Former players venting about Skip

[Danm1983]

I agree with Matt's post for the most part. Except there are ways around the non-starting talent level excuse. Boise State does it, Cincinnati does it, Rutgers is doing it. In some cases, one player can make a huge difference, like Houston (Kevin Kolb or Case Keenum) or UCF (Kevin Smith). But in other cases where a team isn't a huge brand name and doesn't bring in top 25 recruiting classes, it falls on the coaching. Now I understand the competition being played against Boise, UCF, Houston, etc is much different, but they're also recruiting people to play to that competition.

If Cincinnati (and even UConn a few years back) can recruit and play with non-spectacular talent, USF sure as hell can...with the right coaching.

[mviusa]

http://www.facebook....101315350099701

Matt Grothe tonight "Rant time....as disappointed as me and many others are this USF football season, people need to hush about the "we have the talent to compete with anyone excuse".....your right our FIRST string team can compete with anyone, much like when I played and much like it's going to be for a while......We don't have the luxury of some teams IE Bama, LSU, USC etc etc to have third and fourth string guys who would start at most D1 schools.....we have a significant drop off and our backups are guys that could of gone to smaller schools and started right away....they are guys who need a few years to develop and then play....that being said people wonder why we have had midseason slumps, INJURIES are a huge huge huge part about why this happens....we are a very young program and people need to realize this.....that also being said I ,nor anyone but the guys on the field and in the locker room have the answers as to why we have been so bad at times this year.....people have the right to be upset about how we have played this year and they should be, but also teams go through this at times and hopefully in the long run it will only make us better...."

Listen, I respect and appreciate MG a ton but I don't believe this at all and frankly I don't think he does either. He just posted a list of excuses for this season and none apply. We're talking about competing and winning against Ball State and Temple for god's sake. We're talking about being competitive in the BE where we have been competitive for a number of years and where he and his teamates were particularly. We get the same level of players (and if not, that is another Holtz problem) as everyone else in the BE. We're talking about an effort in every game that matches the FSU effort but without the turnovers on our end. We haven't had significant injury problems that have sidelined a large number of starters this year or last year. Christ almighty, he makes is sound like we're one year removed from the trailers at 4202 Fowler. I wholeheartedly agree with the portion of the last sentence that I have hightlighted, but remember that we went through this at the end of last year and there is a BIG, BIG problem when it occurs over consecutive years. If this is the kind of "coach speak" excuses we might hear from MG as a coach, then thanks but no thanks.

^+1

[Paisa el Toro]

thats sad, skip is a nice guy from what i hear.

Legitimately nice too; it's not an act. I really wanted Holtz to succeed, I just don't see it happening here at USF with what I've seen from his coaching and recruiting philosophy. Holtz is antithetical to Jim Leavitt on the "passion for USF" scale.

[Skingraft]

I think we all agree we wanted him to succeed.... Unfortunately this is the second time he's failed at the BCS level

[usfvictor]

what was the first time? When he was at UConn they weren't BCS.

[GaUSFBull]

what was the first time? When he was at UConn they weren't BCS.

Maybe he's talking about his OC time at South Carolina? Lou demoted him from that.

[Bull Dozer]

we need a Black coach that can identify with our players.

If you don't think that matters you're fooling yourself. Charlie Strong sells this and the number of black coaches on his staff on the recruiting trail. A young black coach with good recruiting ties in FL like Magee or Taggart would kill in recruiting down here.....

[MikeG]

I don't care if the guy is purple-- I just want a good coach. So do the players and recruits.

[gobulls83]

Yeah, Urban Meyer, Pete Carroll, Bob Stoops, Brian Kelley, Mack Brown, Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, Les Miles, Nick Saban ... all of them really need to be black if they are going to have any kind of sustained success in their careers.

[Bull Dozer]

No one said you had to be black to have success, but I guess it is the time of year to build strawmen.