SoFlo All Day

Not every team, just Bama - had a couple claimed before the AP changed its policy on when to publish their final rankings. It wasn't just a self-proclaimed championship when they were ranked nowhere near #1 and had no business making that claim. While we're at it let's just go ahead and retroactively give the 98 Tulane, 04 Utah, 09 Boise State, and 2010 TCU teams their national championship rings while we're at it. You guys had a great season - celebrate it. Don't mock the P5 by pretending that you would be able to compete with the top teams and granting yourself a title. Beating Auburn on a neutral site field doesn't mean you're better than Georgia or Alabama. Advocate for a more equitable system without being so UCF about it. You're making everybody else in the G5 look bad ....and no, we would not be doing the same thing if it had been us...we are not that delusional.

Claiming a natty is laughable. Have a parade - you had a great season. Putting up a national champions banner and going to Disney world? Overkill. This is similar to the hastiness of building that garbage stadium, putting up a statue of their old coach (who didn't really win them much)and practically whoring themselves to the Big 12 last year. They are trying too hard yet again. Except this time, the whole country is watching them now. This takes away from the accomplishment because it comes off as too desperate and it certainly won't earn the respect of the P5 circles that they need to be impressing to get to the big boy table. They're trying to make a statement here and they are. Showing the country that they are overzealous, delusional, and very foolish. Danny White is showing that UCFs idiocy is rubbing off on him.

This team is still loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. On Defense - LBs will be a concern - we're gonna need someone to step up and the guys to stay healthy may need to convert a freshman DE or two to LB. D-Line and Secondary should be good. Good talent returning and good depth, especially with the D-line even with Senat and Hector leaving. Offense will come down to how confident Gilbert is with his QBs accuracy. There were times where Q couldnt make the short and intermediate throws and would stall out drives. Feel like those are problems that Oladokun and Kean probably wont have. I'm actually pretty excited about the RBs and how a bigger back will do in this system. WRs are solid with Tyre, Bronson, Antoine, and Solomon coming back and I'm interest in seeing how Dukes does this year (He's like 6-4 - might work well on the vertical routes). O Line is losing a couple of pieces, but I feel like we have enough underclassmen depth/experience to be good here. I'd be disappointed with anything less than 8 wins next year. Hoping for a 10-3 or 11-2 season. UCF, Temple, Houston, and GT will be tough games. Cincy and Tulsa are games where we clearly out-talent them and games that we should win easily, but they are away so it might be tricky.

Chances are that they won't. The only team that had a shot was Houston because they scheduled Oklahoma and Louisville, had key players returning, and had Tom Herman return too. Central Florida has 0.5 of those three things going for them. They lose key pieces on defense even though the offense is bringing a lot back.

Can't say I'm the biggest fan of this whole P6 discussion - you could very well see 16 team super conferences in the next round of realignment so none of this will matter imo. Current P5 will probably have their pick of teams from the AAC, MWC, and Big 12 (as they are the weakest P5 conference from a financial perspective) to fill their slots. Any team in the AAC that helps the conference's claim of being "P6" will bolt for greener pastures and the league will have to start all over again. The financial disparity is too large. If we really were a true power conference then membership from teams would be sustainable and consistent. The fact is the AAC is at risk of having its good/marquee programs poached at any sign of realignment because it can't offer the financial potential that P5 offers. True P5 leagues don't have that problem.

Nobody cares about the Peach Bowl win today - just like nobody cared when Houston won a couple years ago and UCF won the Fiesta before that. You have to sustain it for people start noticing. UCF didn't before and Houston hasn't either. Also, you gotta get the AAC into the game every year to prove they are better than the other mid majors. Can't have a MAC or MW school in there.

It all depends on potential dollars, which I think we are even on for the most part. I also like to believe it has something to do with academics (because it's all about the students!) as well, which given our preeminent status and Judy's obsession with building toward AAU accredition we are better than them. That said, where we are ahead in academics they have pumped more money into their athletics.

I'm sensing some sarcasm.... I want Auburn to beat them like a red-headed stepchild.

I agree with that - typical P5 excuse for a bowl loss to a G5, sure. I'm not saying he will be at risk of getting fired next season if he loses the Peach Bowl, but Auburn losing two games in a row to end the season probably won't leave many boosters with that warm fuzzy feeling you get after signing a coach to a 7 year extension...the optics wont look good and I think he's aware of that.

Don't matter. If Auburn loses that game Guz's seat will be toasty regardless. You don't go from playoff pick a week before the regular season ending to losing the bowl game to a G5 school (at a place like Auburn) and not catch heat for it.

LMFAO - Killins "speed" comment highlights my point extacly about the delusion. Also, I've heard that Malzahn may not be completely off the hot seat with Auburn not making the playoff. This game will certainly matter to his status going into next year if this is indeed the case.

If the response was from a UCF fan then I wouldn't be surprised. Most of them are on cloud nine right now and rightly so after this past year. Their level of delusion about the prestige of their program is sky high and you can tell by the (false sense of) confidence they've shown the past few weeks towards the matchup with Auburn and the seamless transition they think that they will make with Heupal. First off, they are not beating Auburn. Not with that defense of theirs and not with the talent gap between AU and UCF. Not to mention, Auburn beat 2 playoff teams and held Clemson to 14. Second, as many of us have painfully learned over the past season, coaching transitions are harder than they appear even when you have a whole team that returns. Add to this the fact that Heupal is certainly not Frost. They slip next year. UCF is college football's Cinderella. Clock's gonna strike 12 pretty soon. Bet that. Cant wait to see the fall back to reality for them. Looks like it's gonna hurt.

Mizzou: Overrated offense that got to 7 wins by beating up on 3 completely garbage teams, beating three SEC teams that were having down years and had either fired their coach or were trying to find a way to fire their coach, and Vanderbilt. Blatant example of SEC bias with all the hype that they got. I predict UCF being very disappointed in their new head coach in the future. Flukey 6 game win streak - I don't think he's for real.

Yep...same here. Although it is probably good for the "rivalry." I absolutely hate that it was to them. Gosh, can we please start playing WVU and Rutgers on a consistent basis again?? Those may have been unofficial rivalries, but it beats having to play that team over on the Central-but-more-eastern-central part of the state. Nothing's worse than seeing a program that was a level below you a decade ago now become your main rival and then accomplish more than you. Here's to regaining our supremacy over UCF in 2018 and beyond. Dilly Dilly

Do we know how many of the signed recruits are enrolling early? I think we have six slots that we can use from last year's class, which would open up even more slots for the 2018 class. There's chance that we could technically get 30 recruits in one class if a few decide to enroll early.

Looks like MVS is also getting a master's degree too. Entered the Sports Management program. Good for him.

At this point, I hope we can get everyone on campus, practicing, and eventually staying the 3-4 years. I'm starting to realize that retention is just as important as recruiting. Look at Holtz's 2011class and you'll understand what I mean. The class was normally ranked but only a handful of players actually made it to campus and stayed long enough to contribute. 2013 and 2014 would have been the year's for them to contribute, but we all know what happened those two years...a combined 6-18 record even with a new coaching staff. And 4 of those 6 came from Taggart playing mostly freshman in 2014.

#BeTheThunder #GoBolts

If this is true, then I hope we have a chance to recoup some (if not all) of the buyout we gave to Heath. This is absolute bs, especially if USF ends up getting slapped with violations due to this. This just serves as another example of how the Stan Heath era was a skidmark on the history of our basketball program, reinforces my belief that the administration within athletics at the time was grossly negligent or just plain incompetent (Doug Woolard & Co.) about how to manage the coaching staffs of the two largest revenue producing sports, and that any success that our program showed in 2011 was really just a facade. Even if Noreiga is blowing smoke, the bad PR along with the consistently poor performances are going to make the climb out of the MBB toilet that much harder for Coach Gregory. This just went from a dumpster fire to a f**cking dumpster inferno.

Think he might need to reevaluate his OC, but I still can't get over what he's been able to do with his first full recruiting class here. Glad we had some continuity this year with the coaches because this year's class is exactly what we needed with so many seniors leaving this year.

Agree - the 2014 class was very good and there will be a few redshirt holdovers from that class next year. But looking at the 2015 class - you have a lot of good pieces that Taggart recruited on both sides of the ball that are now contributing . 2016 class has a few good pieces although there was some attrition there. 2017 class probably not going to see the field just yet. Don't think there is a huge drop off tbh, just depends on how the QBs fill Flowers' shoes and how the scheme fits our new guys. I can tell you that those intermediate throws will get better with either Oladokun or Kean - Flowers struggled with those mightily. Also we have a stable of running backs that have the size to pound the HB dives that will inevitably be called next year. Excited about Kronkrite especially if he is at that 215-220 range that works well in the system.

The Bulls need to Charge On?? Think you need to change the name of this thread bud

Over/Under: 30 HB Dives

Taggart was great but besides the 2014 class he was in the 50's the other years. Granted he was also recruiting a lower quantity. Imagine how Taggart or Strong would have done with a new football only facility to take recruits to here? At the end of the day the G5 ceiling is going to be the high 30's no matter who it is. The only way you can start pushing that ranking into the high 20's is by consistently having winning seasons, consistently putting players into the NFL, and investing in football infrastructure (IPF, football only facility,..etc) with an emphasis on the latter. Seems like this generation of players likes shiny new toys to play with. Looks like we've been trending towards that the last few seasons. Hope we can keep it going.

Excited to see how we finish off recruiting in January and February. Kinda glad Charlie stayed because this class would not be nearly as good. Hearing some people saying this could be the highest ranked class since 2014. Like how we got some good talent in the trenches - we lacked depth there so it will be nice to see how they develop. Some of these guys caught me by surprise - Ford and Kirby specifically.