I have to do something this morning. My cell phone went berserk at Raymond James Stadium, which apparently is not uncommon, and I had to reset it afterward. That, for some reason, eliminated a majority of the texts I’d received during the game. So there went Texts from USF Game Night.

And perhaps that’s a good thing. It would have been weird and possibly rude to share those texts this morning.

I was legitimately worried about some people and their emotions within the game and reactions following it. These texts may have also hurt other people’s feelings or qualified as threats to physically hurt other people.

I can’t be turning my phone over to authorities to be used as evidence if, for example, someone were to throw a chicken — and not eggs — at a wide receiver as a way to taunt him. There were also three Mary Catherine Gallagher references. Three! We only saw two middle screens!

What’s worse? I’d have to say many of the texts were accurate assessments, legitimate complaints and, despite some exaggeration likely attributed to Friday-night spirits, generally rational and reasoned.

Of course, I can’t ignore Friday night. It deserves attention and needs explained, though, to be honest, it was very much as you saw things. USF beat the Mountaineers, who were at times horrible either by their own doing of by USF’s.

It wasn’t terribly exotic or complicated. Offensively, the Bulls had a quarterback who used his legs to use his arm as well as a few receivers who were too fast and slick to be covered by WVU. Defensively, USF broke down WVU’s offensive line and had Jarrett Brown and Noel Devine retreating a surprisingly large number of times. Expected or not, the overall performance raised a lot of questions and concerns at a time good teams are usually putting those to rest.

So let’s live in the past for a bit here and revisit USF 30, WVU 19.

Latin Hillbilly:

tough week. team looked unprepared. some bad calls and lucky bounces for usf. atrocious secondary play… but how much of that was due to daniels’ pat white impersonation? coaching seemed weak at points, e.g., punting on usf 33…. but, our kids didn’t execute well. at all. is J.T. hurt or in stew’s dog house or what? he’s, like, good. and makes stuff happen. and never on the field. i want tavon to play more.

obviously, none of this would have happened if friday feedback wasn’t nixed this week.

By halftime, you almost forgot how great WVU looked at the start of the game. Hard to say a team was prepared when it goes 80 yards on the first drive and then gets barely that on the next five. Perhaps the game plan was there, but something was obviously missing. The secondary — which was missing Nate Sowers, by the way — was indeed riddled by Daniels. Honest question: When was the last time WVU saw a quarterback as gifted athletically? Is it Marcus Vick? Perhaps it’s Matt Grothe, but he did a lot more with his arm than Daniels. The truth is the Mountaineers don’t see a lot of those guys and when a good one comes along he can give them trouble. The punt you mention was questionable, especially when it netted 13 yards, but Stewart had little faith in his defense at that point and wanted to make the Bulls drive 90 or so yards. Remember, the first strategic punt turned into a safety.

Sam said:

I was watching highlights from the Sugar Bowl season, and noticed us running a play in which the offensive line seemed to collapse under pressure, allowing the defensive line to get far into the backfield. At that point, White gives the ball to Slaton, who now has copious room open in front of him. Why wouldn’t that play work with our weaker offensive line, and with running backs like Devine, Austin, and Rodgers? The delayed draw?

It would work and maybe sometime soon WVU will realize it already has half the equation in place. As for the draw, I was looking at my notes and I noted one draw. It gained 10 yards for Noel. It was his long run of the game. Again, one draw.

Mack said:

I said last week that WVU isn’t very good but it would take a few losses before the fans would accept it. WVU cannot stop a team that passes competently.

Cincinnati and Pitt pass more than competently. Louisville has had to pass because 1) It trails in most games 2) Its running backs have been hurt. Even worse, USF Carlton Mitchell said he could make plays against WVU. USF’s offensive coordinator said WVU’s pass defense is a “trend” and the Bulls wanted to take advantage of it. That may not come as a surprise to WVU’s coaches, who watch tape of themselves to spot such trends, but it’s not good if teams are now saying, “Throw it. Make them stop us.”

JP said:

sigh,,,, carquest bowl here we come

You mean Car Care Bowl, but I get the point. Remember, the Mountaineers still have Pitt at home and Cincinnati. If they win one of those, there’s a possibility they get a share of the Big East title — which may mean nothing because the tiebreakers would likely favor the other one-loss Big East teams for the BCS. If WVU sweeps, it’s the Big East champion.

Birch said:

Car Care bowl probably isn’t even realistic. ND will get the Gator, Pitt/Cincy will get the Car Care. That leaves us with Toronto or Birmingham basically. Is it basketball season yet?

That’s all true. The Gator has to take a Big East team or Notre Dame and seeing as if this is the last year the Gator has that option, you know it’ll take Notre Dame. Where things get tricky is with the Car Care, which has its pick. It doesn’t have to take Pitt or Cincy or even WVU because of standings. That means Pitt could be 10-2 and 6-1 in the Big East and WVU could be 8-4 and 4-3 and because the WVU fans kind of like that trip, the Car Care could take WVU over Pitt. Weird, but true.

jtmountaineer said:

The scary thing is, we didn’t play that sloppy a game. Don’t get me wrong–it wasn’t pretty. But listing the reasons we lost might see mistakes at third or fourth instead of the number one slot. We just played poorly on defense, average on offense, and average on special teams. We should be competitive with Rutgers and Louisville, less than with Cincinnati and Pitt, and still have 8 wins with a bad bowl game pending. And if anybody thinks that’s a mark of a good season hasn’t watched us play a full game in 2009.

Agreed. It wasn’t a matter of turnovers or penalties. J.B.’s interception wasn’t good, but that was a nice play by the defender. WVU’s biggest error was probably making almost nothing out of field position. First-half drives started at WVU’s 31-yard line, South Florida’s 38 and the Mountaineers’ 42, 43, 39 and 37. The first lost 9 yards. One stopped at WVU’s 47 and the rest advanced into USF territory. The result was three points and a 20-12 deficit. The offense was just stagnant and basically because USF’s defense was far more capable of winning the game. The WVU defense couldn’t handle Daniels and a few running plays he made early on just seemed to discourage a blitz philosophy that may have been effective against a kid who’d never seen the 3-3-5. Fact was, it always felt like Daniels was going to do something when USF needed something. And he did.

thacker said:

Talk about a meltdown. Some thing sure stinks in ‘River City’ and damn if I know what it is or can understand it. Casazza, step in and explain it to your audience .. keep it simple and stupid. That may be part of the problem … do what is the strength and keep it simple and stupid. One thing for sure, the strength of this ball club should not be in these kids getting their ass kicked by an opponent. As it stands, I am afraid more of that may be on its way.

Yeah, USF isn’t as good as two of the teams left on the schedule, one of which has beaten WVU the past two years and one of which is No. 4 nationally. This was definitely a bad sign for a team that’s really going to have its resiliency tested and questioned. What seemed most curious to me was WVU didn’t seem like it had a strength it wanted to utilize. That opening drive was pretty and you could see two, three, four things that looked like they’d have success against USF. Not one of those stood out the rest of the way and I was asking myself — as were others — whether the Mountaineers knew what to do against USF. Did they know what their strength was. It’s nice to be multiple and unpredictable, but you need to be really good at some stuff on nights like that. I also wondered a few other things during the game: Why insist on running outside against those defensive ends? Why wasn’t there more single-back or I-formation when that was talked about all week? If Noel can’t go straight-ahead against the Bulls, fine, but could Ryan Clarke or Shawne Alston? Again, where were draws and screens, even bubble screens? Would a reverse or end-around manipulated USF’s defensive speed? Did WVU do its best to find a way to beat USF? 

Bill said:

Noel – I hate to say it but your team and your coaches let you down against USF. That may cost you whatever shot you may have had at the Heisman.

I read where Lockwood said that he wasn’t going to pull Tandy “because it might hurt his confidence”. Ummmm where do I begin with that. How is his confidence going to be while he continues to get burned and miss tackles? And to h-ll with his confidence…put someone else in there and then worry about his feelings next week in practice. unbelievable.

Well, Tandy wasn’t terrible in the second half — he played the open side of the field the rest of the way with a safety over top for help — and WVU was still in the game despite the target on Tandy’s back. If you pull him, don’t you think USF then goes at Pat Miller? I do understand the desire to switch guys, I do, but WVU was still in the game and couldn’t afford to experiment with something we don’t know would have worked. Also, and this is nothing against Pat Miller, but are we sure he’s good or ready or better than Tandy? What if he goes in and implodes? You then have concerns about two players. Also, I think Kent Richardson is playing so well he might warrant a look.

Jeff in Akron said:

WVU lost this game because the defense couldn’t stop B. J. Daniels. There was a question posed to Dunlap, asking how this defense compared to the ‘96 defense. His response was curt. At the time, I thought he was just pining for “his’ best defense. Now I realize, why he responded the way he did. This defense, doesn’t even deserve mention in the same article, let alone the same sentence.

WVU lost this game because they couldn’t stop USF. Forget offense, and special teams. USF put up thirty points against our defense. There are games, every season for every team, that become defensive struggles. Championship teams win those games. As long as they have championship caliber defenses. Apparently, WVU doesn’t have a championship caliber defense.

I agree, Tandy needs to find a warm place on the bench, and stay there.

The WVU defense couldn’t get USF off the field. That was the ball game.

I think the Big East is learning a little secret: WVU’s defense has problems. They miss Reed Williams, though Anthony Leonard was pretty good, as well as Scooter Berry. At one point WVU was guarding its end zone with Jorge Wright, Julian Miller and Larry Ford. Sidney Glover and Sowers are hurt at safety and we’ve discussed Tandy. Those are key problems at all four levels of the defense. It also appears teams are opting not to run against the Mountaineers because its easier to move the ball with the pass.

Sam said:

If anybody needs to find a warm spot on the bench, it is Wes Lyons. Has he ever done anything right? (Save the big block in the ECU game?)

There comes a time when you have to figure out who can help you and who can’t, what plays and plans work and what do not. This is that time.