get ready for another long year

[bulls96go]

unless denson is real good or one of the freshmen is ready we are in deep crap.

or is our defense that improved?

this was my first spring game.

i wanted to see denson, toewe, searcy, verpaele and a few others but my main goal was to see if PJ had made significant progress. that is a firm negative.

strap in for a long painful year! if this is what we got

[Guest Naptownbull]

Unfortunately, I agree wholeheartedly with your analysis.  There's no point in trying to make our situation(current status of football team) look pretty, it's not.  In fact, it might get really ugly this Fall unless Denson proves to be our cinderella man.  

[lotsofbull99]

PJ is not the answer, if he's starting opening day I'll be very disappointed.

[bullzpen4636]

i doubt pj's starting next year, denson will prob. start, followed by grothe. if he is then i agree with you, we're screwed.

i was just glad to see more intensity out of the defense (which imo was as big of a problem as our qb play last year). i didn't see many missed tackles (although verpaele wiffed on hall early) jenkins played great and johnny jones is going to make a huge impact in terms of leadership. verpaele worries me. hopefully gene coleman can come in and contribute immediately we need some size in the mlb position. we're fine on the outside with nicholas and mompremier and our d-line looked good, with tim jones, but our o-line may struggle in the early going. j. julmiste and royal really stood out.

[NAM37]

I was there... it was yucky....

[Jim Johnson]

CJL was on Channel 8's sports report last night talking about the Spring game... he mentioned that they kept things "pretty vanilla" for this game.  Both on offense and defense.  They wanted to keep it simple for the guys that were playing...

I also go to see the game on Channel 47 again.

I would say that what we saw was probably LESS than they normally do during practice.

Here are my thoughts...

1) Our defense has the chance to be pretty darn good.  If the young guys can avoid the 'freshman' mistakes, we could return to the dominant D that USF has had.

2) Severino has come a long way.  Some of his throws to Peyton were outstanding.  He also didn't look as panicky as I would have thought.  He did throw interceptions and fumbled - that isn't good.  My guess is he could be a solid backup to whomever CJL starts.

3) PJ looked like PJ.  Throws that were wide, high, low -- anywhere but the numbers.

4) Ponton has the chance of being a BEAST - if he can hold on to the ball.  I would say that we have a solid running game with him and Andre Hall.

5) No more Grammaticas. Our kicking game looks like it might be a problem -- except for punter Brandon Baker - he was booming kicks.  The BrightHouse gang said that we have a solid freshman coming in that kicked several 50+ yard field goals in high school.  I hope so.

6) We still can't stop the penalties.  I don't know the actual numbers, but there seemed to be a lot of flags thrown that night.

All in all, I am not 100% sure that we are that bad off.  To be sure, we could go 3-8 as easily as we could go 8-3... but we have a solid team and a winning record would not be too much to expect.  

Especially when you factor in our opponents (FAMU, UCF, Syracuse, U Conn, Rutgers, and Cincy are all beatable on an average day).  On a good day we could hang with Louisville, Penn State, or West Virginia... Miami and Pitt might take a perfect game on our part... and that could be hard.

My prediction: 7-4 and a trip to USF's first bowl game: Continental Tire in Charlotte.

[goodknightfl]

I look at Your schedule.. think u will go 4-7.... at best.. I dont see U winning more than 3  of the 6 u  have listed.  I think the same of UCF we only go 4-7

[bullzpen4636]

let's not get carried away now, you still haven't proven you can win A game let alone four.  :

[Guest S.  Bien]

bullpen was right on.  It was the intensity and overall pursuit and hitting on defense that should get many people charged.

One thing many people must remember about last year is that although PJ looked bad at times he isn't what lost us many games.  He didn't win any games (well he did win TCU), and he didn't carry us, but the problem last year was defense.  

To put it bluntly our defense was so horrific last year, and so uncharacteristic of this staff that it lost us 2-3 games last year at a minimum.  Go back and watch the games, and read the stats- if we have a normal Leavitt defense, or even the defense that played in 03', playing last year this team would have beaten Army and USM handily, and probably one of Cinci, or Memphis.   Case closed, no doubt in my mind, OR THE COACHES MINDS FOR THAT MATTER.

Listen, I am not a PJ fan, but PJ wasn't the one that allowed Jones from Army to break two 65+ yard runs when we were up by 2 TD's late in the game.  PJ was weak against Memphis, but he didn't miss two FG's, and he wasn't on the defense that had one man quit before the game, and which generally gave up.  PJ didn't help against USM (although he played well that game), it was the defense that simply crumbled in the second half which killed us.  Remember Camon getting knocked down from one of his attempted tackles by hitting the player high as the player walked into the end zone- that happened often.

I would love to have an awesome QB again, but if we can just get back an old Leavitt defense like we were playing between 99-03 then this team can win 7 games on that schedule, like they should have done last year if we had a defense that wanted to play, had some experience and wouldn't give up.  The return of Johnny Jones, Tim Jones, and some other seasoned veterans who are TRUE leaders will help.  Now we must hope the leadership and drive takes hold among the youth.

One thing people should know that although everyone talks about inexperience and youth as the big problem with our defense last year the bigger problem was attitudes and the fact the senior leaders were not leaders at all (sans LRS Jr., but he's more of a silent leader).  In particular, Camon, Davis, Gipson, and Battle never helped the young guys, never played up to potential, and had attitude problems- Battle quit before the Pitt game, and Gipson almost did.    

It really comes down to defense for USF's success.  With our new found running game, if we have an old typical Leavitt defense, and the guys play up to potential then 6-7 wins and a bowl game are almost a given.  Having a great QB at the helm would move the winning potential into the 8-9 win category.  BUT, if the defense performs like last year then we'll struggle to get 3 wins, if they only improve slightly then we'll struggle to get 5 wins.

[BULLfreak]

PJ is not the answer, if he's starting opening day I'll be very disappointed.

If PJ starts I'll be more than disappointed I'll be heading up to the top of the Skyway............... Its not that far down is it?