http://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bulls...t-starter/

Graduate transfer QB Blake Barnett has been informed he'll start USF's season opener against Elon a week from Saturday, the Tampa Bay Times has learned.

Spectrum Sports first reported the news early Thursday evening. Barnett led the opening drive of the final closed scrimmage of preseason camp Wednesday, according to an online report on the program's official website.

He had spent the preseason sharing first-team reps with Bulls fourth-year junior Brett Kean and third-year sophomore Chris Oladokun. After Wednesday's scrimmage, Coach Charlie Strong told reporters no decision on a starter had been made.

"They've done a really good job and they respect one another," Strong said.

"When you look at it, each day one of them is running (with the first team), like this guy gets to start off with the ones, then the next…so they've been given enough reps and it's been evenly distributed. So now it's about us. Now we've got to go make a decision on what guy it's gonna be."

A former consensus five-star recruit from Corona, Calif., Barnett (6-foot-5, 217 pounds) joined USF in May from Arizona State, where he appeared in four games and attempted five passes in 2017.

The year before, as a redshirt freshman at Alabama, he was named opening night starter against Southern California, but was replaced by Jalen Hurts in the first half. He transferred shortly thereafter.

(08-23-2018 09:14 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  http://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bulls...t-starter/

Graduate transfer QB Blake Barnett has been informed he'll start USF's season opener against Elon a week from Saturday, the Tampa Bay Times has learned.

Spectrum Sports first reported the news early Thursday evening. Barnett led the opening drive of the final closed scrimmage of preseason camp Wednesday, according to an online report on the program's official website.

He had spent the preseason sharing first-team reps with Bulls fourth-year junior Brett Kean and third-year sophomore Chris Oladokun. After Wednesday's scrimmage, Coach Charlie Strong told reporters no decision on a starter had been made.

"They've done a really good job and they respect one another," Strong said.

"When you look at it, each day one of them is running (with the first team), like this guy gets to start off with the ones, then the next…so they've been given enough reps and it's been evenly distributed. So now it's about us. Now we've got to go make a decision on what guy it's gonna be."

A former consensus five-star recruit from Corona, Calif., Barnett (6-foot-5, 217 pounds) joined USF in May from Arizona State, where he appeared in four games and attempted five passes in 2017.

The year before, as a redshirt freshman at Alabama, he was named opening night starter against Southern California, but was replaced by Jalen Hurts in the first half. He transferred shortly thereafter.

Your thoughts on the selection?

How much eligibility does he have?

He looks really good. I was skeptical at first.
He dealt with a lot of injuries throughout his college career, hopefully he stays healthy.

(08-24-2018 02:38 AM)WhoseHouse? Wrote:  How much eligibility does he have?

2 years

All will be revealed after a few games. Either he is still a legit 5 star talent who just ended up competing against other elite QBs... Or he has lost his skills (or was overrated). Looking forward to finding out! If I had to bet though, I bet BB does really well. Just like Woulard a few years ago, and others, the P5 top soaks up too much talent, and then some of these guys ride pine. Better to light it up at an AAC level school, where you can obviously still make the NFL.

I see this going one of two ways.

1. USF's offense will actually pass more efficiently this year. Flowers was a great extend the play passer, but often took too long to find receivers and was bailed out by his own scrambling abilities. Sterling Gilbert's offense is more in line with a good pocket passing QB like his former player Dane Evans. USF's offensive production will be good.

2. Flowers took too long to find receivers because they were covered most of the time. If they are covered that way this year then Barnett won't be able to extend the plays like flowers and offensive production will fall off.

We've taken a pretty fair amount of transfers at ECU the last 5 or 6 years, they RARELY work out like you think they will. I'm somewhat skeptical of a guy who's on his third school in 3 years, most of the time there are some underlying issues that lead to player not being able to compete at a level high enough to win.

He has plenty of talent around him at USF so maybe this will be a different scenario but I doubt it. Really big kid from Southern Cali, he was destined to be ranked a 5* whether he deserved it or not.

(08-24-2018 08:35 AM)Poseidon Wrote:  I see this going one of two ways.

1. USF's offense will actually pass more efficiently this year. Flowers was a great extend the play passer, but often took too long to find receivers and was bailed out by his own scrambling abilities. Sterling Gilbert's offense is more in line with a good pocket passing QB like his former player Dane Evans. USF's offensive production will be good.

2. Flowers took too long to find receivers because they were covered most of the time. If they are covered that way this year then Barnett won't be able to extend the plays like flowers and offensive production will fall off.

Doubt this. USF always has some of the fastest receivers anywhere. Marquez Valdes Scantling ran a 4.37 at the combine last year. USF is absolutely stacked at receiver this year. Darnell Salomon and Tyre McCants are walking mismatches every time they step on field. There are a lot of other receivers poised for big years.

Predict Barnett will have a good year in Gilbert's offense and set the USF record for most yards in a year (which is only at just below 3,000 yards last year by Flowers).

(08-23-2018 11:39 PM)fishpro1098 Wrote:  

(08-23-2018 09:14 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  http://www.tampabay.com/sports/usf-bulls...t-starter/

Graduate transfer QB Blake Barnett has been informed he'll start USF's season opener against Elon a week from Saturday, the Tampa Bay Times has learned.

Spectrum Sports first reported the news early Thursday evening. Barnett led the opening drive of the final closed scrimmage of preseason camp Wednesday, according to an online report on the program's official website.

He had spent the preseason sharing first-team reps with Bulls fourth-year junior Brett Kean and third-year sophomore Chris Oladokun. After Wednesday's scrimmage, Coach Charlie Strong told reporters no decision on a starter had been made.

"They've done a really good job and they respect one another," Strong said.

"When you look at it, each day one of them is running (with the first team), like this guy gets to start off with the ones, then the next…so they've been given enough reps and it's been evenly distributed. So now it's about us. Now we've got to go make a decision on what guy it's gonna be."

A former consensus five-star recruit from Corona, Calif., Barnett (6-foot-5, 217 pounds) joined USF in May from Arizona State, where he appeared in four games and attempted five passes in 2017.

The year before, as a redshirt freshman at Alabama, he was named opening night starter against Southern California, but was replaced by Jalen Hurts in the first half. He transferred shortly thereafter.

Your thoughts on the selection?

I like it. A lot. Predict he puts up huge numbers in Sterlin Gilbert's offense.

(08-24-2018 09:06 AM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  

(08-24-2018 08:35 AM)Poseidon Wrote:  I see this going one of two ways.

1. USF's offense will actually pass more efficiently this year. Flowers was a great extend the play passer, but often took too long to find receivers and was bailed out by his own scrambling abilities. Sterling Gilbert's offense is more in line with a good pocket passing QB like his former player Dane Evans. USF's offensive production will be good.

2. Flowers took too long to find receivers because they were covered most of the time. If they are covered that way this year then Barnett won't be able to extend the plays like flowers and offensive production will fall off.

Doubt this. USF always has some of the fastest receivers anywhere. Marquez Valdes Scantling ran a 4.37 at the combine last year. USF is absolutely stacked at receiver this year. Darnell Salomon and Tyre McCants are walking mismatches every time they step on field. There are a lot of other receivers poised for big years.

Predict Barnett will have a good year in Gilbert's offense and set the USF record for most yards in a year (which is only at just below 3,000 yards last year by Flowers).

That's USF's hope right. I don't doubt the talent of USF's receivers at all either. I was actually implying they weren't open because Gilbert wasn't out-scheming the opponent. Do see it the way I do and Flowers hold on to the ball a bit long?

(08-24-2018 09:11 AM)Poseidon Wrote:  

(08-24-2018 09:06 AM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  

(08-24-2018 08:35 AM)Poseidon Wrote:  I see this going one of two ways.

1. USF's offense will actually pass more efficiently this year. Flowers was a great extend the play passer, but often took too long to find receivers and was bailed out by his own scrambling abilities. Sterling Gilbert's offense is more in line with a good pocket passing QB like his former player Dane Evans. USF's offensive production will be good.

2. Flowers took too long to find receivers because they were covered most of the time. If they are covered that way this year then Barnett won't be able to extend the plays like flowers and offensive production will fall off.

Doubt this. USF always has some of the fastest receivers anywhere. Marquez Valdes Scantling ran a 4.37 at the combine last year. USF is absolutely stacked at receiver this year. Darnell Salomon and Tyre McCants are walking mismatches every time they step on field. There are a lot of other receivers poised for big years.

Predict Barnett will have a good year in Gilbert's offense and set the USF record for most yards in a year (which is only at just below 3,000 yards last year by Flowers).

That's USF's hope right. I don't doubt the talent of USF's receivers at all either. I was actually implying they weren't open because Gilbert wasn't out-scheming the opponent. Do see it the way I do and Flowers hold on to the ball a bit long?

Flowers was told to take off anytime he saw green grass under Taggart. And it worked wonderfully because he was usually faster and more elusive than most defenses. Gilbert brings in his veer and shoot and cuts down on Flowers running for a while which won't work. He then relented and let Flowers go later in year. Barnett is more his QB. Flowers was an exceptional athlete, but not an exceptional passer...missed frequently on short and medium throws. Threw a great deep ball though.

Who?

(08-24-2018 03:25 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  Who?

https://247sports.com/Player/Blake-Barne...tion=57832

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Barnett

No surprise. Charlie sees Barnett as his ticket out of there

(08-24-2018 04:24 PM)Doglando Wrote:  No surprise. Charlie sees Barnett as his ticket out of there

Charlie is almost 60 years old. Doubt he's going anywhere, but we'll see.

What effect does this have on the run game and pass run/ratio? What say you? 60 p/40 r

So the kid has a game under his belt. What do you think? Better than Flowers?

(09-05-2018 12:24 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  So the kid has a game under his belt. What do you think? Better than Flowers?

Barnett looks like a stud. Flowers is a different type of player. I'm trying not to overreact to one game but Barnett looks like he will be the best passer we have ever had.

Much better legs on Flowers.