Times: USF Bulls football coach Skip Holtz says team did poor job learning from mistakes

[USFishin]

December 6, 2011

USF Bulls football coach Skip Holtz says team did poor job learning from mistakes

By Greg Auman, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA - When Skip Holtz looks back on a frustrating, disappointing 5-7 season, he can't help but notice the way players didn't learn from each other's mistakes, especially when it came to avoiding turnovers late in close games.

"We can't have everybody make the same mistake and then go, 'Okay, now I get it,' " Holtz said Sunday. "(Freshman receiver) Andre (Davis) made it (against Louisville). Let's all learn from Andre's mistake. It's like, 'Your brother just burned his hand sticking it on the stove. It's hot. Don't you do the same thing.' We've got to do a better job as coaches."

One costly mistake in Thursday's season-ending loss to West Virginia was when QB B.J. Daniels lost a fumble with 3:02 left in a tie game, setting up the Mountaineers' winning field goal as time expired. Daniels has been criticized for running with the ball away from his body, but Holtz said perhaps the repercussions of this mistake will carry more weight toward correcting it.

"It is something we've talked about, pointed out, something we've addressed," Holtz said. "Maybe it takes something like that to say, 'Wow, all right, what they're saying is true. Eventually it's going to cost us a game.' "

In hindsight, with West Virginia out of timeouts, USF could have simply called three running plays to run off the clock and taken a reasonable field-goal attempt with a chance to win.

"Hindsight, looking back, yeah, I wish I would have gotten two backs and two tight ends and just ran the ball into the line three times and kicked the field goal," Holtz said. "At the same point in time, we put the ball in our best offensive player's hands for the way he was playing. … Believe me, I've second-guessed and questioned every call, defense, everything else you make as you go back and watch the film."

Asked if he'll put together a reel of the Bulls' late-game mistakes that have cost them so many fourth-quarter leads, Holtz said there would be a lot of such review in the offseason.

"They will see them. We'll probably watch the last 10 minutes of about 10 football games, all offseason," Holtz said. "We need to understand what you have to do to win. I don't know everything we're going to do to get that point across, to teach it. We definitely have some great teaching moments from this season."

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[GaUSFBull]

There is a LOT to go over that needs correcting.

[fuhbull11]

Yep.

P.S I heard Leavitt on cbs talk show last night...lost a good one there.

[hbryan]

Coaching staff learned absolutely nothing from their season of mistakes:

1. Soft, prevent defense in 4th quarter.

2. Playing just aggressive enough on offense to allow opposing team to finish them off in the 4th.

3. Consistently poor Special Teams throughout the season.

4. Poor time management throughout the season.

All of those were correctable during the season and they were ignored by the coaching staff. Skip Holtz should look deeply into the mirror when talking about this season.

[tomgreen558]

in other words...

"My coaching staff are incapable of making in game, post game, or midseason adjustments or correcting player mistakes... we'll take care of it in the offseason"

[TrujilloBull2013]

by "team" i hope he's including the coaching staff.

[tomgreen558]

by "team" i hope he's including the coaching staff.

+1

[hbryan]

by "team" i hope he's including the coaching staff.

Read the article. He obviously is talking about the players, not including coaches. He's delusional if he thinks that only players are culpable for the season sans his "hindsight" comments.

[TrujilloBull2013]

by "team" i hope he's including the coaching staff.

Read the article. He obviously is talking about the players, not including coaches. He's delusional if he thinks that only players are culpable for the season sans his "hindsight" comments.

well that's pretty ridiculous. throwing the players under the bus when there were clear and obvious coaching mistakes made isn't the way to improve the team.

if the players didn't learn from mistakes, maybe the coaching staff should have done a better job TEACHING them.

[Bull Dozer]

Coaching staff learned absolutely nothing from their season of mistakes:

1. Soft, prevent defense in 4th quarter.

2. Playing just aggressive enough on offense to allow opposing team to finish them off in the 4th.

3. Consistently poor Special Teams throughout the season.

4. Poor time management throughout the season.

All of those were correctable during the season and they were ignored by the coaching staff. Skip Holtz should look deeply into the mirror when talking about this season.

Don't forget our "wonderful" red zone playcalling, you know the whole turtle up and play for the field goal thing that worked so well......