'Nole Your Enemy: Scouting South Florida's Defense

[windbane]

Oh, and as for the passing and rushing defense stats, they use better measurements than the NCAA does for those.  Rushing yards allowed per game is useless if your schedule is easy, so they use sites that have calculated more useful stats.  You can read their links on that.

78th is more accurate considering the games we nearly gave away or did give away due to our secondary play last year, although much of that can be contributed to the lack of sacks.

[Matt]

bottom line is....both teams put on helmets on 9.26 and the field is still 100 yards.

auburn realized that we dont let logo's win games.

should be interesting.  but fsu still has a VERY GOOD program.  our fans are a little crazy if they think FSU isnt a great team.  they would be the front runner in the big east THIS YEAR if they were in the big east.

[windbane]

we've been better than FSU some of the last 3 or 4 years.  They aren't great, but this year they could be better, on offense at least, than previous years.  Then again, so could we, and we'll be better on defense than last year while FSU could regress some.

[Matt]

we've been better than FSU some of the last 3 or 4 years.  They aren't great, but this year they could be better, on offense at least, than previous years.  Then again, so could we, and we'll be better on defense than last year while FSU could regress some.

we were 2-5 in the big east last year....

we got SMOKED by oregon in our bowl game in 07....

dont get trapped by being a fan.  i think it happens for a lot of reasons by mostly...we follow all of our players so close and see so many games that we overlook the bad and remember the good.

[TomahawkNation.com]

I can’t believe that some of our own Bulls fans are falling victims to this guys crap! He states that we were lacking in sacks last year.  According to this writer: “The Bulls had only 23 sacks in 224 passing plays (sack rate of 6.1%)â€.  Now, correct me if I am wrong ( I’m not too smart) but in my book that sack rate should be about 10.1% not 6.1%.

That was a typo and was corrected soon after.  I don't believe 23 is 6.1% of 224.  The correct number was 401.

He states: “In three of FSU's 4 loses in 2008, they faced monstrous front 7 defenses that were amongst the best in the nationâ€.  Is that so?  They lost to Boston College, ranked #5 in total defense last year (7th in Rushing, 18th in Passing), Florida, ranked 9th in total defense (15th in Rushing, 20th in Passing), Wake Forest, ranked 16th in total defense (29th in Rushing, 12th  in Passing) and Georgia Tech ranked 25th in total defense (24th in Rushing, 41st in Passing). 

Someone else already commented on this, but the numbers I used are a much better measure of a team's true performance.  I linked their source in the article. 

The BULLS were Ranked 10th in total defense (10th in Rushing, 37th in Passing) not 10th  and 78th like he states in his article. Our defensive ranking was better than two of the four teams that they lost to.  These stats can be found on the NCAA.com site. http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/ncaa-m-footbl-stats-index.html

Again, as Windbane noted, those are much more advanced measures.  78th is much more accurate.  I guess I could see the confusion if you didn't read the article on my site, since the links don't transfer here. 

He further states: “USF's defense weighs in at 1810lbs, which is good but not great. when a team is not big enough to stop the run with their front 7, they have to devote an extra defender (defensive back) to the run, creating an 8-man frontâ€.  First, I would like to ask you, the USF fans, do you know exactly who the starting front 7 will be and do you know what their total weight is? NO, this is speculation and nonsense that this guy is feeding his FSU readers.  Remember they lost to teams that were ranked 15th , 24th , and 29th against the run, we were10th.

So stop drinking the juice that this FSU writer is feeding his readers and support our Mighty BULLS!!!!!!!!!  If we lose to these guys it won’t be for reasons stated in his article.  I am putting my money USF not FSU :KoolAid

I stated that I didn't know exactly what the front 7 would be.  There's not that much difference in the size of the players competing for the starting spots, so the 1810 number is pretty accurate. 

Hope that clears it up. 

[cubuffsdoug]

Front 7

USF's defensive line is the best in the Big East.  Phil Steele calls them the 6th best defensive line in the nation.  Simply put, they are loaded.

Take in the rest of the 'Noles view of South Florida Football with the full story here

I thought Pitt's DL was the best in the BE?  They return everyone expect for 1 guy in the two deep.  According to those who follow the BE closely proclaimed Pitt as the best DL in the BE and it shouldn't change with everyone back.