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

[South_Florida_Flip]

5 - 7

Wins over the 3 cupcakes, Syracuse and UConn.  Going to be a very tough year. 

You have us beating UConn, who is going to be very good this year, but not Louisville? UL has less depth than we do and they're younger.

[bulldozier1]

RSS, you sound like a NFL GM. This guy is tiny, that guy small. THIS IS COLLEGE FOOTBALL, AND NOT THE NFL. The Bulls will be fine. The Bulls will stronger as the season go along. I do believe that this team will be better than last years team. It will come down to how hard they work this summer.

[tampabull]

RSS, you sound like a NFL GM. This guy is tiny, that guy small. THIS IS COLLEGE FOOTBALL, AND NOT THE NFL. The Bulls will be fine. The Bulls will stronger as the season go along. I do believe that this team will be better than last years team. It will come down to how hard they work this summer.

Exactly.  Plus what record would everyone think USF will finish with this year if CJL was still here?  If we finished 5-7 with CJL everyone would be calling for his head.  The talent level would be the same no matter what coach was here.  holtz is not changing the offense and defense that much.  The only changes will be the changes that needed to take place last year.  Same talent + better coaches = more wins

[Apis Bull]

I really don't think we'll be about the same.  I think it will go one of two ways:

Worse - New coach and new system take a while to gel with the players.  Defensive losses aren't made up.

Better - Coach accurately understands his teams strengths and create a scheme to take advantage of those strengths.  Excitement of playing for a new coach.  No late season collapse.

[bulldozier1]

On defense we have only 3 big losses. Nate Allen, Kion Wilson, and JPP. Those are the guys we'll miss the most. Craig Marshell and Davis/Giddens will step up. And we play a 2 gap scheme, that will be better suited for our undersize d-linemen. More pressure = to more turnovers.

[CousinRicky]

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.

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

I guess you can look at things from the negative side with the best of them.  Giddens is a 5 star but you discount him because he hasn't played.  Mistral Raymond is "solid" BUT he is a walk on.  You seem to be a glass is half empty guy.

[dabull80]

I guess then now would be a bad time to bring up the fact we only have one QB on the roster with any D-1 experience if you don't count one of our Wr if you hare a half glass empty guy - it might make you sad

[cmhatter]

On defense we have only 3 big losses. Nate Allen, Kion Wilson, and JPP. Those are the guys we'll miss the most. Craig Marshell and Davis/Giddens will step up. And we play a 2 gap scheme, that will be better suited for our undersize d-linemen. More pressure = to more turnovers.

i think carlton mitchell will prove to be an enormous loss.

[RSSMOOTH]

Giddins is a 4 Star guy but that's irrelevant. I'm not a glass half empty guy just speaking the truth. I'm not sugar coating anything. Recruiting has been hurt the past couple of years with guys who have not made it on campus that were supposed to. Not to mention that we lost guys that we already had on the team.

Say what you want but we've lost Mike Ford, Jamar Taylor, Leslie Stirrups and that's just counting guys on our rosters.

We're thin at a lot of areas because of guys leaving the program or not qualifying....

I could list a ton of guys...but not having guys like Khyri Thornton, Adaris Bellamy, Kamran Joyer, etc....these are recruiting misses over the years that have hurt our cumulative depth....even if Jim Leavitt was here I wouldn't feel great about our defense. Don't get me wrong I think we've improved our whole staff but I'm not crazy enough to say that we're talented to beat everyone on our roster on talent alone. That's including UF and UM...the facts are the facts.

Even though this is college, we've been gashed up the gut for having a smaller interior line the past couple of years...and its not like we've been lock down in the secondary.

I hope I'm wrong and Skip exceeds all expectations, I just don't think the probability of that happening is very high

[Bull-by-Marriage]

I don't know how our season is pan out. However, I do know that every year there are teams that win games with inferior players, but better coaches. We are a prime example of that scenario every year. We have lost at least 1 game a year in which we had the better players. Another thing that gives me a feeling that we may be better than expected is that we will actually have a game plan on offense. On defense; lesser talent can be "hidden" by playing disciplined assignment football. A defense doesn't have to have blinding speed. Speed can be a two edged sword, it allows you to get "somewhere" fast, but that "somewhere" may be out of position. Lack of speed/strength on the d-line can be overcome with proper execution of schemes. Coaching is a HUGE part of College Football, much more than in the NFL.