USF Football Practice Report: Offense Struggles On Saturday Morning

The Bulls continued their march toward the first game of the season September 3, now 21 days away, and after this morning’s scrimmage head coach Willie Taggart is thankful the game isn’t tomorrow.

“It was a situational scrimmage, so we put our guys in a lot of different situations and I thought our defense played really well. Offensively, we didn’t execute well at all. We weren’t really locked into the situations that we were in,” Taggart said.

The one positive for Taggart is that the team can go back and watch the film and try to correct the mistakes. The Bulls had referees out today calling penalties, and I saw at least two delay of game penalties. Taggart said coaches and players will need to get substitutions in from the sidelines quicker and improve their clock management.

“[On offense] we had too many missed assignments, too many dropped balls. In our offense, if you drop the ball it takes away from the momentum,” Taggart said. “We did some good things here and there, but then you come back and you have a play and don’t execute it. It takes away from a lot of what we’re trying to do offensively.”

Quarterback Quinton Flowers took responsibility for not getting his guys ready for practice today and knows it can’t happen again.

“As the quarterback of the offense, you gotta get your guys going. Today when we came out, the offense wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready,” Flowers said.

Third down was a big problem for USF in 2015, especially late in games when they were leading and trying to finish off opponents.

Taggart said the team needs to improve on third downs as a whole, but will come with watching film and executing in practice when they are put in those situations. Flowers echoed his coach’s sentiments, adding that “knowing the situation and when to go and where to go” are huge parts of it.

The defense was the big winner today, forcing turnovers and creating havoc all scrimmage.

“We were prepared and ready to go. We are turning this defensive bus around and it’s good to see a lot of guys having energy, a lot of guys making plays,” linebacker Auggie Sanchez said.

Sanchez may be the harshest grader I’ve ever seen. When asked what grade he’d give the defense today, he said, “a B,” then followed that up by saying it was a “pretty average” practice. I am so glad he wasn’t one of my professors.

Noteworthy:

Freshman QB Chris Oladokun hit WR Donovan Geter in stride for a 60-yard TD to end the scrimmage. Oladokun continues to impress the coaching staff.

DE Kirk Livingstone has had a great camp so far and received one of the coveted gray jerseys. DB Devin Abraham and NT Deadrin Senat were also awarded gray jerseys.

Here’s the complete list of gray jersey owners: Livingstone, Abraham, and Senat; cornerbacks CB Ronnie Hoggin and Deatrick Nichols; safeties Jaymon Thomas and Khalid McGee; linebackers Nigel Harris and Auggie Sanchez; and defensive tackles Kevin Bronson and Bruce Hector.