Maybe its not the coaches

[Brad]

Why are they failing here that is my question....what is fundamentally wrong with our program or our adminstration

[usfgrad84]

Holtz was 4-8 his first year at LA Tech. Did OK last year.

Taggart's record before USF was not great. Had a couple of good wins, but most wins were against mostly bad teams.

My opinion is in Sun-Belt or C-USA, recruit a couple of stud players that can physically dominate and you can win against the lower level of competition. The american is still a better level of competition than those conferences. It is more than just about having a couple of superior players. Coaches need to recruit and coach at a high level.

I am convinced Skip struggled to understand and use the athletic players he had and then his failure to recruit, especially at QB, did him in.

Taggart just seems lost at this level. He was left with a thin roster when he got here so he started behind the 8 ball then tried to run an offense with players recruited for a different style. Now he is stuck as a one dimensional team with no clue how to truly change.

The proof in the pudding that he is in over his head is that we really haven't been competitive against a decent team since he has been here. By competitive I mean being in a game with a chance to win with 4 minutes or less. Holding a team close at the half and then getting blown out in 2nd half doesn't mean you were competitive.

[nobull.Bulls]

Skip was worse than Taggart. At least Taggart leaves some decent players for the next coach. Holtz left us with...matt Floyd

[snarling Bull]

 

"Our guys still don't know how to win yet. We need to find ways for our guys to make those winning plays so we can win these games." -Taggart

Do your job!

 

It's been three years.  How long does it take?

 

Exactly.  Taggart is not a D1 coach- he might do well with the Slippery Rocks, Kentucky Wesleyan or even Charleston Southern.

[USFbulls24]

It's painfully obvious. Our issue since Taggart took over has been offense. Who runs the offense? Taggart. He is a piss poor game planner and an even worse play caller. I don't care who you have at QB unless your GT how do you lose by 3 possessions and finish the game with 50 rushes and 22 passes? Our best player Marlon Mack touched the ball 12 times.....

 

There is no making sense of it all. Should've had 7 more points if Bronson doesn't run into Johnson in the endzone, but still doesn't take away from the glaring weaknesses Taggart has shown time and time again.

[Guest]

 

There were about 3-4 just BAD play calls today, and I hang that on CWT. There were others, though, that were really promising so I want to give him time to mature with the offense that works for USF. Guy's a great recruiter and really works these kids hard to succeed. Our execution, IMO, is far worse than our coaching right now so I really hope Harlan doesn't cave and let Taggart go.

Coaches impact execution too. Poor execution is a sign of bad coaching.

 

 

What coach do we blame for Rodney Adams dropping a touchdown pass that was perfectly thrown and hit him in the hands?

[atl86bull]

It's the QB play that has killed us for 4 years not the coaching.  What is our record since BJ Daniels went down???  UCF went from conference champs to chumps due to poor QB play.  You can blame the coaches for poor QB recruiting which is a legitimate gripe for Holtz and Taggart but until we can stretch the field with a decent passing game we are going to suck.  Taggart missed with Chase Litton and Holtz did not recruit one decent QB his entire tenure that is why we are in this situation.  Nick Saban could not win with our QB's either.  Hopefully AW is as good as his recruiting ranking and we get some more QB talent on our roster this year.  We are going to win 9 games with Taggart and AW next year - mark it down.  

[hbryan]

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one, hb. Every teammate & every coach I've ever had looked at ME when I screwed up. Heck, even I wanted to hit me.

 

Fair enough.

[Gismo]

 

 

There were about 3-4 just BAD play calls today, and I hang that on CWT. There were others, though, that were really promising so I want to give him time to mature with the offense that works for USF. Guy's a great recruiter and really works these kids hard to succeed. Our execution, IMO, is far worse than our coaching right now so I really hope Harlan doesn't cave and let Taggart go.

Coaches impact execution too. Poor execution is a sign of bad coaching.

 

 

What coach do we blame for Rodney Adams dropping a touchdown pass that was perfectly thrown and hit him in the hands?

 

 

Lack of reps or low quality reps in practice lead to bad execution in the game. 

 

Pop Warner receivers make that catch. 

 

We've seen lots of drops under Taggart. Lots of drops last season. And these are easy catches to make. I'm convinced the quality of practice reps is low. Receivers aren't getting proper reps in practice. QB is not getting proper reps making passes either. This would explain why our QBs and receivers show no improvement or development. 

 

There is more to coaching than the X's and O's. 

 

Much research has been done on the subject of skill development, and the number and quality of repetitions is a huge factor. This is where I think Taggart is not doing a good job since the in game execution is piss poor. 

 

If our receivers are not having so many drops we win a few more games, we can pass, we can score 30 instead of 20 points a game. 

 

This team cannot pass and catch, and hasn't been able to since Taggart arrived. He got a pass for the bad QBs the last two years. But now with Flowers and Bench, I believe they are both serviceable QBs. I'm not making any more excuses for Taggart. 

Edited September 20, 2015 by Gismo

[raptorcj]

^ plausible, but do we know that's what's happening in practice? I mean, last year wasn't Bench tweeting how often he was out there late throwing passes with the WRs? I dunno, I guess it's possible but I just think most of it is mental, like they can't let themselves make those big plays or something.