USF Postgame Discussion

lv20gt

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heyhellowhatsup said:
OU lost to UH a couple years back early in the season and ended up making the playoff.
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No, they played in the sugar bowl that year. The previous year they lost to UT and made the playoffs. The following year they lost to Iowa state and made the playoffs. The common thread? Really successful seasons. They weren't coming off missing a bowl game the previous. No, the season isn't over but people need to stop pretending like this is a reaction to just one game. It isn't.

Texwood said:
It was an oddly officiated game. My biggest complaint is that USF was routinely blocking downfield prior to the ball being caught on those bubble screens. That is offensive PI, yet it was only flagged once that I can recall.
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As long as the pass is behind the line of scrimmage you can block prior to the ball being caught. It's why when we sometimes have a forward pitch that we don't get called for pass interference despite blocks that we are making.
 

alagold

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Heisman's Ghost said:
That's the idea! Complete the circle now let's move on to Pitt. I hope playing Penn State will have knocked some of the starch out of them because heaven knows we need a few breaks to go our way. The absolute worst thing would be for the effects from a nearby hurricane to affect the game...uh wait a minute.
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At least we didn't have rain as an excuse.Then we wouldn't have 600 yds of Offense and lose--er, we did have 600 yds and still lost --(also lost also the 3rd down %,the STs play,the TO battle ) hmmm
 
Scubapro

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lv20gt said:
No, they played in the sugar bowl that year. The previous year they lost to UT and made the playoffs. The following year they lost to Iowa state and made the playoffs. The common thread? Really successful seasons. They weren't coming off missing a bowl game the previous. No, the season isn't over but people need to stop pretending like this is a reaction to just one game. It isn't.



As long as the pass is behind the line of scrimmage you can block prior to the ball being caught. It's why when we sometimes have a forward pitch that we don't get called for pass interference despite blocks that we are making.
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Several I saw were not behind the line and were run as a pick.
 
slugboy

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Looking back, I think we’re about where I thought we were before the season, but possibly worse on special teams.

We could have won the game, and I think if we played ten times that we’d win six of them. This was one of the four losses, and there are a few reasons.

Special teams is clearly one of them. I can’t believe we practice much or well if we consistently play this badly. We aren’t bottom 10 teams in recruiting or talent, but we’re there on special teams. Even that Harvin 20-ish yard punt was a killer. There is no reason for special teams to be in the bottom of the country.

We lost the turnover battle 3-1. You won’t win many of those games. For the number of passes we throw, we get a lot of interceptions. Marshall seemed to have problems with his grip.

On the flip side, we came up with one interception, but had multiple opportunities.

As our defense improves, we should make more interceptions, but the offensive turnovers are a theme that have been here for ten years. CPJ shouldn’t be surprised any longer—it’s something that needs to be coached. It’s something that Tiki Barber had to be coached on in the NFL and change how he held the ball. It’s something that our guys can learn.

Losing Benson, Carpenter, and Curry hurt. Losing any one of them would hurt, but losing all three hurt a lot. I think Carpenter’s targeting call was an awful call.

I think we played well on defense in the first half, with Curry in. There were a few plays where he did spy the QB, and I’m not sure why we dropped that after he went out. Carpenter had one INT and may have had more if he’d stayed in.

USF is an explosive team with a lot of team speed. They scored a ton last year on UCF, who held Auburn to 27 on New Year’s Day. Individual mistakes all over the field kept adding up for us. Our offense puts pressure on our opponents to play mistake-free football, but our mistakes have been the causes of our last few losing seasons.

USF didn’t have the DL talent they had last year, so they crowded the middle to take away the dive. The outside should have been open to us all game. We should have been able to hit the hitch pass instead of throwing it in the dirt. We seemed to rock with Oliver in the game.

I’m baffled that we don’t execute on simple plays like the hitch pass. I can’t believe we aren’t perfect on them in practice. Who would let that slide?

We shook up our offensive line this week, and we had several USF players go unblocked, including on passing plays. I understand that we’re still learning the defense, but we have two OL coaches, and we still have these kinds of problems.

I expect our defense to improve through the season. I also think there are issues on offense and special teams that aren’t being addressed. I don’t think it’s all Jimmies and Joes.

Looking forward to Pitt. We have the talent to win, but it’s a coin flip. We need to get closer to playing perfect ball.


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Augusta_Jacket

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I took some time to digest this one before posting. To say I am disappointed is understatement. I hate to say that this was not unexpected to me. We are playing in a new D system with guys recruited to the old D system. For the kool aid drinkers who thought this system was a magic pill, we now know better. CNW has my confidence still. As I said before, I think he was a good hire. I don't think he was a great hire, but I didn't see GT being in position to get a great hire right away. I do think, however, that CNW can become a great hire if we give him time to develop his system here. Increasingly, however, I am losing confidence that our fanbase is capable of making rational assessments of our football program.

I am as big a fan of CPJ as anyone, yet I understand that ultimately he is responsible for the entire team. If we have another 5 win season, or worse, I have my doubts he will survive the winter here. I think we still have a chance to win at least 6 more games.

My takeaways on Offense:
1. The QB situation is solid, if not spectacular. We don't have JeT 2.o, but the TQM/TO combo can win games for us.
2. The BB sistuation is similar, but the backups need to get better with their blocking.
3. The OL is talented but spotty in execution. This has to get better.
4. WR is very promising. Camp looks like the real deal.
5. AB is outstanding, if we can get it to them. I am not worried about this group, even with the late game fumble Saturday.

My takeaways on Defense:
1. DL is spotty, with some promise.
2. LB is above average, but needs to execute better.
3. Secondary has the potential to be the strength of our D.
4. We still can't tackle.
5. We are still getting pressure on the QB with no results because we can't finish the drill.
6. I was assured that CNW would not line up DBs that far off the receivers, and have them backpedal at the snp, but he does.
I spoke with a few of you in person at the game a week ago and told you I was less than impressed with our D in that game, in spite of the score and gaudy numbers. The sheer amount of missed tackles was going to hurt us against a better offense. yesterday they did.

My takeaways on Special Teams:
1. KO coverage is a dumpster fire.
2. FGs will be a gut check for us this year.
3. Our punter, despite his shank, is all world.
4. We really need to fix a lot of problems here in a hurry.

As a whole, I came away reassured that our offense can win games, our defense can lose them, and our special teams are the wrong kind of special right now. That's an improvement from last year when our O wasn't always capable of winning a game on it's own. This season is salvageable, and I won't give up on the team because of a bad loss.
 

Animal02

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slugboy said:
Looking back, I think we’re about where I thought we were before the season, but possibly worse on special teams.

We could have won the game, and I think if we played ten times that we’d win six of them. This was one of the four losses, and there are a few reasons.

Special teams is clearly one of them. I can’t believe we practice much or well if we consistently play this badly. We aren’t bottom 10 teams in recruiting or talent, but we’re there on special teams. Even that Harvin 20-ish yard punt was a killer. There is no reason for special teams to be in the bottom of the country.

We lost the turnover battle 3-1. You won’t win many of those games. For the number of passes we throw, we get a lot of interceptions. Marshall seemed to have problems with his grip.

On the flip side, we came up with one interception, but had multiple opportunities.

As our defense improves, we should make more interceptions, but the offensive turnovers are a theme that have been here for ten years. CPJ shouldn’t be surprised any longer—it’s something that needs to be coached. It’s something that Tiki Barber had to be coached on in the NFL and change how he held the ball. It’s something that our guys can learn.

Losing Benson, Carpenter, and Curry hurt. Losing any one of them would hurt, but losing all three hurt a lot. I think Carpenter’s targeting call was an awful call.

I think we played well on defense in the first half, with Curry in. There were a few plays where he did spy the QB, and I’m not sure why we dropped that after he went out. Carpenter had one INT and may have had more if he’d stayed in.

USF is an explosive team with a lot of team speed. They scored a ton last year on UCF, who held Auburn to 27 on New Year’s Day. Individual mistakes all over the field kept adding up for us. Our offense puts pressure on our opponents to play mistake-free football, but our mistakes have been the causes of our last few losing seasons.

USF didn’t have the DL talent they had last year, so they crowded the middle to take away the dive. The outside should have been open to us all game. We should have been able to hit the hitch pass instead of throwing it in the dirt. We seemed to rock with Oliver in the game.

I’m baffled that we don’t execute on simple plays like the hitch pass. I can’t believe we aren’t perfect on them in practice. Who would let that slide?

We shook up our offensive line this week, and we had several USF players go unblocked, including on passing plays. I understand that we’re still learning the defense, but we have two OL coaches, and we still have these kinds of problems.

I expect our defense to improve through the season. I also think there are issues on offense and special teams that aren’t being addressed. I don’t think it’s all Jimmies and Joes.

Looking forward to Pitt. We have the talent to win, but it’s a coin flip. We need to get closer to playing perfect ball.


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Some fumbles are just part of the system....hands off, pitches....but these fumble by a ball carrier like yesterday are frustrating.
 
awbuzz

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4shotB said:
In our case, if our 3 star kid isn't doing his job, i'd much rather go with a 2 star who follows instruction. What difference does it make what the kid's recruiting ranking was if he doesn't take to coaching? If all your kids are not following instructions, then you are really not coaching them. Not everyone who has the job title of "teacher" is actually good at teaching.
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Have you been or are you a teacher/coach?

Sometimes the studs are a bit cocky and don't do as taught/coached.
 
jacket_fan

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lv20gt said:
No, but an 11 point loss, two KOR TDs allowed, 10 point blown 4th quarter lead, after missing two of the past three bowl seasons = HC problem.
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The blown 4th quarter leads from yesterday and last year are confounding. I'm with the rest of ya'll about having the ghost of the UT game last year haunting this team. It did feel eerily familiar.

Is this a conditioning problem? Not only physical, but mental? The D did not put up much of a fight in the fourth quarter. And the O just seemed to fizzle. I thought I read that Johnson worked them hard this summer.

Another thought I had was that, after watching two of your teammates ejected for the stupid targeting rule, maybe you get gun shy about tackling. I have yet to watch the replay, but the fourth quarter was physically sickening for me. My stomach was getting to me. I was watching the game with a former Tech player. Our comments went from feeling really good to what possible scenario would have to happen for Tech to pull out the victory in the fourth.

Coaches and players need to regroup this week and get focused. Woody and his assistants need to use the shellacking Saturday to motivate these kids and come up with a game-plan that can stop a simple wide receiver screen and can get pressure on the QB. The young defensive backs will have to mature quickly for this defense to start shutting down the offenses they face the rest of the season.
 
4shotB

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awbuzz said:
Have you been or are you a teacher/coach?

Sometimes the studs are a bit cocky and don't do as taught/coached.
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actually I have coached youth basketball but that is not applicable to this discussion. I am a HS teacher now and a good one IF the student wants to learn. If he/she doesn't then I am probably not but there are no real mechanisms for handling a student who is disinterested in the topic.

Prior to teaching, I was in management. A long time ago, somebody told me all performance issues boil down to "Can't" do it or "Won't" do it. If somebody was in a job and had performance issues, they were coached. They either improved or if not, I had to decide if the issues was "can't" or "won't". If I thought they had done their best but was in the wrong role for whatever reason, they were demoted or reassigned. If it was "won't" do it, then they were "freed up to pursue other opportunities" and somebody else was given the job. But a "stud who was too cocky and didn't do as taught or coached" was handled according to the above process. I found that I had to do it less and less as time went on. You have to be clear about your expectations.
 

bke1984

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lv20gt said:
No, but an 11 point loss, two KOR TDs allowed, 10 point blown 4th quarter lead, after missing two of the past three bowl seasons = HC problem.
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The offense was fine except for a Sr. AB dropping the ball for no apparent reason. We put too much on that phase of our team and basically need them to play perfect for us to win right now. 38 should really be enough to win.

The ST problem is real...we’ve been horrid in that phase most of CPJ’s tenure. Gotta have a dedicated coach. When we had one and played starters on those units we were noticeably better...lots of blocked kicks, more return TDs, etc. But apparently we need two O line coaches more...

The defense has been consistently bad too, however I do think we finally have a coordinator over there that will make a positive change...but it doesn’t happen in one FBS game...it takes time.

If we were going to fire CPJ because of defense we should have done it last year. At this point we need to go ahead and give the new D a chance to develop before we blow the whole thing up.
 
Techster

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Couple of thoughts here:

I wrote last week that GT and USF have pretty much recruited about the same the last 5 years (time frame of contributing SAs). I believe the average (from 247) was like 50's for GT and 60's for USF. There's not much difference at all when two teams recruit at those bands. I also wrote that when teams recruit that closely, coaching, and having special talent usually is the difference.

Well, we saw it Saturday. Blake Barnett, for all his struggles at previous stops, was still a 5 star recruit. You have to have pretty good physical talents to get to that level, and he certainly was a difference maker for them Saturday with his arm and legs. Charlie Strong, despite what happened at Texas, is still a good coach. He certainly had his special teams more prepared than we did, and he made just enough adjustments to come back from 10 points down in the 4th quarter.

Here's the reality of the situation for GT right now:

We've got good coaches, and our SAs are actual STUDENT athletes, but the reality that GT finds ourselves in is that the margin for error is very small regardless if we're playing an ACC team, or a non Power 5 team. We can't give up 2 returns for TDs, and turn the ball over 3 times and expect to win. That was eventually a 21 pt swing for us. When margin for error is that small, we can't gift the other team 21 points.

The 2014 season is a great example of how making the most of the "small things" can turn a season. Butker, who's now playing in the NFL, boots everything through the endzone and we never had to worry about returns...oh, and pretty much anything under 50 yards seemed like almost a gimme. We had special talent at QB (JeT, who spent time in the NFL), WR (Smelter and Waller both NFL guys), RB (Days, and Laskey...Laskey spent a year in the NFL), and All World Shaq Mason at RG.

If we don't clean up the small things (keeping contain on the edge on defense, holding on to the ball on offense, maintaining lane responsibility on special teams, etc.), 2018 is going to be more like 2017 and 2015 than 2014 and 2016.
 

TheTechGuy

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I think it is also important to remember: (1)We lost a close game on the road; (2) To a team that won 10 games last year, finished ranked, and will likely be ranked again in a couple of weeks; (3) With our backup QB and BB playing a large portion of the game; (4) With three starting defenders out for some of the game, including both starting safeties out for a large part of the game.

We need to play better on ST. Thankfully, the next 10 teams will not have an Olympic level sprinter returning kickoffs.

We may be bad this year, but one loss early is not enough proof just yet.
 
Vespidae

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TheTechGuy said:
I think it is also important to remember: (1)We lost a close game on the road; (2) To a team that won 10 games last year, finished ranked, and will likely be ranked again in a couple of weeks.
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Valid point. On closer examination, USF won last year against opponents with a combined W-L record of 63-85. Eight of the teams they faced had losing records. Five won 3 or fewer games. Not exactly Alabama.

My point here is this is a game we should have won. With the kids on the team today. But as a previous poster said, the margin for error is very slim ... so we lost.
 
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