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

[CousinRicky]

I think we had the "luxury" last year of red shirting some pretty good freshmen and am hopeful those guys will make significant contributions as redshirt freshmen this year.

I'm not predicting a Big East conference championship or anything, but I don't see us being any worse than last year.  Our returning OL (4 of 5) should be a plus.  Even though we lost some pretty good players on D, we have some good ones ready to step in.

[Triple B]

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.

We've also been on the other side of that scenario more than once, too ....

[tampabull]

losing pierre-paul and nate allan on defense was huge, but we have good players that are stepping in.  The defense won't fall off too much if any.  Selvie wasn't that productive the last couple of years here.  Murphey was good, but was a penalty machine.  Hopefully TREX can step it up his freshman year.  Plus we have a much much much better coach on defense this year than last.

[NCBull]

Any takers on whether or not we open this season 5-0 or 6-0? 

That's an area of the mid-season collapse that tends to be forgotten (understandably so)...in order to collapse, you have to be somewhere up there at mid-season.  I think we'll have a decent year, but it's entirely possible that while everyone gets used to the new schemes and the units start to gel, we start off 3-3.  This board will not be pretty if we drop one to Syracuse or even FAU...

In Skip we trust!

[tampabull]

Any takers on whether or not we open this season 5-0 or 6-0?   

That's an area of the mid-season collapse that tends to be forgotten (understandably so)...in order to collapse, you have to be somewhere up there at mid-season.  I think we'll have a decent year, but it's entirely possible that while everyone gets used to the new schemes and the units start to gel, we start off 3-3.  This board will not be pretty if we drop one to Syracuse or even FAU...

In Skip we trust!

3 and 3 will not happen.  4-2 almost seems impossible also even if BJ goes down.

[Bull-by-Marriage]

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.

We've also been on the other side of that scenario more than once, too ....

You are absolutely correct. I didn't mean to make it sound as if we've never been the benefactor of such a situation.

[cmhatter]

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.

We've also been on the other side of that scenario more than once, too ....

played golf this weekend... me and my friend were paired up with two auburn alum.

was great conversation.