OUTCOACHED

[JoeB]

The play would have worked if Grothe got rid of the ball on time.  He threw late and into a pick.  We needed to throw at that point as they were jamming the box with 7-8 guys.  I like the call, but not the late throw by Grothe.  Totally changed the complexion of the game after that.

[bulls96go]

usf football isnt ready for prime time

we dont know how to put away a team

we allowed a team with much less talent to stay in game

true dat!

[bulls96go]

Worst call of the game was calling a pass when we're up 24-10 with under 4 left.  Grothe doesn't throw that pick, we run clock & make them use timeouts and at worst punt deep into their territory. 

The problem is USF does not have that many run plays. Once you see the formation you know what coming.

Why are you guys harping on play calling when we put up over 500 yards of offense?  The offense is working fine.  They coaches need to work on situational play.

no it is not working in the red zone, short yardage or at the end of the game.

when the ball gets inside the 5 it should be money in the bank we get the TD.should be true in the red zone.

[usfgrad84]

The play would have worked if Grothe got rid of the ball on time.  He threw late and into a pick.  We needed to throw at that point as they were jamming the box with 7-8 guys.  I like the call, but not the late throw by Grothe.  Totally changed the complexion of the game after that.

It's a horrible play call in that situation.  Their offense had not moved the ball on our defense the entire night.  At that point they only had about 130 total yards for the game.    They had 2 TOs left and 2 min 34 secs left.   In that case you have to play for the worst case scenario.  Why get cute?  Run the ball, keep the clock mioving and let your defense put the game away on a long field. It's not the place for it, but just snapping the ball twice and taking knee would allow you to either force them to use the TOs or run the clock down to a minute. Run the ball and pick up a couple of yards, even bttter. If you need to throw, throw on 3rd down not 2nd.  An incomplete stops the clock.  That was some serious amateaurish play calling considering the situation.  

Gregory did that a couple of times l;ast year too.  He tries to get too cute rather than just put the game away conservatively.

[Jamie]

There was no need to throw the ball and allow any opportunity for the momentum to swing. If they run the ball two more times and punt, UCF is probably 70-80 yards from a touchdown, plus they still need another one after that, and they still don't know that they can go down the field and score.

[8u11`o3]

...were the coaches thinking when they decided to kick the field goal on 2nd down with 15 seconds and a timeout left?

Can some please make an agruement to rationalize this call for me?

Is it because...

The kicker is solid from 42 yards or more, but questionable from less than 42 yards?

The kicker prefers kicking from the left hashmark instead of from the middle of the field?

We didn't think we could complete another play within 14 seconds?

We were saving the timeout for Kansas?

We wanted to leave time on the clock for one last chance to kickoff the ball to #19?

I'm having trouble with this.

I haven't read any of Smazza's posts since game time, but I bet I'd have trouble disagreeing with them.

You have to tip your hat to UCF's effort.

[usfgrad84]

Worst call of the game was calling a pass when we're up 24-10 with under 4 left.  Grothe doesn't throw that pick, we run clock & make them use timeouts and at worst punt deep into their territory. 

The problem is USF does not have that many run plays. Once you see the formation you know what coming.

Why are you guys harping on play calling when we put up over 500 yards of offense?  The offense is working fine.  They coaches need to work on situational play.

no it is not working in the red zone, short yardage or at the end of the game.

when the ball gets inside the 5 it should be money in the bank we get the TD.should be true in the red zone.

That's what I said, they need to work on situational play.  People are complaining that the plays are too Vanilla.  That's not the problem in general.  

As far as Red zone goes, I think part of it is the way we use our personnel.  I don't remember seeing us run a fade since Johnny Peyton left.  Is Grothe not capable of throwing that pass?  Mitchell is 6' 4". Our only consistent play is the Ford run right.  We should try it with Kelley instead of running Plancher into the middle of the line.

[BJ]

As long as I can remember, USF has had bad, if not horrid play calling.  Rod Smith, Gregory...At some point, you have to wonder if it's just coincidence that all of our OC's appear to be horrible, or if more blame falls on CJL than we like to admit.

Not that this excuses the last four minutes, because it doesn't. But consider:

1. USF did not care about this game.

2. UCF cared very, very, very, very, VERY much.

3. Ford and Williams both missed the game.

You're kinda limited on the running plays you can call, unless you want to give Grothe 25 carries (not a good idea, especially with UCF cheap-shotting anyone in a white jersey). I mean how much of the offense do you think Plancher really knows? I think that was yet another reason that they finally started giving Kelly some carries. At least he was around last year and not rehabbing.

1. You say that like it's not a problem.  That's a BIG problem.

Grothe carried the ball 20 times tonight anyway. Not a good idea like you said, especially with the cheap shots, but we did it anyway.  Mo' rushed 6 times for 50 yards in the first half.....so they decide to run him TWICE the entire second half? Averaged 6.5 YPC. And plancher has looked good pretty much every time he has played. Kelly averaged over 4 yards per carry as well. I'm can't say I see your points.  Situational playcalling is what made this close and almost cost us the game

[JoeB]

...were the coaches thinking when they decided to kick the field goal on 2nd down with 15 seconds and a timeout left?

Can some please make an agruement to rationalize this call for me?

Is it because...

The kicker is solid from 42 yards or more, but questionable from less than 42 yards?

The kicker prefers kicking from the left hashmark instead of from the middle of the field?

We didn't think we could complete another play within 14 seconds?

We were saving the timeout for Kansas?

We wanted to leave time on the clock for one last chance to kickoff the ball to #19?

I'm having trouble with this.

I haven't read any of Smazza's posts since game time, but I bet I'd have trouble disagreeing with them.

You have to tip your hat to UCF's effort.

I didn't like it either, but what are you going to do?  Run a play and run the risk of not stopping the clock in time?  We didn't have any timeouts left at that point.  The TV said we did, but it was wrong.  We burned our last timeout on that 4 and inches at the 35.  If we make the kick, no way we kick it to Burnett.  I think it would have been a pooch kick to the 30 or so.

[BJ]

The play would have worked if Grothe got rid of the ball on time.  He threw late and into a pick.  We needed to throw at that point as they were jamming the box with 7-8 guys.  I like the call, but not the late throw by Grothe.  Totally changed the complexion of the game after that.

What do you mean we had to throw? We had a two touchdown lead with under three minutes.  Who cares if they had 12 men in the box? Make them burn their timeouts, and then take FORTY SECONDS of the clock on every play.  At this stage of the game, the goal is not to drive the ball down the field and score. The point is to RUN THE CLOCK and WIN THE GAME. The possibility of a interception is the second reason why you don't throw it.  You get the forth down, punt the ball (and not right to the returner who has been eating up the team all game), and force UCF to drive the field with no timeouts (having to go more yards, and use more time) if they want to score points.  And let me remind you, UCF scored ZERO POINTS when having to drive down the field. ALL of their points came off a short field.

And then, after we threw the pick that lead to the first TD, we STILL didn't learn our lesson and passed again. And then, we kicked directly RIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE to the returner who ate us up all game.

Like I said, we won, and that's what is important, but you must understand that if these type of errors are continued, these close wins will soon become losses. Have people forgotten last year already?