Following the conclusion of the 2014 football season, USF’s athletic department fired three of the football team’s coaches, including the offensive and defensive coordinators.
One month later, the Bulls are piecing together what hopes to be a postseason-caliber coaching staff, after the team has missed out on four consecutive bowl seasons.
While head coach Willie Taggart remains at the helm, the Bulls will have a new assistant head coach, a new offensive coordinator#the third in three seasons, and a new defensive coordinator#the fourth in five seasons.
With the defense ranking No. 69 overall in the country according to NCAA.com, the Bulls parted ways with defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan after two seasons.
Tom Allen will replace Bresnahan’s role on the team and comes to the Bulls from Ole Miss as the linebackers coach.
Allen and the Ole Miss defense gave up 13.8 points per game and 18 total touchdowns, both national bests.
The Bulls will have seven returning defensive starters in 2015, including their top five leading tacklers.
But the woes of the 4-8 season didn’t necessarily come from the defensive side of the ball. They come from the offense, where the team started three different quarterbacks, due to uncertainty at the position, throughout the season.
Former Purdue head coach Danny Hope was hired to replace Paul Wulff as offensive coordinator after just one season.
Wulff’s offense doubled the previous season’s number of offensive touchdowns with 22 and had the school’s first 1,000 yard rusher in nearly a decade. Despite improving to four wins (doubling the 2013 total), the Bulls managed to put up 17.2 points per game, ranking them 119th (out of the 125 football bowl subdivision teams), leaving cause for his departure.
The offense ranked 97th in passing yards per game and 117th in rushing yards per game (out of 125 FBS teams).
Hope, 56, will also take over the duties as the offensive-line coach, an area the Bulls need to improve on in order the help the QB’s passing game.
Hope holds an overall record of 57-49 as a head coach and led Purdue to two bowl appearances.
He will manage the Bulls running game and work closely with David Reaves, who Taggart promoted to co-offensive coordinator to oversee the team’s passing game.
The third coaching vacancy on the team was filled by Alonzo Hampton, replacing assistant head coach and defensive backs coach Ron Cooper.
Cooper came into USF with Taggart in 2013, but after questionable play calling, Cooper was out after two seasons with the team.
Hampton is no stranger to success. He worked with Taggart over at Western Kentucky University, where Taggart and his staff turned the program around with back-to-back 7-5 seasons before leaving for Tampa.
Hampton has spent his previous two years in Georgia at Tift County High School as a teacher and defensive backs coach. His team finished with an 8-4 record, qualifying for the Georgia High School Association Class 6A playoffs.
Now, heading into 2015 with Hampton, Hope and Allen joining Taggart’s staff, the team will return a style of play calling that was shown in first year under Taggart.
Taggart will resume all play calling responsibilities, but will work closely with Hope and Reaves when on offense.
After the team’s slight improvement from 2013, Athletic Director Mark Harlan has sent a clear message to the team with the firing of the coaches.
Win. Now.
