I know a lot aren’t going to like this but I think we learned less from this game than we did from GSU/ODU. (I’ll admit I didn’t see more than the first quarter due to the weather/satellite) I’m going back to the you can only take away negative when you play bad competition and USF may be one of the worst FBS teams there is this year. Remember they were beyond awful last year, they struggled to beat Western Carolina giving up tons of yards and points, they lost to Maryland at home after MD had 6 TO’s. My point is the close game against MD is the anamoly for an awful team, not an indicator of a potential decent team.
I wish I could have seen most of the game to see what mistakes State made that were carrying over from the other games this year. The few things I saw was mainly Burris stumbling to give up the first TD, Cherry not lining up on the line that negated a 40 yard run by Brissett before the end of the half, Cherry dropping the punt catch twice which led to a FG on the second one. MVS should be nicknamed Stonehands, he’s repeatedly dropped numerous easy passes that have hit his hands all year. (If I got some names wrong sorry).
The only positives you can really take away from this, in my opinion, are the intangibles: confidence (though it may be false confidence if the staff and players feel too good about what they did).
I’m happy for an easy win and having a quality QB again but I think USF showed it’s still as bad as they were last year and State showed just how bad you can be when you don’t have a QB, instead of thinking State showing they are better than we thought.
Consequently the game against Presbyterian will be more of the same.
