Third Year Make or Break

TOUCHDOWN BULLS! Rodney Adams scores last season vs. UCONN (photo USA TODAY Sports / Kim Klement)

            Willie Taggart begins his 3^rd season at South Florida with more questions than answers.  Taggart also finds himself in a familiar, albeit unfortunate situation…another year, another new set of coordinators and coaches.

In two seasons at South Florida, Taggart (who said he could win a national title at USF), is 6-18.  As is the case with most coaches who enter their 3^rd year at a Major College Football Program, it is make or break.  For Willie Taggart now is the time to show the Bulls Nation why he was brought back to Central Florida.

In the first of a series of articles focusing on the upcoming USF Bulls season, we will take a look at the decision makers…the coaching staff.

After a disappointing 2014 season, which saw the Bulls finish 4-8, Willie Taggart decided to shake up his coaching staff.  Gone are Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line coach Paul Wulff, Defensive Coordinator Chuck Bresnahan and Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Back Coach Ron Cooper.  Enter, David Reaves (1 of 2 staff members left from Taggart’s inaugural coaching staff) who was promoted from QBs coach to Co-Offensive Coordinator/Passing Game and Danny Hope, the former Purdue Head Coach who was brought in to be the Co-Offensive Coordinator/Run Game.  Joining Reaves and Hope is new Defensive Coordinator Ted Allen, who was hired away from Ole Miss, where he was the Linebackers/Special teams coach for the Rebels.  Hope and Reaves are the Bulls 3^rd Offensive Coordinators in 3 seasons and Allen is the Bulls 4^th Defensive Coordinator in 5 seasons.

Reaves and Hope have scrapped last years’ ground and pound offense in favor of an up tempo attack offense in hopes of improving on last years’ 118^th ranked offense.  Allen has switched the Bulls from a 3-4 to a 4-2-5 with hopes of improving a defense that finished the season ranked 69^th but twice gave up 589 yards in a game.

The questions for the Bulls now is: Will all these coaching staff changes lead to immediate and improved results? And will this new coaching staff be the staff that gets the Bulls back to a bowl game?  The questions will be answered in just over 3 weeks when the Bulls take the field against Florida A&M.  In the meantime, we are left with two-a-days and comments from the coaching staff.