GarySJ

I'd say USF -5. Three points for home field (which is standard), and two points to get people to bet on a team that hasn't won a game in quite some time. If UCF is getting anything more than 7, I might be inclined to take the points. I think it will be a close game, unless something changes drastically between now and then.

My sentiments exactly. It's not just that he lost games; he was completely incompetent, in the most literal sense. He has no head coaching skills of any kind.

Did anyone else think this thread would be about Ken Eriksen?

Penn State and Illinois are bad Big Ten teams until they prove otherwise. Cincinnati barely beat an awful MAC team in Eastern Michigan. UConn's win was over an even more awful MAC team, Buffalo. Pittsburgh not only lost, but looked incompetent vs. Notre Dame. Even Louisville struggled a bit, beating Kentucky (bad SEC team) by only 7. We can cut UofL a little slack for this being a road rivalry game, but half the SEC will beat Kentucky by four touchdowns. If Big East schools want to be regarded on par with the other five BCS conferences, we could at least start winning some games against bad teams from those leagues.

I wasn't able to watch the game, but what I've heard seems encouraging. It seems that the O-Line and defense played well. If they can continue to do that, and if Julmiste can play like that every game, we should be allright this season. After UofL and UM, PSU may be the third-best team we play this season.

I love the "Rocky's Head" story. In fact I added it to my signature.

I see there have been some threads about Ronnie Banks and some efforts to raise money for him. Does anyone know Will McDonald's situation? He is from New Orleans also. Also, a quick scan of all current USF athletic rosters shows two current USF athletes from the area: Janelle Finley, women's cross-country, Mobile AL Kristen Herman, sailing, New Orleans LA Do we know about their situations?

I told you Dave Wannstedt would run that program straight into the ground. I just didn't think he'd do it so quickly. And forget C-USA, the real league to be concerned about is the Mountain West. They think they should have the BCS auto-bid instead of the Big East. BE members didn't exactly go to great lengths to prove otherwise this week.

Hi guys. Do you know what I really hate? People who get married on opening day. Thanks for having this thread so I can at least get an idea of how the game is going.

The Straight Dope rules.

For questions of this sort, you need to go to michigan-football.com. They have a detailed list of all games back to 1950. Here is a complete list of times USF has lost by 22 or more points: 1997 Western Kentucky, 28 (31-3) 1997 Elon, 28 (41-13) 1999 San Diego State, 29 (41-12) 2000 Southern Miss, 34 (41-7) 2000 Middle Tennessee State, 36 (45-9) 2001 Utah, 31 (52-21) 2002 Arkansas, 39 (42-3) 2003 Alabama, 23 (40-17) 2004 South Carolina, 31 (34-3) 2004 Louisville, 32 (41-9) 2004 Cincinnati, 22 (45-23) okay, technically this would cover 22.5 points, but I include it for completeness 2004 Pittsburgh, 29 (43-14)

Getting back to the original post on this thread... it's an interesting theory, but I object to the idea that we've had two entire recruiting classes of "dead weight". The 2001 and 2002 USF teams were recruited as freshmen when USF was getting beaten by the likes of Drake and Hofstra, so there's no reason that a couple seasons of "mid-major" I-A recruiting should unduly hinder USF as it enters the Big East. Besides, I-A transfers usually end up falling short of expectations. The history of college football is littered with guys who had great high school pedigrees, transfered down to smaller schools, and did nothing of note. Overdependence on transfers is foolish.

This has to be a record: From http://www.webberathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=15&url_article_id=689&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

How delightfully intriguing. I wonder what this really means? Taking all bets: 1. Julmiste will start and play the whole game (Even Money) 2. Julmiste will start, and Denson will see action in a scripted two-QB system (3 to 2) 3. Julmiste will start, and be quickly replaced by Denson, who will play the remainder of the game (3 to 1) 4. Denson will start, but Julmiste will see action (4 to 1) 5. Denson will start and play the whole game (5 to 1) 6. The starter will be Carlton Hill (25 to 1) 7. The entire spring practice was a deception, and the starter will be someone other than Julmiste, Denson or Hill (100 to 1) 8. Force majeure: the Bulls QB situation vs Penn State will be affected by injury or some other external factor (2 to 1)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAA. What an absolutely ridiculous idea. "Hey, Soandso Construction? This is FAU. Would you be interested in building us a free stadium for a team nobody cares about even when they win? We'll keep the football revenue, while you get to have almost all of the non-football revenue. Well, you can build a hotel, or a mall ,or something. Oh, and you'll be assuming all the risk. Hello? Hello? Hmm, must be a bad line..."

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.htm

From http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/ncaa/08/13/pennstate.mediaday.ap/index.html STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Joe Paterno is asking for patience with the offense. The Penn State offense was, well, offensive at times last year, often struggling to score points. Fortunately, for the Nittany Lions, the defense emerged as a force. So Paterno says he hopes to juice up the offense by playing more wide-open sets, though it might take some time to jell because the receiving corps is young and there are question marks on the offensive line. "We're going to work and try to get the right combination and maybe one of these days, we'll walk off the field and say 'I think we are a good football team,"' Paterno said during his annual preseason news conference. "We're certainly in position to be a good defensive football team," said Paterno, entering his 40th season as head coach. "Offensively, we have to be better. We have to make big plays." ... Paterno said Michael Robinson, an athletic senior and a team captain, is ahead of strong-armed sophomore Anthony Morelli at quarterback, though Morelli could still see some time during the season. Robinson had been Penn State's jack-of-all-trades, seeing significant time at running back and wide receiver as well as quarterback over the last several years. "But anytime we moved him around, he's always had his eye on the quarterback situation," Paterno said. Whoever plays quarterback will be throwing at young receivers, where sophomores Mark Rubin (16 catches in 2004) and Terrell Golden (three catches) are among the top returnees. But the buzz in the offseason has been about freshman wideout Derrick Williams, who has dazzled teammates so far with his speed and work ethic. Fellow first-year speedster Justin King is listed as a cornerback, though Paterno said King could see more time on offense than defense. Not surprising given that King rushed for 1,795 yards and scored 30 touchdowns as a senior last year at Gateway High School in Pittsburgh. Paterno says he doesn't know how often he'll use three- and-four-wide receiver looks on offense -- sets that he showed off with success during spring practice. That depends on how the wideout picture shakes out in the next several weeks. ... There are question marks on offensive line. Last year's starting center, E.Z. Smith, isn't allowed back on campus until the fall semester starts in a couple of weeks due to an on-campus incident earlier this year. Two other starting linemen from last year, Tyler Reed and Andrew Richardson, were also still in Paterno's doghouse due to the same incident.

Allow me to explain why this new "black" thing is completely misguided. And let me preface it by saying that it has nothing to do with my personal sensibilities. Remember when the "Iconic U" was unveiled two years ago? Well, one of the reasons we switched logos was to standardize the look of sports teams across the athletic department. Individual teams at USF were using different colors, different fonts, and whatnot. The Iconic U and the other new symbols were supposed to stop all that. Colors and graphics were to be standard for all USF teams. The phrase "branding program" was frequently used. Well, barely two years have passed, and guess what? We're back to being non-standard. It won't be long before other teams at USF start deviating in their own ways, and we'll be back to the hodgepodge that the new branding program was specifically designed to eliminate. This is why USF marketing is constantly going in circles. We decided to do things one way with the Iconic U branding program. Two years later, that program is being ignored. I'm sure that in 6-7 years the Iconic U will be thrown out, and a new branding program will emerge. Then then that'll fall by the wayside, and then we'll need another new approach... repeat ad nauseum. Remember the "USF, not South Florida" thing? Gee, that didn't last long, did it? It's good that it didn't, because it was a bad idea, but why can't athletics marketing stick to any of the decisions they make? This is why USF has no enduring symbols. Our competitors are instantly recognizable with their timeless symbols like the Seminole head, the script "Gators", and the interlocking WV in the shape of West Virginia. Meanwhile, we're going through a random cycle of crying cows and psycho goats and curvy S'es and non-curvy S'es and Iconic U's and god knows what's next, in every tint of green and yellow from Forest to Vegas. An endless parade of emblems that have nothing in common with each other, except that they'll all be mildewing in a storage locker, forgotten, within a decade of their unveiling. All I'm asking from USF athletics is, PICK SOMETHING AND STICK TO IT.

Football was never feasible at FAU, and never will be.

Oh come on, don't you guys recognize this joke by now? (note: the preceding is not a real bulls.tbo.com story)

This is why I hate summer. Thank God it's almost over, at least.

I'd like to see more rotating multi-bowl deals like the Sun/Gator agreement. It's nice to have a wider variety of potential destinations and opponents.

I use Firefox and the background is white. Besides, if you can't read it you can always just cut-and-paste it into a text editing program.

There are so **** many bowl slots that no conference could possibly fill them all. There's 28 games again this year, and even last year they had to sign several MAC/Sun Belt at-large teams, and an ineligible Iowa State team, just to play all the games.

I think Pitt and Syracuse are getting too much credit for hiring "NFL" coaches.