Can the season be salvaged?

[WoolyBully]

That's the difference between possible & probable.

Having just lost to the Ball State Cardinals - whose '08 season was their only winning season since '96 -

and not sure exactly what sort of emotional toll Saturday is going to extract from the team (I'm just not

feeling the big upset here), if we were playing with real money, I'd say two more wins - 'Cuse & Temple

with Pitt on the outside.

Salvaged...depending on how the word is applied; in that "can we avoid losing all of the rest of the games"? Sure.

Now if you meant for salvaged to translate into "turn into a winning season", gonna have to vote no on that one.

[thebouncer1898]

Listen, I want Holtz out of town as much as the rest of you, but he isn't going anywhere right now. I think Doug Woolard needs to go as well, as I alluded to in my post last week about Derrick Brooks being our next Athletic Director.

However, none of that is going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, do you think this season can be salvaged? What in your mind would it take to consider this season a marginal success? A win over FSU? 4 or more Big East conference wins?

In my opinion, we can save face with a strong showing against FSU. Lose by 10 points or less and hopefully make it out of the game with minimal injuries. From there, we need to run off a couple of wins in conference. Overall, I would consider a 7-5 campaign a success at this point. If anything, I hope that our senior leaders will step up and help get us to a bowl game.

He's on the Board of Trustees at Florida State. Ain't gonna happen.

And yeah, they tear thru the Big East (the games that count) and make a bowl with a winning record....I'd call that salvaged.

[Grothe4Heisman]

This is the type of positive flow that we all need right now. Let's focus on what can be. At the end of the day we are 2-2. If we had lost that heart-breaker to Nevada and beat Ball State, we wouldn't be in the crisis mode that we are all in right now. 2-2 is 2-2. If we somehow manage to do our annual "pull a game out of our asses" special on Saturday, the entire tone for the rest of the season will change. The most dangerous thing in the world is a desperate animal, cornered, with nothing to lose. I think we see a completely different team on Saturday. Do we win? Probably not. But there is a reason this game opened +14. The "experts" saw something in FSU's 1st half performance that led them to believe that they are somewhat susceptible.

I wouldn't call our previous wins vs. FSU, WVU or UM a "pull a game out of our asses special." We had some special talent on defense and a lot of people on these boards were optimistic going into those games. Now, nearly all of us realize that we have almost no shot going into this FSU game.

BUT... if the proper corrections are made, anything can happen. Hopefully we can call ourselves a second half (of the season team) after this year, though I highly doubt that will happen.

[Bull Martin]

USF needs to be no worse than 7-5 at the end of the season. It can still happen, but there should be blood if it doesn't. Unfortunately It's hard to see only 3 losses down the stretch especially considering we're staring down the barrel of one in 6 days.

[hbryan]

Listen, I want Holtz out of town as much as the rest of you, but he isn't going anywhere right now. I think Doug Woolard needs to go as well, as I alluded to in my post last week about Derrick Brooks being our next Athletic Director.

However, none of that is going to happen anytime soon. In the meantime, do you think this season can be salvaged? What in your mind would it take to consider this season a marginal success? A win over FSU? 4 or more Big East conference wins?

In my opinion, we can save face with a strong showing against FSU. Lose by 10 points or less and hopefully make it out of the game with minimal injuries. From there, we need to run off a couple of wins in conference. Overall, I would consider a 7-5 campaign a success at this point. If anything, I hope that our senior leaders will step up and help get us to a bowl game.

Holtz has to completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, change the philosophy he has used since he got here. He is going at these football games in the conservative mode of I don't want to screw up; I'll bend-but-don't-break, don't go to manned coverage (remember when we did that regularly as a defense), don't bum rush the offensive line to get a sack, drop LB's into zone coverage rather than playing tight to the line and having somone pickup a receiver dropping in late, run when passing is called for to be sure you don't throw an interception, take the FG, take the knee, etc. He needs to change his demeanor from Mister Rogers to Mr. Rambo. He needs to light into coaches and players alike. After all, that's why he rented in Tampa, to be able to move on to the next big job around the corner. Woolard knew it, that's why he felt to retain him he needed to extend him after a crappy season. Without a complete change by Holtz, USF football is doomed for the foreseeable future and Holtz will forever be known as Skippy Kragholtz. Good luck getting your next HC job with that nickname.

[BDYZR]

Not a PRAYER! This team and no one on it has shown me the fire it takes to win, starting with the HEAD COACH.

[El_Toro_86]

Yes it can.

Will it? Doubtful based on the performance we've seen so far. I guess anything is possible though.

[Skingraft]

USF needs to be no worse than 7-5 at the end of the season. It can still happen, but there should be blood if it doesn't. Unfortunately It's hard to see only 3 losses down the stretch especially considering we're staring down the barrel of one in 6 days.

Dude, we are not looking down the barrel, we have the pin pulled and is resting firmly against our ballzack

Edited September 24, 2012 by Skingraft

[Bull Martin]

USF needs to be no worse than 7-5 at the end of the season. It can still happen, but there should be blood if it doesn't. Unfortunately It's hard to see only 3 losses down the stretch especially considering we're staring down the barrel of one in 6 days.

Dude, we are not looking down the barrel, we have the pin pulled and is resting firmly against our ballzack

I hope we win on Saturday just for the mindfuck that will ensue on the boards here. I wouldn't even know how to react

[Skingraft]

USF needs to be no worse than 7-5 at the end of the season. It can still happen, but there should be blood if it doesn't. Unfortunately It's hard to see only 3 losses down the stretch especially considering we're staring down the barrel of one in 6 days.

Dude, we are not looking down the barrel, we have the pin pulled and is resting firmly against our ballzack

I hope we win on Saturday just for the mindfuck that will ensue on the boards here. I wouldn't even know how to react

:roflmao:

May be worse than a lose..... At least we saw that coming..... Lose to Ball State and beat FSU.... this place will melt the server down.... :roflmao: