5 Plays...

[usfgrad84]

However, had we of won, we woud have been 3rd/4th place in BE and playing Spurrier/South Carolina in Birmingham.

I believe win or lose we would have ended up in Toronto. 

[Rizman]

Good perspective I wonder if the coaches see that on the film.  I wonder if the players are studying the film after they are done with finals.

[crambone]

However, had we of won, we woud have been 3rd/4th place in BE and playing Spurrier/South Carolina in Birmingham.

I believe win or lose we would have ended up in Toronto. 

No, the PJ.com people stated that they were going to take the winner of USF/UConn.  I can't find the link, but someone posted it here yesterday.

[Guest nybullsfan]

the actual wording was "they were interested in" the winner, and was only said after the fact. they never said "they would take" the winner.

this is the usual political doublespeak, and intended to be vague enuf so that no bridges are burnt. don't read too much into it.

[South_Florida_Flip]

what about being unable to hold them off before the half, and instead allowing them to score a TD. that one wasn't pretty either

What about being at UConn's 29 yard line with 8 seconds left and a timeout in hand? We could have easily run 1 more play and used the timeout to set up a shorter FG attempt.

[IncrediBULL]

the actual wording was "they were interested in" the winner, and was only said after the fact. they never said "they would take" the winner.

this is the usual political doublespeak, and intended to be vague enuf so that no bridges are burnt. don't read too much into it.

Why wouldn't they say they were leaning towards UCONN all along. I have to believe they were undecided pending the outcomes of many games and specifically the UCONn/USF game.

[IncrediBULL]

Lots of great points were brought up in this thread. And there were other ones in the game and other games.

I guess with 1 minute left, I had resigned myself to the fact we were going to win with our 1 point lead.  Instead, the last 5 plays were all in favor of UCONN, with us not doing the right thing on any of them.  We went 0 - 5 at the end of the game as far as final plays go.  And it was just enough for UCONN to win, to end up higher in the BE rankings, and to secure the better bowl.

This one goes down to execution.  Or lack thereof.

[bigworm]

clock management

i have had season tix on about the 45 around 10 rows up since day 1 and this has been consistently my biggest peeve.  i do have hope that we may still get better here because it only took us about 10 years to insist that the quarterback use almost all of the allotted time before snapping the ball when we have a solid 4th qtr lead.

Leavitt needs to dump the special teams coach and hire someone with the sole responsiblity of managing the clock/time outs. 

[Kizarvexis]

When was the offsides on the kickoff?  Was it the TD before or was it after the BJ TD at the end of the game?  I don't remember.  If it was on the last kickoff it cost us about 15 to 20 yards. 

Along with clock management, which has always been a pet peeve of mine, our inability for our kickoffs to get past the 15 yardline this year was driving me crazy.  Schwartz only put 2 balls into the end zone all year.  Almost all of his kicks landed between the 17 and 20. 

To me, little things like penalties and especially clock management is a sign of poor coaching.  No attention to detail.

Actually, USF's penalties this year have been the lowest since I started tracking when USF went I-A.

per game

USF Opp

Pen  yards    year  Pen  yards

7.25 60.08 2009 5.75 50.58

8.67 67.67 2008 7.75 63.83

8.67 72.75 2007 6.83 53.50

8.17 71.33 2006 7.50 62.42

9.27 73.73 2005 7.09 57.82

9.64 82.55 2004 6.55 51.73

9.36 83.00 2003 6.27 47.91

11.64 98.73 2002 7.27 60.36 USF record for penalties for a season

10.00 88.00 2001 9.82 82.09

8.83 69.25 2005 6.50 55.92 Includes Bowl game

8.00 70.46 2006 7.15 59.54 Includes Bowl game

8.62 72.08 2007 7.31 60.00 Includes Bowl game

8.54 67.85 2008 7.38 60.85 Includes Bowl game

[IncrediBULL]

clock management

i have had season tix on about the 45 around 10 rows up since day 1 and this has been consistently my biggest peeve.  i do have hope that we may still get better here because it only took us about 10 years to insist that the quarterback use almost all of the allotted time before snapping the ball when we have a solid 4th qtr lead.

Leavitt needs to dump the special teams coach and hire someone with the sole responsiblity of managing the clock/time outs. 

It isn't the ST coach as an issue, but the policy of not playiing starters on Special teams that kills us.