This is why I still believe in Skip

[Bulls On Parade]

I think he can get things turned around but he has to get rid of Cosh that guy is going to be the death of his head coaching career.

Fitch and the offense has been ok, yeah they do some dumb things but its been the defense that has held this team back.

[snarling Bull]

just so we are clear-- the ship was fine when he got here. The then 12 year old program he inherited wasn't a teardown or a rebuild-- it was a solid program in place.

so any "righting of the ship" is to fix damage he has made himself or if not him, damage from a lack of maintaining/improving what was in place.

i'm calling ********.

hindsight is 20/20, especially with the way Holtz has tanked, but i recall a good plurality of this forum agreeing that Leavitt couldn't get over the 4-win hump in conference play and expressing frustration at the yearly pattern of winning our first 4, 5 or even 6 OOC games only to go on 3+ game skids in conference and finishing every season somewhere 5-8 at the bottom of the BE instead of 1-4 at the top.

there were also significant percentage of people frustrated by the repeated half-ass bowl games we kept going to as a result of our mid-season collapses, and the inability to win any SIGNIFICANT bowl games against BCS-conference teams. take the drubbing in the SunBowl by a 4th string QB, for example. and while nobody was furious that we didnt win our first ever bowl game against NCSt, in retrospect it had become another pattern in Leavitt's resume of being unable to beat BCS teams in bowl games.

there was also MORE than enough criticism of Leavitt's nepotism and insistence on hiring less-than-adequate coordinators from within. Rod Smith, Chico, Gregory.

with the program at it's lowest point NOW, looking back on the Leavitt days seems like utopian paradise. kinda like the girl who's madly in love with a guy who chokeslaps and headbutts her, finally leaves, then finds herself lonely and bored by the vanilla boyfriends who came afterwards... but the reality is he had his share of criticism. let's not be revisionists.

call it BS all you want

you can go on and on about what Leavitt couldn't get done

but the bottom line is he won plenty of games-- maybe not conference games. but he was a winner

he did not get fired for failing to win (supposedly). That means when he left-- there was a working system here in place-- a winning team, attitude, and players.

What does Holtz do? Starts talking crap about how he needs to fix the way things are done. I CALL BS ON THAT

What needed to be changed was all on the field and in particular what we were doing in conference games.

Not only has Skip failed at what needed to be done-- he has proceeded to destroy any winning culture we had going for us.

bottom line-- I thought the Leavitt firing was BS -- they could have worked something out. But someone wanted his ass gone and they got their wish. Maybe they even wanted Skippy at the helm-- don't really care anymore. It's all f**ked up now and I'm pissed.

All of you Skipologists can have him. He took a program that was winning and ran it into the ground. It will soon be underground. When did a Leavitt team lose to Ballstate or Temple?

[snarling Bull]

but he was a winner

what did we win with Leavitt? a conference championship? a decent bowl game? what?

oh, the International Bowl, Pizza Bowl and JackMagic bowl. WOOOOHOOOO!!! WHAT A WINNER!!!

At least he went to a bowl that was not in the bathroom

[BullsFanInTX]

just so we are clear-- the ship was fine when he got here. The then 12 year old program he inherited wasn't a teardown or a rebuild-- it was a solid program in place.

so any "righting of the ship" is to fix damage he has made himself or if not him, damage from a lack of maintaining/improving what was in place.

i'm calling ********.

hindsight is 20/20, especially with the way Holtz has tanked, but i recall a good plurality of this forum agreeing that Leavitt couldn't get over the 4-win hump in conference play and expressing frustration at the yearly pattern of winning our first 4, 5 or even 6 OOC games only to go on 3+ game skids in conference and finishing every season somewhere 5-8 at the bottom of the BE instead of 1-4 at the top.

there were also significant percentage of people frustrated by the repeated half-ass bowl games we kept going to as a result of our mid-season collapses, and the inability to win any SIGNIFICANT bowl games against BCS-conference teams. take the drubbing in the SunBowl by a 4th string QB, for example. and while nobody was furious that we didnt win our first ever bowl game against NCSt, in retrospect it had become another pattern in Leavitt's resume of being unable to beat BCS teams in bowl games.

there was also MORE than enough criticism of Leavitt's nepotism and insistence on hiring less-than-adequate coordinators from within. Rod Smith, Chico, Gregory.

with the program at it's lowest point NOW, looking back on the Leavitt days seems like utopian paradise. kinda like the girl who's madly in love with a guy who chokeslaps and headbutts her, finally leaves, then finds herself lonely and bored by the vanilla boyfriends who came afterwards... but the reality is he had his share of criticism. let's not be revisionists.

call it BS all you want

you can go on and on about what Leavitt couldn't get done

but the bottom line is he won plenty of games-- maybe not conference games. but he was a winner

he did not get fired for failing to win (supposedly). That means when he left-- there was a working system here in place-- a winning team, attitude, and players.

What does Holtz do? Starts talking crap about how he needs to fix the way things are done. I CALL BS ON THAT

What needed to be changed was all on the field and in particular what we were doing in conference games.

Not only has Skip failed at what needed to be done-- he has proceeded to destroy any winning culture we had going for us.

bottom line-- I thought the Leavitt firing was BS -- they could have worked something out. But someone wanted his ass gone and they got their wish. Maybe they even wanted Skippy at the helm-- don't really care anymore. It's all f**ked up now and I'm pissed.

All of you Skipologists can have him. He took a program that was winning and ran it into the ground. It will soon be underground. When did a Leavitt team lose to Ballstate or Temple?

Correct. A Leavitt team obliterated MAC type programs. Not once did a Leavitt team lose to a Ball State type program. There is no excuse for USF to EVER lose to Ball State or Temple. You think USF gets leftover recruits. Ball St. gets leftovers of leftovers of leftovers. Temple still has MAC players also.

[Quo Vadis]

However you want to characterize the program when skip took over you cannot argue 8-5, 5-7, 2-4 ....

If you believe there is a lack of talent that means that skip's most talented team was when he took over and that as the former leavitt recruits have stayed in the program they have not progressed and the kids he recruited are not yet ready to contribute. This calls for giving Skip 2 more years until his recruits are juniors and seniors.

I don't believe it's a talent issue (not when we lose to ball state, temple and in a dogfight against Nevada). Watch the team, forget who recruited them. This team can't block, can't tackle, can't field a kick if touches the ground, can't return a kick, drops the ball on punts and is undisciplined. We always need more talent but that is not a good football team out there.

Excellent post. Cheers.

[Quo Vadis]

Who cares about the academics of our players, last time I checked the SEC was not focused on getting their players to get better grades...

Me.

Life is more important than football. Not to mention the SEC has a reputation of below-average academics as well as off-the-field arrests. And if that's not enough, look at Stanford, Notre Dame, USC, etc; you can have very high academic standards and still win at a high level.

I'm not saying we need to be NC contenders and have Ivy standards. But, 100% of the time I will trade a few wins for players who graduate and represent the university well.

I would bet that USF's academic ranking (as measured by US News and the like) is about the same, maybe even lower than, the SEC average. That is no slag on our alma mater but it shows you can win big on the football field and still have good academics.

[Bull94]

just so we are clear-- the ship was fine when he got here. The then 12 year old program he inherited wasn't a teardown or a rebuild-- it was a solid program in place.

so any "righting of the ship" is to fix damage he has made himself or if not him, damage from a lack of maintaining/improving what was in place.

i'm calling ********.

hindsight is 20/20, especially with the way Holtz has tanked, but i recall a good plurality of this forum agreeing that Leavitt couldn't get over the 4-win hump in conference play and expressing frustration at the yearly pattern of winning our first 4, 5 or even 6 OOC games only to go on 3+ game skids in conference and finishing every season somewhere 5-8 at the bottom of the BE instead of 1-4 at the top.

there were also significant percentage of people frustrated by the repeated half-ass bowl games we kept going to as a result of our mid-season collapses, and the inability to win any SIGNIFICANT bowl games against BCS-conference teams. take the drubbing in the SunBowl by a 4th string QB, for example. and while nobody was furious that we didnt win our first ever bowl game against NCSt, in retrospect it had become another pattern in Leavitt's resume of being unable to beat BCS teams in bowl games.

there was also MORE than enough criticism of Leavitt's nepotism and insistence on hiring less-than-adequate coordinators from within. Rod Smith, Chico, Gregory.

with the program at it's lowest point NOW, looking back on the Leavitt days seems like utopian paradise. kinda like the girl who's madly in love with a guy who chokeslaps and headbutts her, finally leaves, then finds herself lonely and bored by the vanilla boyfriends who came afterwards... but the reality is he had his share of criticism. let's not be revisionists.

call it BS all you want

you can go on and on about what Leavitt couldn't get done

but the bottom line is he won plenty of games-- maybe not conference games. but he was a winner

he did not get fired for failing to win (supposedly). That means when he left-- there was a working system here in place-- a winning team, attitude, and players.

What does Holtz do? Starts talking crap about how he needs to fix the way things are done. I CALL BS ON THAT

What needed to be changed was all on the field and in particular what we were doing in conference games.

Not only has Skip failed at what needed to be done-- he has proceeded to destroy any winning culture we had going for us.

bottom line-- I thought the Leavitt firing was BS -- they could have worked something out. But someone wanted his ass gone and they got their wish. Maybe they even wanted Skippy at the helm-- don't really care anymore. It's all f**ked up now and I'm pissed.

Leavitt lost his senior 4 year starting QB to injury in game 3 of his last season. that's what programs like ours build for. we don't reload like big programs. we build for a shot at the conference champ once every 3 or 4 years.unfortunately the most important player on his team was lost early in the most important year of the cycle.

skip has a 4 year starter with 3 years under him and 15 returning starters with 24 seniors. this is the year we should be competing for conference champ.

[DELdaBull]

Only thing that will fix this is Ws. I don't really see them happening.

[Quo Vadis]

what did we win with Leavitt? a conference championship? a decent bowl game? what?

oh, the International Bowl, Pizza Bowl and JackMagic bowl. WOOOOHOOOO!!! WHAT A WINNER!!!

I was glad to see Leavitt go, but you unjustly belittle what were solid achievements given the stage of development of our football program.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Esteban879194

[Mission9]

what did we win with Leavitt? a conference championship? a decent bowl game? what?

oh, the International Bowl, Pizza Bowl and JackMagic bowl. WOOOOHOOOO!!! WHAT A WINNER!!!

I was glad to see Leavitt go, but you unjustly belittle what were solid achievements given the stage of development of our football program.

I agree. People seem to think if you point out what was good that somehow he was your favorite coach of all time.... So not true. I warned people that for all his faults and failures, there were plenty of coaches who were doing worse with programs much older than ours. Now we have one! Edited October 11, 2012 by Mission9