The differing opinons of Holtz.

[emrober5]

If we go 1-6 or 2-5 in the Big East next year, I think my opinion on Holtz will change.

We have had terrible luck this year, though. Darrell Scott fumbles and it's returned against UConn, Bonani misses the kick against Rutgers, We give up a TD against Cincy with 12 seconds left, pretty much every punt return by Marc...if a few of these plays had gone our way, we would be looking at a very different record. Things could go our way next year.

There is no excuse for going 1-6 or 2-5 in a conference this weak. If we go 4-3 in conference or better, Holtz buys another year of my approval.

[Orlando Bull]

FWIW, I thought Skip again mis-managed the clock at the end of the game. He had 2 TOs with 3 minutes or so left and we got a stop on first down. He let them run the clock down and didn't call a TO until second down. IMHO, you call it after 1st down, Hope for a stop on 2nd, and then hope for an incomplete pass on 3rd. It's all conjecture, but, at that point, a 1st down seals the game for them and you have to assume that they will pass on 3rd down to get it.

In the 2 years that he has been here, Holtz has been horrible with clock management.

My other frustration... BJ Daniels has not progressed at the level that he should in my opinion. He's gotten a little bit better, but, he's still not living up to his ability and the offense is hampered by many things that he doesn't do well. The coaching staff clearly doesn't trust him and keep him very reigned in... Why oh why then has Skip never chewed his ass out after every series like he has done with his WALK-ON BACKUP in the two games he's played? I feel bad for Eveld. Hell, the kid threw a TD pass and had to come to the sidelines and get chewed out because he missed the fade pass. At least his fade was within 15 yards of the playing field. Is it really better when BJ throws it so far OB that no one has a play on it? Is it any wonder that Eveld started struggling late in the game? He started hot, but then had someone in his ear the whole game, so, he started over-thinking things.

I like Skip and think he has potential, but, he may have needed a few more years in the minors and I fully believe that Leavitt would have done better the last 2 years. Skip's ceiling may be higher, but, I agree, the Leavitt bashing needs to stop. He did a hell of a job with way less than Skip has been given (what, he has nearly 2x the available salary budget for assistants?).

[MikeG]

didn't think I would see BJ getting crapped on after a game he didn't even play in.

[Joe]

That's my point. No game every really comes to one play. It can be argued, but that's about it.

We've been in every game but Pitt, and I'll give you UL too, because we were shelved in second half. This team has lost games in all sorts of crazy ways. The coaches are to blame in some areas, the players in others.

Everyone keeps saying we have all this talent, but I just don't see it. The offense moves the ball well until we get to the redzone, at that point we don't have the running backs or receivers to consistently get it in the end zone.

BJ throws a solid deep ball, he can dump it short in all sorts of ways, but when it comes to any mid field touch pass? Game over.

The secondary is awful, constantly burned and unable to handle teams with more than one effective receiver.

I understand the Big East sucks, and people are frustrated because they think we should be contending, but through 5 conference games, we clearly arent a good team yet.

As we mature and develop those close games will swing our way.

[Orlando Bull]

If we go 1-6 or 2-5 in the Big East next year, I think my opinion on Holtz will change.

We have had terrible luck this year, though. Darrell Scott fumbles and it's returned against UConn, Bonani misses the kick against Rutgers, We give up a TD against Cincy with 12 seconds left, pretty much every punt return by Marc...if a few of these plays had gone our way, we would be looking at a very different record. Things could go our way next year.

There is no excuse for going 1-6 or 2-5 in a conference this weak. If we go 4-3 in conference or better, Holtz buys another year of my approval.

Dude, that's not bad luck. Every one of the examples could have been avoided if I recall. Skip and staff played the game too conservatively to try and build enough of a lead that those plays wouldn't have mattered. Specifically the Cincy game when we kicked a FG from the 4 yard line on 3rd down going into the half with a timeout to burn. If you get a TD on that play, we win that game, hands down. He allowed them to stay in the game and they made us pay for it.

Even Miami, how many 3rd and 8+ did he put his backup in before allowing him to throw? I'm not saying Eveld is great, but, YOU PLAY THE GAME TO WIN. I am a Dolphins fan too and it's been a horribly frustrating season watching both coaching staffs play to "not lose" vs keeping their foot on the gas and trying to put games away.

Our bad luck has been injuries to Love, Griffin, Scott for a while, Mitchell, etc., but, losing 5 close games like we have, coaching has to put you over the hump.

[Orlando Bull]

didn't think I would see BJ getting crapped on after a game he didn't even play in.

Sorry, not intended to be so much a criticism of BJ, rather a frustration in how Skip has treated Eveld in comparison. BJ is clearly our best QB at the moment, but, I don't understand why Skip has been so hard on Eveld and I haven't seen the same reactions from him toward BJ.

[usfgrad84]

People need to stop buying into the whole "we are just a few plays away from being 10-1" bs. The Bonani kick maybe, but we have been dominated in the 4th quarter all year long. For the most part we have been completely and utterly outcoached in the 2nd half in all of our losses. If we do things differrently when we are up by 2 scores or more or make smarter play calls throughout an entire game you aren't even in a position to lose at the end. We lost most of the games we did, not only this year, but last year as well, because of what transpires throughout the games. Not just because of a play or two.

You can't rely on luck to win games against BCS teams. As Holtz has said, over the course of a season bad luck evens out. Well, in my opinion they did in our wins at Syracuse and ND. Weren't we lucky that the pass bounced off the guy's helmet at ND? How lucky were we that Syracuse WRs drop 2 passes in the end zone that would have put them up?

When teams skillfully drive the ball down the field over and over in 4th quarters of games to beat you when it counts there is a flaw in your system that BCS level OCs know how to identify and exploit.

When your punter continually comes up short and no change is made that's on coaching decisions. That's a problem. When your punt returner continually struggles and no change is made that is a problem.

To point to a few plays over the course of season as the reason for being 1-5 in conference plus another loss OOC is just wrong. Not when there are so many other issues that lead the record in the first place.

[bullsbucsfan426]

The one thing I've respected about Holtz and the coaching staff this season is that they have kept this team together and playing hard for the most part. I gave them a mulligan on the pitt game and i think the score would be a lot closer if we played again. We haven't been a turnover prone team for the most part. We've lost a lot of close games, and one could argue that it's because of our defensive backfield, because our defensive line has played well and shut down some pretty good runners (Pead and Miller come to mind first). The first time I really saw our team collapse was yesterday.

If you want to pin the losses on one area this season, i would say we've probably lost at least two games, possibly more, because of our special teams. Our punting game works great-if we're on their side of the field. What happened to just booting the ball to high heaven if we're in our own territory? Moreover, every kick return is a nerve. This has happened twice-against Rutgers and against Louisville.

The last guy i would fire though is Fitch. A lot of you are castrating B.J. for not being Vince Young or some other top notch dual threat QB. I'd argue that Fitch has done more for this offense than any OC we ever had. Don't get me wrong, i love Grothe and what he did for this program, but he was never a great decision maker in the passing game. B.J. hasn't gone gangbusters, but I'd wager he's a lot smarter with the ball than he was in the first half of last year and how he did in 2009. He is still learning, though, and please don't forget that we're dealing with a crowd of freshman receivers. We could stand to be more creative, but things are getting there. Also consider what Fitch did with Eveld on just one short week of preparation-he turned him into a viable QB option. That doesn't excuse the moronic turnovers (including the fumble by a WR inside our own 20), but he played a lot better than i expected. I don't think we'll see a QB battle next year because we've tailored the entire offense around B.J.'s skillset, but you had better believe that we'll have a good one in 2013 with Eveld, Matt Joyce, and whoever else we have in camp that season. This offense is much more likely to improve next season-I just don't see it not happening, we'll have a developed group of players who will be able to run a lot more plays.

I'm disappointed in Snyder though. This guy coached some fantastic defenses at Ohio State. Now you give him a strong dose of Florida talent and suddenly we're less competent against the pass despite a strong pass rush? Either he's got some problems in his coaching game or our DB coach isn't doing a very good job. I'd wager it's the DB coach-our LBs have been great and so has our D-line.

[MikeG]

you have that backwards imo

Fitch is extremely predictable--- short of that handful of series yesterday using a wildcat package and the halfback pass

Snyder D has played well this season despite somewhat lousy DBs -- his biggest problem seems to be turning to the prevent D too early in every fourth quarter.

but yeah-- special teams have been terrible in general

[snarling Bull]

didn't think I would see BJ getting crapped on after a game he didn't even play in.

Sorry, not intended to be so much a criticism of BJ, rather a frustration in how Skip has treated Eveld in comparison. BJ is clearly our best QB at the moment, but, I don't understand why Skip has been so hard on Eveld and I haven't seen the same reactions from him toward BJ.

Someone mentioned Holtz's treatment of Eveld during the game yesterday.