One question: Are we going to have a better defense than last season?

[Flowers4Heisman]

Man, the defense has been iffy for so long now --years and years.

[lotsofbull99]

With out Auggie Sanchez, unlikely 

[NewEnglandBull]

I don’t think we go backwards though. We have one important ingredient to a consistently good D and that is Coach Strong. 

Edited August 6, 2018 by NewEnglandBull

[Gatorbull325]

We officially have the depth at defense we have been looking for. This defense will be lights out this year. The fact that so many defensive players left the team this summer, just lets you know that we have a lot of good new talent this year. We may finally get a few shut outs this year. Let us not forget about the new redshirt rule. You can play 4 games and still redshirt. We can go even deeper into our team for depth if needed. 

[bullsfan27]

At the bulls rally yesterday, Coach Strong did sound concerned about the defense mainly losing Auggie and just about the entire unit. He did say though that their is an opportunity for other guys to step up so hopefully they answer the challenge. I think the defense will be about the same as last year but what I want to see from the defense is the attitude they brought to the temple game applied to every game this year.

[BobbyBpchiefs]

I love the idea of putting more speed on the field (with McGee at LB) since so many teams we play run some version of the spread.

I am a little worried about Georgia Tech though. A team that's gonna line up and run it 90 times with that option. I'm hoping we're not too under sized and get it ran down our throat all game. Especially since that is our biggest OOC game this year, and at home...A poor showing in that game would drain a lot of hope and optimism from the rest of the season.

[Flowers4Heisman]

It's either attack with the front guys or blitz and stop people by being aggressive, or just cover people and stop their plays.

We have not attacked well. We did okay last year in certain games. But we've been too soft, I feel, for the last five years or so.

We need to be aggressive and then go from there. You can't just sit back and hope we have the talent to make plays defensively. That's like Smurf football or something, not USF Bulls football!

[NewEnglandBull]

1 hour ago, Bobby said:

I love the idea of putting more speed on the field (with McGee at LB) since so many teams we play run some version of the spread.

I am a little worried about Georgia Tech though. A team that's gonna line up and run it 90 times with that option. I'm hoping we're not too under sized and get it ran down our throat all game. Especially since that is our biggest OOC game this year, and at home...A poor showing in that game would drain a lot of hope and optimism from the rest of the season.

Good point. The team started practicing against the Tech option in the spring so they will know their assignments. I do think speed may be more important than size against the option as it is predicated on avoiding the first chop-block then staying in position. That being said, if they have bruising RBs then we may have problems as this program has always had a hard time stopping that type of back.

[Dave_Glaser]

Just now, NewEnglandBull said:

Good point. The team started practicing against the Tech option in the spring so they will know their assignments. I do think speed may be more important than size against the option as it is predicated on avoiding the first chop-block then staying in position. That being said, if they have bruising RBs then we may have problems as this program has always had a hard time stopping that type of back.

And it definitely wouldn't hurt if we were able to control the ball some with our offense vs. GT, run up some time of possession ourselves, and keep the defense from being on the field all day long. It's going to be a HOT one.

Edited August 6, 2018 by Dave_Glaser

[NewEnglandBull]

4 minutes ago, Dave_Glaser said:

And it definitely wouldn't hurt if we were able to control the ball some with our offense vs. GT, run up some time of possession ourselves, and keep the defense from being on the field all day long. It's going to be a HOT one.

This is an excellent point. We will need to be able to run the ball against Tech to have any chance. Hopefully the "dive right" "dive left" whiners on this board will understand this going into this game. This brings up the old issue for USF...depth. Hopefully we have some on the defense. I did see where the coaches are requiring most of the linemen be capable of playing two positions.