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USF Bulls sink to new depths

 
South Florida Bulls fans are sparse during the game against N.C. State at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, September 13, 2014. N.C. State defeated South Florida 49 to 17.
South Florida Bulls fans are sparse during the game against N.C. State at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, September 13, 2014. N.C. State defeated South Florida 49 to 17.
Published Sept. 14, 2014

TAMPA

When USF coach Willie Taggart decided not to put names on the back of his players' jerseys this season, he was doing them a favor.

Who wants to be associated with this?

USF football never has been this bad. It never has been this awful.

It's unwatchable. Worse than that, it's irrelevant. And even worse than that, there seems to be no hope of it getting any better.

The Bulls were crushed Saturday by North Carolina State.

Not Alabama, not Oklahoma, not FSU. North Carolina State, a bottom-of-the-barrel team in a below-average power conference. The Wolfpack barely beat Georgia Southern. It struggled to beat Old Dominion.

Then it comes into Raymond James Stadium and completely annihilates USF. The final score of 49-17 made it seem like this game was closer than it really was. I assure you, this was a thumping.

USF has lost a lot of games the past few years, and this felt worse than any of them. It got so bad that USF fans should have been looking to the heavens. Not for divine intervention, but maybe a lightning delay. Anything to slow down the embarrassment.

This is it, folks. The worst moment in USF football.

Rock bottom.

Overreaction to just one bad day? Hardly. This program has won three of its past 18 games. It was given fits by tiny Division I-AA Western Carolina and couldn't beat a Maryland team that turned the ball over six times last weekend.

And now this? Getting blown out at home by N.C. State?

The Bulls, once the up-and-coming darlings of college football, have become a chew toy, a tomato can. They look like the type of program that other programs invite for homecoming.

Details of Saturday's defeat are pointless, yet humorous.

One USF scoring drive consisted of six plays for 2 yards and ended with a field goal that cut N.C. State's lead to 39 points. The Bulls had a false start on a punt. At one stretch, five consecutive possessions added up to negative yardage.

N.C. State's offense suddenly looked like it was run by Chip Kelly. It ran 86 plays. It racked up nearly 600 yards. Throw out a 75-yard TD pass and USF's offense accounted for 84 yards.

"We're better than that," USF quarterback Mike White said.

Really?

Hey, it's not all bad. There are some positives with this program. For instance, you can park nice and close to the stadium, and there are always plenty of good seats available. In fact, you can keep your seat for Bucs games and no one will notice.

And students? Bring your books and homework. It's way more quiet here than the USF library on a Saturday afternoon.

How in the world did this happen? This is a program that used to win eight or nine games a year. It went to bowl games. It beat the likes of Florida State and Louisville and West Virginia and Auburn and Pitt and Kansas.

Maybe the Bulls weren't good enough to win conference titles, and maybe they weren't quite at the level of teams that play on New Year's Day, but at least they were good with an arrow that seemed to be pointing up. It wasn't completely unimaginable that someday USF could actually compete for a national championship.

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That's what makes this all so disappointing. USF did the hard part. It put together a good program.

And then everything fell apart, mostly because Skip Holtz's only good day on the job was the day he was introduced as coach. The rest was downhill because he couldn't coach-up the bad recruits he brought in. The Bulls fell to 5-7 and then 3-9 and then 2-10 last season, Taggart's first with USF.

The Bulls are now 1-2, and it feels like winning just one or two more games this season would take some major work.

A winning record? Going to a bowl game? Are you kidding?

When you watch the Bulls play like they did Saturday, it feels like it's never going to get any better.

"Noooo," Taggart said when asked if he was discouraged about the direction of the program. "I believe in this football team. I think we will have a hell of a damn good season before it's all said and done."

Is he seeing the same thing we are? What makes him think that?

"Because I see them every day," Taggart said. "I see them working and getting better. We just got to do it on Saturday so you all can see it. And we will."

That seems doubtful.

It's not quite time to call for Taggart's job. The condition that Holtz left the program was deplorable. To expect Taggart to turn it around in a span of 15 games is unreasonable. An optimist would suggest that some of USF's youngest players are among the most talented. Maybe, as Taggart promises, there are better days coming.

But it can't afford many more days like Saturday when you get pummeled by a run-of-the-mill program before fewer than 28,000 disinterested fans who were making a mad dash to the exits by halftime.

Many more games like this and no one will want their name associated with USF.

Contact Tom Jones at tjones@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8544. He can be heard from 6 to 9 a.m. weekdays on WDAE-AM 620.