Offense against Rutgers

[usfgrad84]

While everyone seems to be concentrating on Rice against our Defense, I think the bigger factor will be our offense against their defense.

We have a huge (literally) physical advantage over them.  We are easily the biggest offensive line across the line yhat they have faced all year long.  On the flip side, they are easily the smallest defense we have faced all year.  Our o-line out weighs their D line by 57lbs on average.  They are pretty fast on D, but I see us having a decided advantage in establishing the run against them.  If we can do that early I think it opens up a lot of options later in the game. 

In many ways I see their defense like ours was in 2004.  Potentially very talented, but young, still physically immature and mostly not too experienced.  Foster and Renkart are their only Srs.  Girault has some good experience, but he is hurt and is not expected to play much if he plays at all.  They may be potentially talented, but because we outweigh them by such a large amount, even if they are in position to make plays we should be able to pound them for a few extra yards on each play.  i remember in 2004 when we were playing all our young guys that hadn't put the weight and strength on yet that they were always in the position to make plays but then got blown off the play because we were undersized.  I see the same problem in this game for Rutgers.

This is week 8 of the season.  Ford should have a pretty good feel for the offense as of now.  At 230 lbs or so he is bigger than almost everyone on the their defense with the exception of 2 guys on their Dline and he is almost as big as those guys too.  If you saw how he pushed ahead for about 6 or 7 additional yards on a few plays last week, I am thinking he has the opportunity to pound this defense too.  The only way they could stop him physically would be to really stack the box.  Otherwise, we should be able to just win the battle of the trenches.  If we spread the field on them, they can't defend  all the receivers and then stop a big back like Ford until after he has plowed ahead for good yardage too.  With Ford in the backfield in this particular game, i see this as a huge adavantage for us.  It looks to me like the Rutgers D would match up well against a speed back like Slaton and White  than they would with a power back like Ford.  they have even talked about having a spy on Grothe.  That further loosens the line. 

Throw a couple of long passes early, get the defense to back off the line then pound Ford down their throats.  There is no excuse for our pretty good O line that outweighs their D line by 57 pounds to not dominate the battle of the trneches in this game.  I see that as huge factor.

[Bulls Are We]

Let’s hope we can keep the offensive momentum going from the UCF game.  This team is SCARY  :o GOOD when we are clicking on both sides of the ball. 

[Bull Dozer]

I loved the fact that we finally took a good number of shots down the field last week.  It was nice to see us put all the speed that we have at WR finally be used to stretch the field consistently so the D couldn't just sit on your routes all day.  I think we can put up some points on the Rutgers D and i feel we are much better up front this year than last (healthy clebert, t-mac is a legit run stuffer, selvie is a beast now) so they wont have as much success on offense.  I think we can hang 30 or more on them. 

[The Incredi-Bull Hulk]

I must be the only one that loves it when we line up in the wishbone. There's just something about having Williams, Taylor, Ford and Grothe in the backfield. There's just so much we can do with that! The sad thing (at least from my position) is that I haven't seen this formation for 3 or so games. It's great on the goal line, but it'd be good for them to just to switch things up a bit.

[Velcro]

I loved the fact that we finally took a good number of shots down the field last week.   It was nice to see us put all the speed that we have at WR finally be used to stretch the field consistently so the D couldn't just sit on your routes all day.  I think we can put up some points on the Rutgers D and i feel we are much better up front this year than last (healthy clebert, t-mac is a legit run stuffer, selvie is a beast now) so they wont have as much success on offense.  I think we can hang 30 or more on them. 

We took a good number of shots down field against WVU too, but they were covered (and or intercepted)and the ball was short.

This time, Grothe was right on the mark almost every time.

[BullAdrian]

I am wondering if USF fast defense performs better on artifical turf than grass?

[Velcro]

Does rutgers have artificial turf? field turf?

[Orlando Bull]

I would like to see the play that Cedric Hill scored on last week run in a little bit of space. That could be a huge gainer if he could make a safety or DB miss down the field. Maybe on a second or third and short.

I agree, I think we will run a lot and try to keep the ball away from them. If Ford fumbles one more time though, I might go ape poo in the sports bar. Can Ronde' Barber get his brother to go and talk to the Bulls RB's about how he changed his grip on the ball to cut down on fumbles?

I am expecting Taylor to have a big day. I think the line will open up some holes for him, and he is explosive when he gets in space (so is Williams for that matter). Ford makes his own holes. That one run where he kept churning his legs and powered forward for about 6 was special.

Our offense can be exciting, I hope they keep it going this week.

By the way, we should put up at least 30, we are averaging about 35/game (thanks to UCFs defense). Need to keep ourselves in the top 30 (scoring) in offense and get back to the top 10 in defense (scoring and yards).

[twillybull]

Eliminating turnovers will be key.  Our offense is starting to look pretty scary when the passing game clicks and we don't cough up the ball.  Avoid the turnovers tomorrow night and we should have a great game.  We have too many weapons at different positions not to be able to find a mismatch against each team we play from here out.  But we can also be our own worst enemy.     

Back to our D... keeping the offense on the field will be a very big factor in how the defense performs down the stretch this game and for the rest of the season.  If we can hold the ball for 30 minutes or more a game our defense can stay fresh. 

[USF03]

This from ESPN Insider:

South Florida Offense vs. Rutgers Defense

The key to slowing the Bulls' ground game is clearly limiting the production of QB Matt Grothe, who is coming off consecutive 100-yard rushing games. The problem is Rutgers' run defense is vulnerable to mobile quarterbacks. For starters, the Scarlet Knights sacrifice size for speed as well as quickness and the front four try to shoot gaps rather than anchor at the point of attack. Not surprisingly players get caught out of position on occasion as a result. Grothe keeps his head up, reads defenses and changes directions well so he will take advantage when defenders get caught out of their gaps or too far upfield. Secondly, Rutgers tries to mask its inability to anchor by running line stunts. The Bulls are admittedly more vulnerable to line stunts right now because a knee injury OC Nick Capogna sustained in the season-opener has limited the second-year starter. Capogna, who played but didn't start against Florida Atlantic last week, is a leader on the field and he does a great job of keeping the line on the same page. However, his replacement Jake Griffin has filled in well and the front five have played like a cohesive unit. They should be able to adjust to the Scarlet Knights' games up front and create seams for Grothe who is patient runner that will give them time to get into position.

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We have Capogna back, so automaticly I assume we will do better aganist line stunts.