USF Football: year 1 on the bus. Could it have been better?

[Flowers4Heisman]

It's still eating at me. And I'm sure it's the same for some of you Bulls. I felt like somebody took me out to the middle desert and left me with a bottle of water. Now what?

 

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Here are my questions regarding year 1:

 

1) Did CWT and company have any chance for success at all? Were we fans who thought we could have made a bowl fooling ourselves? Were we that bare that we couldn't beat some of the teams that we lost to? (This question is about our players from this past year.)

 

I know it's a "new system" but as an average fan of the game, to me it's running the ball or passing the ball. I had never seen USF football this bad.

 

 

2) The defense was fine. I don't think we could have done that much better. So this question is about the offense. What do you think a year of that kind of football establishes for our team? At the end of the year, I could not say, "at least we have that and it looks better than when we started." What did we improve?

 

I just feel something is really fundamentally wrong with the offense. And I have serious doubts about how it gets fixed next year.

 

[Bull Matrix]

Transition years suck!! And USF fans got a 1st hand experience of what a true transition year is when a new coaching staff overhalls the offense to fit their style of play. I like that CWT stuck with what he knows on offense. He didnt try to change his own style and that is why I have a lot of respect for him. I feel bad for the players that dont fit his system, but that is a just a hard lesson in life.  The new hiring of the OC from SF even has me more hyped for nexts season. 

[WoolyBully]

People interpret "rebuilding" differently. To some, it means starting at ground zero. To others, it means a 6-6 season (at worst). And as fans, it's easy to fall for the hype ("get on da bus") because we all want to win. And when the wins don't come...

 

There's another thread on here about expectations. Would that be wildly enthusiastic and not very realistic expectations or are we talking managed expectations? Are you a fan if you are objective and reasonable in predictions, or is the price of fandom nothing but blind faith? 

 

I think USF will make strides in the offseason, and I think the offense will get better. If for no other reason than familiarity and practice. But I'm not holding out for a winning season. Our average margin of loss this year was 20 points. Don't want to lose a lot, but when we do, hopefully the scores are a tad closer. 

 

BTW: whaddya think of the rah-rah preseason hype? It's going to be interesting to see what comes out of the marketing folks as summer rolls around. 

[hm101]

Look at Strong, Cutcliffe, Jerry Kill, Jim Harbaugh (07-2010) at Stanford. 

 

These are how recoveries go. 

 

We didn't win because we weren't in a position to do so. I'm not worried at all. 

 

I like the Wulff hire. I may put money on the bulls this year to do something special. 

[Bull Dozer]

I predicted our ceiling at 4 wins so I wasn't surprised at how the year went. For anyone paying attention after BJ went down the expectations should have been low....

[Bulls On Parade]

Lack of production on offense shouldn't have been that surprising we had eveld and Floyd and putting in a new system.

They looked as bad if not worse last year when bj was injured.

Cwt will get things turned around I have faith.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Bulls On Parade

[Flowers4Heisman]

BTW: whaddya think of the rah-rah preseason hype? It's going to be interesting to see what comes out of the marketing folks as summer rolls around. 

 

I guess that was part that left me in the desert. I mean this past season had a ton of hype with the slogans, videos, photos, and whatever else. You had to be in a cave to not get fired up.

[Sellular1]

The key is going to be in recruiting, and from what I hear this is an area where CWT excels. If he's able to bring in the type of players he wants, we will win games. If he can't get the guys he wants because our overall program sux, then we will continue to be mediocre.

[Skingraft]

I expect 12 wins every every, that being said, I was proud of the D and left confused, not disappointed, by the O

[WoolyBully]

 

BTW: whaddya think of the rah-rah preseason hype? It's going to be interesting to see what comes out of the marketing folks as summer rolls around. 

 

I guess that was part that left me in the desert. I mean this past season had a ton of hype with the slogans, videos, photos, and whatever else. You had to be in a cave to not get fired up.

 

My point was that there may have been more who bought into the hype - and suffered a greater let down - than those who opted for a "wait and see" approach. I'm certain the university felt some measure of pressure to gen interest, coming off such disappointing back to back seasons. And it could be that the university itself believed the turnaround was going to be considerably much faster in coming. It will be interesting to see what approach they roll out this summer, as there are those who believe in the once-bitten-twice-shy school of thought.