Strength in Unity.

RoyalTy · Post by **RoyalTy** » 08 Jul 2021, 12:42

Took me a second to catch back up. Tough loss to Bama, but way to bounce back and end the season on a high note in the bowl game. I know you aren't using the playoff, but I can imagine the rankings at the end of the season would have caused a lot of people in your universe to start about it again. Either way, it's good to see that there are still teams left that can give USF a fight, makes the wins more satisfying.

Love the touch of the transfer portal, I haven't figured out how to use the NCAA editor properly but when I do that's something I wanted to add to the story. I assume Tariq thinks he's better than the coach's son, but from a ratings standpoint does he have an argument? Either way, being a four-star recruit I'm sure he still feels like he can contribute more than what he has. It's great world-building.

Always a fan.

Post by **Soapy** » 08 Jul 2021, 14:05

Caesar wrote: ↑
07 Jul 2021, 08:34

Soapy wrote: ↑
07 Jul 2021, 08:01

Caesar wrote: ↑
06 Jul 2021, 20:40
USF starting to get a little like their friends on the opposite coast of Florida, eh?
FAU?
These 'uns

i fucking hate mark may

Post by **Soapy** » 08 Jul 2021, 14:13

RoyalTy wrote: ↑
08 Jul 2021, 12:42
Took me a second to catch back up. Tough loss to Bama, but way to bounce back and end the season on a high note in the bowl game. I know you aren't using the playoff, but I can imagine the rankings at the end of the season would have caused a lot of people in your universe to start about it again. Either way, it's good to see that there are still teams left that can give USF a fight, makes the wins more satisfying.

Love the touch of the transfer portal, I haven't figured out how to use the NCAA editor properly but when I do that's something I wanted to add to the story. I assume Tariq thinks he's better than the coach's son, but from a ratings standpoint does he have an argument? Either way, being a four-star recruit I'm sure he still feels like he can contribute more than what he has. It's great world-building.

Always a fan.

Thanks for the comment and glad you're back, beloved.

tbh, I'm scared of the editor. I used to use it to fix the big head, small body glitch as well as allowing for duplicate numbers but it eventually led to my old Miami save crashing, I think. The editor, about six seasons in, also stopped working when I would try to load the same dynasty file in. The BCS system also gives it a different, old school dynamic and for now, going to stick with it.

I like the toughest competition in the SEC, the Big 12 was embarrassing towards the end. It was beat Texas, beat Oklahoma, finish the season undefeated. With the Florida schools, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Alabama, guaranteed at least two or three tough games with an upset here and there.

Rating wise, Tariq was the second highest ranked player on the team but I try not to just rely on overall rankings to set the depth chart. I look at style of play, seniority, recruiting, chemistry, etc, things that a real life coach would look at. Jean-Jacques Francois is a dynamic athlete that can get open on most type of routes due to speed and acceleration but his blocking leaves more to be desired given that he's not a natural tight end and was a high school quarterback. Smith, on the other hand, is a monster of a run blocker but he's not going to get himself open. If the play design doesn't free him up, it's hard for him to create separation. The USF playbook had a ton of TE corner routes that he feasted on as a true freshman. Auburn's, not so much so he became a blocking tight end the last season and was really good at it but I felt that as a highly rated recruit that has a great freshman season, a real life player wouldn't take too kindly to being benched for the coach's son.

Post by **djp73** » 08 Jul 2021, 16:10

How do you handle transfers in game?

Post by **Soapy** » 11 Jul 2021, 21:32

djp73 wrote: ↑
08 Jul 2021, 16:10
How do you handle transfers in game?

If it doesn't happen in-game, I cut the player and re-create them either in the game or as a recruit if they're not a graduate senior.

Post by **Soapy** » 11 Jul 2021, 22:00

Forged through competition, USF's Pierre Francois ready to blaze his own legacy
Sean Caesar -- The Athletic Writer

A scheduled ass whooping.

That's how USF head coach Malcolm Francois Sr. described the daily battle that would erupt on the practice field between his two sons; then true freshman cornerback Pierre Francois and his older brother Malcolm Jr.

Francois Jr. would get the best of Pierre often during that spring until a knee injury sidelined him. Replacing the eldest Francois in the slot was Ryan Wagner, who would prove to be another daily tough challenge for Pierre but he'd hold his own every once in a while, enough to get on the field.

By the time Francois Jr. returned to the field, their matchups were fewer than before, only occurring during first team offense vs. first team defense scrimmages as Pierre had earned himself the starting nickel spot.

"He really got better," Francois Jr. says of his brother's development from his first season to his second, "I thought I was slowing down when he was getting the better end of me, jamming me, harassing me. But then he'd do it to everyone and it was a proud moment as a brother like 'okay, he's really good' and he just keeps getting better."

Francois Jr. is now an assistant at USF, helping his father coach the receivers. He's hoping to see a similar jump in a lot of his young receivers but for now, it's Pierre whose delivering these scheduled ass whoopings.

Despite being undersized, Pierre is one of the team's most physical players on defense and doesn't wait until Saturday's to show it. Francois Sr. often has to ask the defensive coaches to pull his Pierre back, especially under former defensive coordinator Manny Diaz who liked coaching an aggressive defense and would let Pierre get after the offense in practices.

At five-foot-nine and barely 180 pounds at the time, Pierre recorded 18 tackles for loss in 2026 under Diaz playing that nickel/striker role. He moved to outside corner as a junior and while his counting stats decreased, he was the team's best cover corner and of the better corners in the SEC.

For defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox who is entering his second season in Tampa, Pierre is not just a fiery competitor who doesn't hesitate to take out his mouth piece and use his mouth piece. He's now the safety blanket for everything they do in coverage.

"[Pierre] has one side and we trust him to cover it up," says Wilcox, "He allows us to do a lot of things defensively on the backend that you can't do without a top corner and a guy you can trust on an island by himself."

Pierre's matchups against top receivers Eric Sellers out of Florida and Florida State's Eric Peterson will be some of the best WR-CB matchups of the season.

Post by **Soapy** » 11 Jul 2021, 22:40

Bulls struck big nationally and locally last season, how will they approach their board this season?
Eddie Fernandez -- 247 Sports USF Insider

The University of South Florida dominated recruiting last season, landing the nation's top recruiting class after signing a school record five five-stars.

They continued the trend of being able to go out of state to land those highly sought after recruits with commitments from Nigel Medley out of Texas and Brent Slaughter out of Illinois. While Texas isn't necessarily out of the program's comfort zone recruiting wise with ten Lone Star State players on their roster currently, Illinois certainly is.

The Bulls took care of home, too, however, landing four of the state's top six players.

While last year's success will certainly carry some momentum into 2029's class, there are no automatic bids to land commitments. The coaching staff will need to hit pavement once more and keep stacking elite class after elite class.

Here are some of the biggest questions heading into the cycle for the Bulls:

USF has been slow on the trigger at QB, will it continue?
The operative word on how the Bulls have approached quarterback for this class is picky. Four-star QB Jonathan Sanders out of Bedford, Texas has worked out for the Bulls but interest remains lukewarm according to Sanders' head coaches. It's a down year state wide at the position with just one four-star quarterback in Cooper City's Isaac Robinson who is a project.

They signed three quarterbacks this past cycle -- all developmental guys outside of JUCO transfer George Mobley -- so the Bulls appetite might be low on taking a guy just to take a guy.

The guy to watch? Texas' Curtis McCollum, a former Oklahoma commit who decommitted last month. The top ranked quarterback in the country, USF might make a run at him if he doesn't make a decision soon and they feel like they have a good shot at him.
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They've been big fish hunting on the offensive line, will it pay off?
After signing two four-star guys on the offensive line for the first time in a while, USF isn't going back to the development well at the position.

The top tackle on their board is four-star Kenneth Smith out of Texas and at guard, it's Palm Beach four-star Elton Hopkins. They're also in on top-3 centers Kyle Moss and Daniel Moore. Expecting them to sweep is a pipe dream but if they can go 3 out of 4 or even 2 out of 4, it's a successful class and gives them one of the better classes in the country at the position. If they strike out however, it'll be a tough February with not a ton of back out options.
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Who will be the first five-star target to commit?
The Bulls feel really good about their positioning with four-star Oklahoma prospect Louis Dukes. A high school quarterback, USF likes him at receiver and that's what they're recruiting him as while Tennessee wants him to play quarterback.

Dukes was ready to commit as a junior according to those around him but USF's rule of no visits following commitments stopped that from happening. Dukes unofficially visited Tennessee, Pittsburgh and North Carolina during the spring and so far this summer. He still has all five of his official visits left but now that he's seen somewhat what other schools have to offer, will he be the first five-star in the class?

In-state five-stars Michael Bowser and tight end Derrick Hunter are also names to watch as some recruits might want to wrap up their recruiting before the start of their senior season.

Post by **Soapy** » 11 Jul 2021, 22:54

Run of the Bulls ‣ USF Football News
Andrew Lake -- 247 Sports Staff Writer

‣ Former USF TE Smith transfers to Florida; sends apparent shot at USF TE Jean-Jacques Francois during announcement

Former four-star and USF tight end Tariq Smith will be playing his final season at the University of Florida. Smith graduated from USF in the spring and will be eligible to play immediately.

Smith, who was recruited by the Gators as a high school recruit, recently left the Bulls program after spending the past two seasons as a backup, most recently last season to then-sophomore Jean-Jacques Francois.

Smith announced his commitment to the Gators on CBS Sports HQ and afterwards, took to Instagram Live. While the comments were seemingly filled with Gator fans, a few comments were made disparaging Smith's transfer to Florida. Smith's response to one of them was "[Expletive] J.J., ain't nobody worried about that [expletive]."

It didn't take long for the internet sleuths to figure out that J.J. was likely referencing to Francois and the comment that Smith was reacting to was likely one that said: 'you scared of competition, running away because francois took yo spot. soft!'

Francois was recently named to the AP preseason All-American second-team.

‣ No apparent #1 on Bulls roster following latest roster update

USF has released it's updated roster with updated heights, weights and number changes as well as adding the summer enrollees.

A notable omission was the lack of a number one jersey. The team had traditionally announced who would wear the coveted number during or after spring. Head coach Malcolm Francois had said back in April that the competition was wide open for the number and it seems that it'll carry into fall camp.

‣ Francois names Jackson starter as fall camp is around the corner

USF head coach Malcolm Francois Sr. has declared that quarterback Jay Jackson will be the team's starter this season, a move that was expected.

A fifth-year senior, Jackson beat out redshirt freshman Antonio Whitehead in what was described as a "very uncompetitive" battle in the spring due to Jackson's experience and superior athleticism and accuracy.

Jackson has completed 63 percent of his passes for 515 yards and five touchdowns along with three interceptions in spot duty behind Jed White the past two seasons. He's also rushed for 396 yards and three touchdowns, including a run of 84 yards last season.

Post by **Soapy** » 12 Jul 2021, 10:01

South Florida Bulls upgrade uniforms following move to Adidas
Blog Post -- UNIWATCH.com

The South Florida Bulls are now the only team in the country to wear Adidas’ new WVN A1 uniform, the lightest and strongest Adidas uniform yet.

According to USF, “The advanced technology in the four-way stretch woven fabric combined with stretch mesh paneling throughout the jersey and pant provides for an elevated range of motion, compression fit and superior ventilation. Rigid mesh at key vent zones around the shoulder pads provides AERO.RDY breathability.”

Replacing the gold chrome logo on the sleeves is a big gold chrome bull horn, similar to the ones they wore with Under Armour. Both the white and green jerseys have the horn on a green sleeve.

On the white pants, there’s a new green stripe to tie them in to the rest of the white uniform.

It also looks like there’s a tweak to the font. To match the notch in the horn, there’s also a new notch in the curves of the numbers. That’s a cool little touch.

Other than that, the changes are subtle, like the Adidas logo is now on the right of the chest. The USF wordmark was also added on top of the nameplate, which has also been updated with a new font. The text on the pants has also been removed.

USF will debut these uniforms in Tampa vs the Arkansas Razorbacks on September 2nd.

Post by **Soapy** » 12 Jul 2021, 10:43

With Jackson named QB1, which other spots are up for grabs during fall camp?
Anthony Washington -- The Tampa Bay Chronicles

USF head coach Malcolm Francois Sr. ended all rumors and speculations when he named redshirt senior Jay Jackson the team's starter at quarterback. The news came as a surprise to no one even though junior college transfer George Mobley turned heads and Antonio Whitehead is still viewed as the team's future at quarterback.

While QB1 is decided, other positions are not. Positions will be won -- and loss -- over the next few weeks as the Bulls begin fall camp on Friday.

Starting Z and X Receivers
Corey Montgomery played some outside receiver towards the end of last season but offensive coordinator Calvin Magee has shown throughout the spring that he will keep the former freshman All-American in the slot where he caught most of his 71 passes last season.

This leaves Z and X wide open for competition with redshirt senior James Harper being the favorite to at least win one of those spots. He's big and physical -- at times -- enough to be that backside receiver at Z and fast enough to be the team's X receiver, capable of taking the top off a defense.

Other names to watch include sophomore Derrick Byrd and junior Andrew Rivas with the ultimate wildcard being former five-star true freshman Pat Newsome. Newsome was non-existent in the spring game but the coaching staff has spoken highly of him before and after that dud of a performance. They seem confident that he'll be able to bounce back but only time will tell.
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Starting right tackle
Moving former four-star offensive guard Nick Matthews to center helped clear things up at guard with redshirt senior Robbie Wade and senior Chris Simpson surrounding the first time starter. Wade is a first-year starter himself but as a redshirt senior, he has plenty of practice and film watching experience that should aid Matthews' transition to the new position, leapfrogging redshirt junior Jason Harrington.

At right tackle, however, the picture is still muddy. Marcus Clark and Bryan McDonald rotated in the spring but don't be surprised if Andrew Smart gets in on the action. He's a physical presence and probably one of the team's most dominant run blockers with a few highlight reel worthy blocks out in space during the spring. But his technique can get sloppy and leave something to be desired.
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Entire defensive line
It wasn't that long ago that Justin Young was the hot next thing at defensive end. He failed to make an impact as a true freshman and with the team signing another pair of four-stars this cycle, he'll be in competition once more against Cornelius Ross and Jason Hamilton.

Hamilton and Ross are a bit more athletically gifted than Young but Young's a more developed pass rusher. It'll likely end up being a rotation of all three at weakside and at strongside, redshirt senior Marcus Smith and sophomore Nate Stewart are making the move from weakside to strongside. They rotated last season and that should continue this season.

At nose, James Faulk is making the move from SDE last season back to nose tackle, a position he played in high school. He's strong than redshirt junior E.J. Jones but Jones showed some good pass rushing moves from the inside during the spring and was the team's most disruptive force along the defensive line at the spring game. Expect true freshman Chris Mark to also get in on the fun.
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Starting Will linebacker
We know it's going to be Greg White and B.J. Patton at RUSH and Sam on the outside with Marcus Rhoden at Mike linebacker. Who starts at Will? The Bulls have options.

Kenny Frye is up to 237 pounds and has always been the more physical of him and sophomore Greg Booth who can struggle against the run at times. He was dynamic in coverage last season, recording three interceptions with five pass breakups and two defensive touchdowns. He'll get on the field on obvious passing downs but an every down linebacker? He has a ways to go for that, leaving the door open for Frye.

The dark horse is 250 pound true freshman Gary Adkins. He's got a bit of everything to his game and has all the attributes of a future stud at the position. Will Bulls fans get to see it this season? Maybe not but he's a name to watch if things get off to a shaky start at Will with either Frye or Booth.
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Staring nickel corner
While he was good for at least one penalty a game, sophomore Jay Burke played pretty well for a true freshman last season and held his own. The team seemed hesitant to take him out for Marcus Hodge who did his bidding on special teams with a unit leading 24 tackles on the season.

Hodge impressed coaches throughout the spring and fans in the spring game as he limited Corey Montgomery to just one catch in their head-to-head matchups. Burke had a tougher day and may have cracked the door a bit open for Hodge to overtake him. But he might be on the field a ton this season....just at a different position.
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Staring free safety
Jay Jacobs isn't coming through those tunnel anymore and neither is Jake Lott. Whose the next great safety at USF?

It just might be true freshman Fred Jones whose willingness to get dirty in run support has curried favor from the coaches. He's raw in coverage, however, and similar to starting strong safety Paul Williams where they are more effective in the box than in deep center field.

While Williams has certainly improved his coverage skills, having two safeties that aren't great in coverage might be a recipe for disaster. Enter Burke, who was primarily a cover three corner in high school and shouldn't have too much of a hard time transitioning to safety.

He was cross training at both as a true freshman during the spring before he made enough of an impression to stick to nickel full time. Jermaine Robertson and Jason Lawson will also likely be in the mix at free safety.

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