bring in someone that won't make the same mistakes. But if you don't think they're fireable offenses, if you think he can learn from it and all that needs to happen is he needs to catch a break with his quarterback recruiting, then you're giving him through the end of 2016.

I'll accept that it's possible to get someone that gives good signs for the future. But I think there's a lot wrong with what you said otherwise. First off Shane Carden has been at East Carolina a long time and is a genuine pro caliber prospect that might even start one day. Justin Holman is a SOPHOMORE. That's a pretty important distinction. Would UCF be vying for a bowl if he were at the helm as a true freshman only a few months removed from trying to get some after senior prom? Doubtful. Gunner Kiel was the #1 QB recruit in the country coming out of high school, even higher than Jameis Winston. And I have a newsflash about this transfer thing. USUALLY, the vast majority of the time, they have to sit out a year due to NCAA rules. Gunner Kiel did exactly that. If you're holding him up as an example of what USF can do this offseason then you're also admitting that whoever it is we recruit as a transfer doesn't play a single down in 2015. Paxton Lynch at Memphis is a SOPHOMORE. You know what he did for Memphis when he was a true freshman? LOST. A LOT. They went 3-9 with him at the helm as a true freshman. And this is an example that shows us that Willie should be able to win with some freshie still trying to figure out where the cafeteria is located? And P.J. Walker with Temple? Also a SOPHOMORE. And just like Paxton Lynch, know what he did for Temple as a frosh? LOST. A LOT. He went 2-6 in the games he played significant time last year. And Temple overall went 2-10. Basically, without realizing it, you made my point better than I could. You gave a whole lot of real world examples of why this idea of 2015 being THE year for Willie to prove himself by acquiring a great quarterback and having him win games for USF right away is a fallacious argument. Honestly like I said before, if that's the mentality then just fire him now and save yourself the heartache.

I agree with this. Schiano wasn't ready for the pro game but he's a very well respected coach. There's a reason Bill Belichick keeps him around and there's a reason Belichick has a permanent recruiting pipeline going straight from Rutgers to Foxboro. I don't think Butch Davis should get a look. I'm looking into Calvin Magee. I don't think Willie Taggart will or should be terminated yet. I want to see what his team can do when they have a quarterback that can take a snap without fumbling it and throw a pass that ends up in the receiver's hands more often than not.

Last time he played he literally completed more passes to the other team than to his own team. That's a concern. He's young. He re-defines what is meant by the term "raw". He used to go whole games and seasons in high school completing like 40% of his passes (fits right in with this crowd we have at QB this year at USF). Most schools had him as a WR/Athlete rather than a QB. This is a hail mary. But screw it, why not. Maybe you could make an argument that you'll ruin the kid's confidence before he's ready. Maybe that's a sound argument.

People saying that this is about three years or whatever...maybe it ends up that way but it shouldn't be about that. Do you want to make the RIGHT decision? Or do you want to make the decision following some sense of "rules" laid down by other people for millions of disparate reasons that may or may not apply to your situation? I would rather make the right decision than adhere to some sense that it's three years then bust. To me the question of whether Willie can coach this team well boils down to what happens when they've actually got a QB that can take a snap without fumbling it and throw passes that land in a receiver's hands. That's what I want to know. I either want to know that, or I want to know that Willie is incapable of recruiting that. And considering the Bulls have a recruiting coordinator and all that, it should be noted that even that issue is not entirely on Willie. I mean let's say that they get a nice recruit this year, a guy that one day can really play the game. That's not going to be reflected in 2015. He'll be a freshman and he probably shouldn't even play. What we're going to find out in 2015 is whether Mike White or Quinton Flowers can play and I think most believe by now that the former can't, and I don't think Flowers ever should have been a Plan A recruit at the position to begin with. So why does this have to be about 2015? Just because it's a third year? If that's the case, just fire him right now. Save yourself some time.

I see it this way. Willie Taggart took over and he was relatively screwed with respect to the quarterback position. Skip Holtz left NOTHING in the hopper at that position, and it's the most important position in the sport. Not only was the roster completely void of any talent at the position, but the recruiting groundwork laid out was tenuous as well. Woulard was gone. The best recruiting groundwork had been laid with Chase Litton who was a flake and isn't even attending a college in 2014. Now, in my opinion Willie should've done his absolute best to keep Litton in the fold, but it was still a situation in which he was asked to do jumping jacks on thin ice. Taggart kept Mike White as a recruit, but it was too late in the recruiting process to recruit someone better. He looked on the transfer market and saw Clint Trickett, and my sense is he tried like hell to pull him in. That's a CREDIT to Willie Taggart, even if ultimately Trickett went to West Virginia because of a combination of A.) Dana Holgorsen's offensive prowess, and B.) Trickett's entire family being from there. So what was left after Trickett? I thought he could've made a stronger push for Brandon Mitchell but he had only one year of eligibility and he didn't play so well at NC State anyway (played better than our guys for sure, but wasn't awesome or anything). The only other gettable guy on the transfer market was Steven Bench. So he pulled him in, closed his eyes, crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Well, he hasn't worked out. There was a reason Penn State didn't want him. That said, this past offseason I think Willie Taggart screwed the pooch on the quarterback recruiting. He had time to come up with a better plan, to come up with some better recruits, and he didn't do that. The best he came up with was Quinton Flowers, a guy most schools were recruiting as a receiver or defensive back. And there's a bad, bad and good involved in the dalliance with Chase Litton...bad to place so many eggs in an uncertain basket, bad that he didn't keep him in the fold, but good that in my opinion Chase Litton was and is a very talented quarterback recruit. So I'm not absolving Taggart here. He needs to be held accountable for some things. But the bottom line is he was absolutely screwed from the start with the quarterback position and it is the thing that has dragged this team down the most the last two years. Therefore I don't think I can make a judgment about Willie Taggart's viability as the head coach of the South Florida Bulls until I see him with a quarterback worth a dog's fart. He's doing a hell of a job recruiting. He has some good people on staff. We need to let this play out until he either A.) has a decent quarterback and is still losing a lot, or B.) shows that he is simply incapable of acquiring a decent quarterback. It's pretty clear that neither of those conditions have been met, yet. He hasn't had a quarterback worth a dog's fart yet. And though he deserves accountability for ONE offseason of shaky quarterback recruiting, that doesn't prove him incapable of recruiting the position, especially since he had the wherewithal to go after two guys I view to be talented enough for the NFL.

Say what you like about burning the redshirt on Quinton Flowers but the move of Dunkley to corner has been nothing short of brilliant.

The dude is 5'7" and he took down a 6'10" center. That's some serious fight right there. Notice the part where Woodson is known for his mouth getting him into trouble. He starts talking trash about Robert Davis' girl and the diminutive Davis took him down. Lesson learned, big fella. Also, Davis is no worse for the wear. He just got some touches last week against SMU. Looked **** good, too. Had 6 carries for 31 yards and 1 catch for 8 yards.

Jim Harbaugh to Miami is a real possibility and a pretty strong one. But Harbaugh would never do anything to harm Willie Taggart's regime in South Florida. They're self-proclaimed best friends. I don't know what else to call it when they were each best man at each other's weddings. As for the argument that Harbaugh has never brought Willie with him to the NFL and therefore wouldn't be comfortable with him coaching at the NFL level, I think that's bull. If Willie were to be prematurely terminated by South Florida, Harbaugh would welcome him with open arms, might even make him offensive coordinator. There would definitely be discussions between Willie and Jim about certain members of Willie's staff, most likely Paul Wulff, but also perhaps Chuck Bresnahan and Ron Cooper. Harbaugh wouldn't even talk to those guys about coming to Miami unless Willie said it was OK to talk to them and let them decide what they feel is best for them and their families. The thing to take into account though is this isn't just about Willie and Jim. If Paul Wulff is perhaps in position to be an NFL offensive coordinator, with the likely pay raise that comes with that, along with the potential for using it as a stepping stone to get an NFL head coach job...would Willie be selfish enough to stand in his way by telling Jim hands off? That would be kind of a d-ck move, IMO. So that's why there would have to be some candid discussions. The same is true of Ron Cooper. Chuck Bresnahan is a bit of a different story because he's been an NFL defensive coordinator twice and I don't know if he wants back into the NFL or if he's just comfortable doing what he's doing. He's an odd one. The thing I would watch for if Harbaugh came to Miami is somewhere down the road, let's say things just don't work out for Willie in South Florida, then at that point the floodgates would be open and a bunch of his staff could find themselves stashed onto Harbaugh's staff in Miami. Some of them would have to start out as assistant position coaches but I think Harbaugh would have in mind that they get promoted to being official position coaches and coordinators eventually. Willie Taggart could start off as the RB Coach depending on who was already OC. I would also watch for Harbaugh to try and recruit Jim Leavitt to move back to Florida to become his defensive coordinator.

I agree with those that say that Steven Bench should probably be starting. They both have serious issues. I think Bench may have fewer. But White is younger and gives you more hope of improvement purely due to his age, so that's probably why Taggart is being very consistent in his decision to go with White.

That's a good school. Not a great quarterback prospect tho.

Can beggars be choosers?

There have been some serious issues with his quarterback evaluations and recruiting. I don't think there's any choice but to question whether he or his staff know what they're seeing in a quarterback, and even more questions about whether they know how to mold an offense around that quarterback's strengths and weaknesses. To have a 35.7 percent completion rate through three games at the FBS level is quite frankly inexcusable and I'm not sure I've ever seen the like before. For things to be that bad you have to be doing several things wrong. That you're recruiting poorly is a given. But it also means that you're not doing what you need to do on offense in order to help your quarterbacks out. If they can't make complex reads or read-progressions, you MUST simplify things. You must set doable tasks in front of them. Well, unless you want to walk out of the season having your only win come against an opponent that is terrible even at the FCS level.

Bench needs to be the starter. That much is crystal clear. That said, this situation is among the most pathetic I've seen since I've been watching and evaluating football.

CWT has really botched up this quarterback position from top to bottom, recruiting to the way he plays them on Saturday. And sad to say, he may not survive as head coach of the team long enough to learn from these mistakes.

He went to prep school for a reason. His grades and scores were probably not up to snuff for getting into most big schools and he's in prep school to remedy that situation. If he makes it through the year of prep school fine without incident, some more teams will be on him to give Marshall a tough time reeling him in. He had attention from the likes of Alabama and LSU. He got that attention because of his film, which is the same thing I'm evaluating. Those guys got scared off in all likelihood because of his academics and because of that arrest as a 16 year old. That's all it takes to scare off teams when you've got thousands of potential recruits out there. So you guys can read tea leaves and star patterns all you like trying to tell me he's an average talent prospect for that position and I'm going to shake my head and just point to the film and say no, no he's not. He may have so many skeletons in the closet it doesn't matter, but the skill level and quality of his play at the position is what it is. As for what draws me to him on tape, I basically already outlined that in this thread so if you're asking me it means you haven't bothered to read up and see if I've already answered your question...

My guess is that they will put him in for some snaps and/or series more as a tryout to see if they should move forward with him, as opposed to just doing it to give the defense a different package to defend. You're through two games and your quarterbacks are completing 39% of their passes. There really is not much to lose at this point.

Let's keep in mind what we're talking about here. http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1070751/highlights/111522385 This is a very talented quarterback prospect. Maybe it would be an exaggeration to call him a five-tool player at the position, but he's certainly close to it. I think he showed that he is a valid athlete his senior year. You could also see that on his basketball tapes. He possesses balance and flexibility, the ability to make people miss, a fluidness and some speed. Obviously he's also very big and smaller defensive backs have a tough time with that. As far as throwing the football goes, it's really hard to get better than this. He's got a compact delivery and high velocity. He can throw on the run or with a proper setup. His footwork is good and very rhythmic. He's got a good head level and posture during his drops. Maybe he's a troubled kid. Maybe he's a ****. I don't know and I don't know how much I care. He hasn't been in legal trouble since he was around 16 years old as I recall, and even that was normal 16 year old hijinx before you're old enough to know any better. I've seen some of the most successful people you can think of get into exactly that kind of trouble at that age. I know he comes from a good family and that's half the battle. Sometimes more than half, depending on who you talk to. If his commitment to Marshall is soft and the relationship between he and the coaching staff salvageable, he is certainly worth going after. It's easy to talk all high and mighty in May about how much better off you are without a kid like this in the fold, but when it's September and your two quarterbacks are completing 39% of their passes through two games, try being high and mighty about it now.

I'm gonna guess that Flowers goes into the game for a few series or for some plays. They're going to say that it's just a change of pace to give the opposing defense a different look or something different to defend, but in all reality it's probably a tryout to see how Flowers handles it. If they like what they see, they'll burn his redshirt and shelf White and Bench.

You can find good quarterback recruits. I have seen some good instincts on their part that way, but I've also seen some curious decisions that way as well.

As far as I know Chase Litton is committed to Marshall but that could always be subject to change. I'd love to get him back in the fold.

I'm probably as wary of Steven Bench as anyone. He holds the football too long. He's prone to stretches of really pretty awful accuracy. But he's still probably the best quarterback they've got. Flowers could give the opposing defense an extra dimension to worry about but I'm not convinced he is ready to operate the offense mentally. That experience could easily be just as rough. You may find the guy has a hard time even completing a pass. But then again hey our quarterbacks currently have like a sub-40 percent completion rate which is just plain ludicrous...so maybe there's nothing to lose. I give it one more game.

That's what you got from those stats? I see even/Steven. (pun intended) No winner/loser there. +1 insignificant, non-material differential. They both suck. Take into account that one did his work versus an FCS school I didn't even know existed until they popped up on the schedule, and the other did his work against an FBS school in the Big Ten (+4) that went to a bowl game last year. Just sayin. Also I don't recall Mike White suffering the same number of drops against WCU that Bench suffered against Maryland. At least Bench actually managed to put the football in the end zone. White didn't do that against WCU, he had Marlon Mack do it all for him.

Bench should be the starter but it probably doesn't matter because by all appearances they both suck. And that doesn't mean sticking Flowers out there is going to make everything better, either...though it would certainly give defenses more to think about. This is going to be a thorn in Taggart's side. You can get the recruiting right at all the other positions...but if you don't get it right at that position, you're going to have a tough time. Would've been nice if they'd succeeded in securing Clint Trickett's transfer. Too bad.

You don't think they discuss that stuff before the game? I'm sure they do. But I think Taggart will usually defer to his well-experienced defensive coordinator on the issue. When it doesn't work, that's when you have a come to Jesus discussion with him suggesting you're a little less likely to defer to his judgment next time.