USF Season Prediction

[Gobulls90]

12 minutes ago, FazaUSF said:

Not to be a doomsayer, but 4-8 is my honest prediction, with wins only over SC St, SMU, UConn, and ECU. BYU beat some decent teams last year including a few P5, rallied to win a bowl game, and hit their stride with their 3rd year coaching staff. Temple beat us last year. Neither is looking at a significant drop-off. I think we start 0-2 then gain a little steam with 3 cupcakes in a row, but BYU smacks us and Navy continues the skid. At that point, the locker room is likely lost similar to the back half of this past year. We will overcome ECU because they are pathetic, and individual talents alone will carry us past them. The later season games will likely look just like 2018's collapse; some losses won't even be close. CKB may be able to improve the offense enough to overcome Navy, who is rebuilding, and possibly but doubtfully Memphis and Temple. But CKB improvements won't be enough to overcome the weaknesses of CCS & CBJM, and teams are still going to run up the score on our hapless defense while CCS still won't have learned to keep the foot on the gas - he will still manage the game with a "avoid the loss" mindset and can't step on a throat. 7-5 is likely a best-case scenario, at least salvaging a bowl game. The coaching staff utterly lost the locker room last year during the 0-6 slide, and the fragile optimism to start this year won't take many beats before giving way altogether. 

[George_Bullnard_Shaw]

58 minutes ago, FazaUSF said:

Not to be a doomsayer, but 4-8 is my honest prediction, with wins only over SC St, SMU, UConn, and ECU. BYU beat some decent teams last year including a few P5, rallied to win a bowl game, and hit their stride with their 3rd year coaching staff. Temple beat us last year. Neither is looking at a significant drop-off. I think we start 0-2 then gain a little steam with 3 cupcakes in a row, but BYU smacks us and Navy continues the skid. At that point, the locker room is likely lost similar to the back half of this past year. We will overcome ECU because they are pathetic, and individual talents alone will carry us past them. The later season games will likely look just like 2018's collapse; some losses won't even be close. CKB may be able to improve the offense enough to overcome Navy, who is rebuilding, and possibly but doubtfully Memphis and Temple. But CKB improvements won't be enough to overcome the weaknesses of CCS & CBJM, and teams are still going to run up the score on our hapless defense while CCS still won't have learned to keep the foot on the gas - he will still manage the game with a "avoid the loss" mindset and can't step on a throat. 7-5 is likely a best-case scenario, at least salvaging a bowl game. The coaching staff utterly lost the locker room last year during the 0-6 slide, and the fragile optimism to start this year won't take many beats before giving way altogether. 

I feel better about myself now!

[FazaUSF]

Well, unfortunately, I can point to posts I made last year after the first several games with my assessment that our record was a result of cupcake opponents and predicted that we would likely lose most if not all games in the back half.... but I love the Bulls too much to avoid hoping I'm wrong about this year.

[FazaUSF]

I got nothin but hate last year when I kept pointing out all the warning signs and red flags that the team was far worse than believed by all the green n gold glasses-wearers (and bullieve me, I wear em too), and each game I'd point it out and catch heat... Hope I'm wrong this year... 

[SilverBull]

1 hour ago, FazaUSF said:

Well, unfortunately, I can point to posts I made last year after the first several games with my assessment that our record was a result of cupcake opponents and predicted that we would likely lose most if not all games in the back half.... but I love the Bulls too much to avoid hoping I'm wrong about this year.

it's a lot easier to assess after you have seen a sampling.  After the Illinois game last year I projected we would win our first seven and then lose the rest.  For this year, of course, we have nothing to go on yet, with a host of new players, coaches and all new offense to boot.   If I were basing it off of past performance, I would project 5 wins.  That said, I will have to draw solace from The Gumball Rally first rule of Italian driving: What is behind me is not important.

 

 

[puc86]

1 hour ago, FazaUSF said:

I got nothin but hate last year when I kept pointing out all the warning signs and red flags that the team was far worse than believed by all the green n gold glasses-wearers (and bullieve me, I wear em too), and each game I'd point it out and catch heat... Hope I'm wrong this year... 

Did you get a bunch of hate or did people want to enjoy the 7 wins instead of lamenting every week about how there was losses on the horizon? Was 10 months of complaining about the 6 losses not enough and we all needed to bemoan the losses that had not happened to that point instead of enjoying the 7 wins we had and probably had gotten lucky to have gotten? When is it okay to enjoy wins? After you go undefeated ? When the majority of fans don't see losses on the horizon? 

[usfgrad84]

I will go with 7-5. Offense should be better. Until I see some improvement on defense I have little confidence on that side of the ball. We should be bigger so hopefully better tackling?  My biggest concern with the defensive coaching staff is how they manage the game in important situations. I guess that goes for overall game management too. 

I also hope our special teams can be competent. Outside of Horne’s game against GT this unit has been less than average. That may even be stretching it. Can we find a kickoff guy that can put it past the 15 on a consistent basis. 

Still too many question marks to allow a prediction of better than 7-5.

 

[NewEnglandBull]

4 hours ago, FazaUSF said:

Not to be a doomsayer, but 4-8 is my honest prediction, with wins only over SC St, SMU, UConn, and ECU. BYU beat some decent teams last year including a few P5, rallied to win a bowl game, and hit their stride with their 3rd year coaching staff. Temple beat us last year. Neither is looking at a significant drop-off. I think we start 0-2 then gain a little steam with 3 cupcakes in a row, but BYU smacks us and Navy continues the skid. At that point, the locker room is likely lost similar to the back half of this past year. We will overcome ECU because they are pathetic, and individual talents alone will carry us past them. The later season games will likely look just like 2018's collapse; some losses won't even be close. CKB may be able to improve the offense enough to overcome Navy, who is rebuilding, and possibly but doubtfully Memphis and Temple. But CKB improvements won't be enough to overcome the weaknesses of CCS & CBJM, and teams are still going to run up the score on our hapless defense while CCS still won't have learned to keep the foot on the gas - he will still manage the game with a "avoid the loss" mindset and can't step on a throat. 7-5 is likely a best-case scenario, at least salvaging a bowl game. The coaching staff utterly lost the locker room last year during the 0-6 slide, and the fragile optimism to start this year won't take many beats before giving way altogether. 

Sounds pretty doomsday to me. Navy is trending down as they are getting hit with long term life in a conference. Temple has never won in Tampa (as we have never won in Philly). Unlikely we lose to Tech as you can’t go from option to pro-set vey well in two games. Thus, your 7 wins is more likely. 

Edit: I am still not sold that we lose to Memphis either. 

Edited August 23, 2019 by NewEnglandBull

[Triple B]

4 hours ago, FazaUSF said:

I got nothin but hate last year when I kept pointing out all the warning signs and red flags that the team was far worse than believed by all the green n gold glasses-wearers (and bullieve me, I wear em too), and each game I'd point it out and catch heat... Hope I'm wrong this year... 

You definitely weren't a voice in the wilderness about that last year, though .... had plenty of company .... but Puc pretty much nailed why y'all primarily got the reaction you got.

[Triple B]

2 hours ago, puc86 said:

Did you get a bunch of hate or did people want to enjoy the 7 wins instead of lamenting every week about how there was losses on the horizon? Was 10 months of complaining about the 6 losses not enough and we all needed to bemoan the losses that had not happened to that point instead of enjoying the 7 wins we had and probably had gotten lucky to have gotten? When is it okay to enjoy wins? After you go undefeated ? When the majority of fans don't see losses on the horizon? 

This is basically it. Most watching those 7 wins realized we weren't running the table and were incredibly fortunate to have that early run but also didn't foresee shooting blanks the rest of the year, either. Bottom line with what we lost, basically the heart and soul on both sides of the ball, a .500 record shouldn't have been that much of a shock before the season began ...... it was the way it played out that psychologically bruising.