(Glass half Full Thread) Why I feel USF Football will win 8-10 games in 2021

[SilverBull]

Wow! What is in that Gatorade?  But I love the enthusiasm.

[Gatorbull325]

1 hour ago, CousinRicky said:

That is a pretty diverse group. Did you grow up in South Florida with NY parents?

My parents are from Haiti, but I was born in Columbus, Ohio. Right after I was born, my parents moved to New Orleans. They got a divorce and my mother took us to NY and my dad moved to Miami. I lived in NY for 3 years and then moved to Miami where I spent most of my childhood through my late 20s. I also went to UF for college. So yea, I kind of been all over and most of the teams I follow stem from a stop in my life. 

[Buller64]

18 hours ago, Gatorbull325 said:

Hello all,

I am bored, tired of talking about the Big 12 and we are officially 1 week away from fall camp. I am known for keeping my green and gold goggles on so I shall break down why I feel we will win 8-10 games this year. I am sharing my views and will not go back and 4th on my opinion nor do I want to make any bets. If you feel we will have a bad year, feel free to express yourself and all power to you. If you have your goggles on, go ahead and say why. We can circle back to this thread after our awesome 2021 season. Go Bulls!!!

Coaching staff: CJS has replaced 40 players and added new staff. I feel that Cam Aiken (RB), Bobby Bentley (WR & Passing Game Coordinator), Ernie Sims (LB), and AJ Artis (Strength & Conditioning) are awesome additions. Our biggest weakness last year was conditioning. I'm going to give an ex-SEC S&C coach the benefit of the doubt. 

Offense:

1. QB - I’m good with Fortin, Williams, March, or McClain. They all shined at the spring game. 
2. RB - We have 7 running backs and 4 of them weigh 200Ibs or more. The other 3 have speed. 
3. O-line - This will be the most improved position. CJC and Jarren Williams both mentioned being impressed with the O-line in their most recent interviews. I stand by having 2-4 future NFL players on this line. They will provide much more time for the passing game and make some holes for our Running game.
4. TE - We are deep.
5. WR - Unproven but deep and have a lot of speed. 
6. Conclusion - Our offense is going to EXPLODE this year. We will be back to scoring at least 30 pts per game.

Defense: I am banking on Glenn Spencer working the same magic he did at FAU. FAU had the 92nd ranked defense and in 2018, after his first year in 2019, they were the 40th ranked defense. I will write off his first year here as getting to know the players and restrictions from the pandemic. The players were out of shape and had no formal camp. This year he knows what he is working with and had a full spring and fall camp. We were 122nd ranked total defense last year. I feel if we get our total rankings in the “60s” we should be OK. Hell, if USF can get the total defense ranked in the low 70s, that should be good enough with the offense we have. 

Conditioning: This defensive line is pretty old. At this point, they should be at their “college physical peak” due to their ages. If Pickney and Kegler can get their strength up we should be ok. Besides Thad Magnum, our defenses weren’t strong enough to overcome their size. S&C coach Trumain Carroll left the team in pretty good shape right before he left for KSU. A.J Artis came in from Tennessee and should have this Defensive line “physically” ready. 
Transfers:  Xander Yarborough and Jamari Stewart should be able to get us more sacks. I would still like another DT or DE transfer, but if these are the only 2 transfers we have to work with, I am good with them both. Jamari Stewart is a bit skinny, but I’m banking on him gaining some weight this off season. 

Below is my pre-fall camp depth chart....this is pretty much what we are working with this year: 

I copied this from ourlads.com

 

Offense	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7
QB	Fortin, Cade RS JR/TR	Williams, Jarren RS SO/TR	Marsh, Katravis SO	McClain, Timmy FR
RB	Joiner, Kelley JR	Battie, Brian SO	Felix, Darrian RS SR/TR (200Ibs)	Mangham, Jaren JR/TR (200Ibs)	Parker, Leonard RS SO (200Ibs)	Hamilton, Mychael SO (200Ibs)	Young, Yasias SO
TE	Brinkman, Mitchell GR/TR	Carter, Chris RS JR	Nance, Thomas RS SO	Greenwald, Gunnar FR	Willis, Holden SO	Akepeu, Flaubert RS SO
WR-X	Weaver, Xavier JR	Terry, Yusuf RS FR/TR	Brown, Sincere SO	Reynolds, Garret SO
WR-Y	Miller, Bryce RS SR/TR	Dollison, Omarion SO	Horn Jr., Jimmy FR	Atkins, Sean RS SO	Helms, Christian RS SO
WR-Z	Williams, Latrell RS SR/TR	Berryhill, Logan RS SO	Tshivuadi, Nickolas FR	Cucci, Michael SO
O-Line	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7
LT	Jennings, Donovan SR	Blanchard, Joshua RS SO	Reyes, Cesar SO
LG	Harris, Demetris RS SR	Sainterling, Sebastian RS JR	Bikowski, Remy SO/TR
OC	Cecil, Brad SR	Hall, Dustyn RS SO	Manconi, Patrick SO
RG	Wiggs, Michael GR	Greene, Uriah SO	McDuffie, Matthew RS SO
RT	Jacobs, Demontrey RS SR/TR	Kilfoyl, Andrew FR	Hopple, Jarrett GR/TR
DEFENSE	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6	#7
DE	Xander Yarborough	Thaxton, Ryan RS SR/TR	Kirby, Stacy RS JR	Incoming Transfer	Grant, Darrien RS SR
NT	Pinkney, Kelvin GR	Green, Blake GR/TR	Kegler, Kevin GR
DT	Mangum, Thad, GR/TR	Yates, Rashawn SR	Incoming Transfer	TYRONE BARBER SR
LEO	Stewart, Jamari FR/TR	Vaughn, Jason JR	Logan, Tramel SO	LE'VONTAE CAMIEL
WLB	Boyles, Dwayne SR	Bellamy, Demaurez JR	Harris, Mac SO	Helton, Keyon RS JR	Nash, Jamal SO/TR	Hicks, Davon FR
MLB	Grier, Antonio SR	Mims, Andrew RS SR	Norris, Brian RS JR	Copeland, Randal RS JR	Gobler, Camp RS SO	Ross, CJ FR
CB	Evans, Daquan JR	Knox, Ben SO	Ervil, Lubens SO/TR	Nealy, Gabe FR	Purcell, Bailey SO
SS	Robinson, TJ RS SO/TR	Hill, Matthew RS SO/TR	Curry, Jayden RS SO	Smith, Jordan SL
FS	Jones II, Will RS FR/TR	Davis, Vincent SR	LaPointe, Mekhi RS SR	Gentry, Cody SR	Herring, Jalen FR
CB	Williams, Christian SO/TR	Stokes, Jaelen FR	Cromarty, Isaiah RS SR/TR	Green, Joshua SR/TR	STANLEY, DEQUAN FR
STAR	Townsel, Christopher SO	Nichols, Brock GR/TR	Turner, La'Javier SO
SPECIAL TEAMS	#1	#2
PT	Stokes, Andrew FR	Scribner, Kenny RS SO
PK	Shrader, Spencer JR	Sackett, Jared SR/TR
KO	Shrader, Spencer JR
LS	Bernard, Bryce SO	Deneen, Ian SR
H	Schneider, Trent GR/TR	Stokes, Andrew FR
PR	Atkins, Sean RS SO	Williams, Latrell RS SR/TR
KR	Dollison, Omarion SO	Terry, Yusuf RS FR/TR

USF had a number of problems last year that I don't think will be repeated this year. First, I think we will settle in on a quarterbac, probably Fortin (although he does seem injury prone). Williams (the most likely backup) did well with Miami until he got happy feet late in the season, so I'm hoping a couple more years of maturity eases that. Marsh wasn't ready but did show some talent. McClain is new so I don't expect him to contribute on the field this year. Running back was pretty good especially Battie who averaged over 7 yards per carry but like Fortin he seems injury prone. Once the WR position was changed later in the season (the original starters seemed like they were going through the motions for a while) the passing game greatly improved. OL was a mess at the beginning of the season due to COVID and injuries but it settled down later in the season. While the offense was up and down like a yoyo it did get better as the season wore on. 

Defense is a different story. The DL was just not good enough last year. It rarely got pressure on QBs and just couldn't seem to stop the running game. The DL play was poor enough  it made the rest of the defense look bad as well. I don't know how well the LBs can play since they were constantly having to deal with blockers that blew past the DL. The secondary was also poor but with no pressure on the QB the other teams offenses had a lot of time to pick and choose receivers. On the good side of the equation USF had players that choose not to play last year on defense (due to COVID, which included 2 starters from 2019). Add in the injuries and other COVID issues and USF was playing with a pieced together defense by the end of the season. Remember COVID had such an effect on the defense that we had to cancel the Navy game because we didn't have enough players to field a defense. 

Add in that USF played very well against Memphis, Temple, UCF, and Cincinnati. The Memphis and Temple games were very winnable while turnovers were the story for UCF (two fumbles that led to 2 UCF TDs) and Cincinnati (three interceptions, 2 inside our 30). This indicates to me that USF has a better team than most are thinking. Is it enough to challenge for the east? No, but I think the team will not be at the bottom of the league and will probably win 4 - 6 games.

[NewEnglandBull]

38 days…

[Rocky Style]

11 minutes ago, Buller64 said:

Add in that USF played very well against Memphis, Temple, UCF, and Cincinnati. The Memphis and Temple games were very winnable while turnovers were the story for UCF (two fumbles that led to 2 UCF TDs) and Cincinnati (three interceptions, 2 inside our 30). This indicates to me that USF has a better team than most are thinking. Is it enough to challenge for the east? No, but I think the team will not be at the bottom of the league and will probably win 4 - 6 games.

It is true that if they can clean up those issues, it would take a lot of points off the board.

[bulloni]

Would you rather beat UF and UCF and go 8-4 in some mid-tier bowl game, or go 10-2 with those being our only losses but we win the conference and go to a NY6 bowl?

[Brad]

Beat UF

[Rex Havoc]

Going 8-4 while beating UF and UCF

[Rocky Style]

39 minutes ago, bulloni said:

Would you rather beat UF and UCF and go 8-4 in some mid-tier bowl game, or go 10-2 with those being our only losses but we win the conference and go to a NY6 bowl?

That's easy.  Option 1.  I'll gladly go to whatever .com Nut bowl.  

[Gatorbull325]

1 hour ago, bulloni said:

Would you rather beat UF and UCF and go 8-4 in some mid-tier bowl game, or go 10-2 with those being our only losses but we win the conference and go to a NY6 bowl?

Beat UF and UCF!