the smith hire says

[lotsofbull99]

the demise of the bulls will continue

it will get ugly

Yeah, If we don't see an improvement in offense this season then Leavitt needs to find a better cordinator or find another job.  Watching  this offense the last two years has been painful to say the least.

[USFPDiddy]

Two things--

1) Dungy

Dungy had no reason to change anything in Indy when it came to the offense. Why fix something that clearly was not broken? He has yet to be able to create a competent defense because the focus on the offense has created an imbalance. As for his offenses while Bucs HC--- there was one year where the Bucs set all kinds of offensive records-- a banner year with the exception of actual scoring offense (passing yards especially) under Les Steckel. Why Steckel was fired after that year made no sense whatsoever to me-- but that may have been the one time Dungy put his foot down in terms of power struggles-- and it made things worse.

2) Unknowns

We DON'T know if Smith is good in the booth

We DON'T know if Smith was totally to blame for Banks/Julmiste et al not "progressing". The QB coach is just ONE variable in that equation that is more heavily weighted on the talent and personality of the QB.

We DON'T know that this was done to help CJL put more control on the offense-- specifically-- why would this be wrong anyway? Ultimately, it is CJL who is directing this effort. He is the HEAD coach-- not the defensive coordinator (which he has two of by the way).

I would hope people would stop jumping to conclusions about what is going to happen. It's not even June yet -- the kids are out there BUSTING THE COLLECTIVE ASSES in the weight room trying to be the best team they can be. Get behind that effort and quit worrying about how CJL is handling his coaching staff. Otherwise, I see you as a cancer to this team -- someone who wants to micro-manage every GD detail to the point that you actually think you know more than CJL. You don't. Deal with that. Have an opinion-- but remember that your negative quips do nothing to help out our school. Isn't it bad enough that we have 8 skrillion people from other schools talking about how terrible or insignificant USF is already? Christ-- has some pride, maybe a little faith, and do your part-- be there for this team. That is not too much to ask. If you said some of the things you are saying directly to the coaches, they would kick you off the fan base or make you run the stadium stairs until you got your role back in focus.

And before some whiney ***** complains that I'm telling them they have every right to expect this or to be able to say that, reread this post and understand that as a fan, you too have a job. Good fans don't abandon the team -- ever.

And i wont ever abandon this team.  I like the points you make, perhaps smith is better with the clipboard than he is at personnel development.  CJL controlling the offense worries me because his background is defensive, although I suppose if he calls the right plays it wont matter.

This just upsets me thouroughly because there are many, many more deserving candidates that earned this position, but were left behind in favor of someone less qualified.  I dont care if you dont even want to blame smith for the QB failure.  A promotion usually comes as a result of something POSITIVE DONE.  No usf poster to my knowledge has given me something concrete smith did to earn the position.

No matter how you slice it, it's a bad hire.  Coaches getting promotions should have proven they deserve it, not leave fans wondering.  I hope it works out, but its still our worst FOOTBALL hire.

[Jim Johnson]

This just upsets me thouroughly because there are many, many more deserving candidates that earned this position, but were left behind in favor of someone less qualified.

Diddy... Smith may not be the right choice -- time will tell on that...

But this is a bold claim you are making.  Other than Coach Franks -- I dare you to name one of the "many, many more deserving candidates..."

[USFPDiddy]

Diddy... Smith may not be the right choice -- time will tell on that...

But this is a bold claim you are making.  Other than Coach Franks -- I dare you to name one of the "many, many more deserving candidates..."

I wasn't just talking about current USF staff.  I'm thinking of any highly successful OC at a smaller school, or any highly successful offensive coach that looks like he could be a good fit for us.

You're right, Franks is the only one that is actually IN the system that really deserves it more.

[Bull94]

Mike G,

There are plenty of unknowns. There are plenty of knowns as well.

1) Dungy was to stubborn to admit that he could not oversee an offense and this cost him his job in Tampa. He hired guys who would run an offense his way. If he had swallowed his pride and let an experienced offensive mind  direct the offense then Tampa would have been much more successful under him. Successful head coaches delegate authority and realize their strengths and weaknesses. I hope CJL is a great offensive mind but if he's not then I hope he is willing to swallow his pride and bring an experienced guy in to do the job. I think Smith was hired to run CJLs offense the way CJL wants him to.No questions asked.

2)Knowns

We know that Smith has exactly 1 year of  experience in running an offense and that was in 1997 at Franklin H.S. Hardly BCS college level experience.

We don't know if he was to blame for Banks/Julmiste not progressing but somebody needs to take responsibility. Why not the QB Coach in charge of developing talent? He had no other job.

Who was responsible for recruiting these guys? Leavitt? Hobbie? Smith? Didn't they have the foresight to realize it probably was a long shot to have a guy that threw 10 passes his senior year in high school run a spread offense successfully at the BCS college level? Sorry but responsibility for the QB failures start at the top(CJL).

I'm willing to bet that CJL didn't hire a guy with no college experience to run a BCS offense without having full oversight himself. It would be wrong for him to run the offense because CJL is a defensive guy. Before being at USF, the last offensive experince he had was probably playing in high school. He is not trained to think offensively. He should concentrate on the defensive side and let someone who knows what they are doing run the offense.

I'm behind the Bulls 100%. I continue to donate. I attend the games and cheer for our teams. Questioning what could be the most important hire in some time for our football team is not micro- managing every GD detail.

Let's hope CJL got it right.

[Jim Johnson]

I wasn't just talking about current USF staff.  I'm thinking of any highly successful OC at a smaller school, or any highly successful offensive coach that looks like he could be a good fit for us.

You're right, Franks is the only one that is actually IN the system that really deserves it more.

You still haven't named anyone that applied, was interested, was rumored, etc.

You simply assume that there were a bunch of OCs at 'smallers schools' who would be interested in USF...

[BULLheaded]

You still haven't named anyone that applied, was interested, was rumored, etc.

You simply assume that there were a bunch of OCs at 'smallers schools' who would be interested in USF...

I think it's a fair assumption that given a proper search there would be more qualified people interested and therefore passed over for the job. I doubt we ran much of a search just to end up with Smith and fail to see why particular names have to be given.....hence the word "search" applies.

[USFPDiddy]

You still haven't named anyone that applied, was interested, was rumored, etc.

You simply assume that there were a bunch of OCs at 'smallers schools' who would be interested in USF...

I don't think I need to.  And as the poster above said, its not necessary for getting my point across.

Dana Dimal WAS rumored, and I would have been VERY happy with him here.  He probably didn't want to come.  However, there are a lot of successful coaches and schools.  Smith just seems so unproven that I find it VERY had to believe that we couldn't hire a single person that would have been better.

[S p e n c e]

You still haven't named anyone that applied, was interested, was rumored, etc.

You simply assume that there were a bunch of OCs at 'smallers schools' who would be interested in USF...

I agree Jim, we dont know what went on behind the scenes, maybe we got stuck with Smith due to the timing of Hobbie leaving and Franks turning the job down.  But I still believe that if this was the case, Smith should have been named the interum OC and we could have conducted a search at the end of this coming season when there will be plenty of candidates to choose from.  There is never a shortage of coaching moves in the off-season.

Is there any word on the QB coaching position?  I am assuming Smith will not continue on as the QB coach, who will be taking over?

[Jim Johnson]

Diddy...

I would agree that you wouldn't need to name names... except you had this wild claim that there were "many, many" people that you feel would have been better than Smith.

So, according to you ... "many, many" = 1 person.

---

BULLHeaded... he said there were many, many people.  I disagree.  But if he is so sure there are many, many people - then a few names would not be too much to ask.

Since he could not name more than one person, there were obviously NOT many, many people.

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Oh, and it's tough to do a search for available people when most people are not available.  I don't recall ever hearing about a coaching change between Spring Ball and the Bowl Games, unless there was a scandal (Mike Price, George O'Leary, etc)... mostly because everyone is with a team right now and will stay there for the duration of the season.

Moreover, it's tough to answer a want ad that reads: Wanted experience offensive coordinator. Must be willing to run existing offense.

Dana Dimel may have been the first and last name on that list who was not on the current USF staff.