Scrimmage Notes

[smazza]

what is scary is that most on this board actually enjoyed and supported our prior offense

heck i said same thing 6 years ago about our offense when jewelmist was qb

Hey waterboy - do you have calluses on your hand from patting your self on the back ?

So far I have yet to see an offensive play in a single regular season game so IMHO I think lets see what the season shows us and go from there.

hey wannabe

u will never see a leavitt tyoe offense again at usf

u wont even recognize our team

leavitt is gone gone goodbye

deal with it and support your new coach

[usfgrad84]

Expectations for this year's offense should be reeled in. You still have basically the same o-line. Is Plancher the answer at RB?  After him there is no one with proven D1 talent or experience. Hayes has experience, but juco guys are always a question mark. Our TE position has little to no experience. Our WR corp doesn't scare anyone and they only thing they have proven so far is they drop a lot of passes in key situations. As far as Daniels is concerned, other than a few bombs, his strength was running the ball. When he was put in a position to be a pocket passer or when the defense forced him to be a passer he had a very difficult time.

It's great to say that we have a different offense and we hope it will be better, but let's rememberthese players were recruited because they fit the spread offense.

Way too many question marks.

The previous (few) offensive coordinators deserve all the criticism they get, but it would not be a surprise at all to see the same or even less productivity out of this group for a couple of years. At least until Holtz gets his recruiting in place for his system and those players have a chance to physically mature.

[BullMedic]

what is scary is that most on this board actually enjoyed and supported our prior offense

heck i said same thing 6 years ago about our offense when jewelmist was qb

Hey waterboy - do you have calluses on your hand from patting your self on the back ?

So far I have yet to see an offensive play in a single regular season game so IMHO I think lets see what the season shows us and go from there.

hey wannabe

u will never see a leavitt tyoe offense again at usf

u wont even recognize our team

leavitt is gone gone goodbye

deal with it and support your new coach

I love how smazza comes off sounding like the good guy. Hilarious

[Bullpride08]

Expectations for this year's offense should be reeled in. You still have basically the same o-line. Is Plancher the answer at RB?  After him there is no one with proven D1 talent or experience. Hayes has experience, but juco guys are always a question mark. Our TE position has little to no experience. Our WR corp doesn't scare anyone and they only thing they have proven so far is they drop a lot of passes in key situations. As far as Daniels is concerned, other than a few bombs, his strength was running the ball. When he was put in a position to be a pocket passer or when the defense forced him to be a passer he had a very difficult time.

It's great to say that we have a different offense and we hope it will be better, but let's rememberthese players were recruited because they fit the spread offense.

Way too many question marks.

The previous (few) offensive coordinators deserve all the criticism they get, but it would not be a surprise at all to see the same or even less productivity out of this group for a couple of years. At least until Holtz gets his recruiting in place for his system and those players have a chance to physically mature.

Lots of question marks on the team, and newness.  We lack explosive threats at WR, RB, and QB if bj daniels running ability are ham-stringed.  This team and offense is a year away.  I estimate a high likelihood of a 6 and 6 team or worse (losing 7 defensive starters sucks too- and only a fool thinks that is automatically replaced) next season.  To much to overcome along with a new coaching staff still learning players and players the coaches.  Still the same porous interior DT's, the same OL minus the most exprienced and nasty toughest one of the bunch- Hermann...  my guess for next season is 5-7, and probably wouldn't have been much better under Leavitt.

With that being said, providing things on the personnel side continue to improve, I think the team and program set-up well for big runs in 2011 and 2012.  By 2011 BJ will have a full year of QB coaching under the new system, he'll be a true upperclassman with loads of experience, on the flip the defense will go from being run by an under-sized, cherry MLB, Barrington who's highly skilled but smallish right now, and to new to be a truly dominating MLB...by 2011 he'll be in the 240lbs range, an upperclassman and by then have enough experience to call defenses in his sleep.

I also predict that if the season does end up being tough smazza will turn on us as usual...and skippy too. 

[dabull80]

Expectations for this year's offense should be reeled in. You still have basically the same o-line. Is Plancher the answer at RB?  After him there is no one with proven D1 talent or experience. Hayes has experience, but juco guys are always a question mark. Our TE position has little to no experience. Our WR corp doesn't scare anyone and they only thing they have proven so far is they drop a lot of passes in key situations. As far as Daniels is concerned, other than a few bombs, his strength was running the ball. When he was put in a position to be a pocket passer or when the defense forced him to be a passer he had a very difficult time.

It's great to say that we have a different offense and we hope it will be better, but let's rememberthese players were recruited because they fit the spread offense.

Way too many question marks.

The previous (few) offensive coordinators deserve all the criticism they get, but it would not be a surprise at all to see the same or even less productivity out of this group for a couple of years. At least until Holtz gets his recruiting in place for his system and those players have a chance to physically mature.

Lots of question marks on the team, and newness.  We lack explosive threats at WR, RB, and QB if bj daniels running ability are ham-stringed.  This team and offense is a year away.  I estimate a high likelihood of a 6 and 6 team or worse (losing 7 defensive starters ***** too- and only a fool thinks that is automatically replaced) next season.  To much to overcome along with a new coaching staff still learning players and players the coaches.  Still the same porous interior DT's, the same OL minus the most exprienced and nasty toughest one of the bunch- Hermann...  my guess for next season is 5-7, and probably wouldn't have been much better under Leavitt.

With that being said, providing things on the personnel side continue to improve, I think the team and program set-up well for big runs in 2011 and 2012.  By 2011 BJ will have a full year of QB coaching under the new system, he'll be a true upperclassman with loads of experience, on the flip the defense will go from being run by an under-sized, cherry MLB, Barrington who's highly skilled but smallish right now, and to new to be a truly dominating MLB...by 2011 he'll be in the 240lbs range, an upperclassman and by then have enough experience to call defenses in his sleep.

I also predict that if the season does end up being tough smazza will turn on us as usual...and skippy too. 

Now that would be ugly - 2-5 in the BE ?  So we beat say UL & cuse and lose to everyone else ?  Most of what you say I agree with the exception of not giving recognition to an outstanding recruiting class from two years ago.  I think guys like Webster and Barrington will really star along with some of our speed will now show up Lamar & Hopkins plus I think Lattimore could step up.  The offensive line was very young last year and should be better even with the lose of Herm.  Hayes is a question mark but sure looks good coming in.  I think 6-6 should be the worst case "unless" BJ goes down.  One of Holtz's strengths is to adjust to the players he has.  As far as coaches - some of the guys on the team are Jrs or RS Soph and haven't had the same DC yet - that is tough.

[dabull80]

what is scary is that most on this board actually enjoyed and supported our prior offense

heck i said same thing 6 years ago about our offense when jewelmist was qb

Hey waterboy - do you have calluses on your hand from patting your self on the back ?

So far I have yet to see an offensive play in a single regular season game so IMHO I think lets see what the season shows us and go from there.

hey wannabe

u will never see a leavitt tyoe offense again at usf

u wont even recognize our team

leavitt is gone gone goodbye

deal with it and support your new coach

:ROFLMAO

You talking to me me waterboy ?

I hope I recognize our team - they have the "U's on their helmet right ?

I support whoever is our coach - you should try it sometime

Did JL like steal your girlfriend ?  You bring him up not me - or is it a mancrush you have ?  Just seems weird to me.

[cmhatter]

Expectations for this year's offense should be reeled in. You still have basically the same o-line. Is Plancher the answer at RB?  After him there is no one with proven D1 talent or experience. Hayes has experience, but juco guys are always a question mark. Our TE position has little to no experience. Our WR corp doesn't scare anyone and they only thing they have proven so far is they drop a lot of passes in key situations. As far as Daniels is concerned, other than a few bombs, his strength was running the ball. When he was put in a position to be a pocket passer or when the defense forced him to be a passer he had a very difficult time.

It's great to say that we have a different offense and we hope it will be better, but let's rememberthese players were recruited because they fit the spread offense.

Way too many question marks.

The previous (few) offensive coordinators deserve all the criticism they get, but it would not be a surprise at all to see the same or even less productivity out of this group for a couple of years. At least until Holtz gets his recruiting in place for his system and those players have a chance to physically mature.

Lots of question marks on the team, and newness.  We lack explosive threats at WR, RB, and QB if bj daniels running ability are ham-stringed.  This team and offense is a year away.  I estimate a high likelihood of a 6 and 6 team or worse (losing 7 defensive starters ***** too- and only a fool thinks that is automatically replaced) next season.  To much to overcome along with a new coaching staff still learning players and players the coaches.  Still the same porous interior DT's, the same OL minus the most exprienced and nasty toughest one of the bunch- Hermann...  my guess for next season is 5-7, and probably wouldn't have been much better under Leavitt.

With that being said, providing things on the personnel side continue to improve, I think the team and program set-up well for big runs in 2011 and 2012.  By 2011 BJ will have a full year of QB coaching under the new system, he'll be a true upperclassman with loads of experience, on the flip the defense will go from being run by an under-sized, cherry MLB, Barrington who's highly skilled but smallish right now, and to new to be a truly dominating MLB...by 2011 he'll be in the 240lbs range, an upperclassman and by then have enough experience to call defenses in his sleep.

I also predict that if the season does end up being tough smazza will turn on us as usual...and skippy too. 

Now that would be ugly - 2-5 in the BE ?  So we beat say UL & cuse and lose to everyone else ?  Most of what you say I agree with the exception of not giving recognition to an outstanding recruiting class from two years ago.  I think guys like Webster and Barrington will really star along with some of our speed will now show up Lamar & Hopkins plus I think Lattimore could step up.  The offensive line was very young last year and should be better even with the lose of Herm.  Hayes is a question mark but sure looks good coming in.  I think 6-6 should be the worst case "unless" BJ goes down.  One of Holtz's strengths is to adjust to the players he has.  As far as coaches - some of the guys on the team are Jrs or RS Soph and haven't had the same DC yet - that is tough.

imo we take a step back this year... we lost tooooo much to the draft and are implementing completely new systems.  i don't think we are that great next season... especially b/c of the schedule

[Bull Dozer]

I agree we are in for a rougher ride than many around here realize.  This board will be a very interesting place this season..........

[usfgrad84]

My concern, as it was when the coaching change went down, is that the timing was so horrible.  Holtz somewhat salvaged recruiting, but it ended up a far cry from what it was shaping up to be. If we do have a sub .500 record and miss out on a bowl game I think we are in a down ward spiral. Holtz better be able to pull off a big upset somewhere. He has shown he can do it before. Say what you want about Leavitt, but besides the inaugural year we only had one losing year and that was the year we were transitioning to BE.

I agree the expectations from many around here are naïve.

[Bullpride08]

My concern, as it was when the coaching change went down, is that the timing was so horrible.  Holtz somewhat salvaged recruiting, but it ended up a far cry from what it was shaping up to be. If we do have a sub .500 record and miss out on a bowl game I think we are in a down ward spiral. Holtz better be able to pull off a big upset somewhere. He has shown he can do it before. Say what you want about Leavitt, but besides the inaugural year we only had one losing year and that was the year we were transitioning to BE.

I agree the expectations from many around here are naïve.

Skip had losing seasons too- two at Uconn in his first two years, and went 5-6, and 6-6 at ECU in his first two years.  He's no magic man either, and will need to build trust, and learn about his players things Leavitt already knew.

It's just reality.  WVU has loans of talent with Devine, Jock Sanders, Tavin Austin, Clarke...and return 4 starting OL.  Pitt is loaded with Baldwin returning and I think a new QB is like an addition by subtraction there...RU with Sanu, Savage, Martinek, and DC Jefferson will be tough.  I see us taking some lumps, we lost to much, even in areas where we didn't expect to lose like Hermann, Ford, Stirrups, probably Taylor, and don't be surprised if a few more of those leave the nest soon too.

Lindsey Lamar is struggling at WR right now, and outside of him Skip's even said he's the only WR with 'juice'.  Reality is reality.  The great classes of 2008, and 2009 are still underclassmen.  Take a guy like Virgin, or Hawkins, or Shields.  Good looking potential in those at TE and H-back, but none have played any real time, and are just baby's in football comparisons.  Look at MLB.  Barrington is a stud but physically he's not ready to be the every down MLB, the past five that position has been manned by big, experienced boys like Kion, Moffett, and McKenzie.  Barrington is about 15-20lbs lighter then when those guys played, and way more inexperienced.  He will be 'great' eventually but expect some lumps when he starts out.

I don't agree we're in trouble for a while if this season is bad though.  I think 2011, if Skip is as good a coach as it seems, pencils out very nicely on paper.  The defense could return the entire starting DB's, Barrington, Lanaris, Lattimore, Witherspoon...DL will have Hampton, Forte, Giddins, and Davis with what will be a battle ready stud in Sager, Thompson, and Chandler.  Oh and add T-Rex in there to go with possibly Ivan Nicholas returning there, and don't be surprised if Deonte Welsh turns into a stud corner for us...and I think Cliett will make serious noise too.  I am also excited about the prospects of Mark Joyce as an OLB...he's 6-1 210lbs and can fly!

On offense we'll have Evan Landi (who I expect will be a great WR), Griffin, Lamar (by then hopefully 15lbs bigger and more acclimated to WR), Victor Marc, maybe Montague, Richardson...with Shield and Hawkins at TE, Murray/Battle/Hayes at RB, BJ with another back-up that's a real viable option (and hopefully Gunsby moving to a position he can be more valued at like WR or OLB), Virgin at H-Back...and a good nucleus of the OL returning.

Look at 2011 and if Skip is the guy we all think he is he may suffer a bit in 2010, but 2011 and 2012 could be his resurgence onto the big stage!