LakeBull

Hey I still have a Canes hat, but before 1997 if you followed college football you couldn't follow the Bulls.   That history just makes this weeks game that much more fun.

Tough loss for them, but I think the results have more to do with talent level than coaching.   You can not make chicken salad out of chicken ****.    It is also tough to have a good football team that has a large population of undersized slow guys.   Considering what they have to work with they did wonders.  

We dominated the line of scrimage on both sides of the ball and limited their offense to a one deminsional passing attack yet they still managed to hang fourteen points on us.   Considering what they had to work with the UCF coaches did a pretty good job.   It will be interesting to see how they develop as they raise their overall talent level.   Sadly for the Knights our access to talent is much better than theirs and that is a condition that is unlikely to change, so while the Knights will probably get better we will likely continue to improve faster.  

Can you say rearview mirror?    

Yes, the University had an engineering emphasis and was supposed to help train people for the nearby space center.  The focus on space exploration was not at the fever pitch of the sixties, so the emphasis and name were not as good a fit for the University.    As recently as five years ago the University had the goal of being a strong regional school, but I believe the goals are a tad loftier now.

Not sure they made the right choice though.   GA Tech has a similar emphasis to the original FTU and it is hard to envision it becoming University of North GA.

Coming up with good names for Universities does not seem to be an art that has been mastered in Florida.

While you recorded a loss at South Carolina most people have given the Knights props for a good performance at the game.   Has that good performance created a positve buzz with UCF fans or are many of your fans still waiting to see a W before giving the thumps up?    Also for Knight fans what needs to happen this year for you to feel that the year has been a success?  Was the improved play at USC assuming it continues enough?  

Last year was pretty ugly.  You must be feeling somewhat better about your team.

That is last week's Bottom 10.  Notice the records of Washington.  They only have one loss listed, even though they got beat again this past Saturday.  UCF might be back at number 1, but its hard to move up on a team like Buffalo.  I believe they've been shutout twice this year already.  Ouch!

It will take effort, but the Knights can do it!    I don't think there is a newer one out yet.

and with any luck we will help them move back up in the standings:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2153153

Yes Knights hold up that finger...   You are number one with us!

It will decide how much we will be flamed by UCF fans during the coming year.  

From their first game I expect them to give us a good hard four quarters.   I doubt that O'Leary has them were he wants them, but they are not going to quit and we are not exactly where we would like to be yet either.   There is such an emotional factor in college games and this one should provide a full emotional charge to both teams.   We should win, but that funny shaped ball can bounce in some strange ways.

Wouldn't a nice bed pan be a more fitting award for this game?

Sheriff,

I thought about you as soon as I saw that Pitt was having an ugly game.   The love you experianced from the Pitt players last year had to make last night sweet.  

Sadly our conference is going to really get bashed for being the weak sister of the BCS, but if it helps put us in the Gator Bowl or better....

You think it will take us two whole days.

Looks like if our team doesn't come on strong UCF's next victory won't be a moral one.   It was not a W, but the Knights played a solid game and looked much better than we did when we went to USC.

Got to talk to him at FAD.   Great kid!   Glad to have him as a Bull.   He still has a few years to make his mark at USF and I am sure he will be moving up the roster in the future.

Just wait a sec there - they have us beating the Bearcats, so that puts us ahead and makes us next to last, which is about the same thing most other predictions say.    

It is all based on last season.   As soon as we have some unexpected wins the predictions will change, but we aren't going to get much love until we get some wins.

If you're not at Penn State itself Capogna's is the place to be!   Hopefully, I get to do my victory dance!

How long before the sun burns out?

This happens all the time.  I know a guy that was one of the fastest HS DB's in New England and had a scholarship to BC.   Once at BC he realized it would take at least a couple years of hard work to maybe see the field.   He decided it wasn't worth it to him and ended up playing at a much less demanding division II school  where he quickly saw the field.   We are a D1 team in a BCS conference.   Our players give up a lot to play at this level.  There are bigger rewards, but the price is also higher.

Cris seems like a great kid.   Best of luck to him and his family.

Funny that our top 3 players in the NFL are on defense.  JR, Ant, and Kawika yet now our defense sucks.

It didn't when they played and it will get much better in the future.

You have to give Bower credit for not caving.   USM had to be a favorite to win CUSA.

I can't say I like what they have to say about us on the inside but it sure looks great with Andre on the cover.

Oh, No Worries there,  bad preseason reviews have tended to be very good news.   The worse the reviews the better our season.   If it is really ugly we may win the Big East.

Got to love the respect that Andre Hall is getting this off-season.

I get chills thinking about how effective he could be if our passing attack gets a pulse.   Feels like being the guy sleeping in the Dodge Hemi truck.  Sweeet!

Hopefully, the UCF game is only a footnote this season.  We need at least one surprise win against one of our higher visibility opponents.    Beating a name team would do more for us then winning a game any rational person would expect us to win.   I really wish the best for the Knights, but there is little upside in a victory for us against a team that went 0-11 last year and is likely to struggle again with the upgrade to CUSA.    There is, however,  a ton of downside should they somehow pull an upset.  The BCS tie-in would be the only factor remaining to seperate us.  

You just never know until they sign that letter.   The Big East, with big time exposure, is a pretty big draw and he could be fairly confident of not riding the pine at USF.     If he really feels he is NBA material the Big East offers super exposure.

Coach Mac has pulled a few rabbits out of the hat already.   We have a shot.

Move over little dogs the big ol' dog is movin' in.

football players aren't the sharpest bunch are they?

Kinda like some message board posters....

Sounds like it will be a great read.    It is impressive how far we have come.   Too bad we have had such a slump in hoops the last couple years, but still feel the best days are in front of us.