Bulls aim to rebound versus Orange

With resurgent Syracuse — and a possible 1-4 start — bearing down on USF, coach Willie Taggart and two players were asked if a heightened sense of urgency exists.

Tailback Darius Tice: “I think it’s a sense of urgency with football, period, because from the very first game you want to win ’em all.”

Safety Devin Abraham: “It’s the next game up. That’s how we take it and we’re gonna take the next game up and we’re gonna play USF football and we’re gonna try and bring back a ‘W’ each week.”

Taggart: “It’s urgent to get a win every week. It was urgent in Week 1 against FAMU and every game. Just because we’re 1-3, that doesn’t make it more urgent than what it was before. All of them are urgent.”

In fairness, such rhetoric isn’t unique to Fowler Avenue. From Orlando to Auburn to Austin, similar sentences from similarly embattled players and coaches likely are emanating.

Bottom line: The Bulls must show up for this one. For a program desperate to turn the corner, taking the Orange to the woodshed would be magical. Taking it to the wire is mandatory.

Attendance at Raymond James Stadium is dissipating. So, too, are reasonable bowl possibilities. Cyberspace is congested with speculation about Taggart’s job security.

“We know where we’re at,” Taggart said. “We know we put ourselves here, and we know no one else is going to get us out of this, and no one else is going to feel sorry for us. It’s on us.”