An Evolving Perception of Our FootBulls (Long)

[BullDoug]

A little while back I perused Athlon & Lindy's football preseason issues and made mention of it here.  Well, had to go to Knoxville on Monday & Tuesday and forgot my mini DVD player for the plane ride so I had to buy a mag.  I purchased Athlons.  After reading nearly all of the Top 50, BE, Old CUSA & Florida team previews, I have come to some opinions & perceptions about our FootBulls and FL football.

First of all, USF may be in the BE & BCS but the rest of the college football hierarchy believe FL college football is UF, FSU, UM and then the rest.  In Athlon's, the big 3 are ranked in the Top 13 and the rest go USF 99, FAU 109, UCF 115, & FIU 119.  Last season was detrimental to the Bulls image "as a growing contender in FL" for the rest of the country's slightly above avg.  knowledgeable football fan and less knowledgeables.  This is important to what recruits' opinions are of USF.

It is important for USF to win 6 games in 2005.  It's almost a MUST for our Bulls to have a winning team in 2005 to continue to garner respect among the CF experts as a team with "great potential" or our Bulls will get caught in a medicre recruiting "sess" pool.   It will take decades to overcome that situation & become a consistent Top 35 football team.

Recruiting wise USF is and has been recruiting at about the 3rd-4th place level in the BE for the past 2-3 seasons with the exception of missing out on a QB in 2002 & 2003.  This is where USF will place in conference play in the BE consistently plus or minus 2 spots depending on coaching if this trend continues.  Believe it or not recruiting must pick it up another notch for there to be a Florida Fantastic Four not just a Big 3 and for USF to contend for a BCS bowl.  IMO, that level revolves around the OL and DL.  USF needs nationally ranked big men recruits.

As for coaching, I believe our FootBulls are "uber" solid at HC and DC.  Beyond that, my concerns are OC is becoming a revolving door and retaining assistants.  Good long term assistants bring continuity to the football program and recruiting.  If HS coachs & recruits see a new USF coach every to every other yr.,  it makes it difficult to create a strong relationships with the HS's that have great tradition.  This used to be one of Nebraska's greatest strengths.  See what happened after two HC changes.

Now to our QB.  The Pat Julmiste project must be closed.  I watched the GnG game on channel 47 the other night.  Pat's arm accuracy is not D1A material.  He lacks any consistency.  Passing/spread Os cannot rely on 1 outa 5 passes being on the numbers with only 2-3 of those passes being remotely catchable.  If Courntey Denson is not the real deal, 95% as good as MB or better, Carlton Hill must be thrown in the fire immediately.  As long as he shows any signs of being able to throw a football, he's got to play to get this/our team back to where we want it.  Winning 7-9 games annually.

With a Hall & a Denson or Hill in the backfield, the O will be diverse enough to keep Ds on there heals just with thier running speed alone.  I would even like to see option type plays out of  power "I" formations for Hall.  I could see this giving PSU fits in the first game.  The FootBulls just need to find a 260lb FB.

Gawd, I can't wait for the season to start.  I just wanna see good competition.  Go Bulls!  Beat PSU.

[Apis Bull]

Good breakdown.  However, at QB you need to add Grothe to the mix.  I think in the long run he will be the better QB.

As far as PSU goes, I'm not sure we're going to be able to run on them.  I am sure that they will stack the box and dare us to beat them through the air.  At least, that's what I would do.  If we don't get decent QB play, there's no way we're going to be able to establish a running game.

[dabull80]

scbull, I don't think you are giving Andre enough credit.  After the third game last year everyone stacked the line trying to stop him and it rarely worked.  Now I know PSU has a great D but they may be suprised, at least I hope so.

[beastiebull]

A stacked box will stop the run from Qb and RB on a consistent basis.   You may break a couple of runs however with no passing game the run will eventually be stopped I don't care if Walter payton is back there.

f we're ahead or the game is close the run can be successful.  If we're behind by a couple TDs as we were many times last year, we've gotta be able to throw the ball DOWNFIELD, not 5-10 yard slants.  If a Qb and the D don't step up it will hurt us not only on the scoreboard but also in how we strategize throughout the game.

Until we start paying our assistant coaches expect a revolving door.  If they suck they'll get ousted and if they do well they'll be snapped up by another program  that pays it's assistants.

[Apis Bull]

scbull, I don't think you are giving Andre enough credit.  After the third game last year everyone stacked the line trying to stop him and it rarely worked.  Now I know PSU has a great D but they may be suprised, at least I hope so.

I hope you won't have to find out.  By that I mean, I hope we have a decent enough passing game that PSU won't be able to crowd the line.

[beastiebull]

I think we have the receivers this year.  Peyton and Green should be a great tandem and whoever else plays the slot should get a lot of looks if those guys are double covered.  

[Guest S.  Bien]

Bulldoug,

Great run-down.  However I disagree slightly about recruiting.  USF has probably been top 3 the past three years in recruiting.  Overall, I think USF has brought in more talent the past three years than anyone other than Louisville- remember attrition has hit WVU, and Pitt pretty hard despite their good name signees many never made it on campus.

One thing, USF signed those players over the past three years, but most of the other teams (with Uconn,  and Cinni as the other exceptions) in the BE have been signing those caliber athletes for years.  SO, whereas maybe we've outrecruited Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse the past three years, they did much, much better than us in the 4th 5th, and 6th years.  Those athletes are the leaders and senior examples which is why it will be tough to win more than 5 games this year.  Of course this doesn't speak highly of the current BE members recruiting abilities.

With that being said, our excellent recruiting the past three years will have a very positive effect in the not to distant future.  I expect by 06', and 07' (particularly with another great recruiting class this year) we should be consistently in the top 3 of the Big East.  I'll give you an example, Ronnie McCollough before his knee injury was clearly a better LB prospect, and overall athlete then Pitt's two top LB's- Clint Sessions, and H.B. Blades....I actually would say Ronnie and HB were about equal.  Funny, H.B. was predicted by someone to be the pre-season defensive player of the year for the BE, and Ronnie is fighting for second string.

That about says it all.

[FreaKnight]

Bulldoug,

Great run-down.  However I disagree slightly about recruiting.  USF has probably been top 3 the past three years in recruiting.  Overall, I think USF has brought in more talent the past three years than anyone other than Louisville- remember attrition has hit WVU, and Pitt pretty hard despite their good name signees many never made it on campus.

One thing, USF signed those players over the past three years, but most of the other teams (with Uconn,  and Cinni as the other exceptions) in the BE have been signing those caliber athletes for years.  SO, whereas maybe we've outrecruited Pitt, WVU, and Syracuse the past three years, they did much, much better than us in the 4th 5th, and 6th years.  Those athletes are the leaders and senior examples which is why it will be tough to win more than 5 games this year.  Of course this doesn't speak highly of the current BE members recruiting abilities.

With that being said, our excellent recruiting the past three years will have a very positive effect in the not to distant future.  I expect by 06', and 07' (particularly with another great recruiting class this year) we should be consistently in the top 3 of the Big East.  I'll give you an example, Ronnie McCollough before his knee injury was clearly a better LB prospect, and overall athlete then Pitt's two top LB's- Clint Sessions, and H.B. Blades....I actually would say Ronnie and HB were about equal.  Funny, H.B. was predicted by someone to be the pre-season defensive player of the year for the BE, and Ronnie is fighting for second string.

That about says it all.

Well, it could also mean that initial projections of Ronnie and H.B. were wrong, or that H.B. has just progressed further than Ronnie while in college.  Just playing Devil's advocate.  But both are good linebackers, no doubt.

As far as recruiting, I think USF is recruiting well enough to compete in the BE.  Which school is doing better than the other from a recruiting standpoint is so difficult to quantify.  Usually the best way to determine pure talent is NFL draft picks.  The NFL scouts do countless hours of homework and are objective (don't care what school they are from).  What teams actually win year in and year out brings in many other factors (in addition to talent-level of recruits) that are tough to measure (coaching schemes, coaches getting the RIGHT players for their systems, coaching turnover, injuries to key players, scheduling, etc...).

[bulls96go]

that will change in 5 years for the better i hope

[Knight_Dive]

The only way Andre Hall gets more than 50 yards against PSU is if its a complete blowout and PSU has their third team in.

I don't think you guys realize just how good that PSU defense is.