FireRodSmith.com

[Kyle]

You know, if Ean would have caught that ball on the drive at the end this thread wouldnt be here. I'm not blaming Ean, i think we use him too much...but if any number of chips fall our way, we win this one. Our Defense has been soft all year...quite disappointing.

[Guest Ari_Hinkelberger]

Rod Smith is the problem.??

Totally clueless comment.

Our problems are :  The defense is not very good.  We must have given up atelast five 3 and 8's.  Ben Moffit is very very slow.  He must have gotten toasted 5 times by the tightend.   He is not a very good cove LB.....which makes him not a very good linebacker.

We can't run the ball at all.  For some reason we pass block well but can't run it at all.  

Another problem.  Our cover corners stink.  Jenkins is not very good -- and we don't put any pressure on the QB -- which exposes are weak corners more.

Positives:  Matt Grothe could be one of the best QB's in the country in a few years.  The guy has total guts and toughness.  A few of those throws -- where he stood in the pocket -- is just stupendous.

[BullsFanInTX]

Jenkins is pretty good our cover corners do not stink.  But when we're not getting any qb pressure you can't expect dbs to stick with the receivers forever.  Thier qb had all day long to throw.  But if Ean had hung on to pass it would have all been moot.

[USFPDiddy]

Gotta agree with Terry, Shoop.  How many times did Matt have to pull it down and run because no receivers were open (or he didn't see them)?

No pressure on the QB = no turnovers = no time of possession.  Bad penalties like Bleakley's (I think it was him) blatant chop block caused good calls to go bad.

I'd love to hang Rod out to dry again, but he's not been half bad.  Let's not forget Voodoo 1 last week against UCF.  He's been very remiss to pull the crap out of the playbook on a whim this year, because he's got a QB who can execute.

I'll give the man time.

How much football did you guys play?  When I was in practice, the OC did a hell of a lot more than just call plays.  I know some posters on this board have legitly played for USF.  This being the case, perhaps you can enlighten us.

Whoever is responsible for mass offensive penalties, needs a serious look at being canned.

Whoever is responsible for poor execution of the offensive players, be it in blocking, audibles, or blown assignments over an extended period of time also needs a look at being canned.

In my high school system, this was almost always the OC, along with individual position coaches.  Nevertheless, the bulk of criticism, play adaption, and so forth in practice originated from Rod's position.  If it's different in college, then and only then will I lay off Rod.

Rod hasn't CALLED many bad games this year, but let's not forget offensive execution is most likely on him as well.  Our offense has been pretty subpar, scoring 21, 24, and 10 points vs 1-a defenses that for the most part have NOT looked up to snuff themselves.  That was ok back in the wishbone days, but then again so were a lot of things.

There has been ONE constant since ROD SMITH has been our OC:  Our offense has NEVER, EVER been good/great.  It's always something, and if you fish around on here you can always find someone finding him excuses somehow.

[USFPDiddy]

Percentage wise, I believe a running play in that situation is the correct call.  The defense was probably three deep with the linebackers dropping back into coverage as well.  Unfortunately, we don't have a good running play or a decent running back, so I'm sure Matt was the best option.  Just didn't execute on the blocking, and the defense did a good job of sniffing it out.

Regarding Bleakley's block:  I thought a chop block is where a defender is engaged with another blocker and a different blocker comes in and chops the defender's legs out from under him.  I thought that was a clean block.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm fairly certain that you can not block below the waist unless you're in the box (of course, lots of things go on in there...).  Doing so in space gets called a lot.  That block was to the outside.

[Guest Ari_Hinkelberger]

The offense had like 350 yards total..

That is more then we had in 3 games last year.

Rod Smith has improved 10 fold.

For some reason we can't seem to put together a complete game.  Offense struggles - defense is good.

defense struggles -- offensse is good.

I think Ricky Ponton smoking the pipe is just KILLING US!

[Herman_Momart]

Ari I agree Rod Smith is not the problem but the board collectively thinks he is so they can all bash him with no complaints.   Our QB, not offense,  looked good besides not being able to put it in the endzone, al due to chronic and 0 running game.  Ponton comes back we should improve but I think our run game is so out of wack it may take some time , even when he gets back.  Rutgers should not even defend the run, we have no threat to run right now.  

Im sick of the penalties are coaches fault too.  Is it rod smiths faulth bleakley was tired and didnt feeling like blocking so he chop blocks someone.  Or that our O lineman cant run block so they all hold.  

On defense we got away with a few pass intereferences int he 1st half as well.  Jenkins couldnt cover me., Verpale is non-existent, Moffit is slow, St Louis had an off game, the whole d-line (whoever they are) get no pressure on the qb.   Not good going into some tough competeion coming up.  

[USFMikeB]

This loss wasn't Rod Smith's fault.  Period.  However, at the same time, I still advocate replacing him with a REAL offensive coordinator.  We are only going to go so far with him in that spot.  We need someone creative, rather than calling the same plays over and over again in the same situations which leads to predictability for the opposing defense to key on.

[Guest Ari_Hinkelberger]

Offense has had something in the ball park of 350 yards total O -

Smith did a great job if you ask me.  I haven't seen us move the ball like that in 5 years.

We need some pressure on the QB and a middle linebacker.

[smazza]

Time to bring it back.

The pass to Amp Hill called back by a penalty wasnt the biggest play of the game. The play called afterwards, was.

On your own 20 yd line, middle of the 4th, down 6, 2nd and 24....straight QB draw.

Yes it was only one play, but 3rd and 23 resulted in a punt, and we're trying to play catch up with the clock for the rest of the game.

How many times must this man step in the bucket before something is done?

that is vintage smith/leavitt

if you fire dsmith you have to fire leavitt because leavitt hired smith and endorses the calls

nothing will change

the 4 plays inside 10 on first drive should tell you all you need to know that smith/leavitt are in over there head

any coach knows you always take points on the road

now because of clock changes it is important to take lead when you can

usf coaches are terrible

and guys like mikeg want leavitt to be our coach forever.laughable

people that know the gaME CAN SEE USF FOOTBALL is grossly underachieving

matt grothe can be a superstar but he cant do it alone

joe montan wouldnt have done any better yesterday