Here's why David Letterman's school beat us

[Rocky Style]

We need to burn this thing down and rebuild. Oh and a stadium.

[Triple B]

thought this was going to be a top ten list for sure

Looks like a Top 5 instead ...

[BullFan98]

Skip isn't a good coach period. Will not be surprised to see AW and other top tier recruits decommiting from this program; that is how bad things may have gotten.

[gobulls83]

Hired someone just because of a name.

Revisionist history at its finest. Holtz won conference titles at ECU and most of the people around here were excited at the time of his hiring. Not every hire can be great - it sucks that this one hasn't panned out, but that's life. The real mistake was the extension, not the actual hiring.

[MikeG]

Doug's extension to Skip last season is just inexplicable... I suppose if we came out and had a huge season this year it would look brilliant. But I think you typically reward performance, not predict it. Maybe he had more pressure than most of us realize, with the BE falling apart, and wanted to ensure stability in his program. Skip buys you a decent amount of recognition just by his name and family.

I thought he was a good hire. I'd have made it. I think it turns out he may not be the right guy for us, and that is fine, you move on. But I can't fathom why he'd get an extension after missing a bowl game for the first time in recent memory!

when exactly did we give him that extension? Was it after the Notre Dame win but before we started losing every game by a handful of points? if it was AFTER we didn't make it to bowl eligibility, that is ridiculous. If it was sometime before, it can be argued as something somewhat explainable.

hindsight is 20/20 on the extension now-- but where were we at the point when he got extended? Bear in mind-- we had tons of people convinced before this season started that we were somehow favorites to win the Big East -- despite our lousy record last season.

[USF_Grouper]

Extension was during the offseason, same time as the (deserved) extension given to Stan Heath

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/34184/skip-holtz-gets-contract-extension

[Gismo]

Reason: a small group of people tore down what was a great football program.

The school president, the athletic director, and a few deep-pocket donors made some bad decisions very quickly.

(1) Fired Leavitt so quickly. (2) Hired someone just because of a name. (3) Cost us millions due to the firing, bad hiring, and payment to Leavitt.

But before all of that, they put the pinch on Leavitt and didn't give him the support he needed. If there was support, would they have needed an "investigation"? Hello! It's a freaking college football program, which is supposed to be for fun and entertainment. But we became a cheap mini-TV series on NBC. Yeah, we even had our own "investigative" reporter.

Yes, Leavitt was sucking air at the time (before he went mad and did whatever he did). All I'm saying is that USF threw loyalty completely away in all the moves that were made before, during, and right after Leavitt went insane.

Just to be clear:

1) The school president, the athletic director, and a few deep-pocket donors are to blame.

2) Leavitt went insane

3) Really bad decisions made by (1)+(2)

4) It's not the current coach's fault: he took a job to advance his career.

5) It's not the players' fault. They just play the game.

Now, we are worse than UCF. And as a football program, we are worse than the I-AAAA days.

Gonna need an overhaul, starting with a new president and athletic director.

If "big donors" got rid of Leavitt can we be hopeful they will get rid of Holtz too? I can't imagine that they've been impressed with his performance.

[USF_Grouper]

Pretty sure Holtz has gotten rid of most big donors...

[Bulls1181]

Greg Auman â€@gregauman

USF's defense came up with zero tackles for loss in 71 plays against Ball State offense. Zero takeaways. Stats show a single QB hurry.

Horrible!!!

[Gismo]

Greg Auman â€@gregauman

USF's defense came up with zero tackles for loss in 71 plays against Ball State offense. Zero takeaways. Stats show a single QB hurry.

Horrible!!!

Looks like the players have given up. For whatever reason, the defense doesn't feel like performing. Maybe the players aren't happy with the staff either.