Is it the talent?

[litt2usf]

There were some (I don't want to use that word too heavily) flashes of brilliance by the personnel on the field yesterday, whether it was a true reading of our talent and athleticism or a mere fluke by catching McNeese off guard...

 

But reported from VD5:

"I don't take Doug Graber too seriously, but in the third quarter he said that Willie Taggart had told him that the talent level at USF was, well, not as good as he was hoping."

 

I have a hard time believing our athletes can't go toe-to-toe with a team we were 3 TD favorites against. 

 

With that said, was it really just a piss poor performance as CWT said, or do we not have the guns to pull it off?  If the latter, can CWT do more with less?

[Apis Bull]

I think our secondary talent is awful and for some reason last night, our defense had no aggressiveness.  They would stop and wait for the players to come to them.

[JTrue]

Davis, Price, Lynch, Watson, Giddens, Mims, McFarland, Reiter, Chandler, Lattimore, Cliett, Robbins...

[slick1ru2]

I heard that too and I think he meant the areas that lost a lot of seniors and have inexperienced players starting like in the defensive backfield. I think it was a bunch of things, a its not talent as much as technique and experience is lacking.

[Rocky Style]

I saw guys kind of sulking around long before the game was truly over. I think it is the lack of pride as much as the talent. I saw eveld and lynch trying to fire people up but it didn't work.

[litt2usf]

It will be interesting to see if Taggart can get these guys to 'compete' if this is the case.  I can imagine the atmosphere on the field was just as listless as it was in the stands

 

Begs to answer the question.... would you rather have inexperienced true freshman who are highly motivated to get out there and make a difference, or moderately talented Jr/Sr scholarship athletes who stand there with their hands on their hips waiting to make a move...

 

Auman said he expects to see some change in the lineup.  That could be interesting come Saturday... sadly, not enough to make a difference I think...

[dausfbulls11]

giddens may be the most overrated player in the history of our program, and we have had a few

[Rocky Style]

I don't know but judging by what Taggart said after the game, they are going to watch the tape and find anyone who didn't go 100%. He wants guys who want to play and I agree. We are literally at the rock bottom for this program so I would start there.

[FatDaddyBull]

It is a large part of talent not being there. The O Line run blocked pretty well, was horrible in pass protection. QB position is clearly lacking if Floyd looked like the best even in practice. Defensive line clearly overrated given the lack of pass rush.

Who looked talented yesterday? Shaw, Cliett. Lynch did actually get some pressure at times he wasn't invisible like the rest of the line.

Even our punter was awful. It's amazing we can't get someone to average 40 as a dang punter.

[WoolyBully]

Yes, a big part of what we're going to have to overcome as we go forward is the talent we have. It doesn't matter if you say "well, he had offers to play at Auburn or Georgia or LSU or Michigan, but he chose USF"...it's one thing to have a team show interest, quite another FOR WHERE YOU PLAY. There is room for improvement across the board. This is, for all practical purposes, ground zero.