name the one change you would like

[I Bleed Awesomeness]

The only change that is necessary is to develop consistent mental discipline.

The coaching staff needs to find a way to motivate the players to focus on the game - and on their role in the game.  We have the talent to win if we can show up ready for play and minimize mistakes.

This all starts in the off season - winter conditioning, spring drills, summer workouts, training camp... if our coaches players can approach all of these with the same intensity of game preparation, then USF can beat anyone anywhere.

No one is perfect.  Players will have lapses here and there.

But like Yogi Berra said... it's 90% mental, and the other half is physical.

youve hit it right on the head.  theres absolutely no point in talking about "we need an i-formation, or we need to do these types of plays".  while that may be true in some capacity, everyone knows its not gonna happen unless we make a BIG change in our offensive coaching staff....so its a moot point.  our players need to play consistently week after after week.  this motivation soley comes from proper coaching.  im so sick of this whole "not knowing which usf team is gonna show up" thing.

[Rocky Style]

I Formation is not part of a spread offense...  you might see it on a 3rd and short or goal-line situation, but you won't see it during the normal offense.

Yeah I realize that's not the scheme we are running but I would love to see them pound it with an RB and then do some play action.

[BDYZR]

I don't want to start this discussion again, but if we change OC's again this year, we'll see very few new plays next.

Having thrown that two cents worth out there... LINEMEN - any upgrade will be better for the entire team.

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

I disagree BigBully I think we have the playmakers I just don’t think we utilize them. 

I think our biggest thing is we need to find an identity of offense.  Our we are spread team, it seems as this year we tried to do more power game, but used no fullback.  What is our IDENTITY on offense?  I think that is key.  If we are a spread lets do some stuff like Oregon and Wake Forest.  Let’s motion a lot more.  Do a lot more screens reverses, throwback, and for the love of God let’s get Grothe out of the pocket.  I loved Oregan’s game plan coming into the game.  They set their QB up for success.  We don't give Matt the opportunity to be that successful.  We rely too much on him.  Let’s make it a little easier on him to make plays.

 

i agree 100% that we don't effectively utilize the impact players we have.  that gets back into playcalling. 

perfect example-- which u touched on-- is Grothe.  he's NOT a pocket passer and likely never will be, but too often the playcalling is designed to keep him in the pocket, and when he inevitably rolls out it's complete improvisation on a broken play .  more designed roll-outs would make Grothe more effective.

but who are the other playmakers?  TJ is talented. Carlton, Jesse and Bogan are the future.  Ford and Taylor show promise in the backfield. 

unfortunately, none of them are so good that we can essentially run the same 6 or 7 plays all game, telegraph our plays to defenses all year, and STILL execute effectively or efficiently enough to win the game.  Grothe, as good as he is, is not quite Pat White or Tim Teabag that can rack up 100 on the ground week by week and win the game by himself consistently if the need be.  Mike Ford is not J. Stew or Ray Rice [yet], where u can give him 30+ carries and he will punish the defense all game, regardless of whether they know the run is coming or not.

so i dont think u really DO disagree with what i'm saying.  we both acknowledge that our players need better, more personally tailored playcalling to make full use of their talent and potential.  the plays we do run have not worked the way they should to compete for a league title or a BCS bowl.  TRUE superstar playmakers can make reasonable playcalling work, and don't need as many personally tailored plays to get them going... i don't think we're there yet, and the coaches/OC should recognize that and call plays accordingly.

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

I Formation is not part of a spread offense...  you might see it on a 3rd and short or goal-line situation, but you won't see it during the normal offense.

well we SHOULD see it during the normal course of the game... that is what this thread is about, CHANGES we'd like to see.

it is bad coaching and a recipe for disaster to say "we are a spread offense, we won't incorporate any alternative formations."

i'm not saying replace the spread with all Grothe-under-center formations, but traditional run formations like the I are severely under utilized.

take West Virginia, for example.  they run the spread as well as any team in the country.  but they WILL line up in the I and punch u in the teeth with Shmitt, or run a play action out of the formation and hit a TE or one of the backs (Slaton/Shmitt/Devine) for a big gain.

spread should be the foundation with a mobile QB like Grothe, but there is no rule and no justification for practically omitting other formations from the playbook.

[Bull Dozer]

I Formation is not part of a spread offense...  you might see it on a 3rd and short or goal-line situation, but you won't see it during the normal offense.

well we SHOULD see it during the normal course of the game... that is what this thread is about, CHANGES we'd like to see.

it is bad coaching and a recipe for disaster to say "we are a spread offense, we won't incorporate any alternative formations."

i'm not saying replace the spread with all Grothe-under-center formations, but traditional run formations like the I are severely under utilized.

take West Virginia, for example.  they run the spread as well as any team in the country.  but they WILL line up in the I and punch u in the teeth with Shmitt, or run a play action out of the formation and hit a TE or one of the backs (Slaton/Shmitt/Devine) for a big gain.

spread should be the foundation with a mobile QB like Grothe, but there is no rule and no justification for practically omitting other formations from the playbook.

His last two posts are spot on.  Hopefully Gregory implements some changes in the off season and expands the playbook and opens up his play calling.  I feel like if we don't change anything going into next year we will have a very disappointing season as we may have to lean on the offense early while the new starters on defense get their feet wet.  Grothe and the whole coaching staff have a lot of work to do this off season.   

[Bullshark]

A big fat run stuffing DT!

Just what I was thinking. More beef on the D-Line.

This is really the only area for an immediate need for improvement and it is so important.  Take the Rutgers game and the Sun Bowl, if we held both rushers to under 100 yards and they had to lean on their passing games, we would have had more interceptions, not to mention our defense not being so tired from long oposing team drives.  We lost by 3 to RU, you take away their running us over or even if Rice only has 100 yards, (and the refs don't f*** up a call on a td) we not only win that game, but probably win decisively. 

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

youve hit it right on the head.  theres absolutely no point in talking about "we need an i-formation, or we need to do these types of plays".  while that may be true in some capacity, everyone knows its not gonna happen unless we make a BIG change in our offensive coaching staff....so its a moot point.  our players need to play consistently week after after week.  this motivation soley comes from proper coaching.  im so sick of this whole "not knowing which usf team is gonna show up" thing.

there absolutely IS a reason to talk about "we need more plays."

our offense was impotent against Oregon SPECIFICALLY because we offered absolutely NOTHING they hadn't seen. we knew (or should have known) the size of their line, the ins-and-outs of their defense, and compensated with better play calling.  instead, we did the same thing we've done all season and got shut down by a better prepared team that looked at our formation and new exactly what we were running when we ran it.

look, the ONLY thing we as fans can do is demand accountability... and when fans at the games are ******** about the predictability of our playcalling, and there are several threads a week on a highly trafficked fan forum like this one, SOMEONE needs to get the message. we can't waste the talent and potential we have now waiting for the coaching staff to pull its head out of its collective ass.

and it may not have occurred to some people, but INSTITUTING NEW PLAYS AND WRINKLES IN THE OFFENSE COULD PROVE TO BE AN EFFECTIVE MOTIVATIONAL TOOL TO KEEP OUR PLAYERS FOCUSED ON THE GAME.

give the players something to work on, something to learn.  keep them involved in the process. gifted people-- as D1A BCS conference football players are-- need something to keep them interested.

i dont know about anybody else, but when i work jobs where its the same **** day in and day out, over and over again monotonously, i get complacent, bored and my mind starts to wander.

keep the guys into it with new plays, so instead of daydreaming about sombreros and mariachi bands in El Paso, they'll be focused on learning, practicing and perfecting that new play Gregory is instituting.

[Bull Dozer]

A big fat run stuffing DT!

Just what I was thinking. More beef on the D-Line.

This is really the only area for an immediate need for improvement and it is so important.  Take the Rutgers game and the Sun Bowl, if we held both rushers to under 100 yards and they had to lean on their passing games, we would have had more interceptions, not to mention our defense not being so tired from long oposing team drives.  We lost by 3 to RU, you take away their running us over or even if Rice only has 100 yards, (and the refs don't f*** up a call on a td) we not only win that game, but probably win decisively. 

One player wouldn't have made that much of a difference in the Sun Bowl, the whole front 7 was getting dominated and the secondary wasn't very sharp either.  Yes a DT that demands a double team every play would help immensely but nothing short of a completely revising the the whole approach the players and staff took when preparing for that game would have made a difference. 

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

A big fat run stuffing DT!

Just what I was thinking. More beef on the D-Line.

This is really the only area for an immediate need for improvement and it is so important.  Take the Rutgers game and the Sun Bowl, if we held both rushers to under 100 yards and they had to lean on their passing games, we would have had more interceptions, not to mention our defense not being so tired from long oposing team drives.  We lost by 3 to RU, you take away their running us over or even if Rice only has 100 yards, (and the refs don't f*** up a call on a td) we not only win that game, but probably win decisively. 

One player wouldn't have made that much of a difference in the Sun Bowl, the whole front 7 was getting dominated and the secondary wasn't very sharp either.   Yes a DT that demands a double team every play would help immensely but nothing short of a completely revising the the whole approach the players and staff took when preparing for that game would have made a difference.   

remember also that we played a lot of nickel in El Paso.

replacing Brouce or another LB with a DB against a team with a 5'11, 230 lb. power runner like J. Stew was as bad a judgment call as any in that game.

our defense is undersized as it is.  taking linebackers out gave J.Stew ample opportunity to bull doze (no pun intended) right over our D.