What We Learned: USF vs. NC State

Disclaimer: This isn’t going to be a standard “here’s what happened” recap. Anyone on the internet can do one of them and they’re all fairly boring. Instead, I plan to give a brief overview on what happened and then try to figure out just what we learned from what we saw.

So that was ugly.

Going into Saturday’s game against the NC State Wolfpack, everyone knew the USF Bulls would be underdogs, but I don’t think anyone realized the game would turn out quite the way it did: a massacre.

This was such a total evisceration, covering all scopes. The Wolfpack dominated in whatever way they saw fit, throwing and running with impunity, shutting down all aspects of the Bulls’ offensive attack when they weren’t busy grabbing easy points.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEcLfoLedT4?list=UU2hUZIkGfPjlJy8-P0MJjYA]

There’s not much else to say about this one, so let’s get to what we learned from Saturday’s 49-17 thrashing at the hands of NC State.

The quarterback situation won’t improve

The prevailing hope heading into the season was that the quarterback situation, awful at best last season, would get better with another year in the system and the trust that comes with being the starter. Mike White responded to these things by being absolutely awful in game one before getting hurt two weeks ago. He was given the starting job back as he returned for this game and the results were even more ghastly than anyone could have hoped for.

White finished the day against NC State just 4-of-16 (25 percent) for 82 yards (an average of just 5.1 yards per attempt and 75 of those yards came on one play), though he incredibly didn’t throw an interception. Then again, it’s hard to pick off a ball when it’s so inaccurate, only the ground can catch it.

To the surprise of no one, even the backups were awful. Quinton Flowers would attempt four passes, completing just one for seven yards while throwing a pair of interceptions. Just a train wreck from start to finish and it hasn’t shown a single, solitary sign of improvement through three games.

The defense is still a work in progress

After a relatively good day against Maryland, USF was dissected by the Wolfpack, both through the air and on the ground. NC State compiled 589 yards on the day, looking totally balanced throughout (274 passing yards, 315 rushing yards).

The secondary, which looked strong against a good Maryland passing attack, was picked apart by Jacoby Brissett. Brissett went 20-for-29, throwing for 266 yards and a pair of touchdowns for an average of 9.2 yards per attempt. He rarely saw pressure and was left free to do as he pleased.

On the ground, no one was the star but Shadrach Thornton and Tony Creecy were equally effective, rushing for 70 and 68 yards respectively, but both averaged nearly six yards per carry. Simply put, it didn’t matter what the Wolfpack did, they gashed the Bulls all day long.

There’s clearly talent on this defense and it has shown flashes of competency during this young season, but they were overmatched on Saturday and it showed. It’s going to take time and a lot of coaching, but this will be a solid group … eventually.

Bowling seems out of the question

I hate to be so pessimistic already, but we’re through three games and USF is 1-2 with nothing but a semi-functioning rushing attack and a very young, inexperienced defense. And frankly, the Bulls are a little lucky they aren’t 0-3 after their performance in Week 1.

Even if the defense manages to come together, the offense is simply too anemic. The passing game is in shambles and it doesn’t seem to matter who is starting at quarterback; they all do terribly in the role. More importantly, any effectiveness the rushing attack may have had is gone because teams can tee off on it without a threat from White and the passing game.

USF has quite a few toughies ahead on the schedule, with UConn, Wisconsin, East Carolina, Cincinnati and UCF still remaining. The Bulls will need to really turn things around in a quick manner if they hope to have a bowl game come the end of the year.