Reality of a DC change

[GaUSFBull]

A while back, TallyBull posted a Tweet where a USF fan asked CWT about a change at DC.  Taggart shot it down with a simple "nope," and shot it down again with "8-2" as the only response. 

At the time, I took that for supporting his guy in the moment and thought, surely they'll evaluate after the season and CWT will conclude a change needs to come at defensive playcaller. 

I'm pretty convinced now that Woodie is here to stay as long as CWT is with us, or until our offense is no longer good enough to win on its own.  We finished at 10-2 on the year, may possibly end up at 11-2, and ranked.  If you look at Woodie's past, you'll see he and Taggart go back a ways.  I think CWT keeps him and we will just have to see how 2017 plays out. 

Just my two cents based on how we have seen CWT operate over the last 4 seasons.  He's pretty loyal to his guys.  We need to face reality that the changes many of us are wanting to see may not be happening at the coaching level.

[The Great 8]

Through reading tea leaves, I suspect that Taggart thinks Woodie's defense has improved enough since the Temple loss to warrant another year. I'm inclined to agree.

Navy: Completely shut them down. They only got back in the game when backups were in. (We shouldn't have called off the dogs)

Memphis: Good offensive team that gave us fits. Gets a pass, IMO.

SMU: Under 30 == Victory for Woodie.

UCF: Completely shut down their run game. Half their aerial yards came on fluke plays.

Woodie isn't average and neither is his defense. I think with another year under his belt and a solid infusion of talent from redshirts / transfers / JUCO could yield much better results. It's too soon to fire him. 

Oh, and we'll have to pay $$$ to keep our offensive assistants / replace them when they leave, so hiring a new DC would be an undesirable wrinkle.

[GaUSFBull]

^^^good points

[BDYZR]

Get meaner somehow and I'll be satisfied. Way, way, WAY too many YACS and missed opportunities to inflict punishment on the ball carrier.

[LrdNorman]

Or at least man up on the receivers at the scrimmage line.  Playing way too far off the receiver and not hitting him off the snap...

[bullsbucsfan426]

The tackling clearly got better after the Temple loss, but the D still has work to do-I'm really not sold on Woodie yet-UCF won a ton of games with their defense this year, their offense was pretty much "throw it to Traequan Smith and hope for the best". They didn't have good players in the trenches, which is why we were able to harass their running attack and slow down their passing attack. 

That said, he has a bowl game to show some more, and assuming we face a good opponent and do a good job, I won't complain too much. The decision is out of my hands anyway. 

 

[GaUSFBull]

29 minutes ago, LrdNorman said:

Or at least man up on the receivers at the scrimmage line.  Playing way too far off the receiver and not hitting him off the snap...

We've never done this since the Burnham days, I believe.

[CousinRicky]

5 hours ago, The Great 8 said:

Through reading tea leaves, I suspect that Taggart thinks Woodie's defense has improved enough since the Temple loss to warrant another year. I'm inclined to agree.

Navy: Completely shut them down. They only got back in the game when backups were in. (We shouldn't have called off the dogs)

Memphis: Good offensive team that gave us fits. Gets a pass, IMO.

SMU: Under 30 == Victory for Woodie.

UCF: Completely shut down their run game. Half their aerial yards came on fluke plays.

Woodie isn't average and neither is his defense. I think with another year under his belt and a solid infusion of talent from redshirts / transfers / JUCO could yield much better results. It's too soon to fire him. 

Oh, and we'll have to pay $$$ to keep our offensive assistants / replace them when they leave, so hiring a new DC would be an undesirable wrinkle.

Navy: Completely shut them down. They only got back in the game when backups were in. (We shouldn't have called off the dogs) - We turned them over on downs on the 1st series, forced them to punt the next 2 times. After that, they scored twice, we got a pick and the half ran out. Forced them to punt 1st possession 2nd half and then 5 straight TDs https://admin.xosn.com/pdf9/5048417.pdf?SPSID=37332&SPID=2981&DB_OEM_ID=7700&  Check p6 for drives.

Memphis: Good offensive team that gave us fits. Gets a pass, IMO. - True but don't why they get a pass.

SMU: Under 30 == Victory for Woodie.  But gave up almost 600 yds IIRC

UCF: Completely shut down their run game. Half their aerial yards came on fluke plays. - They didn't have a 100 yd rusher all year. Shutting down their running game isn't a gold star on the refrigerator.  But at least their receiver didn't set a personal best against us.

 

[NewEnglandBull]

Please recruit Jucos then.

[JTrue]

6 hours ago, The Great 8 said:

Through reading tea leaves, I suspect that Taggart thinks Woodie's defense has improved enough since the Temple loss to warrant another year. I'm inclined to agree.

Navy: Completely shut them down. They only got back in the game when backups were in. (We shouldn't have called off the dogs)

Memphis: Good offensive team that gave us fits. Gets a pass, IMO.

SMU: Under 30 == Victory for Woodie.

UCF: Completely shut down their run game. Half their aerial yards came on fluke plays.

Woodie isn't average and neither is his defense. I think with another year under his belt and a solid infusion of talent from redshirts / transfers / JUCO could yield much better results. It's too soon to fire him. 

Oh, and we'll have to pay $$$ to keep our offensive assistants / replace them when they leave, so hiring a new DC would be an undesirable wrinkle.

So aside from the games our defense got completely annihilated and those in which our offense won a shootout, Woodie did a great job.