This Team and Your Expectations

[Bullshiznitz]

Just as a reminder that we were a 9-2 team last year (regular season), who lost the following: 

3-year starter and  All Conference starting QB

Top 3 rushers, including all rushing TDs

Top WR

Top tackler and starting MLB

Top D-lineman

That's not including that our new starting QB has only been with the program for a few months and that we seem to be unlucky with the injury bug this season.  

All that, and this young team still has a possibility to match those 9 regular season wins - I'd consider that a pretty good rebuilding year.  I think we've been spoiled the last couple years since the core of that team was starting when they were freshman/sophomores and haven't witnessed a rebuilding team in a while.  Its definitely frustrating to watch at times, but new starters and freshman are going to make mistakes.  All things considered, no matter how heart-attack inducing some of our games have been, I'd call this season a fair success at this point (and likely the same by the end of the year). 

[Bull94]

38 minutes ago, Triple B said:

 

Have to remember you're dealing with folks who already have us penciled in for 3 more losses this year ...

Have you seen me say anything about firing Strong or his coaches? No I have not.

Did I say we aren't going to reach 9 or 10 wins this year? No I did not.

I only stated that if he thought Leavitt under achieved with 8 or 9 wins in the Big east then It's only fair to expect 9 or 10 wins in this conference with a weak OOC.

I wasn't a fan of the hire. Honestly I'm not impressed with how we have progressed. Same unimaginative play calling (especially in the red zone). Our defense hasn't shown any improvement throughout the year. Loads of penalties. We come out flat virtually every game. these are things that should get better as the season goes on but they don't seem to be.

Personally I couldn't care less about our record. I understand that college football is cyclical for most programs. I just want to see proof that we are getting better week to week.I'm not seeing it. Through 8 weeks (2/3 of season) we still play sloppy undisciplined football.

Honestly we looked better week one and week two than we do now.

 

Edited October 29, 2018 by Bull94

[Triple B]

4 hours ago, Bull94 said:

Personally I couldn't care less about our record. I understand that college football is cyclical for most programs. I just want to see proof that we are getting better week to week.I'm not seeing it. Through 8 weeks (2/3 of season) we still play sloppy undisciplined football.

LOL .... Riiiiight. The only reason you don't care about the record is because it is what it is. So if we were 1-7, with 7 straight close, improving losses and coming off a win, you'd be fine with CCS ... gimme a break. Like you said, you weren't a fan of the hire and your posts have illustrated that since day one so stop blowing smoke.

[mjadams]

7 hours ago, Triple B said:

LOL .... Riiiiight. The only reason you don't care about the record is because it is what it is. So if we were 1-7, with 7 straight close, improving losses and coming off a win, you'd be fine with CCS ... gimme a break. Like you said, you weren't a fan of the hire and your posts have illustrated that since day one so stop blowing smoke.

Boom!

[Bull94]

8 hours ago, Triple B said:

LOL .... Riiiiight. The only reason you don't care about the record is because it is what it is. So if we were 1-7, with 7 straight close, improving losses and coming off a win, you'd be fine with CCS ... gimme a break. Like you said, you weren't a fan of the hire and your posts have illustrated that since day one so stop blowing smoke.

Yeah I would be. If we were losing close games with young players against superior teams and getting better then yes I would feel fine. Leavitt had a young team with Trae Williams and Mike jenkins that absolutely stunk but you could tell they had talent and were improving. that's not the feeling I get with this team. We still play sloppy undisciplined football and it's week 9. We still come out unmotivated. We are barely beating the likes of UConn, Tulsa, etc.

I get the feeling I had when Holtz started to tank the program. First it was sloppy play with barely beating teams we should easily beat then it turned to close losses  then we flat out couldn't beat anybody.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Bull94

[Apis Bull]

16 minutes ago, Bull94 said:

Yeah I would be. If we were losing close games with young players against superior teams and getting better then yes I would feel fine.

I believe you're being disingenuous.

[Bull94]

2 hours ago, Apis Bull said:

I believe you're being disingenuous.

every program goes through their ups and downs. I get that college football is cyclical.

Look at my posts when Taggart was coach. I was supportive almost to a fault.

I knew what he had to go through to rebuild this program. We were awful for his first 2 years but it seemed he was stocking the roster with talent and he was learning from his mistakes(Power offense was absolutely stupid so he switched to gulf coast). Trust me I almost lost hope before the Syracuse game.

I get we are 7-1 but we have looked awful so far. Anybody that doesn't admit that is blind. We barely beat ECU Tulsa and looked like garbage against UConn. We commit the same mistakes over and over. We come out flat every week. Every week in Strong's press conference he says that we played poorly. Sloppy all the way around. We looked better in week one (Elon) and week two(GTech) then we do now.

Again if we were 1-7 and were losing close games to much better teams with a young rebuilt talented team then I would feel much better than the fact that we are coming off of a 11-2 record and barely beating the likes of ECU, Tulsa and UConn in the 2nd half of the season.

[WoolyBully]

I've gotten pretty good at managing expectations. I think I had us down as 9-3 at the beginning of the season (with losses to GT, UCF & Houston). So, GT didn't pan out, Houston is finito and UCF is on the horizon. S'pose we wind up 10-2. What then? Revel in a ten-win season (where a lot of schools would like to be) and settle in for an evening of Gasparilla  Bowl? Probably. I think our expectations are tempered by where we are conference wise (the proverbial dead horse) and the realization that USF would really have to have some phenomenal back to back seasons for expectations to elevate. Part of this, for me, comes from watching USF basketball since '92 and seeing USF football - for lack of a better term - plateau. 

Just like Dave, I'd like to see a conference championship before I die. I've probably got about another three decades - max - so I think that particular bar is set pretty low.   

 

 

[Bulls On Parade]

Lets see in these last few games some signs of improvement...less penalties and dumb mistakes. If we can win a few more games or so Id say pretty good season for rebuild year.  Next year I expect a serious push to win conference....this year at best I see is win the East if that.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Bulls On Parade

[Orlando Bull]

I think people severely underestimate how much of this team's success the last 3 years was completely on the back of Quinton Flowers. I see him get disrespected around here quite often, and, that's fair, he was perfect, but, he was a leader and a gamer. We won games because of him, and, I honestly can't think of a loss that was "because of him" say after the Cuse game when things turned around.

Without Flowers, we were terrible. He came in and turned things around, but, he's gone now and no one else can do what he could do. At least we're not terrible. The team learned how to win during that time. But, we're not good either. Each game this season, you see some talent, but, our trench play is holding us back. Everyone says this team is talented, but, people watch the ball too much. They don't see that holes aren't there for the RBs, the LBs are weak, and, getting gobbled up because the defensive line isn't doing their job. They don't see that Barnett is OK when he has time, but, panics a bit under pressure, and, he's under ALOT of pressure most of the time. I don't care who you have, if the lines break down, the team breaks down.

I am happy for the record we have because we could easily be 4-4 at this point. The team has done a lot to claw our way to 7 wins. Could the coaching be better? Sure. Is that our only problem? Probably not. If you're calling plays, handcuffed by a poor offensive line, do you think that would impact what you call? I'm not a Gilbert fan and hope that he gets a "better" job after this season, but, I don't think his calls are bad necessarily, I think he has the wrong offense for the team he's coaching. We're about speed and you have to utilize it. Our line isn't going to hold up most of the time, so, you have to plan for that. We're a full on spread-option team, not running that offense.

On defense, if you can't stop the run, you can't be very successful. We lost 2 DTs to the NFL. That is not easy to replace. I saw a note on one of those guys (I think Hector) where he had ZERO missed tackles in his last 2 years I think. If he got his arms around a guy, it was over. That is SPECIAL. Not just a guy to replace, that is a phenomenal talent.

We are in a crappy conference, thus, when we have those special talents (like Flowers, Mack, Hector, Senat), we usually do not have a backup that's even 80% as good. It's usually a huge dropoff to the next guy. But, as fans, we only see results and want to believe in our team and want to believe we're improving year in and year out, but, the reality is that until we find those next special players, we SHOULD be happy with where we are right now if it can be consistent. I am not saying that as a fan I AM happy with it, but, it's crazy to scoff at a 7-1 record having lost so much talent.