If Gus doesn’t make any changes
- Thread starter Skiddo
- Start date
I actually like the staff as a whole. Don’t really know Blackmon well, but whe was probably dealt the biggest turd pie from the Huepel recruits in the specialists we have on roster. Talent is lacking in a big way…and yes they should hit the portal hard for qb depth, DB and LB starters. I’m looking for an Australian punter signed or a portal transfer with a 12 pack of Dr Pepper. A Kicker is a MUST transfer add, almost a top priority, sad to say.
I admit we have seen better days... given what has happened this year, let's see what we can get in recruiting and what's on the field next year.
If there are good kickers at other schools, they are getting schlobbed on the knob right now and not looking to transfer. We have to get lucky with high school kids.
If Gus would just adjust and let Mikey run the wild knight rumor has it that he‘d be effective, very effective.
He's in his first year, late recruiting class, top QB WR RB Center all go out with injuries....I give him a pass. Plus he has the best recruiting class in history if they all sign.
...or Junior college, or a walk on, or just about anyone from C-USA, Sunbelt!
It’s year one… we’re still in the top half of the league despite losing multiple starters. I expect improvement next year but he gets a pass this year.
The lack of talent is the result of the consistent turnover of coaches we have had the last few years. We need a coach that is willing to stick around for a while. That's why I like Gus. O'Leary had a couple of really bad seasons but made a huge impact on UCF. He is the reason we now have high expectations. Gus needs to be given 3-4 seasons (minimum) to see what he can do. He has a potentially great recruiting class coming in and hopefully will continue to bring in good classes with the Big XII logo behind UCF. Gus is willing to use the Portal to get replacements and he will have a better understanding of the players we need to replace after this season. I do think Gus is the right guy for the job but that doesn't mean we will always win a conference championship. Without the mile long list of injuries, we might of had a shot at beating SMU and Navy and getting to the AAC Championship game, but it didn't happen. If we can beat UCONN and USF then it was a successful season considering all the injuries and the lack of talent on the team. Last season there was more talent with a healthy DG and we were 6-4. I think we have a much better coach for UCF than we did last season.
I would like to think of Gus as one step above GOL. We need someone that's going to stick around for awhile like GOL did. I think Gus is going is that guy, after experiencing the challenges of coaching in the SEC he is here to stay unless UCF let's him go. . It's not healthy changing coaches every couple of years.
I like this write up Surf. I think it is the correct situation. If we still had Heup and Shannon in place we could be worse. And it does take 3-4 seasons to see the real Gus. As much as I hate that wait (2 -3 YEARS!!!) Surf is correct. Heup was handed a great team and destroyed it in 3 years. So many of our players are undersized offense, defense, and special teams. As long as we are seeing improvement (starting next year because this year is a bust with Huep leaving and injuries).
We are headed to the B12 and recruiting seems to be up. I think we are in for some lean years while we regrow our depth. But 8 wins with our injury situation would be nothing short of remarkable.
Just going to leave this right here.
Just going to leave this right here
I like Gus personally and feel we had a great season in light of all the injuries. I think we all get frustrated at times due to play calling but I will admit I am not in the room and maybe it is the way it is due to the level of talent we have right now. I like that if it all goes well, and it will, he will be here for 10+ years. As frustrating as O’Leary was, he was great long term for the program and we owe a lot for the stability he did provide. I really proud of our team and how they have handled the adversity that came their way this season.
The record could be nice, but let’s be honest, the product has underwhelmed compared to expectations. Even week to week expectations reflected in the Cincy and SMU spreads. Then you look up and see that 6 of our 12 opponents are likely to finish with 2 or 3 wins total (Temple could technically get 4 even though they lose every game by 40 now). That kind of takes a bit of shine off of the 7 wins. I think Gus is a good leader and recruiter. I think for us to peak again we will have to get a more creative playcaller in place at OC.
I here what you are saying, but we could easily have a losing record. Losing all those guys and keeping the team on task is difficult task. I believe with Heup coaching this year with all these injuries we probably have only 3 wins.
Now in regards to and OC, I don’t think that will happen, he stated at his presser when he was hired that he wanted to call the plays. I think we need another season of two to get his style of guys in here. The RB from Georgia seems to fit his mold of runner.
I think we could be way worse off. Also, it does us no good having some guy use us as a stepping stone. We need to think like this is the place people want to coach and stay. We have a banner up stating we one a National Championship, we need to act the part then. Going into the big 12 is exciting and I am glad we have a coach who knows what it takes to compete in a tough league.
this is utterly laughable and one of the more ridiculous statements I have ever seen posted here. Me and a few buddies could roll out of bed and beat Bethune Cookman, Temple, and UConn. Then there are an additional 3 teams that are a combined 6-27, Memphis starting a 4th string QB, etc. I don’t think you are being honest with yourself. Heupel would blow these teams out by 30-40.
Those are the wins we would have had with Heup. No way he he beats Boise, doubt he beats Memphis. Navy still would have been a toss up. The defense sucked last year and was getting worse each year. Any close game against a good team, we lost. Heup appeared to me to have lost the team, look at the kids that were kicked off, recruiting was not very good, his trajectory was downhill. We would have a losing record with him this year with all the injuries, in my opinion. That is just my opinion and we are having a conversation, no need to be insulting about it. Talking UCF football is fun.
Win TWO and we finish 9-4 with a true freshman QB and a top 35 recruiting class AND an invite to the Big 12…what are we talking about???!!!??? GEEZ….JWB
We have only played 2 or 3 good teams this year though…bad teams he blew out by half time. The defense was mostly young guys getting first action and by and large the same defense as this year only now with more experience.
I suspect this year would have been a lot of games like the USF game last year with Heupel; assuming folks stayed healthy, his offense with DG would have produced…but our defense would have also been much worse IMO.
Have to assume we don’t have as many impact transfers either.
With DG is the key. We would have put some good numbers with DG this year as well.
Much more reasonable than saying we would win 3 games with this schedule. We have 4 games against the top half according to Sagarin and 6 teams ranked outside the top 100. Heupel isn’t losing 3 of those. That’s ridiculous.
Exactly. With DG, this offense looked good, but not a big enough sample size. The true freshman is very limited, very hard to watch.
Our class won’t be top 35 when other schools get more commits next month.
Good for sure. Even DG was having a hard time at Louisville w the other injuries too.
Agreed. But he would not have played in a way that would have helped this patchwork defense And our record is prolly comparable.
Could our expectations have been too high? Perhaps unrealistic? The one thing that is on Gus is his continuing to try Joey Gatewood. I don't think it is ever very effective to bring in a QB who you know is not going to throw the ball.
I don’t think it was unrealistic to be competitive with SMU given the spread was under a touchdown and their coach was on the way out. They have lost 3 of 4. Not saying we should ha e won, but at least been competitive where we had some hope we could pull it out into the second half. Also not unrealistic to think we should have played better vs Navy, ECU, and Tulane when we were favored by multiple touchdowns entering those games and trailed near the very end of all of them.
But many of those predictions were based on players who were now injured. Jeremy, I can remember when you were the one last year trying to make the case when we lost that if so and so had caught the pass or someone hadn't stepped out of bounds, or if rainwater was beer we would have won. You covered for Hype many times. The loses last year were what they were, loses. This is Gus's first year with a team most people on here say are crap players left to us by Heup. A significant number of Gus's starters were injured including his star QB who had to be replaced by a Freshman. Considering everything I think we should be happy with the wins we had no matter how close they were. They are better than loses. I think we should give Gus more time unless he continues to do bonehead things like pulling out his Freshman QB when he is on a roll and replacing him with Joey G, or not letting Joey throw the ball once in a while so the defense didn't know it would be a run, or not letting his QB throw anything but short passes to the sidelines, or not adapting the style of play to the talent he has not the talent he hopes to get. These are the kind of things that will worry me.
We complain about Heupels guys sucking but then say DG getting hurt is bad for Gus. Keene and Gatewood have only played for Gus. I’d consider them Gus guys. They’ve been average. Bowser and MAR are Gus guys. Injuries have limited them but average overall because of that. Armstrong was decent but he got hurt. Craig Meyers hasn’t done anything. Big Kat has done better the last few weeks but just decent overall. Okeefe has been best offensive guy. That’s a Heupel player. He mentioned using the portal again in offseason. I hope he doesn’t rely on it. Results were mixed.
This
and ill add that we shoukd let UF change coaches frequently and pick off their commits
I predicted 8-4 before the season. But we have failed to cover the game time spread against Boise, Louisville, Navy, ECU, Cincy, Tulane, and SMU. So based on expectations at game time we have underperformed against teams that aren’t FCS caliber teams (or Memphis on a 4th string QB).
Heupel left the cupboard bare in many regards. We were left with one good QB and Gus had to bring in many transfers. Not to mention the defense was horrible. We actually had a chance at winning 10 or 11 games this season before DG got hurt. The team has taken on a new identity of not just being a bombs away team this season and is moving in the right direction.
Meanwhile how are Frost and Heupel doing this season? Cricket, cricket...
Meanwhile how are Frost and Heupel doing this season? Cricket, cricket...
Heupel is actually doing pretty well. Exceeded all expectations there for the year. Are you concerned at all that Gus hand picked Gatewood (he was the top Auburn overall recruit in 2018) and he couldn’t beat out a true freshman 🦛 player? Craig Myers is the highest rated Auburn recruit over the past 5 years and not sure if he even has a catch. MAR was the top 2019 RB in the Auburn class and top 3 overall and he was like a 5th string to start the year here out of spring ball. Is the answer that these players along with the most experienced O line in the conference returning all 5 starters (3 of whom were all conference selections last year) just suddenly have no talent? Or is there some limiting factor in an offensive scheme where a QB throws the ball 30 times and only 4 of them go beyond 10 yards from the line of scrimmage?
Was the product underwhelming or the expectations overly ambitious? Maybe both. But once again, given our injury situation I think a possible 8 win season remarkable and probably overachieving
