BJD is a WHINER

[bulldoze]

Very likely to win out?  Not in my opinion.  Louisville has a decent defense and Rutgers/Pitt have shown the blueprint for beating us.  Miami has an offense that can put up points on anyone.  UCONN is a carbon copy of Rutgers on defense and has a much better running game.  Not to mention the weather is likely to neutralize any advantage we have.

[bulls96go]

I thought that was weird, you would think a young kid would be fired up and trying to get everyone up to avoid the shutout.

[MikeG]

nineteen years old

cut him some slack if he has a bad day and needs some space

[Supersurch]

nineteen years old

cut him some slack if he has a bad day and needs some space

Mike,

Why would these guys cut this kid slack?  It's been five games so far.  At this point he should be a heisman front-runner or he should be benched.  Let's start Landy next week and if he performs like a freshman pull him too.  Then let's go get Carnes out of Manatee early and put him in. 

Unbelieveable...many here think BJ can build a Hoover dam with a bag of pebbles.

[Ruger7mmmag]

Every time something goes wrong you see him snapping at teammates and generally blaming others... When BJ gets punched in the mouth he whines and folds.

come on....grothe did that....leavitt does that....

what do you expect?

i hate it.  i hated it when grothe did it.  but its not just specific to BJ.  it seems to be the culture here.  when something goes wrong...blame someone else. 

With all due respect Matt did not do that. Matt would get on players that screwed up. NOT blame players or overly show it on tv. not once. When Matt screwed up he would take the blame. Not once did he blame anybody for his mistake. I think some on here will back me on this one. Also when he threw a pick or fumbled, it was over it never got carried over to the next series. This is a trait that has to be or you will fail as a person and player. Also when things where bad Matt was right there talking to his team and tring to get them through it as a team, thats what a leader does, Matt never went 25 yards down the side lines and stood by himself. I am afraid there is starting to be division in the ranks. But on the other hand, there is still time to correct this and do it as a team not ME ME ME, come on BULLS!! FINISH STRONG!!!!! All we can do is FINISH STRONG!!!!

Agreed 100%. 

BJ is young, so hopefully he will mature.  But we are definitely lacking someone on offense that can pull the team together and get them back on track.  Staying cool is fine, but being cold to your teammates is a different situation.  Grothe may have made mistakes, but that kid oozed optimism.  That's why no matter what happened, the team believed they always had a chance.  Last night, the offense never looked like they thought they could score after the first turnover.  No fire at all and they take their lead from the QB.

Like I said, BJ is young so don't get too down on the kid as he does have talent.  Let's hope he learns from the rest of the season and comes out firing next year.  A better game plan would go a long way to helping his situation.  Quick passes, roll outs, screens.  None of which we use...that's the root of the problem.  I'd rather see us line up in the I formation for the rest of the season.  Give him more protection and less options to sift through and give them a huddle so they are all on the same page.

[MikeG]

there is a significant difference between where USF was when Matt was a freshman starter and where we are now (thanks in great deal to what Matt was able to provide).

so the expectations of what our next young phenom is supposed to be capable of are a bit out of whack with reasonableness.

Back when we had Pat Julmiste as our starter, we were lucky to have Andre Hall carrying the load and giving us wins and that first bowl game. Matt came in and got us moving in the right direction from the QB spot. I expected BJ to struggle at times-- and in fairness, his play overall has been pretty **** good for his level of experience.

give it time

[Ruger7mmmag]

Bad games will happen.  We can live with that and I expected that.  I laughed at those who thought we'd be better with BJ THIS YEAR bc I knew games like this would come.  But what some of us are concerned about is that when things aren't going great, we haven't seen him trying to rally the troops.  I'm not throwing the towel in on him by any means, but I think the coaches need to address the situation.  If he's not a "leader type", that's fine, but they better find someone who is.

[Bull Dozer]

Every time something goes wrong you see him snapping at teammates and generally blaming others... When BJ gets punched in the mouth he whines and folds.

come on....grothe did that....leavitt does that....

what do you expect?

i hate it.  i hated it when grothe did it.  but its not just specific to BJ.  it seems to be the culture here.  when something goes wrong...blame someone else. 

With all due respect Matt did not do that. Matt would get on players that screwed up. NOT blame players or overly show it on tv. not once. When Matt screwed up he would take the blame. Not once did he blame anybody for his mistake. I think some on here will back me on this one. Also when he threw a pick or fumbled, it was over it never got carried over to the next series. This is a trait that has to be or you will fail as a person and player. Also when things where bad Matt was right there talking to his team and tring to get them through it as a team, thats what a leader does, Matt never went 25 yards down the side lines and stood by himself. I am afraid there is starting to be division in the ranks. But on the other hand, there is still time to correct this and do it as a team not ME ME ME, come on BULLS!! FINISH STRONG!!!!! All we can do is FINISH STRONG!!!!

Agreed 100%. 

BJ is young, so hopefully he will mature.  But we are definitely lacking someone on offense that can pull the team together and get them back on track.  Staying cool is fine, but being cold to your teammates is a different situation.  Grothe may have made mistakes, but that kid oozed optimism.  That's why no matter what happened, the team believed they always had a chance.  Last night, the offense never looked like they thought they could score after the first turnover.  No fire at all and they take their lead from the QB.

Like I said, BJ is young so don't get too down on the kid as he does have talent.  Let's hope he learns from the rest of the season and comes out firing next year.  A better game plan would go a long way to helping his situation.  Quick passes, roll outs, screens.  None of which we use...that's the root of the problem.  I'd rather see us line up in the I formation for the rest of the season.  Give him more protection and less options to sift through and give them a huddle so they are all on the same page.

I have one affordable name for you: Rob Phenicie

[MikeG]

Bad games will happen.  We can live with that and I expected that.  I laughed at those who thought we'd be better with BJ THIS YEAR bc I knew games like this would come.  But what some of us are concerned about is that when things aren't going great, we haven't seen him trying to rally the troops.  I'm not throwing the towel in on him by any means, but I think the coaches need to address the situation.  If he's not a "leader type", that's fine, but they better find someone who is.

players have said he is a leader type--

I just wonder how much weight that leader has when he is a pup compared to a well-seasoned Grothe. Grothe telling you something would have more power. It is something he will grow into as opposed to being thrown into like he has been this season.

[cmhatter]

In this treead I didn't want it to become a discussion about his talent. I think BJD has a great deal of talent and could very easily turn into a superstar.

I was simply pointing out what I can see on national TV. Nobody told me this, this is my own observations.