Does anyone want to defend Gregory?

[Rocky Style]

i guess losing to Cincinnati by 5 at home got it thru his head, so he took a chance and opened up some I-form, some 2TE, some 3 back sets at lowly Cuse...

Gregory's problem, on the micro AND macro level, is that he utterly fails to adjust.

in game situations, he repeatedly attempted plays that had already been blown up several times, failing to adjust to the Defense.

then as the season progressed, he failed to upgrade the playbook as a whole and throw enough wrinkles at opponents to keep them on their toes.

if u think Gregory's performance in the Sun Bowl is a testament to his "good" offensive coordinating abilities, u are smoking rocks. 

our entire offense in the first half were the 138 penalty yards gifted from Oregon, not good playcalling by Greg Gregory.

88 rushing yards

4-14 on 3rd downs

4 Interceptions

that's the sign of an inept offense that failed to prepare and failed to adjust.

You make a good case.  Especially on the failing to adjust.  I thought we finally broke down and decided to do something different after that Cinci loss but we saved the worst for last I guess.

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

one more interesting stat:

21 pts = 2 TDs + 2 pt conversion + 2 FGs.

TWO touchdowns is not enough offense to top Oregon, with or without Dixon.

[bullwark]

My disgust with Gregory comes from the fact USF did not install anything different on offense to keep Oregon's defense off balance.  It appeared to me that we ran our base offense without game planning against Oregon's defense. 

[usfgrad84]

The only comments I would make on the OC after this game and a few other games is that there are some things that the OC can do to put the QB in a position to make plays.  He failed to do that.  In contrast, the Oregon OC knew what kind of defense we had and the situation he was facing with a RS freshman QB.  He rolled him out, ran misdirection plays, put the TE or H back into motion on obvious passing plays and he ended up having 2 additional blockers for protection.

When the run wasn't working for us, why not run a few quick hit bubble screens?  Why not a few play action fakes to Ford?  We ran a nice roll out pass to Ced Hill that went for about 20 yards.  Why not go back to that?  We started to use Aston Samuels a little bit as a receiver on some short/quick hitters/  What happened to that?  Ford hasn't run effectively to left all year.  Mostly his effective runs were to the right.  Why no runs for Ford to the right before giving up on the run?  At least keep establsihing the run.  Worst case is that you can run some fakes and create some passing room over the middle.  Ford was real nasty on the one run he had for the first down.  He had no room to run and dragged a few guys with him then he pushed the defender off him at the end.  Keep giving him the ball.  Gotta love the attitude on that play.

One other thing that started bothering me a little bit throughout the year.  Why can't we find a few set receivers and make them go to guys?  On Grothe's INT for the TD I believe the pass was thrown to Denson.  Sorry, but as good as an athlete as he is, he isn't a receiver.  Why is he in there in that situation in a bowl game.  I'm not sure it would have made a difference, but I wasn't comfortable with him in there in that game.  Why is Okolie, who hasn't caught a pass all year and not seen the field much all year being thrown to in a close game?  In the middle of a Bowl game is not the time to be giving players experience time.  I did not understand that at all.

Oregon was awesome on D, but just like in the Rutgers game, I felt that the OC did nothing to help the offense along.

[Bullpride08]

Gregory had a good year as a coordinator, even in losses against Uconn, Cinci, and RU he outgained every opponent except RU...injuries, and player mistakes led more to those losses then Gregory.  Look at the stats, by the numbers this is USF's best offense from a yardage, points, and balanced standpoint then any year in 1-A...That is undeniable.

With that being said, Oregon had 32 days to prepare for us and they completely scrapped their offense installed an odd flex-bone style of veer attack that was loaded with mid-direction reverses, counters, read-options.  Our players didn't know what way was up by the third quarter or who had the ball half the time...Moffitt and Burnham have been quoted as saying this...even the announcers were marveling how our pursuit was going one way and the ball the other.  We had 37 days off and I didn't really see one meaningful wrinkle in our offense.  In fact it looked more conservative then it did in the last 7-8 games of the year.  Oregon was clearly well schooled in what we were doing and once they were jumping our plays with over-pursuit and putting 10 in the box...instead of getting creative and running a bunch of mis-direction, maybe one of those option tosses to Aston Samuels like we did against Syracuse.  No the easy answer was 'well let's just drop back Grothe and see if he can solve things'...Watching that game again I can't tell you how badly we would have killed them with an end around WR pass, like Amarri Jackson hitting Taurus...Smith was good for one of those about once every 2-3 games and we didn't run one all year I believe under Gregory.  That would have gone for BIG yardage on MOnday.  They were so over-pursuing and singled up on the outside.  We could have hit it.

I defended Gregory this year, but there really wasn't a reason to 'defend' the man when he had the 30th best offense in the nation coming into this game, one of the most balanced attacks in the entire nation, and USF's most prolific offense EVER!!!!  But this game he did not do himself any favors.  I expect a bit more on offense when you've got 37 days to prepare, 32 knowing your opponent.  We should have seen more adjustments, changes, and wrinkles then what we saw. 

The entire team played like they just showed up to collect a trophy- coaches included.

[Bullpride08]

The only comments I would make on the OC after this game and a few other games is that there are some things that the OC can do to put the QB in a position to make plays.  He failed to do that.  In contrast, the Oregon OC knew what kind of defense we had and the situation he was facing with a RS freshman QB.  He rolled him out, ran misdirection plays, put the TE or H back into motion on obvious passing plays and he ended up having 2 additional blockers for protection.

When the run wasn't working for us, why not run a few quick hit bubble screens?  Why not a few play action fakes to Ford?  We ran a nice roll out pass to Ced Hill that went for about 20 yards.  Why not go back to that?  We started to use Aston Samuels a little bit as a receiver on some short/quick hitters/  What happened to that?  Ford hasn't run effectively to left all year.  Mostly his effective runs were to the right.  Why no runs for Ford to the right before giving up on the run?  At least keep establsihing the run.  Worst case is that you can run some fakes and create some passing room over the middle.  Ford was real nasty on the one run he had for the first down.  He had no room to run and dragged a few guys with him then he pushed the defender off him at the end.  Keep giving him the ball.  Gotta love the attitude on that play.

One other thing that started bothering me a little bit throughout the year.  Why can't we find a few set receivers and make them go to guys?  On Grothe's INT for the TD I believe the pass was thrown to Denson.  Sorry, but as good as an athlete as he is, he isn't a receiver.  Why is he in there in that situation in a bowl game.  I'm not sure it would have made a difference, but I wasn't comfortable with him in there in that game.  Why is Okolie, who hasn't caught a pass all year and not seen the field much all year being thrown to in a close game?  In the middle of a Bowl game is not the time to be giving players experience time.  I did not understand that at all.

Oregon was awesome on D, but just like in the Rutgers game, I felt that the OC did nothing to help the offense along.

84, Oregon's staff did a whale of a job running that offense against us.  I kept thinking in my head that they put this thing together in just 30 or so days, and it fit their players and QB to perfection.  I also kept thinking it would work so beautifully with our personnel and speed.  We had as much or more speed on offense then frickin Oregon with Mitchell, Taurus, Samuels, but why is our offense not showcasing it enough.  The other thing that has hurt us all year is Matt's inability to hit the deep ball all year, I thought he was better at it as a freshman.  He had Carlton Mitchell so wide open it was sick to start the game and missed him, threw it painfully short...then a drive or two later he under throws him again, and a third time he had Taurus blowing by the corners and he just outright misses him.  I am a big Matt Grothe fan but if we're going to use our speed and stretch the offense then he needs to hit those plays, otherwise the staff needs to tinker more on the offense to get more ball controlled, mis-direction movement like Oregon on Monday or WVU, so our big play isn't exclusively comprised of a deep post route that our QB cannot hit efficiently.

I thought we abandon the run way to early too, but we also didn't have any imagination in it and clearly Oregon had our offense read like a short novel...but we didn't add any new wrinkles, looks, or formations to confuse them despite having 37 days to prepare.  Here's the thing, you can run the same plays just out of different formations so it confuses Oregon and they have to slow their pursuit and read and react.  I swear it was either Ford next to Grothe in the shotgun, he moves to the otherside then gets the counter for the read option.  Oregon's DE was instructed not to dive down and they just engulfed the pocket and forced Matt to read hand-off each time...then we'd be in the I-Formation, and had it to Ford. 

gregory had a very good year overall but this was not his finest hour, or the entire staff's.  He needs to remember this because if we get better then our bowl lay-offs will be longer 31-40 days, and the bowls will mean more, and thus the opponent will be gunning for you.  We're not talented enough where we can't be going into bowl games with 37 days to prepare and not out-thinking and out-smarting our opponent.  Oregon's staff clearly has learned that importance and taught it to us on Monday.

[SRQ]

give oregon and their staff their due; they out coached us.

if we learn from it, its worth it.

this year presented CJL with numerous situations in which he has never been a head coach.

i'd hate to be in oregon's position because now they know that if dixon doesn't get hurt, they're in nat'l champ game.

dixon's gone, maybe stewart

usf's future is brighter than our past still.

[Bullpride08]

give oregon and their staff their due; they out coached us.

if we learn from it, its worth it.

this year presented CJL with numerous situations in which he has never been a head coach.

i'd hate to be in oregon's position because now they know that if dixon doesn't get hurt, they're in nat'l champ game.

dixon's gone, maybe stewart

usf's future is brighter than our past still.

well put SRQ...Bellotti is not new at this, before he arrived 14 years ago Oregon had been to 11 bowl games in 76 years I believe.  Since then I think he's been to 11-or-12 in 14 years including an abysmal first year.  Leavitt was out-coached, more so the entire staff.  Oregon looked at this game as important and a springboard into 2008.  They actually seemed to give everyone the precursor look into their offense of 2008 with this new QB.  Lots of misdirection, and excellent timed roll outs, bootleg pass options...tons of controlled stuff with lots of great mis-direction that should make them ultra-competitive in 2008 too.  We looked like we were going through the motions in a 2007 practice.

These bigger bowls mean something to these bigger programs.  Oregon took this as an opportunity to prove they were not all Dennis Dixon, to prepare themselves and develop an offense for the future with their new QB's, and springboard themselves to 2008.  They did it all and used their bowl preparation time VERY WISELY!

[usfgrad84]

With this performance I think Gregory put himself in a diffiicult situation to begin next year.  He  was really showing some good things and marked improvement since the end of the Rutgers game (with the exception of 1 or 2 series vs UCONN).  Now if he doesn't come out and put some 2006 Louisville numbers up early next year against Tenn-Martin, FIU, UCF and NC State, he is going to have people getting all over him.  It may not bother him personally, but when the time comes for rankings, there may still be a lot questions about our credibillity on offense.  I'm not so worried about our defense for next year because we have a good track record over a long perioed of time.  On offense we came into the year with a lot of questions, started the year with a lot of questions, had a few good games statistically, but then finished up with even more questions.  I think we have a lot of weapons, I was starting to think we knew how to use them.  I honestly don't know if we do right now. 

[usfgrad84]

give oregon and their staff their due; they out coached us.

if we learn from it, its worth it.

this year presented CJL with numerous situations in which he has never been a head coach.

i'd hate to be in oregon's position because now they know that if dixon doesn't get hurt, they're in nat'l champ game.

dixon's gone, maybe stewart

usf's future is brighter than our past still.

well put SRQ...Bellotti is not new at this, before he arrived 14 years ago Oregon had been to 11 bowl games in 76 years I believe.  Since then I think he's been to 11-or-12 in 14 years including an abysmal first year.  Leavitt was out-coached, more so the entire staff.  Oregon looked at this game as important and a springboard into 2008.  They actually seemed to give everyone the precursor look into their offense of 2008 with this new QB.  Lots of misdirection, and excellent timed roll outs, bootleg pass options...tons of controlled stuff with lots of great mis-direction that should make them ultra-competitive in 2008 too.  We looked like we were going through the motions in a 2007 practice.

These bigger bowls mean something to these bigger programs.  Oregon took this as an opportunity to prove they were not all Dennis Dixon, to prepare themselves and develop an offense for the future with their new QB's, and springboard themselves to 2008.  They did it all and used their bowl preparation time VERY WISELY!

I strongly believe in the old adage that you need to learn how to win.  I think we saw this earlier in the year when we rose to number 2 and played with the targets on our back and we saw it in this game.  Playing as number 2 or playing in a pretty bowl game against a legitimate BCS Champonship caliber team (missing their Heisman QB or not) with something to prove such as setting themselves up for a BCS run next year or a Rose bowl berth next year is a big difference from playing Auburn the second week of the year.  Almost like the playoffs.  Oregon had the ability to take things to another level and sure did.  I think this is a big and important lesson for this team and especially the coaches to learn and will prove valuable next year if we come down to the wire in the BE race.