Excuses are getting old!

[widerberg]

And OK, so let me get this straight,  basically what you're all saying is USF should be undefeated every year.  

No. What many are saying is that it's unacceptable at this point in the season and program's history to have the team show up and play with zero fire, swagger, or desire. It's been three TV games this season when commentators have called out the Bulls for showing little to no effort. That certainly hurts our school in the casual fan's eyes, in booster support (I would think), and cannot be good for recruiting, either.

So then the question becomes, why is our team often so unmotivated?

[Bull94]

Hmmmmmm, and where were the fire Jim Leavitt threads after those victories over a ranked Auburn, WVU, Kansas, WVU, Louisville, FSU, etc....?   

Oh, he only ***** when we lose.  I guess none of those victories over teams with more talent, and some of them on the road in hostile places had anything to do with the coaching staff. 

Gotcha. 

That's my point!  If it was coaching, why do they take the week off when we play Rutgers?

Why did USC take the week off against Stanford this year?   Or Oregon?  I guess USC must be scrambling to kick Pete Caroll out the door.  Because.....gasp.....I mean there's just no excuse to lose to ranked/good teams.  

And OK, so let me get this straight,  basically what you're all saying is USF should be undefeated every year.  Cause apparently when we beat more talented ranked teams...."thats what coaches get paid to do" (despite the fact that there are well paid staffs with more talent getting paid to do the same thing across the sideline every game).....but any loss (even when to ranked more talented teams) is inexusable.  

OK, Gotcha.  

I forgot we are living in the sugar gum drop world.   Here's to hoping BJ sprouts wings before next week so he fly into the endzone every offensive possession.  

it's not the losing that is the problem, it's how we are losing.

2007 we had 3 regular season losses by a total of 15(I think) points. we had injuries then, we didn't have stellar recruiting classes either but we were competitive even in a loss especially within our conference.

Last year we were picked to win the conference with an entire veteran o-line back, 16 returning starters and a 3 year starter at qb. we won 2 conference games, lost to UofL and we were blown out by rutgers.

this year we are not even competitive in the losses. I understand the excuse with a young QB but if you are going to rely on the QB to be 80% of your offense then you better prepare your back up properly or adjust your gameplan.

It's not that we're losing but how we are losing that bothers me.

[Sitting_BULL]

AND went on that year and played a much tougher, closer game @ Miami?

It's funny how people's memories seem to adjust over time to what they WANT to believe ... Truth is, the 2005 game was very similar to the one on Saturday.

Not hardly.   :   I was there.  Miami didn't run all over us at will.  They had to fight hard for that game.  When I watched a replay, the announcers were impressed with our performance, saying...."they didn't see anybody left on our schedule, we couldn't beat."  They didn't switch to another game (like they did Saturday) because it was too pathetic to watch.

[Triple B]

AND went on that year and played a much tougher, closer game @ Miami?

It's funny how people's memories seem to adjust over time to what they WANT to believe ... Truth is, the 2005 game was very similar to the one on Saturday.

Not hardly.   :   I was there.  Miami didn't run all over us at will.  They had to fight hard for that game.

The score was 17-0 after the 1st quarter .... 20-0 at the half ..... 27-7 final (with USF scoring with about 5 mins left in game). We must have different definitions of having to "fight hard" ... 

[Bull-by-Marriage]

If you were being sarcastic with the "It's not Leavitt fault" then I apologize. However, if your serious, you can't be serious. The HC is responsible for everything that goes on within the coaching staff.

Not being sarcastic... sure the buck stops with him but at the end of the day we need to put blame where it is due and that is on the coordinator. Now if Leavitt sits around and does not fire Canales then its his fault too and he owns it at that point.

If I don't do a good job at my office my boss is held accountable for my mishaps but ultimately its my fault.

:2cents

I agree that the coord's are the primary reps for the O and D. But, CJL admitted that he put the clamps on BJ against Pitt, so while the coord's may make the game plans they aren't made in a vacuum. Plus, this is the third O coord in 4 years?? but still the same vanilla O. Just like Dingy when he was here, he caught to brunt of the blame when the Bucs O stunk. Sorry if I sounded too critical of you, I didn't mean to be.

[Bullshiznitz]

Hmmmmmm, and where were the fire Jim Leavitt threads after those victories over a ranked Auburn, WVU, Kansas, WVU, Louisville, FSU, etc....?   

Oh, he only ***** when we lose.  I guess none of those victories over teams with more talent, and some of them on the road in hostile places had anything to do with the coaching staff. 

Gotcha. 

That's my point!  If it was coaching, why do they take the week off when we play Rutgers?

Why did USC take the week off against Stanford this year?   Or Oregon?  I guess USC must be scrambling to kick Pete Caroll out the door.  Because.....gasp.....I mean there's just no excuse to lose to ranked/good teams.  

And OK, so let me get this straight,  basically what you're all saying is USF should be undefeated every year.  Cause apparently when we beat more talented ranked teams...."thats what coaches get paid to do" (despite the fact that there are well paid staffs with more talent getting paid to do the same thing across the sideline every game).....but any loss (even when to ranked more talented teams) is inexusable.  

OK, Gotcha.  

I forgot we are living in the sugar gum drop world.   Here's to hoping BJ sprouts wings before next week so he fly into the endzone every offensive possession.  

it's not the losing that is the problem, it's how we are losing.

2007 we had 3 regular season losses by a total of 15(I think) points. we had injuries then, we didn't have stellar recruiting classes either but we were competitive even in a loss especially within our conference.

Last year we were picked to win the conference with an entire veteran o-line back, 16 returning starters and a 3 year starter at qb. we won 2 conference games, lost to UofL and we were blown out by rutgers.

this year we are not even competitive in the losses. I understand the excuse with a young QB but if you are going to rely on the QB to be 80% of your offense then you better prepare your back up properly or adjust your gameplan.

It's not that we're losing but how we are losing that bothers me.

Yes, and those 3 losses in 2007 all came to UNRANKED average-good teams.  Teams at about equal footing to us.....hence the close losses.  

One thing that many of you fail again to realize is that our schedule (along with the Big East) has gotten tougher.  4 teams we faced this year are all still ranked at this point.  3 of our losses have come to teams ranked in the top 17.  

I'm still lost on the fact that many sites (and even fans here) were predicting us to finish somewhere in the range of 7-5 to 9-3 this season......and here we are......staring at either a 7-5 or 8-4 season despite losing Grothe for the season.  Where's the big EPIC FAIL that many of you somehow are seeming to find?   Why, because we lost to the #5 team by 14 points (gasp) or or by 21 points to the #17 team?   Really, have most of you just starting to follow college football this year?  

[Bullshiznitz]

AND went on that year and played a much tougher, closer game @ Miami?

It's funny how people's memories seem to adjust over time to what they WANT to believe ... Truth is, the 2005 game was very similar to the one on Saturday.

Not hardly.   :   I was there.  Miami didn't run all over us at will.  They had to fight hard for that game.

The score was 17-0 after the 1st quarter .... 20-0 at the half ..... 27-7 final (with USF scoring with about 5 mins left in game). We must have different definitions of having to "fight hard" ...   

Beat me to it.....

Mid-way through 3rd quarter 2005:  Miami 20  USF 0

Mid-way through 3rd quarter 2009:  Miami 21  USF 10 

It was actually somewhat of a game this year til they pulled away late 3rd quarter.  2005 was never a game. 

[Sitting_BULL]

AND went on that year and played a much tougher, closer game @ Miami?

It's funny how people's memories seem to adjust over time to what they WANT to believe ... Truth is, the 2005 game was very similar to the one on Saturday.

Not hardly.   :   I was there.  Miami didn't run all over us at will.  They had to fight hard for that game.

The score was 17-0 after the 1st quarter .... 20-0 at the half ..... 27-7 final (with USF scoring with about 5 mins left in game). We must have different definitions of having to "fight hard" ...   

I guess we do, because considering almost every Miami drive started on our side of the 50, it was an accomplishment limiting them to 20 the first half.  now the second half when we kicked off making them start on their side of the 50, they stopped putting up those points.

[Bull94]

Hmmmmmm, and where were the fire Jim Leavitt threads after those victories over a ranked Auburn, WVU, Kansas, WVU, Louisville, FSU, etc....?   

Oh, he only ***** when we lose.  I guess none of those victories over teams with more talent, and some of them on the road in hostile places had anything to do with the coaching staff. 

Gotcha. 

That's my point!  If it was coaching, why do they take the week off when we play Rutgers?

Why did USC take the week off against Stanford this year?   Or Oregon?  I guess USC must be scrambling to kick Pete Caroll out the door.  Because.....gasp.....I mean there's just no excuse to lose to ranked/good teams.  

And OK, so let me get this straight,  basically what you're all saying is USF should be undefeated every year.  Cause apparently when we beat more talented ranked teams...."thats what coaches get paid to do" (despite the fact that there are well paid staffs with more talent getting paid to do the same thing across the sideline every game).....but any loss (even when to ranked more talented teams) is inexusable.  

OK, Gotcha.  

I forgot we are living in the sugar gum drop world.   Here's to hoping BJ sprouts wings before next week so he fly into the endzone every offensive possession.  

it's not the losing that is the problem, it's how we are losing.

2007 we had 3 regular season losses by a total of 15(I think) points. we had injuries then, we didn't have stellar recruiting classes either but we were competitive even in a loss especially within our conference.

Last year we were picked to win the conference with an entire veteran o-line back, 16 returning starters and a 3 year starter at qb. we won 2 conference games, lost to UofL and we were blown out by rutgers.

this year we are not even competitive in the losses. I understand the excuse with a young QB but if you are going to rely on the QB to be 80% of your offense then you better prepare your back up properly or adjust your gameplan.

It's not that we're losing but how we are losing that bothers me.

Yes, and those 3 losses in 2007 all came to UNRANKED average-good teams.  Teams at about equal footing to us.....hence the close losses.  

One thing that many of you fail again to realize is that our schedule (along with the Big East) has gotten tougher.  4 teams we faced this year are all still ranked at this point.  3 of our losses have come to teams ranked in the top 17.  

I'm still lost on the fact that many sites (and even fans here) were predicting us to finish somewhere in the range of 7-5 to 9-3 this season......and here we are......staring at either a 7-5 or 8-4 season despite losing Grothe for the season.  Where's the big EPIC FAIL that many of you somehow are seeming to find?   Why, because we lost to the #5 team by 14 points (gasp) or or by 21 points to the #17 team?   Really, have most of you just starting to follow college football this year?  

the big east has not gotten tougher. the top teams have changed but the BE when WVU, UofL and Rutgers were top 10 teams was stronger IMO.

we lost by 17 to cincy and by 27 to pitt. we also lost by 31 to unranked rutgers that lost to syracuse.

the epic fail happened last year when our window of opportunity was wide open. we were picked to win the conference with 16 returning starters, a 3 year qb and an entire offensive line returning. the "experts" figured if we went 2-5 in conference with arguably our best chance to win the conference then we wouldn't do much better this year.

the close losses (15 points combined) in 2007 against unranked teams also came with 2 top 25 wins.

This year our 4 losses by a combined 96 points is disappointing.

[USFHoops20]

If you want to watch a player with heart who is motivated no matter the opponent then check out Tim Tebow.  I hate the gators but I cant help but respect the way this guy motivates every one around him.  He is not the best skilled qb out there but his heart makes him the best.  I had always wished that Grothe would  sit in front of the media and give a motivational speech like Tebow did but some players just dont have the heart to lead.  THIS TEAM NEEDS A LEADER!