Trib: USF struggles just part of rebuilding process

[USFishin]

USF struggles just part of rebuilding process

By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

As this football season has unfolded for the University of South Florida, a lot of the worries people had about the Bulls have indeed come to pass.

Well, "pass" might be a poor choice of words since, to quote head coach Skip Holtz, the passing game "hasn't exactly been our forte the last couple of weeks." You get the idea, though.

These are not especially good days for the Bulls.

They are 0-2 in the Big East and haven't scored an offensive touchdown in conference play, and it doesn't get any easier. On Friday, USF travels to Cincinnati, where it has never won. Making it tougher, the Bearcats are beginning to roll.

Quarterback B.J. Daniels is making the kind of mistakes that you'd expect from a sophomore in a new system, and now it looks like he's pressing - especially in the most recent 20-6 loss at West Virginia. Lack of overall depth, especially on offense, is becoming a major concern.

My question is simply this: Why would anyone be surprised?

Holtz did a fine sales job after he came onboard and created a lot of excitement, but all that did was hide some tough facts about the state of the program.

The Bulls were a relatively pedestrian team a year ago, and they weren't highly regarded coming into this season. Everyone knew they had a lot of issues and that a major rebuilding job had to be undertaken.

Holtz and his staff had about a week to recruit after he was signed to replace Jim Leavitt. That was bad enough. Not only were they slammed for time, they were trying to simultaneously reassure players wounded by the turmoil of a coaching change and scandal.

Once they got past that, the returning players had to get used to a new system and way of doing things. That's never easy on anyone, but it seems hardest on Daniels right now.

Daniels played well in spots last year after taking over as a freshman when Matt Grothe got hurt, but too many times he still operates the offense like someone playing a video game instead of realizing you're not going to score a touchdown on every play.

That's his inexperience showing and it's frustrating, not to mention crippling to the offense. For now, though, there isn't a viable Plan B.

"Everybody is quick to say, 'Why don't you change quarterbacks?'" Holtz said. "If I had two junior quarterbacks, I would."

Well, he doesn't.

Add the fact that three of Daniels' receivers - Lindsey Lamar, Evan Landi and Joel Miller - are converted from other positions, while senior Dontavia Bogan is just getting back to full speed from a significant ankle injury he suffered against the Gators.

"It's the land of misfit toys right now," Holtz said of his receivers.

I don't want to be the Grinch here, but USF needs three wins just to be bowl eligible, and it's going to be close. So you start asking, what is reasonable to expect from this season, because there probably won't be a lot of victories between now and the end.

You'd like to see Daniels become more efficient, for starters. He's never going to be the classic pocket passer, but that's as much of a strength as it is a weakness.

We've seen that he can make plays, and no one wants to turn him into a robot. The trick is to stop making them for the other team.

"It's a fine line," Holtz said. "I want B.J. to play in the system, until the system breaks down. His first response right now is flight."

You want to make sure that Holtz doesn't lose his team even if the Bulls lose more games. There seems to be no danger of that.

While all this plays out, you want to see how the new staff establishes itself on the recruiting battlefield. It's too early to say for sure, of course, but I've talked to a couple of local high school coaches who say Holtz has done a good job at repairing bridges and relationships with them.

"We have two options," Holtz said. "We can have a pity party and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can roll up our sleeves and go to work."

That's the only way out of this for USF because Holtz is trying to rebuild a program, not just a build a team.

When you're doing that, sometimes a stretch like this is just the part of the process.

Link

[SANJAY]

Everyone knew they had a lot of issues and that a major rebuilding job had to be undertaken.

I didn't get the memo about major rebuilding.  I got the lack of WR depth, average OL and RB by committee memos.

[South_Florida_Flip]

Everyone knew they had a lot of issues and that a major rebuilding job had to be undertaken.

I didn't get the memo about major rebuilding.  I got the lack of WR depth, average OL and RB by committee memos.

Would you agree that our offense needs a major rebuilding effort now after watching the past few games?

[Mission9]

Were we 2-10 last year?  I missed it.

Lets face it folks, even before "the incident" guys like Fennelly and Henderson wanted Leavitt fired.  That whole article about the victory was won when Leavitt was not on the field and Holtz wanting to give a player a hug was lame. While guys like me wanted a pro style and not a gimmick offense, I kind of could see why they ran the spread. I was tired of the roughing penalties but wondered if the aggressiveness gave our guys an  edge (like the old Oakland Raiders)  Tanking in the middle of the season? Who did USF lose to that the Bulls were so much better than? Our team is lucky to be one deep much less 2 or 3 deep at each position. I also wondered if change would even bring an upgrade. Who would they be able to entice?  Its not like Saben or Spurrier or (insert your favorite well known coach) were coming here.  People still confuse USF with UCF and our name brand is probably not much better than a lot of CUSA schools to the casual observer.  I at times was aggrevated about what was going on but I realized that our team does not have the advantages that some programs have (we are not even the most popular program in Tampa, for example). Meanwhile, those Tribune guys hated Leavitt like poison and probably do not mind that USF football is: :flush

[callmesuperman]

"Holtz and his staff had about a week to recruit after he was signed to replace Jim Leavitt."

That part of the article is innacurate. Granted Coach Holtz did not have a lot of time but it was more like about 2 1/2  weeks.

[flsportsfan83]

Great well though out article. Holtz will turn the program around.

[lwadad]

I have been very vocal about what has happened with USF football. Having read the article and taking some time to reflect on it I plan to support our football program, in a positive manor.

[BullFan98]

I also believe that Skip will turn the program around for the better, although it can't get much worse on the offensive side of the ball.  Unfortunately that takes time and as fans we are all a little impatient and want to see good things happening now; instant gratification (as it should be).  I hope we can save face this season, because the way our season is going...it cannot be good for recruiting.

[SANJAY]

Flip, I think it was not a major rebuilding job when Ford and Taylor were on the team, when Love and Griffin were healthy and before Alcin and Richardson transferred.  Then it was tweak it and go.  Also given that despite the above that 9 starters returned and should have arguably gotten a bit better with all the better coaching it still wasn't major rebuilding.

But now that offense is a reclamation project.  Not Skip's fault.  However, Henderson is misleading when he says everyone knew it was a major rebuilding job.  By the way, the defense which needed major overhauling after losing 5 guys to the NFL still playing well.

[Dogma]

"Everybody is quick to say, 'Why don't you change quarterbacks?'" Holtz said. "If I had two junior quarterbacks, I would."

Well, he doesn't.

I think that statement there can answer everyone that is ******** about replacing Daniels.

Skip from that one statement acknowledges that he WOULD replace Daniels IF HE COULD

Obviously Skip has seen from practice that any alternates aren't up to speed yet