Brief spring game updates on our opponents

[Riddickulous]

South Florida:

Skip Holtz - "It was ugly to watch."
Skip Holtz - "It was pretty discouraging watching the passing game. Defensively, they ran every blitz known to man. But I thought just the way we executed the passing game was really poor. ... We're definitely going to have to get better at that if we're going to have any shot as an offensive football team."

Their scrimmage drew a meager 2,493 fans. Starting QB B.J. Daniels was 13 of 29 for 145 yards and a pick. There were a lot of dropped balls.

Michigan:

Detailed in the other college football section. Woeful offensive performance. DL looked very good and will be the strength of their D.

Michigan State:

Have yet to play their spring game, which will be held April 30th.

Pittsburgh:

In front of a crowd of just 1,507 people (due to rain, mostly), starting QB Tino Sunseri completed 35 of 55 throws for 416 yards with two TDs and an INT. Pittsburgh threw 81 passes total. Their new head coach is Todd Graham, who just beat us last year with Tulsa. With those kind of numbers, looks like defense could be a big problem with the Panthers.

Purdue:

The Gold beat the Black, 14-3. Quarterbacks Rob Henry and Caleb TerBush looked pretty good, while wide receivers Justin Siller and Antavian Edison both looked good. The star of the game was kicker Carson Wiggs, who hit a whopping six field goals, including a 67 yarder.

USC:

Have yet to play their spring game. Will be played next Saturday.

Wake Forest:

QB Ted Stachitas was 8 of 11 for 73 yards in an impressive outing. Wake Forest's offense has been described as "shaky" during spring ball by head coach Jim Grobe.

Maryland:

Spring game will be played April 30th.

Boston College:

Sophomore QB Chase Rettig was very impressive, going 20 for 29 with 182 yards. Junior Dave Shinskie was 9 of 15 for 103 yards, while their third QB Marscovetra was 4 of 14 for 35 yards and a pick. Star RB Montel Harris (who we've never had an issue defending) was taken out of the game early as a precautionary measure. In his place, the big RB was Mike Javorski, who ran for 82 yards on 20 carries.

Stanford:

The Cardinal, led by Andrew Luck (16 of 22, 165 yards, 3 TDs), dominated the White, 42-3. TE Zach Ertz was Luck's favorite target, hauling in 6 passes for 65 yards and all 3 TDs. TE/FB Ryan Hewitt also had an impressive day with 4 catches for 61 yards. RBs Anthony Wilkerson and Stepfan Taylor ran for 65 and 44 yards, respectively.


I've left out AF and Navy because I can.

 

[Riddickulous]

Just realized I left off BC.

 

[BestBIrish47]

"I've left out AF and Navy because I can"

Made me laugh... nice work

 

[AlbuquerqueIrishFan]

BC will definitely be better than last year with their improved qb play.

Anyone else already dying as you wait for the South Florida game? It will really suck when the NBA is over.

 

[Riddickulous]

BC will definitely be better than last year with their improved qb play.

Anyone else already dying as you wait for the South Florida game? It will really suck when the NBA is over.

Yes.

I'm actually very confident about this game the more I research USF. They had one of the worst offenses in the nation last year (I believe 117th), and lost both their leading rusher and their leading receiver, not to mention two or three OL. Daniels is horribly inconsistent and as soon as he gets out of rhythm (if he ever does get in rhythm), he's absolutely atrocious. I think that if we can key in on their running game and force Daniels to beat us with his arm, we could win comfortably.

Of course, we had high expectations for the SDSU opener...

 

[Veer option]

BC will definitely be better than last year with their improved qb play.

Yes plus they didnt lose that many players on their D so they should be pretty decent too.

I dont expect a cake walk from fredo this coming season.

 

[Riddickulous]

Yes plus they didnt lose that many players on their D so they should be pretty decent too.

I dont expect a cake walk from fredo this coming season.

They have a LB, Luke Keuchly, who's an absolute machine.

 

[Veer option]

Their D line should be pretty stout too. I would assume their only concerns would be lack of depth and the secondary.

 

[Riddickulous]

Update: South Florida's first "spring game" was more of a scrimmage. They played another one and looked much better. Don't write them off as an easy win just yet.

 

[IrishLax]

Update: South Florida's first "spring game" was more of a scrimmage. They played another one and looked much better. Don't write them off as an easy win just yet.

Anyone who does is ignoring a very good team... in fact USF is probably more talented than Michigan State, BC or Pitt. I expect them to win the Big East.

 

[WhoDeyIrish]

Anyone who does is ignoring a very good team... in fact USF is probably more talented than Michigan State, BC or Pitt. I expect them to win the Big East.

Big East is going to be down this year. USF could very well win the Big East this season, they get the better teams at home. When I say better teams I expect Louisville to be good and I expect WVU to be good as usual.

 

[Old Man Mike]

WVU is expected to win the Big East, partially because of the new offensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting Dana Holgerson. Sadly for WVU future opponents, that guy has been an offensive miracle-worker everywhere he's been [Texas Tech, Houston, Oklahoma State]. If USF wants to win the Big East, they'd better catch WVU this year.

That said, I think that Skip Holtz IS actually really worried about his offensive side of the ball. The fact that we get them in game one, with our "coming-to-be" monster defense, is the key to us winning that game I believe. If our offense is at all smooth, we should win that game. Michigan is just mysterious and MSU is hard. I'm a lot more worried about those two right now [although "logic" tells me that Michigan can't possibly be "up-to-grade" yet].

 

[rtrn2glory]

just to add a bit to USF...Darrell Scott (transfer from Colorado, former #1 RB recruit) looked good, according to their website.

 

[Rocket89]

Eh, I don't know...I think you have to really, really, really see the positives in everything and not look at the negatives at all to think USF is going to be a good team.

Could they win the Big East? Perhaps, but that doesn't mean they will be a good team and says more about the Big East than USF. I could envision a scenario where they finish in the bottom two of the conference.

First, they are only returning 10 starters on offense and defense. I don't want to go all Phil Steele on you, but history shows returning starters is usually a good indicator of how well your team will do. In this case, USF has a huge hill to climb.

It's not like they have been recruiting that well either, sure they have some athletic defenders, but overall this program is still very much a middle of the road place where it is not easy to replace half your starters.

I guess we can look at their 8-5 record and think they could be pretty good, but I think they'll be in the bottom 4 of the team's we play in 2011. They beat 8 teams last year with a combined record of 34-53 (we beat 8 teams with a combined record of 57-45, plus USF's win over Stony Brooke isn't counted in those numbers).

Are they a scary opening opponent? Depends on your outlook I guess. With a 2008 mentality I guess they would be...fearing we come out flat and don't play very well. But I really don't think USF is going to be a very good football team in 2011. Doesn't mean I'm overlooking them (not that it matters to the players on the field) but we are much better than them.

 

[Riddickulous]

Eh, I don't know...I think you have to really, really, really see the positives in everything and not look at the negatives at all to think USF is going to be a good team.

Could they win the Big East? Perhaps, but that doesn't mean they will be a good team and says more about the Big East than USF. I could envision a scenario where they finish in the bottom two of the conference.

First, they are only returning 10 starters on offense and defense. I don't want to go all Phil Steele on you, but history shows returning starters is usually a good indicator of how well your team will do. In this case, USF has a huge hill to climb.

It's not like they have been recruiting that well either, sure they have some athletic defenders, but overall this program is still very much a middle of the road place where it is not easy to replace half your starters.

I guess we can look at their 8-5 record and think they could be pretty good, but I think they'll be in the bottom 4 of the team's we play in 2011. They beat 8 teams last year with a combined record of 34-53 (we beat 8 teams with a combined record of 57-45, plus USF's win over Stony Brooke isn't counted in those numbers).

Are they a scary opening opponent? Depends on your outlook I guess. With a 2008 mentality I guess they would be...fearing we come out flat and don't play very well. But I really don't think USF is going to be a very good football team in 2011. Doesn't mean I'm overlooking them (not that it matters to the players on the field) but we are much better than them.

The major question mark of USF is the offense, particularly the passing game. I believe they were 117th in total offense last year.

B.J. Daniels, while a running threat, is an atrocious passer. He completed 58.7% of his throws last season for a meager 1685 yards, 11 TDs, and 13 INTs. In three separate games, Daniels completed less than 40% of his passes, including going 5 of 20 against Florida, with 4 INTs. He threw for over 150 yards only four times.

To make matters worse, they lose their leading rusher, leading receiver, and 2-3 OL. As mentioned, they got a transfer from former 5* RB Darrell Scott, who has impressed. A couple of young WRs are very fast and have also impressed.

I'm pretty sure Bobby's strategy going into this one will be to neutralize the running game and force Daniels to beat us with his arm.

 

[Rocket89]

The major question mark of USF is the offense, particularly the passing game. I believe they were 117th in total offense last year.

B.J. Daniels, while a running threat, is an atrocious passer. He completed 58.7% of his throws last season for a meager 1685 yards, 11 TDs, and 13 INTs. In three separate games, Daniels completed less than 40% of his passes, including going 5 of 20 against Florida, with 4 INTs. He threw for over 150 yards only four times.

To make matters worse, they lose their leading rusher, leading receiver, and 2-3 OL. As mentioned, they got a transfer from former 5* RB Darrell Scott, who has impressed. A couple of young WRs are very fast and have also impressed.

I'm pretty sure Bobby's strategy going into this one will be to neutralize the running game and force Daniels to beat us with his arm.

For sure, offensively they are just not that scary. If the transfer running back turns out to be a stud then maybe things will turn around. But yeah...Daniels is very shaky and we probably won't play a more skittish QB all year.

Defensively, I don't see how they will be that great but we'll see.

Weirder things have happened, but I don't think many people are going to have them as one of the top 3 or 4 teams in a weak Big East.

 

[Riddickulous]

For sure, offensively they are just not that scary. If the transfer running back turns out to be a stud then maybe things will turn around. But yeah...Daniels is very shaky and we probably won't play a more skittish QB all year.

Defensively, I don't see how they will be that great but we'll see.

Weirder things have happened, but I don't think many people are going to have them as one of the top 3 or 4 teams in a weak Big East.

They lose 5 of their Front 7, which is one reason I think Cierre will carry the football many times in that ballgame, especially if Crist/Rees are as shaky as their spring game performances.

 

[Rocket89]

They lose 5 of their Front 7, which is one reason I think Cierre will carry the football many times in that ballgame, especially if Crist/Rees are as shaky as their spring game performances.

It would be awesome to see Cierre bust out 150 yards in the opener.

Do want.