BuckeyeBull9257

Fingers crossed.

Those students should be ashamed. (choosing to attend another instate game over attending and rooting for their own school) (Personal feeling here). They are most likely never going to be USF fans. (mind boggling to me) Cant be because they thought UF would win, Even Their die hard fans are calling for Muschamp's head because UF has been stinking it up and no one thought they would win. Question to them, Why didn't they choose to attend UF instead of USF? For most of them I think it was money and proximity to home. Some came for the medical program. As for attending the UF game instead of the USF game, can you really blame them? We had a meltdown last week and we didn't even know our starting QB going into this one. At least at the UF-Georgia game they can get in some quality tailgate and watch one good team play (even if they didn't expect it to be their team, it turned out to be in their favor). They feel that they can't get behind a team that blows winnable games on a consistent basis. Florida has history on its side in their minds. Yes I can blame them. These are prob the same students who use the OCS argument for not attending games or the Win loss records or the temp, or game time or the drive to the stadium ect... Its all Lame. You go to YOUR School's game and root for your school because its YOUR school, You go to your schools game to root for your classmates and friends, (its about pride) (show up regardless of the record and opponent) , You go to your schools game to be with like minded individuals other USF fans, alumni and students, friends ect.... You don't sell out and pick another instate school. Its about loyalty and being involved within your university. Just my two cents. (not attacking you here btw or anyone in particular) only responding to the post. I can respect that. I understand your reasoning and clearly you are a diehard fan, all the more power to ya. Now picture this: You came to USF within the last 4 years (starting 2011-This year). You have heard stories of a once-interesting football program and you show the average mild interest in going to a game, but you were raised rooting for those Seminoles or Gators. You go to all the Bulls games and you watch the Bulls on TV to show support in your first year. We don't have a winning record at home. We don't have a winning record at all. Suddenly ole FSU and UF look a lot better and more worth your time. Watching your team get spanked on national TV is embarrassing. Watching them get spanked at home is even worse. As a student I see the fans from the area drop out all the time with all those empty seats. I'm not impressed by the atmosphere. The product sucks. The average student checks out fast and goes right back to rooting for that childhood team. We don't connect to the athletes. We feel embittered towards some of them for using our fees to pay for their education and then blowing chunks on the field. We turn in to casual and conditional fans. Win enough games and give us the right weather and we show up. Play with some energy and some intensity and we show up more. Drop a big winnable game and we become disgruntled. Almost lose to an FCS team and we are demoralized. Get blown out and the fun stops. I show up to games. But I don't really enjoy it that much right now. Not when we have games like the Houston game or the NC State game. I got my hopes up against Maryland and ECU but man was I disappointed. I came in in 2012. Went to every game because I was working with the band (that's a whole other story). We were 2-4 at home and 3-9 overall. Last year I missed the Cinci game and that was the only home game we won. This year I have been to every game and its just been one blunder after another. I'll show up to the UCF game because it might get interesting with a rivalry. But if this introduction was your introduction to USF, would you be impressed? Would you sign up for every heart-breaking moment? Growing up in NE Ohio and watching all the Cleveland teams it doesn't phase me as much. Its a tough time to be a Bulls fan for you Florida natives though. What with your Superbowls and National titles.

Don't forget getting blown out by NC State at home, barely beating WCU and UConn, and the bad QB play. That Tulsa win was surprising, I wouldn't call it "great" by any stretch of the imagination. That was two bad teams melting down in different halves. No one expected us to win every game. We all expected a 6-6 or 4-8 season. But I think we wanted a more competitive 4-8 team. Not a 4-8 team that managed to be a little better/luckier than some of the worst teams in the country. Quit blaming fans and students for not showing up. Its not a failure to not want to watch a losing product. We don't exactly have a strong history on our side to keep them coming. If the losses were closer/more competitive and the wins were better, we might have some more people willing to show. But the energy isn't there at RayJay on Saturdays this year.

Those students should be ashamed. (choosing to attend another instate game over attending and rooting for their own school) (Personal feeling here). They are most likely never going to be USF fans. (mind boggling to me) Cant be because they thought UF would win, Even Their die hard fans are calling for Muschamp's head because UF has been stinking it up and no one thought they would win. Question to them, Why didn't they choose to attend UF instead of USF? For most of them I think it was money and proximity to home. Some came for the medical program. As for attending the UF game instead of the USF game, can you really blame them? We had a meltdown last week and we didn't even know our starting QB going into this one. At least at the UF-Georgia game they can get in some quality tailgate and watch one good team play (even if they didn't expect it to be their team, it turned out to be in their favor). They feel that they can't get behind a team that blows winnable games on a consistent basis. Florida has history on its side in their minds.

I can't expect a win over Memphis or UCF. I can't expect a perfect season. I do expect us to try. The last few games (and several other losses this season) just make me think that this team doesn't want the win. We can't block for runners, we give up screen passes all the time, we can't stop the run now, special teams is falling apart. It makes me feel like the team checked out, especially after last week's loss to Cinci. I expect us to beat SMU. They are terrible. If we lose that game we might as well not play the rest of the season. If we show signs of being competitive against Memphis and UCF, I will feel better. But for the love of all that is entertaining: Beat SMU.

I know about 20 students who went to the Florida-Georgia Game on Saturday. I know no one who went to the USF-Houston game.

"Win more games" was an option.

Don't forget Tennis, We had them on the field today celebrating their AAC championships. BTW don't ever get those surveys, and I haven't missed a game in years. True. Shouldn't sell Tennis short, I apologize. Two of my surveys were student surveys about all sports and then football and one was for Women's Basketball fans in general.

I answered like 3 surveys this week that popped up in my email. They all seem to want to know "How many games do you go to?" "Why do you go to games?" "How can we improve gameday experience?" "What do you think of XYZ at the games?" He's at least putting in work and I respect that. All of these programs need some saving. Soccer and Softball are about the only sports we have that can compete for conference titles. I don't think he can afford to fire Taggart this year, we might not have that kind of money plus it sends the wrong message to future coaches. Taggart has at least one more year to turn this ship around. Harlan just needs to carefully evaluate his progress and be prepared to act if it all remains this bad next year.

Break into the e-Sports market.

"The Team"

I'd put "being a student and being forced to help pay for USF football to perform like this right now" in with "Paying to Watch USF Football"

Student government has only agreed to 25% of what Athletics was asking for in a fee increase on students. They nearly shut down the idea entirely. Most students at USF don't want to pay for every student athlete to have free housing, food, and books. We made our voices heard and were rewarded for once. Give the athletes full ride scholarships covering tuition. You may as well create a sports-village where the athletes can have cheaper housing. They already stick to themselves anyway. Or let them compete for academic scholarships like the rest of the student population. Create scholarships if you need to.

It was sloppy in the first half, but we managed it well in the second half. Nice comeback, but I hope we can build on that going forward.

Look a score! Look my hopes are up! *waits for football gods to strike me down*

We might not lose now. Maybe.

As long as we are competitive in the games we ought to be competitive in, I'll be fine.

No.. it's all covered by the fees. They can attend any home game of any sport for free. ...And use of the Bull Runner to go to the games.. and now discounted parking.. and other perks. That actually sounds like a pretty good deal - roughly $250 and you get to attend any home game for any sport for 4 years, and you get to support your school. I would have an issue with the fees if there was no tangible benefit to the student. What benefit does a student who isn't interested or can't attend games derive from paying for it?? Assuming we were a good athletic school this would be a bargain. But we the truth of the matter is that we are still in that mid-major stage. Athletics cost the University much more than they bring in. So really, at the present, the cost of paying the fee is far outweighing the benefits. No major sports conference titles. A few decent teams (Golf, Soccer, Softball - all low attendance) but nothing in the major 2 revenue sports. Simply put, if you didn't come in with an interest in USF athletics you aren't going to be leaving with one. Starting the whole "we need more donors and money to foot the athletic bill, better make the students pay fees" cycle over again. One might consider it an investment in the future in the hopes that we can one day be a major competitor and our brand will pay for itself. The only programs that are currently in the Black in athletics are the big names such as (just to name a few) Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, USC, Florida: brands that sell themselves to large alumni populations that grew up caring about the team or adopted the team while attending. If we can generate positive results and competition, we get students and alumni to care about the team. I always hear about the 2004-2009 teams that would always keep things interesting. Maybe they didn't win championships, but they competed well and won some big games. The fans from that era are diehards. They love the team because when they attended the team was great. In short: the students won't gain anything from this unless Athletics start producing wins where they matter most. It will just pander to the athletic few who come here and make students even more embittered toward their athletic counterparts than they already are.

First half was some strong defense and good balanced offense. Nothing too flashy, just getting business done. Wide receivers had some big drops though. But that was a run game to be proud of. Second half saw our Offense dig itself into holes on 3rd down with careless penalties. More big drops by the wide receivers that could have gone for 6. Defense was out on that field so much and ECU got into a rhythm. Even the 1st and 30 wasn't enough to help. Our defense dropped the ball same time our offense did. If we play like we did in the first half for the rest of the year, we can finish with one conference loss. If we play more like the second half, we won't win another game (except maybe SMU, maybe...)

I'll have what you're having

Did they consider other options, or was this the only thing they could come up with? I feel like that is USF's default on athletics: make the students pay.

I wonder if the UM beat writers can get the actual attendance figure from their landlord and make sure it gets out there .... They can probably just count it themselves.

It was nice and full. Loud when it counted for sure (until we got down by 11). But it was also homecoming and a ranked team. After the way we threw that game it won't be that full again until UCF in November sadly.

They were having serious audio/visual problems at the Stadium yesterday. Nothing was in sync and it sounded weird, so that's on the tech. That being said, the band is quieter than most. I was at the other end of the student section from them and its hard to make out what they play. They need it.

We did make an adjustment. We stopped rushing 4 or 5 guys on the quarterback in the second half on defense and he had all day to throw. Flashbacks to John Elway and The Drive against Cleveland..... *sigh*