Being “consistent” in sports is usually considered to be a positive attribute, but in the case of the USF Bulls, they are consistently bad, which means they are consistently watching the bowl games unfold not with them on a football field, but instead, in front of a television set along with the rest of America.
Coach Willie Taggert and his staff will spend the next several month trying to figure out the “why?” part. Evidence shouldn’t be hard to find, as this won’t be a tough case to crack. The bigger issue is, how do they turn around a culture of losing, and not only sell this program to future recruits, but to the disgruntled fanbase in the Tampa Bay area?
There will need to be some heavy lifting in the upcoming months, but in the meanwhile, harsh grades must be handed out for what was a disappointing 4-8 (3-5 AAC) campaign.
Offense: F
If this was a report card going home to mom and dad, they would want to hide this one. USF ranked horrifically low in every major offensive category, as it was 94th in the nation in passing yards with 196.8 yards per game, 118th in rushing with 107 yards per game, and 120th in average points per game with a paltry 17.2.
Twice this season, the Bulls posted over 30 points in a game, and they won both contests, but the season was defined by every other game where they posted 20 points or less.
Several factors led to these low rankings and totals: For starters, the quarterback position was somewhat of a revolving door, and combined, the three players who tossed the pigskin this season couldn’t even muster a 50 percent completion percentage, and totaled only 11 touchdowns.
Mike White took the majority of the snaps, but was benched on a handful of occasions for Steven Bench and Quinton Flowers. Taggart’s handling of this unit raised some questions, and there was a stretch of three games vs. Cincinnati, Houston, and SMU where each of them started a game, which demonstrated the instability at hand.
Whenever a ball did manage to find a target, Andre Davis, the Bulls’ all-time leading wide receiver was a semi bright spot, catching seven of those touchdowns while hauling in 36 receptions. This unit didn’t have a lot of consistent threats, but was also hampered by the the quarterback situation.
If there was a bright spot, Marlon Mack was one of them, as he rushed for over 1,000 yards. With USF trailing a large percentage of the time, though, it was hard to showcase him.
Much of the offensive unit consists of underclassmen, and the most recent recruiting class was considered by many to be one of the best in the conference, but these results will not cut it going forward.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yR85jnhtoE?list=UU2hUZIkGfPjlJy8-P0MJjYA]Defense: D
This side of the ball was slightly better, but that’s not saying much. The Bulls were 68th in the nation in allowing 27 points per game.
Again, not another report card that’s gonna end up on a refrigerator.
Heading into this season, there was a lot of turnover on this side of the ball, as USF had to replace four defensive lineman, and the starting linebacker. The 3-4 defense that defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan likes to run featured a lot of newcomers, and it took guys time to adjust.
Numerous teams that USF faced this year ran the spread offense, and observers of the team noted that they struggled to slow down teams that spread it from sideline to sideline.
If there is a bright spot, in two of the final three games, USF held it’s opponents to 16 points or under. The defensive unit really gave the team a good chance to win in the final game vs. UCF with it’s performance, but the other side of the ball couldn’t muster anything up.
Bresnahan will have plenty of work ahead of him to shore up this unit in an effort to establish more consistency.
Special teams: B
Going into the season, this was considered a team strength, and the results of the season did little to dispute that notion.
Marvin Kloss connected on 13 out of 17 field goals with a long of 47. Only once did he attempt a field goal longer than 50 yards, but was a passable 4/6 on attempts between 40-49 yards. Mattias Ciabatti handled punting duties, and averaged 44.4 yards on 65 punt attemps, as given the offensive struggles of the team, he played a large role.
Chris Dunkley handled punting and kickoff returns, and averaged 7.05 yards on punt returns, and 20.7 on kickoff returns.
Coaching: D
Once considered a rising star in the coaching ranks, the 37-year-old Taggart is still young enough to get back to being thought of as such again, but another performance like the 2014 one and he may have to prove himself with another university, as he is firmly on the hot seat with a 6-18 record after two seasons at the helm.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WgeU0Ea1tY]As mentioned earlier, the recruiting classes aren’t in question, but him and his staff aren’t getting the most out of them.
For starters, it’s mandatory that they find out who their quarterback is. On only three occasions all season did the Bulls use the same signal caller for the whole game. There is a difference between replacing a guy because he’s struggling, and replacing guys like they are relief pitchers. The latter suggests that there isn’t an effective plan in place.
For now, Taggart has the support of his athletic director Mark Harlan, but him and his staff better get busy with the task of finding the right people, the right system and coaching them up to their full abilities.
Overall: D
A four-win season technically represents “improvement” over the year before, as USF doubled its prior win total, but the season has a whole provided more questions than answers to the problems that have plagued this football team for years, and you can’t sell this current product in an already crowded local and state sports landscape. People just aren’t going to buy in, and if they continue not to because of the on field performance, heads will roll in 2015.
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