With the likes of Mike Ford and Aston Samuels in the back field, Jackson, Johnson, and Edwards playing WR and Matt Grothe this offense looks impressive.  It is the type of offense that could give D coordinators sleepless nights.  It is not as if their O coordinator counter parts will sleep any better knowing they must face our defense!

I have to agree. While last years defense was truly amazing, I have a feeling this years defense will rank in the top of college football. It looks to me like we are about 2-deep in the front seven, and if Ford gets back to his old ways, the Bulls could take the Big East by storm. I got to ask everybody, I think the biggest games on our schedule are Rutgers, Auburn, Louisville, and WV. It seems to me like we can definitely win atleast two of those. Does a 10-2 season at Ray-J seem probable?

I’ll second that second!  Samuels and Ford looked good, and we didn’t even see Moise Plancher, who was the starter last year before going down in the first game.  When Ford gets his wheels back under him, he could be very exciting! 

Grothe looked good...maybe a tiny bit rusty, but good.  His biggest test this year will be if he can keep all the hype from going to his head.  If he can, he might be the Bulls first legitimate Heisman contender.  The backup QB, Gregory, looks much bigger and stronger than last year, maybe an upgrade over Julmiste in his delivery, but the INTs are worrisome.

Some of the young WRs looked good in the spring game also.  I’m hoping that Amp Hill, Hester, Amarri Jackson and Taurus (perfect name for a Bulls player) Johnson have big years.

The offensive line, though, definitely worries me.  They were like Swiss cheese Saturday!  We’d better hope there are some goodies among the incoming freshmen, or all this optimism could be wasted. I know the season is a long way off, but wow...they were pretty bad.

On an up note, the defense seemed to pick up right where they left off.  Just outstanding against the pass, and mostly good against the run.  I guess it’s been a year since they’ve had a real RB to practice against, though, so I’m withholding judgment on that for now.

I know I sound like I work for the website (I don’t), but if anyone didn’t see the spring game, you can watch it for free on the gousfbulls.com media page.

Hart you have some very good insight.  Just remember it is a two way street.  A great running back can make an average offensive line look good as well as a great O-line can make an average running back look good.  If Ford is as awesome as we all think he can be that will give us options we never had last year - the play action pass!

USF’s offense definitely should be a strength for the first time since the Marquel Blackwell days. Blackehart is dead on about the offensive line. If that’s a weak link then the whole offense suffers.

And Jordan, is that a 10-2 prediction? It’s way too early to make my win-loss prediction - and yes, last year I was off picking 6-6 for the regular season - but 10-2 may be a bit unrealistic. Remember, this will be the first time USF will enter a season with a ton of preseason publicity and be the “hunted” and not the “hunter.”

I’m not saying USF can’t succeed in this role, only that it is much, much tougher when you can’t sneak up on folks.

Brett,

I’ll tell you what’s even more worrisome than the offensive line: The Bulls’ white uniform pants! 

This is a grave concern.  How can USF expect that they’ll ever be invited to any nice, classy bowl games when their pants don’t match their helmets?  Don’t get me wrong, I like the green pants with the white “away” jerseys, but when they wear their green “home” jerseys, they really need to consider wearing gold pants.  It’s bad enough to be regarded as an upstart...we don’t need to be gauche as well!

I mean, isn’t there a Mrs. Leavitt?  Who dresses these guys?

Guys, remeber that the team was split evenly during the spring game. That means white had half of the starters as well as gree. This Bulls fan is thinking the true starting O-line will be at least decent. And while I agree pass protection looked so-so, our running backs had some pretty good holes. Finally, here is all I am saying about the SCHEDULE: Along with the big four on our schedule, we got Elon, FAU, UCF, N. Car, Pitt, UCONN, Syracuse, and Cinci. I know that none of the big four will be easy and that we lost to Cinci last year, but If I could pick us a schedule, this would be it. A big SEC team (which I think we got a great chance against), WV and Louisville at home… I sure do like it folks.

Blackehart, not sure what the ratio of teams in big bowl games whose pants don’t match their helmets, but I’ll trust you on that one. However, a bowl game would let a team wear kilts - as long as the school brought 20,000 fans.

Jordan’s right about the offensive line - and the entire offense for that matter. When you have the team split in half, you’re not going to see a lot of offensive success.

As far as the schedule, I think going into the season, USF will be rated favorites against Elon, UNC, FAU, UCF, UConn, Cincy and Syracuse; underdogs against Auburn, West Virginia and Rutgers; and could be either favored or an underdog against Louisville and Pittsburgh.

So if USF wins every game it should - that’s a 7-3 record with two “toss ups” against Louisville and Pitt. Of course, we know USF never wins every game it’s favored in and always is good for pulling off an upset or two when an underdog.

I should note that I was semi-kidding about the uniforms, though I think they would look better in Gold (or even yellow) pants...just not so faded in color in the fashion of UCF.  The Knights’ uniforms look like they’ve been left in the laundry too long.  What are the USF colors now, anyway?  When I was there, it was Green and Yellow, but now the yellow seems to have become gold and the green is much darker than before.  I just think the green jerseys with white pants looks like a Pop Warner uniform.

Anyway, enough with the uniforms.  I agree that the O-line was weakened by splitting it into two units for the spring game, but by the same token all the other units should’ve similarly suffered, which they didn’t seem to do.  The worry is that even though we might get a reasonable starting five out of the group, where’s the depth?  I don’t think there were any three games last season with the same starting linemen, and there were times when it was an obstacle.

On another note, I found this today on the FoxSports site, in an article by Pete Fiutak that was otherwise unrelated to USF.  Pretty cool, huh?

from Jim Fiutak, Ask CFN: Who’s the next Superpower?
Q: What would it take for a school like West Virginia, Louisville, Michigan State, or Purdue, to turn the corner and become an elite school like Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC, or Oklahoma? Could it be done in ten years on the field? If a good school finished in top 5 for 10 years running, with 2 national championships, do they gain elite status like FSU did under Bowden? What would it take? – DH
Q: Who out there has the potential to be a new superpower like a Michigan or USC? Not LSU or someone who’s already great. I’m talking about a bit of a sleeper. Also, what makes a really, really good program and an elite one? - GL

A: What would it take to become a superpower? Oh, several decades of winning at a high level, and even that doesn’t assure anything. Just over forty years ago, Minnesota got the same respect Michigan or USC gets now, but it couldn’t stay at a high level going downhill after winning the 1962 Rose Bowl.

Being considered among the elite of the elite depends on the timing. Is Alabama still considered a superpower? It’s been to one BCS-level game since winning the 1992 national title, but it’s still had a ridiculous amount of success.

How about Wisconsin? Three Rose Bowls within the last 15 years, a boatload of other good bowl wins, and a ton of national exposure, but there hasn’t even been a sniff of a national title. Would UW then be considered a superpower if it won the national title this year? How about Kansas State when it was really rolling under Bill Snyder? Colorado, until recently, could’ve been put into the superpower category for year-in-and-year-out success. So could Washington. It takes something truly special to be Teflon and win, win, and win some more throughout the ages. Michigan football will never be truly awful for a long stretch. USC will never have more than a few losing seasons in a row. Ohio State won’t ever be a last-place program. They’re just too big.

To be a Florida State and break into the old boys club, a program has to be in the national title hunt for about a decade, win at least one, and be really, really, really good for about 25 years. To get there, it needs a great recruiting base, a big enough school to eventually get the support for the facilities needed to compete at a top level, and a whole bunch of luck. Keeping a superstar head coach around for a generation, like at West Virginia if Rich Rodriguez decides to never leave, would also help.

My sleeper to eventually get to superpower status is South Florida. It has the most fertile recruiting base to work with, a coach in Jim Leavitt who loves to be there and appears to have no interest in any other gig, plays in a relatively big market (Tampa-St. Petersburg) at a school with a huge student population and alumni base, is in a good league, and appears to be just on the verge of turning a corner into conference championship status. Check back in 10-to-15 years and see how it all worked out.

What nice exposure for USF.  We are the sleeping giant!

yea we def need to be careful next year. I’d be happy with a 9-3 season and depending on our bowl opponent maybe a 10 win seaon...I’d be really hadppy with a 10-3 season.  And we can never be too cautious of injuries. Hopefully with a running game and rod smith in mo-town we can stop running matt up the middle 10 times a game!

Yes! We all definitely want Matt Grothe preservation.  It looks like we could potentially be 4 deep in the running back situation w/ Ford as the feature back (yes, I am ready to give him the starters role) and Samuels as a change of pace back.  Ponton could be the hammer coming off the bench to spell Ford and Williams as a 3rd down back.  I would love to see 1700-2500 rushing yards (w/ very little of that coming from Grothe) from the backs.  That tells me the BULLS attack is very balanced.  On offense I don’t want to see a one man gang again unless it’s Ford running for 200+ yards/game.

Alright guys, I want to hear your opinion on this one… I completely agree with everybody about Grothe staying un-injured and not running the ball 20 times a game. However, in my eyes, he is at his best when he IS scrambling around and making stuff happen. For those who aren’t sure what I am talking about, watch the Pitt highlights. Overall, I just want to ask you all, will he stay be able healthy this season. If he does, I think the sky is the limit!!!  Question #2… what are our shots against Auburn? I think they have a hell of a Defense, and a so-so Offense. I like our chances, but want to hear what y’all think.

Given the thin state of the offensive line, I don’t think Grothe will have much choice but to run almost as much as he did last year.  Sure, he’s awesome when he scrambles, but this could all come to an ugly end if he gets seriously hurt.

As for Auburn, I’d like our chances a lot better if we played them later in the season.  There’s no pre-season games for college teams, no chance to work out the kinks in our game.  The closest thing we have to that is the week one game against Elon, but that’s the only preparation we’ll have before facing a very tough SEC team.

Last season we had a wonderful schedule, one that started against a weak opponent (which we barely won) and got gradually more difficult as the season progressed.  I think the schedule really helped the team, and Grothe in particular, to get acclimated and in sync for the Big East part of the schedule later.

This year, it’s one tune-up and BANG!  Right into the waiting jaws of Legion field and an SEC power.  That’s followed 2 games later by West Virginia!  It’s going to be tough to duplicate last year’s success.  Not impossible, but tough.

Here’s how I see the season going, barring any surprises like a key injury or the emergence of a new star on the team.

Sat, Sep 01 ELON - Win
Sat, Sep 08 at Auburn - good game (close in the first half), but Loss
Sat, Sep 22 North Carolina - with 2 weeks to recover from Auburn, Win
Fri, Sep 28 West Virginia - another battle, but another Loss
Sat, Oct 06 at Florida Atlantic - Win
Sat, Oct 13 UCF - surprisingly close-fought, but a Win
Thu, Oct 18 at Rutgers - Win, dashing Rutgers BCS hopes again
Sat, Oct 27 at Connecticut - Win
Sat, Nov 03 Cincinnati - a tough, last-second Win
Sat, Nov 10 at Syracuse - Win
Sat, Nov 17 Louisville - Loss, maybe not even close
Sat, Nov 24 at Pittsburgh - Win

The toughest calls were UCF (they’re going to sneak up on us someday), Rutgers (depending on how their QB plays), Cincy (never know what you’re going to get with them), Louisville (will they implode under Kragthorpe, or will he push them over the top?), and Pitt (see my note on Cincy).  The biggest wild cards in the Big east are Pitt & Cincy - just schizophrenic teams with tons of quality depth, but no real superstars.  So, I’m thinking/hoping 9-3 is realistic, but so is 6-6, depending on luck and injuries.  If we really are a more well-rounded and deep team this year, it could even be 10-2, but if the o-line acts like a seive and the receivers can’t catch again, we’ll be lucky to get 6-6.

Next year depends squarely on the offensive line.  If they are good we will be awesome (10-2 to 12-0).  If they are average we end up good (8-4/9-3). Anything less than that we could possibly be in for a long season (5 or 6 wins).  September is so far away!

I just read somewhere that Leavitt offered a scholarship to a California JuCo Offensive Tackle this week, so he’s apparently still looking to shore up that part of the team.  I don’t know if the JuCo guys are a normal part of the recruiting for this time of year, or if that reflects a genuine concern on Coach’s part, but it’s noteworthy.