The smartest we've ever played?

[dantheusfman]

I've been regularly following USF since 2003, when I first moved to Tampa, and from 2004-2009 I attended every home game as a student before moving up to Columbia to pursue my Master's, and still today I watch every game that I can, and I've gone to pretty amazing lengths to do so.

I watched the Florida game last year, and the WVU game last year, and the Leavitt teams of the past that all shared a common thread: They were winnable, but mistakes cost us big. We penalized ourselves out of the game, turned the ball over more times than I care to admit, just made boneheaded plays.

I saw none of that yesterday. Absolutely none of that. For those that didn't realize (and honestly, at this point, who doesn't?), we didn't have one turnover. Not a BJ Daniels interception before the half called right on cue by the announcers, not a stupid fumble on a kickoff return or a botched punt catch. BJ Daniels threw the ball away instead of throwing into traffic, the O-Line did it's best to hold their ground without holding jerseys, we had 1 or 2 stupid penalties, but we see the other side of the coin, where Notre Dame gave up almost an entire football field's worth of penalties.

Which brings me to my point: Yesterday's game was an example of how you can be outgained, out-talented (Anyone who thinks Michael Floyd didn't live up to the hype is smoking something, btw), and seemingly outplayed. But if you play smart, wait for the other team to make mistakes, and limit your mistakes to the bare-bones minimum, you can beat any team you play. And yesterday, we played smart. Einstein smart.

Skip Holtz smart.

[Apis Bull]

+1

[mikemcp88]

ND had some really dumb penalties

[Nebolsky]

Well put my friend. I love the discipline and structure Skip has set.

[mikemcp88]

Well put my friend. I love the discipline and structure Skip has set.

I know. I remember getting so frustrated with all of the stupid penalties we made prior to him coming in

[Bull-by-Marriage]

BINGO, we can get outgained all year, as long as we outscore our opponents.

[Matt]

yep- we only had 1 mental mistake all game when Giddens jumped off sides on that FG attempt.

its nice having all those personal foul penalities being against the other guys for once.

[Skingraft]

yep- we only had 1 mental mistake all game when Giddens jumped off sides on that FG attempt.

its nice having all those personal foul penalities being against the other guys for once.

Oddly enough-that paid off...Just one of those days

[Apis Bull]

Running a play with 12 seconds to go in the third quarter w/24 seconds on the play clock.  This bonehead move cost us at least 45 seconds of run time at the start of the fourth quarter. 

I'll give you this one

BJ's sneak play on the ND goal line (3rd down) w/Darryl Scott behind him.

I'm not sure this was dumb.  They may have felt that ND would be keying on Scott.

Dumb.  Lots of work to be done as we were outplayed in every phase of the game except the scoreboard.

No one's saying that there's not a lot of work to be done. but I say we still played smart.

Great win, but lots of room for improvement.

Agreed

Go Bulls!

Go Bulls!!

[Mama_Bull]

As I've always maintained, avoiding penalties and turnovers will win us games.  The ND game proves that point to a tee.  In that regard, yes it is the smartest we've every played.

I fully believe we have to give credit to Holtz and Company for this.  During the Leavitt era the number of penalties was outrageous.  BJ played smart and didn't shoot himself in the foot.