How other BE writers view USF this upcoming season...

[tampabull]

http://blogs.courant.com/uconn_football/

I like what paul zeis wrote in the pitt gazette.

[2000bull]

http://blogs.courant.com/uconn_football/

I like what paul zeis wrote in the pitt gazette.

his comment was pretty funny.

4.) South Florida - Imagine all that talent WITHOUT the extreme knucklehead factor that has killed this team on game day every year. A darkhorse to win the league.

[cmhatter]

http://blogs.courant.com/uconn_football/

I like what paul zeis wrote in the pitt gazette.

his comment was pretty funny.

4.) South Florida - Imagine all that talent WITHOUT the extreme knucklehead factor that has killed this team on game day every year. A darkhorse to win the league.

wow... lol

[outrunner]

This guy needs to do a little more research before-hand.  Still thinks Mike Ford is on the team.

[South_Florida_Flip]

The Cincinnati writer has us in 3rd.

[Guest]

This guy needs to do a little more research before-hand.  Still thinks Mike Ford is on the team.

It's not "THIS" guy... the Hartford Courant reporter who covers the U Conn beat solicited input from other sports writers.

They "GUY" in quesiton is Dave Rahme from the Syracuse Post-Standard. (http://connect.syracuse.com/user/drahme/index.html)

[smazza]

it will takholtz at least 2 full recruiting classes

[tampabull]

it will takholtz at least 2 full recruiting classes

no it won't.  this year is a wait and see year cause of a first year head coach, and they play florida the second week and that game depending on the outcome will have tremendous influence on the rest of the year IMO.  USF has tons of young talent and after this year they will be more experienced.  Everyone is implying they have absolutely no talent and they need a few recruiting classes to even compete.  USF HAS ENOUGH TALENT TO BEAT EVERY TEAM ON THE SCHEDULE THIS YEAR (YES EVEN FLORIDA).  will they... probably not cause there is more to it then talent (just ask florida). 

[Guest nybullsfan]

USF HAS ENOUGH TALENT TO BEAT EVERY TEAM ON THE SCHEDULE THIS YEAR

Love that comment!

I would expect Skip is saying pretty much the same thing to the players - making them believe in themselves.

[RSSMOOTH]

it will takholtz at least 2 full recruiting classes

no it won't.  this year is a wait and see year cause of a first year head coach, and they play florida the second week and that game depending on the outcome will have tremendous influence on the rest of the year IMO.  USF has tons of young talent and after this year they will be more experienced.  Everyone is implying they have absolutely no talent and they need a few recruiting classes to even compete.  USF HAS ENOUGH TALENT TO BEAT EVERY TEAM ON THE SCHEDULE THIS YEAR (YES EVEN FLORIDA).  will they... probably not cause there is more to it then talent (just ask florida). 

I disagree with you there. This upcoming season is a huge question mark and not just because of the new coaching staff. We lack depth at a lot of areas. Injuries do happen as they have been problematic for us the last few years.

Let's look at the defense first shall we,

Start at the D-line....Ryne Giddins is very talented and he did get 2 sacks in a game last year but he's never played BCS opponent and I'm not sure he has even played a FBS opponent yet. So it remains to be seen how good he can be in his RS freshman year. Ditto for JuJu Forte.

Craig Marshall is a solid player that has played well in certain spots but its not like he's a game changer. Claude Davis I think has a chance to be really special but his strength is pass rushing and we're not too sure how he'll do against the run. David Bedford's career so far has been a disappointment even though he was a highly regarded JUCO prospect 2 years ago. I don't need to mention the other guys yet

We're terribly thin at DT, Terrel McClain is the star of the tackles but he really needs to improve his consistency and anchor better against the run and it would be nice for him to get some penetration up the middle. Starting next to him is Keith McKaskill but he's tiny, although explosive he's a liability in the run game. Anthony Hill is really nothing special and it remains to be seen if he can be a factor. Cory Grissom is solid but while he was pushing for a starting job his freshman year its surprising he hasn't made more of a push at the other starting job and plus he doesn't really have much production either. The fact that we're going to have to rely on a barely 6' true freshman DT to make an impact scares me.

Lets look at LB, at WILL we've got Sabbath Joseph, he has a good amount of experience and a very productive player. Behind him at WILL is DeDe Lattimore a promising RSFreshman but he has no experience and its hard to know what a player will do out there on game day. At MIKE we have Sam Barrington who is roughly 229 lbs which is pretty small for the LBs in a Mark Snyder scheme. He is talented and he'll be relied on do a lot more this year. At SAM we have Jaquain Williams who is very fast but also very small for a LB, he's barely pushing 220 and looks like a sprinter more than a LB and behind him is Donte Spires who has been out of football for over a year. We have talent here but we'll see how the depth pans out.

Secondary is scary and not in a good way. Our 2 starting corners are solid but Q hasn't really done much to distinguish himself as a lockdown corner and Kayvon while he showed some good things last year was an absolute puss when it came to making a stick....the Cincy game sticks out in my mind and the Rutgers game as well. Behind them you have a guy who came into spring as a WR and has a lot to learn about playing CB. George Baker is fast but can he cover and tackle with virtually no experience?

At safety Jerrell Young is solid and has experience and Mistral Raymond is solid but he's a former walk-on. Behind him are two talented kids but how talented are they? No one knows, Legiste is remembered for that hard hit on that FSU RB but what else has he done to let anyone believe he's gonna be a great player this year? The point is there is way too many question marks on the defense to make any discernible predictions...we could be anywhere from 5-7 to 9-3

I don't think we have the talent to beat every team on this year's schedule. To say we have just as much talent as UF and Miami or at least enough to beat them on talent alone is just false....Miami and Florida are more talented than us across the board. Pitt is very talented and so is WVU. UConn has a boat load of depth and a beastly O-line. Rutgers has had our number and I've predicted that we'd beat them the past 4 years and have been wrong every time...so I don't know about them.

There are question marks on the offense too but I don't feel like going into that right now