Sentinel Article on Bulls new O

[Bull-Hornz]

http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82944286/

Well let's see if we can catch the wave...

[Triple B]

TAMPA — Marlon Mack darts left before turning up field after finding a crease in the defense.

 

Five yards later, the speedy running back is engulfed by a sea of defenders and brought to the ground.

 

Even as the sophomore-to-be works to get himself upright, the offense is set and ready to run another play, forcing Mack to hustle back.

 

This is USF football now — or least an early look of what coach Willie Taggart hopes will be in place when his Bulls kick off the 2015 season. Everywhere you looked Friday on the practice fields at the USF's Morsani Football Complex, players and coaches were racing around at breakneck speed with a renewed sense of purpose.

 

Taggart hopes the tempo and enthusiasm witnessed this week will translate to success on the field. It's part of the reason he made the choice to revamp the team's offensive philosophy.

"You've got to score points," said Taggart, who is entering his third as the Bulls' head coach. "A big part of it was changing with the game."

 

 

As programs across the country continue to march toward running up-tempo, spread offenses like the ones on display at Baylor, Oregon and Auburn — South Florida seemed to be stuck in the past. The Bulls' offense ranked near the bottom of the country in both total points scored (206) and points per game (17.2). In fact, the team only scored 20 or more points three times last season.

 

By contrast, Baylor led the nation in scoring offense with 627 points last season for a 48 point per game average.

 

So, following a four-win season in 2014, Taggart parted ways with offensive coordinator Paul Wulff and hired former Purdue coach Danny Hope to share offensive coordinator duties with David Reaves, who was promoted from quarterbacks coach.

 

In just a short period, Taggart has seen a big difference in his team.

 

"We doing some new things and you can see our guys have really taken to it and are excited about doing it," he said as the Bulls wrapped up their first week of spring drills.

"You've got to have energy to run this offense," added Mack, who is coming off a season during which he rushed for 1,041 yards and nine touchdowns. "We've got that excitement and energy."

The biggest question mark moving forward this spring is quarterback.

 

Last season saw a revolving door at the position, with Mike White, Steven Bench and Quinton Flowers all playing. White led the way with 1,639 total passing yards and nine touchdowns. None complete more than 51 percent of their passes and all three struggled at times to move the offense, prompting Taggart to start spring with an open competition for the job.

 

"We told our guys, they're going to pick who's our quarterback. I'm not picking," Taggart said. "They're going to separate themselves at practice and how they run our offense and lead our football team."

But it's not just the offense that Taggart wants to see pick up the pace.

 

He wants the defense to become a more aggressive and attacking unit. To that end, he brought in Tom Allen to be his new defensive coordinator. Allen spent the past two seasons leading the linebackers and special teams units at Ole Miss.

 

"I'm coming from a system that worked that way on both sides of the ball at Ole Miss," Allen said. "That's the world I've been living in the last several years, so I'm comfortable with it."

 

Allen takes over a defense that gave up close to 400 yards and 27 points per game last season while only recording 20 quarterback sacks. He also inherits a unit that returns seven starters, including the top five tacklers from last season.

 

One thing that's abundantly clear to Taggart this spring is everybody seems to be on the same page.

 

"Everybody knows what's going on now," said Taggart, who points out that 75 percent of the roster has turned over since he took the USF job. "Even at practice, guys know what to do. You don't see a lot of do-overs.

 

"More importantly, they want to work and they want to compete and they want to get better."

mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com

[charsibb]

Y'all go out and click that thang, hear? We want to encourage articles like this one.

[raptorcj]

Y'all go out and click that thang, hear? We want to encourage articles like this one.

Which is ironic, because my initial thought was "Nooo, don't give the slantinel a click!" so I was thankful for Trip's post or I would have missed it. Surprisingly fair article. I had to LOL at CWT's comment about the team picking this year's starting QB. I like that, and dude's got to be gun-shy at this point.

[usfbullrider]

Looks like they just took the same info from gousfbulls.com.

[JTrue]

 

Y'all go out and click that thang, hear? We want to encourage articles like this one.

Which is ironic, because my initial thought was "Nooo, don't give the slantinel a click!" so I was thankful for Trip's post or I would have missed it. Surprisingly fair article. I had to LOL at CWT's comment about the team picking this year's starting QB. I like that, and dude's got to be gun-shy at this point.

 

Whats the worst thing the team can do, pick the wrong guy and have to abandon him halfway through the first game?

Edited March 2, 2015 by JTrue

[raptorcj]

 

 

Y'all go out and click that thang, hear? We want to encourage articles like this one.

Which is ironic, because my initial thought was "Nooo, don't give the slantinel a click!" so I was thankful for Trip's post or I would have missed it. Surprisingly fair article. I had to LOL at CWT's comment about the team picking this year's starting QB. I like that, and dude's got to be gun-shy at this point.

Whats the worst thing the team can do, pick the wrong guy and have to abandon the him halfway through the first game?

[smazza]

same qb same results

 

more plays with same qb may translate into more turnovers and more 3 and outs

 

all the other teams cited had real qbs

[raptorcj]

same qb same results

 

more plays with same qb may translate into more turnovers and more 3 and outs

 

all the other teams cited had real qbs

or, there's always that possibility that a change in offensive scheme may end up bringing out the best in what we have. MW can run the fast pace just fine, look at the Tulsa game last year. Sure I'd rather have Marcus Mariota running it, but is there a chance this could help? Sure.

[Guest]

...  said Taggart, who points out that 75 percent of the roster has turned over since he took the USF job. ...

 

This is an important statistic to keep in mind... one that will be more important in the fall will be:

 

How many players on the 2-deep were "recruited" under Holtz?  My guess is out of the 50 or so players on the 2-deep... maybe 5 will date back to the Holtz era...