Time to Question Coaching Staff?

Fans are a little upset after the last loss.

The loss on Saturday was a painful one. The defense played a great game, getting 6 sacks on the afternoon and stopping the Miami run game. The pass defense was half-way decent, but came up short in the last drive of the game. The offense on the other hand was awful, failing to convert on 3rd down and failing to get anything done (even when Daniels was in there).

Who do we blame for a loss like this? Is it the players? Maybe the opponent (Miami) just held us down and we aren't that good, or could it be the coaching staff that needs to be questioned after the game!

Now before the fans think we are on a witch hunt, let's be clear. We support the coaches and have all the faith in the world in them, but there are things, as a fan, that we can question. As a fan, we can question it all, we aren't calling for pitch forks and torches (thinking about it though) but there are things we can see on the field that are very concerning.

Let's start with our questions for Mark Snyder and the defense. As we said before, we were impressed by the defense. 6 sacks in the game and shutting down the run offense was big, but on several drives, Miami had third and long situations and USF allowed Miami to get the first down. The final drive of the game was rough. The Bulls got pressure, but couldn't get Jacory Harris down and allowed multiple completions. This really is not on the coach, but maybe dialing up a blitz or maybe getting the corners to use press coverage and have the safeties over the top to help in coverage, could be done. Miami was getting 10 yard completions and it seemed (at least to me) that the corners were playing back, giving a soft zone look in the game. I am not a coach so maybe I am completely wrong here, but maybe there was something that Snyder could have called to get better coverage on the passes. Allowing Miami to get the short passing game going simply drained the clock and made it hard to get off the field.

Offensive Todd Fitch gets the most questioning after this game. His playcalling of the game was awful. The running game was somewhat productive, Daniels running the zone read and getting big gains for Scott and Murray. But the passing plays were awful (can we please stop with the bubble screens and short passes already). The short passes, including the bubble screens, were not going to work, not against the speed of the Miami secondary. Fitch only called for a few passes down the field, not wanting to stretch the field. Was it lack of faith in the receivers or lack of faith in Daniels to make the throws? When Daniels went down with an injury, Fitch continued to use zone read run plays. Miami was able to load the box because they knew Eveld would not run and bottled up the running backs. He needed to adjust the playcalling there and allow for a different look to help Eveld and the run game.

The man that is receiving the most questions is Skip. The Bulls had several chances in the game on third and short and fourth and short, inside Miami territory, where the offense could have gotten the first down. Skip decided not to chance anything and punt the ball away. Now, was it because he had no faith in the offense and granted, they were stinking it up out there. The defense was playing well, but if the team didn't score any points, they were not going to win the game.

Holtz stated he didn't want to put his defense in a short field situation. How about not giving the defense any offense and forcing them to play a perfect game (talk about pressure). Holtz stated he didn't want to lose the game by calling some of those plays.

To me personally, not playing to lose the game is not playing to win it either. Be that conservative in the playcalling, having no faith, and no confidence to call those plays is a telling sign.

They also didn't call a time out in the final Miami drive. Calling a time out would have helped conserve some clock or at least given the defense a chance to catch their breath and regroup on the sideline, but Holtz didn't do that. He called two timeouts when Miami was about to kick the field goal, burning away USF chances to have any time left for a kick return (Lamar can make things happen, unless we have all forgotten him as well).

Call us mean, call us dumb, the facts are simple to see. USF lost the game and the coaching staff deserves a lot of blame for it. They didn't make the proper adjustments, blew a lot of chances, and now have the fans angry.

Do you agree with us, are we wrong, right, or just being bullies? Share your thoughts with us.