Is Lou Holtz blind?

[zarnozdabull]

Why does everyone here expect the freshmen and sophomores that Holtz recruited to dominate college football?

Hyperbole aside, we've had success pretty quickly with the last two redshirt freshmen we've brought in to start - cut our fan base a little slack on that one. Granted, they weren't Holtz' recruits, but Floyd's the first Holtz-recruited QB that was never a walk-on that started for us ... consider expectations tempered now, though.

Grothe was a program changer but still threw as many picks as TDS. Daniels didn't have true success at QB till his junior and senior seasons and I remember his Soph season was AWFUL. He just made a huge splash beating FSU with 2 long passes and a long rush. Both still don't have the numbers that Blackwell had at QB here so its not like these guys came in and became conference leaders in anything other than total yards.

[GaUSFBull]

Why does everyone here expect the freshmen and sophomores that Holtz recruited to dominate college football?

Hyperbole aside, we've had success pretty quickly with the last two redshirt freshmen we've brought in to start - cut our fan base a little slack on that one. Granted, they weren't Holtz' recruits, but Floyd's the first Holtz-recruited QB that was never a walk-on that started for us ... consider expectations tempered now, though.

Grothe was a program changer but still threw as many picks as TDS. Daniels didn't have true success at QB till his junior and senior seasons and I remember his Soph season was AWFUL. He just made a huge splash beating FSU with 2 long passes and a long rush. Both still don't have the numbers that Blackwell had at QB here so its not like these guys came in and became conference leaders in anything other than total yards.

True success? We've had that ... at all?

My point regarding "success" was that Grothe and Daniels won some big games early in their careers as freshmen. For Grothe, think WVU in 2006. For Daniels, think FSU and WVU in 2009. All of those games served to get us or keep us on the map at one point. That's all, I'm not bringing this up to debate their careers.

[zarnozdabull]

True,

watching Floyd play you can tell this is the QB Holtz needs to run his system. Unfortunately BJD is ideal for a spread offense that Leavitt ran, but not the i-formation/wing/pistol offense Holtz runs. I actually like watching a USF QB stand in the pocket and deliver a pass like Floyd has done in the last games. The kid was the 3rd stringer so I wasn't expecting much but I dont know I can see how Holtz just didn't inherit the right personnel for his offense. Little by little its getting there IMO.

[Bull94]

True,

watching Floyd play you can tell this is the QB Holtz needs to run his system. Unfortunately BJD is ideal for a spread offense that Leavitt ran, but not the i-formation/wing/pistol offense Holtz runs. I actually like watching a USF QB stand in the pocket and deliver a pass like Floyd has done in the last games. The kid was the 3rd stringer so I wasn't expecting much but I dont know I can see how Holtz just didn't inherit the right personnel for his offense. Little by little its getting there IMO.

great coaches adapt their system.

Floyd, whether or not he's a 3rd stringer, is the only scholarship QB holtz has signed.

He certainly likes to check down and he throws a lot of short high risk low reward passes that Holtz' offense demands. of course the offensive philosophy itself is a travesty. great college teams are built on great defenses and running games. passing games are secondary. unfortunately our offense calls 35+ passes per game and runs up tempo which puts a lot of pressure on QB and defense.

[crambone]

I don't know why you guys bothered watching the game. I went out to eat and played laser tag with my 12 year-old nephew. I didn't even check the score on my phone. I had a much better time, too!

I will be there on Saturday, supporting my team. But there's no way I am going to subject myself to this on TV when there are other better things to do.

[smazza]

Did you hear Lou Holtz at halftime? Making excuses as to the third string quarterback and telling everyone how his son is a winner? Tell me again how your son is a winner Lou! Maybe you better look at his dismal record for the last two years. Yeah, if I made observations like that, I'd be worrying about losing my job at ESPN too! Pathetic!

he shouldnt even discuss his son

[smazza]

I don't know why you guys bothered watching the game. I went out to eat and played laser tag with my 12 year-old nephew. I didn't even check the score on my phone. I had a much better time, too!

I will be there on Saturday, supporting my team. But there's no way I am going to subject myself to this on TV when there are other better things to do.

i understand your point

usf has really lost it's fan base

[MikeG]

the offense played decently for the most part while we had BJ in there this season.

the problem-- or difference more to the point- between Floyd and Grothe/BJ as RS Freshman starters is the defense he's had backing him up. Our defense has been terrible all season long-- especially pass defense. We've given up more leads and more 3rd and longs than I've ever seen this season. Our offense hasn't helped much either-- tending to run some sort of quick attack that leads to very low time of possession (TOP) and forcing our poor defense to be on the field far more often. It's a vicious cycle and one that never seemed to be addressed by our coaching staff. Why in the world-- when we have a lead and are driving the ball-- are we hiking with 15+ seconds left on a play clock? Even back when we were running the no huddle offense that kept the defense on the field unable to substitute (Blackwell days)-- we ran that clock down all the time. WE used to do very well in TOP and that only let's the defense be more rested and ready for the next battle.

If this sounds like very basic concepts-- you're correct. And that is very frustrating to watch and a primary reason I feel our team has regressed under the new coaching staff. I would say our talent is decent for the league we are in-- good enough that solid coaching would be able to position them to win games and hold leads. Yet-- we do not. It is hard to blame the kids who are playing for all our woes based on this.

Dr. Lou can blather on and on about how successful his son has been at UConn and ECU all he wants. He knows that his son is seriously blowing it at USF and he has no one to blame but himself. We've given this man a huge contract and everything he's asked for (much more than we ever gave Leavitt to work with)-- and he simply is not getting the job done-- not even the relatively easy stuff like clock management-- and it is killing our team and our fan base.

The one thing I am more concerned about right now is how well he is has done recruiting. The shear lack of talent breaking through and taken on starting roles is somewhat shocking. We always used to have some guys starting early because they were simply the best players. If he is holding the better guys back he is doing a disservice to the team. If he is not, he is failing on the recruiting trail. Either way-- the situation reeks of ineptitude and we need changes ASAP.