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Quick take on start of USF football? They're fast

 
USF head coach Willie Taggart walks across the field with players after a drill during the first football practice Thursday at the Morsani Complex in Tampa. [SCOTTY SCHENCK | Times]
USF head coach Willie Taggart walks across the field with players after a drill during the first football practice Thursday at the Morsani Complex in Tampa. [SCOTTY SCHENCK | Times]
Published Aug. 7, 2015

TAMPA — The skies were partly cloudy and the players partly bedecked (shorts, shirts, helmets) Thursday morning, but USF's newfangled offense was anything but partly throttled.

This much can be ascertained about a unit in transition: Whether it stretches the field or spreads it, employs a fullback or four wides, it will do so expeditiously.

A fitting alteration for a coaching regime many believe is on the clock.

"It's almost like a two-minute (offense)," third-year coach Willie Taggart said. "That's really what it is."

At the dawn of August, when hope is palpable and heartache distant, "fast" is the word being attached to a previously maligned unit, which ranked 118th of 125 Division I-A teams (304.7 yards per game) last fall and 121st (255.5) the year before.

The essence of those offenses — power running — remains, Taggart insists. Difference now, he adds, is that the Bulls possess the speed, seasoning and depth to make it work.

And make it work fast.

Be it a power or spread alignment (Taggart promises both), it will be caffeinated. On Thursday, the Bulls' inaugural preseason practice, dueling quarterbacks Quinton Flowers and Steven Bench operated with such dispatch that middle linebacker Auggie Sanchez acknowledged afterward that the offense won the day.

"Aw, man, today they did a great job," said senior Jamie Byrd, the "husky" (safety/edge-rushing hybrid) in new coordinator Tom Allen's 4-2-5 defense.

"I've got to give them props. When they first started in the spring, they looked pretty good; it was pretty fast. But today, it was on a whole 'nother level. We had to come out there with it all, because they were moving, man."

Adopting such a pace — USF hopes for 85-90 plays a game compared to last year's 61.7 — has required a mind-set adjustment administered everywhere from the meeting room to weight room. Yes, even meetings are faster.

"I think it's just bringing high energy all the time, just being into it," senior center Brynjar Gudmundsson said. "If Coach asks us do we understand, everybody answers back, 'Yes sir.' "

In second-year strength coach Irele Oderinde's offseason weight-training sessions, players ran to each station, ran to the water cooler, even ran to the restroom.

Each station featured a lifter, spotter and a player standing "in the hole."

"So a guy gets his lift done, and the other two guys are changing weight, like a NASCAR pit crew," Oderinde said. "Everything's fast, boom-boom. … We're trying to eliminate all the rest and all the waiting in between so everything's fast-paced."

Question now is, can the Bulls win with speed, or at least a speedy tempo?

Whoever wins the QB derby will enter the season mostly unproven at the Division I-A level, and three seniors — including Redskins seventh-round draftee Austin Reiter — must be replaced up front. Reigning American Athletic Conference rushing leader Marlon Mack is among only a handful of proven offensive entities.

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But what's indisputable is the Bulls' increased depth — across the board — from Year 1 of the Taggart era.

"When we came here, we didn't have any of that," Taggart said. "We didn't have anything to run the power that we wanted to run. We had to recruit to it, and then when you recruit to it, you've got to let those guys develop. … And we're older, we're stronger, we're wiser now."

But will they be better?

The fan base will find out.

And fast.

Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls.