Here's our problem as diehard Bulls fans

[BULLS2002]

Finally, I will say this, college football - in the end - is entertainment.  We all have other things we could choose to do on Saturdays in the fall, but we are fans of the sport and of our team because we have fun being entertained by them.  We, in turn, support them by buying tickets, donating money, grabbing up jerseys, and more.  But, in the end, we spend our money to be entertained.  A team that puts people away and wins big is more entertaning than a team that can't seem to fight it's way out of a paper bag.  Yes, I am very glad we have won these games... but they have not been as entertaining as the UTM game.

If you were not "entertained" by the UCiF & KU games then I don't know what to say, especially the KU game, where the game's first mistake won the game. There is no excuse for the FIU game other than the staff and players not coaching and playing USF football. However, for my money I'd rather have a hard fought game that we win than a yawner against an over matched opponent  that is over by the first quarter. For me its all about the quality of football on the field. That is difference between the SEC and BE.  Did you think yesterdays LSU-Auburn game was not entertaining?

We agree that USF-FIU was NOT entertaining b/c there is nothing entertaining about watching poor football. That was not the case against UCiF and KU....not in a million years!

IMO, the problem lies with the coaches telling the players to treat this game as BigEast contest....or even worse....A Freakin' "SuperBowl"....... yet the coaching staff rolls out a junior varsity playbook. Grothe had plenty of time to throw downfield in the beginning of the game yet nothing was called for TJ, Love, Mitchell etc... Coaches need to walk the walk, and that starts st the top!

Kansas was a great game. A classic in my book for USF football. Such a fun and entertaining game. Come to think of it, all of the games have been fun so far this year. We are 4-0. College Football is a fickle sport that even some of the best teams in the country can lose significantly to the most unsuspecting team (ie Michigan- App state). That is why, in my opinion, a win is a win. Our record shows that we are the #13 team in the country and I am more than proud.

I just love the close games, being at those games and standing and screaming for almost the entire fourth quarter cannot be beat, and it probably won't happen when we are blowing a team out 70-3. Those games can be interesting but the close ones that come down to the wire and the better team (USF!) walks away with the win...that is the game I want to be at.

[Guest]

Finally, I will say this, college football - in the end - is entertainment.  We all have other things we could choose to do on Saturdays in the fall, but we are fans of the sport and of our team because we have fun being entertained by them.  We, in turn, support them by buying tickets, donating money, grabbing up jerseys, and more.  But, in the end, we spend our money to be entertained.  A team that puts people away and wins big is more entertaning than a team that can't seem to fight it's way out of a paper bag.  Yes, I am very glad we have won these games... but they have not been as entertaining as the UTM game.

If you were not "entertained" by the UCiF & KU games then I don't know what to say, especially the KU game, where the game's first mistake won the game. There is no excuse for the FIU game other than the staff and players not coaching and playing USF football. However, for my money I'd rather have a hard fought game that we win than a yawner against an over matched opponent  that is over by the first quarter. For me its all about the quality of football on the field. That is difference between the SEC and BE.  Did you think yesterdays LSU-Auburn game was not entertaining?

We agree that USF-FIU was NOT entertaining b/c there is nothing entertaining about watching poor football. That was not the case against UCiF and KU....not in a million years!

IMO, the problem lies with the coaches telling the players to treat this game as BigEast contest....or even worse....A Freakin' "SuperBowl"....... yet the coaching staff rolls out a junior varsity playbook. Grothe had plenty of time to throw downfield in the beginning of the game yet nothing was called for TJ, Love, Mitchell etc... Coaches need to walk the walk, and that starts st the top!

UCF and KU were far more entertaining than FIU... but Tennessee Martin was by far the most entertaining game of the year.  Defense shut the other team out. Our offense moved like a knife through butter.  Good stuff.  I don't expect that every game, but UCF and FIU were clearly inferior teams -- we should have won both of those games in the first half.

To me, USF has played a lot of poor football this year.  With the exception of most of UTM and a little more than 1 quarter of KU...

[Guest]

... Our record shows that we are the #13 team in the country...

Minnesota is also 4-0... and they are #42 in the country.

What is the difference?

[Sunil]

... Our record shows that we are the #13 team in the country...

Minnesota is also 4-0... and they are #42 in the country.

What is the difference?

Exactly...Jim is absolutely correct. I'm glad we're ranked...but if we truly are #13 in the nation...nothing I've seen so far makes me think that ONLY 12 teams could beat us on a neutral field.

[Orlando Bull]

... Our record shows that we are the #13 team in the country...

Minnesota is also 4-0... and they are #42 in the country.

What is the difference?

That Minnesota vs Kansas game was a real thriller too.  :

[BULLS2002]

... Our record shows that we are the #13 team in the country...

Minnesota is also 4-0... and they are #42 in the country.

What is the difference?

The difference:

USF Schedule

UTM- not a ranked team, and we beat them 56-7

UCF- close game, again not ranked but this was their superbowl. They wanted this so much more than USF did. We still beat them, on the road.

Kansas- close game, but against the #13 team in the country in a high stakes game with national attention

FIU- close game, CJL admits that there are issues, but still. We won. Away at a new stadium that they seemingly played their hearts out when we were in autopilot.

Synopsis of our schedule: not tough as some SEC schedules, but with Kansas in the mix so early in the season, I think this has been a great 4 games, that five years ago we would have all given anything for this type of start.

Minnesota schedule

Northern illinois- not ranked, close game

Bowling Green- away game against an unranked team and a decisive victory

Montana State- not ranked, close game

FAU- as we know, this is a scrappy team and can't be taken lightly, but still unranked and not of the caliber of a Kansas, Auburn, WVU, etc.

Synopsis of their schedule: weak

Being 4-0 is great, and many other teams can do it as seen around the league, but there does come a time when you have to play quality teams and it is those games when the players step up the distance great schools from mediocre schools. USF has consistently distanced themselves from schools with "tradition" and "mystique" and they are being rewarded in the rankings. We are the #13 team in the country and I think that we could probably beat any team outside of the top 5 (there are some issues that as witnessed by the Oregon game, we need to work on different playing styles, but I still think we would be competitive even against the top 5) on any given 'Saturday.' I would love to see USF play Florida as I think it would be a competitive game down to the last tick of the clock...and to me that is great football.

[usfgrad84]

My take is a little different.  Sometimes around here I think the problem as diehard fans is some of us, the fans ourselves.  Every team, regardless of how good or tradition laden they are will have weeks they win, but don't blow the opponents they are supposed to away.  

It is really idiotic for any fan, of any team in any sport to live and die and judge a team by every play on every single snap.  Being in the chat room during the game last night really drove this home to me last night.  Every time we ran a play and only got 3 yards people were going off on how horrible the play calling was and predictable it was.  We gave up only about 120 yards on defense until the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game, but every time they completed a pass, even for a couple of yards people were going crazy about how our defense sucked.  

I chalk it up to some fans "with a little bit of knowledge being dangerous".  

This is college football.  No team is going to hold the opponents to no yardage for an entire game.  We are not going to score a TD on every drive.  

I think in a lot of cases we have an immature ( in a lot of ways) fan base.  Ohio State has played poorly in a couple of games already this year.  They were only winning 14-10 midway through the 4th vs Troy last night.  #5 Mizzou was only beating Buffalo 27-21 midway through the 3rd.  Wake wins 12-3 vs a horrible FSU offensive team.  It happens every week.  

From what I saw yesterday the game plan looked simply to be to play good enough to win.  We dominated the game for more than 50 minutes.  The game was never in jeopardy.  The game was never in doubt.  FIU had a lead, never had the ball on drive that could have lead to a tie (UCF did not either).  FIU had a whopping total of 123 yards against our starting offense.  The last drive was against our 2nd team when the game was pretty much over.  

Better stats and blouts are fun to watch and it would have been nice last night, but for whatever reason we clearly were not running our usual offense, I am not sure we were even running any blitzes on defense.  Why worry about every single play on every drive and then say we suck?

[BJ]

My take is a little different.  Sometimes around here I think the problem as diehard fans is some of us, the fans ourselves.  Every team, regardless of how good or tradition laden they are will have weeks they win, but don't blow the opponents they are supposed to away. 

It is really idiotic for any fan, of any team in any sport to live and die and judge a team by every play on every single snap.  Being in the chat room during the game last night really drove this home to me last night.  Every time we ran a play and only got 3 yards people were going off on how horrible the play calling was and predictable it was.  We gave up only about 120 yards on defense until the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game, but every time they completed a pass, even for a couple of yards people were going crazy about how our defense sucked. 

I chalk it up to some fans "with a little bit of knowledge being dangerous". 

This is college football.  No team is going to hold the opponents to no yardage for an entire game.  We are not going to score a TD on every drive. 

I think in a lot of cases we have an immature ( in a lot of ways) fan base.  Ohio State has played poorly in a couple of games already this year.  They were only winning 14-10 midway through the 4th vs Troy last night.  #5 Mizzou was only beating Buffalo 27-21 midway through the 3rd.  Wake wins 12-3 vs a horrible FSU offensive team.  It happens every week. 

From what I saw yesterday the game plan looked simply to be to play good enough to win.  We dominated the game for more than 50 minutes.  The game was never in jeopardy.  The game was never in doubt.  FIU had a lead, never had the ball on drive that could have lead to a tie (UCF did not either).  FIU had a whopping total of 123 yards against our starting offense.  The last drive was against our 2nd team when the game was pretty much over. 

Better stats and blouts are fun to watch and it would have been nice last night, but for whatever reason we clearly were not running our usual offense, I am not sure we were even running any blitzes on defense.  Why worry about every single play on every drive and then say we suck?

If UCF " never had the ball on drive that could have lead to a tie", how exactly did they...you know...tie us and go to OT?  Never in doubt  :

[Orlando Bull]

My take is a little different.  Sometimes around here I think the problem as diehard fans is some of us, the fans ourselves.  Every team, regardless of how good or tradition laden they are will have weeks they win, but don't blow the opponents they are supposed to away.  

It is really idiotic for any fan, of any team in any sport to live and die and judge a team by every play on every single snap.  Being in the chat room during the game last night really drove this home to me last night.  Every time we ran a play and only got 3 yards people were going off on how horrible the play calling was and predictable it was.  We gave up only about 120 yards on defense until the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game, but every time they completed a pass, even for a couple of yards people were going crazy about how our defense sucked.  

I chalk it up to some fans "with a little bit of knowledge being dangerous".  

This is college football.  No team is going to hold the opponents to no yardage for an entire game.  We are not going to score a TD on every drive.  

I think in a lot of cases we have an immature ( in a lot of ways) fan base.  Ohio State has played poorly in a couple of games already this year.  They were only winning 14-10 midway through the 4th vs Troy last night.  #5 Mizzou was only beating Buffalo 27-21 midway through the 3rd.  Wake wins 12-3 vs a horrible FSU offensive team.  It happens every week.  

From what I saw yesterday the game plan looked simply to be to play good enough to win.  We dominated the game for more than 50 minutes.  The game was never in jeopardy.  The game was never in doubt.  FIU had a lead, never had the ball on drive that could have lead to a tie (UCF did not either).  FIU had a whopping total of 123 yards against our starting offense.  The last drive was against our 2nd team when the game was pretty much over.  

Better stats and blouts are fun to watch and it would have been nice last night, but for whatever reason we clearly were not running our usual offense, I am not sure we were even running any blitzes on defense.  Why worry about every single play on every drive and then say we suck?

Excellent post.

If you don't mind me adding...

You mentioned some close games by other programs; Mizzou and OSU. In the past few games, the 3rd quarter is where we really take off. Well, in the third quarter last night, we had a player go down hard. NO ONE could be expected to be fully there when someone they love like a brother is being air lifted to the hospital, thinking the worst I am sure.

So, we didn't get in a rhythm late in the game. At that point, my guess is that both players and coaches just wanted to finish the game, and find out some news about Brouce.

Just a couple of thoughts.

[usfgrad84]

My take is a little different.  Sometimes around here I think the problem as diehard fans is some of us, the fans ourselves.  Every team, regardless of how good or tradition laden they are will have weeks they win, but don't blow the opponents they are supposed to away. 

It is really idiotic for any fan, of any team in any sport to live and die and judge a team by every play on every single snap.  Being in the chat room during the game last night really drove this home to me last night.  Every time we ran a play and only got 3 yards people were going off on how horrible the play calling was and predictable it was.  We gave up only about 120 yards on defense until the last 4 or 5 minutes of the game, but every time they completed a pass, even for a couple of yards people were going crazy about how our defense sucked. 

I chalk it up to some fans "with a little bit of knowledge being dangerous". 

This is college football.  No team is going to hold the opponents to no yardage for an entire game.  We are not going to score a TD on every drive. 

I think in a lot of cases we have an immature ( in a lot of ways) fan base.  Ohio State has played poorly in a couple of games already this year.  They were only winning 14-10 midway through the 4th vs Troy last night.  #5 Mizzou was only beating Buffalo 27-21 midway through the 3rd.  Wake wins 12-3 vs a horrible FSU offensive team.  It happens every week. 

From what I saw yesterday the game plan looked simply to be to play good enough to win.  We dominated the game for more than 50 minutes.  The game was never in jeopardy.  The game was never in doubt.  FIU had a lead, never had the ball on drive that could have lead to a tie (UCF did not either).  FIU had a whopping total of 123 yards against our starting deffense.  The last drive was against our 2nd team when the game was pretty much over. 

Better stats and blouts are fun to watch and it would have been nice last night, but for whatever reason we clearly were not running our usual offense, I am not sure we were even running any blitzes on defense.  Why worry about every single play on every drive and then say we suck?

If UCF " never had the ball on drive that could have lead to a tie", how exactly did they...you know...tie us and go to OT?  Never in doubt  :

UCF was never in a position to take the lead.  I didn't finish typing my statement in parentheses properly. 

The point of the post is it's stupid for fans to live and die on every single play.  A lot of people have unrealistic expectations of what occurs during the game.  We were expected to win.  We did.  Time to move on.