USFreak

I've made this point in the past and I've been laughed off the site (reasonably so as his settlement likely doesn't allow it). The ONLY way this program would be restored to any prominence would be CJL. That's just a fact. If it could have happened it should have happened 8-10 years ago (see Oregon and Colorado). Now he's like Iceman in Top Gun: Mav. Not exactly, but the ship has sailed. This is a rebuild program. You do it in 2-3 and climb back up the ladder or you **** the bed and end up at FAU or worse.

(First off, wow - Brad did you really break off my contrib? Flattered, if so. Ha. Didn't even know that could be done) Cleary I respect your opinion in all of this as we did it together for a while. We snorted (joke) the highest highs and I thought we were there for the lowest lows (turns out, we weren't). They've done well academically. No argument there. But they ain't Harvard. They aren't even UF. They may be someday but they aren't as of yet. College is a summation of parts and the confidence it gives you to walk out in the world. I had an amazing experience there and I'm sure everybody on this board did as well. We all wouldn't be here otherwise. Still, we are a regional university with regional reach. What it gave you, me, Sarah (hoping I can use her name here) is a boost and then it was up to each of us what we did with that boost. I'll go back to the OCS. USF absolutely misjudged the importance and now is chasing its tail. It is the thing missing from the USF college experience. Just a fact. Think of some of those nights in the Sun Dome. I think an OCS would have given a LOT MORE of those in the "Football Stadium" and probably build on more of those in the Sun Dome (or whatever it is called these days). Success breeds success. USF will never be a dynasty but those starry nights show up once and a while and they are magical. I like your ACC vision but it is so non-important. It really is. My brothers went to USC (South Carolina) and Georgia Tech. They're pretty well-reasoned alums that follow their team but probably subscribe more to the John Mulaney view of the whole college-experience. Me too. College sports have become pro sports and this guy loves the Broncos. But I don't fund their payroll.

I'm definitely pro-Bulls. I'm proud of USF but I can't say I bleed green and gold. I've seen and been associated with far too many SEC man-children in my days that think college is a full-time life gig. I was probably one too long myself. There's more important **** for sure. I want USF to do well and I'm certainly disappointed they dropped so, so, so many balls when they had such an epic chance to climb. I think the on-campus college game-day experience is tough to beat but some of the costs to "pay to play" are becoming unconscionable (NILs, coach buyouts, facility costs, etc). Pro-sports already exist and Bobby Kraft, Mark Cuban, Jerry Jones, etc are doing a fine job of putting a product out there. I've mentioned before that I love the Colorado State gameday experience and they play in a second-tier league as well (although maybe not as gutter troll as the AAC). But still, that costs a lot of moolah. Maybe USF will get there some day. You may also get your wish of seeing a schedule riddled with Western Kentucky, Troy State and James Madison again. I think your overarching point is you are proud of USF as an institution and the sports are a distant second that simply add to the experience no matter what level of competition. I'd agree with that sentiment. I mentioned CSU above but I also attended a homecoming game at Western Colorado U (Gunnison) this past fall - maybe 2800 fans and every bit as fun. The difference maker for both: the on-campus stadium. USF really, really misjudged the importance of that. Footnote: I was on-campus during UCF's spring game back in April. I was amazed at the electricity on campus for an April game. Again, on-campus stadium a difference maker. That stadium might be made of coat-hangers and chewing gum but for a directional school they got it mostly right.

These are sweet! Back in the day I used to have a pretty solid USF man cave. Then we went to the AAC.

Couldn't agree more on CSU. Went to the Homecoming game there this fall. Fantastic. Not fantastic? The beer lines.

No, build an On-campus stadium. Basically everyone that lives on campus will make it a Saturday thing to do. It really is as simple as that. Most ladies don't care a lick about football but they do like the social experience of a Saturday of getting dolled up and being at the game. Most of your alum like returning to campus and the "pageantry" of it all. That's what has been missing the past 15 years and it has translated to recruiting, conference alignment and winning.

Exactly. That erector set stadium was built on lies, shady finances, mixed in with some fraud and double-dealing. But they got it done when they needed to get it done. Thing shook from day one and talk about making lemonade - "The Bounce House"? C'mon, that's absolutely genius. UCF and USF were very much commuter schools for a long, long time and UCF made the right moves at the right time while USF made a lot of the wrong ones. You can't pin it just on the OCS, but that's about 60% of it. Sure, add Lee Roy Selmon, the Leavitt debacle, Skip Holtz, a few Judy Genshaft fumbles and some just piss-poor AD hires and subsequent failings. RJS was a nice short-term home but USF got too, too comfortable and they are paying for it. Meanwhile UCF went big and look at the payoff. I have a lot of friends that graduated @my timeframe. We were nuts for the program back then. To a person not one of them cares anymore. I don't really care anymore. I doubt I would have ever been some super-rabid alumni booster type (I mean c'mon, it's football and seeing some of this stuff with Lincoln Riley and Brian Kelly makes it just obnoxious) but it would be nice to have a game-day experience. USF, is in many ways, like the Rays - each should have upgraded their situation so, so, so long ago. The difference is USF lost so much ground and I'm not sure they are going to get it back for a long time. Instead of building a fanbase with an OCS they have literally watched a decent fanbase dwindle.

Also, to be clear - my daughter visited UCF and UF...YES UCF! She'll likely go to one of those two (and yes, we are OOS). I went to USF when it was a s__t b_x (finding it from Maryland and finding it a good match) and I did fine with my life. We all can. But just do what you can when you can and USF missed the boat on SO, SO, SO many things. Time to do some shady accounting, build something that lasts and move the needle.

My reply to this topic. I live in Colorado and have 2-3 kids in the "college age". One didn't care at all about football and went to more of a tech school. The second, we visited quite a few schools and, to be blunt, it matters. We went to a small(ish) school in Montana (Montana State) and the Saturday gameday atmosphere - electric. We went to Colorado State. A small school in a small conference. Electric. Like I LOVED IT. I've been with my son to a game at Western Colorado this year. Maybe 4500 fans. Electric. My daughter went and visited UF and UCF a month ago - electric. The common thread. An on-campus stadium. I told my old boy Dave Glaser (who probably will still let me buy a few overprice boat drinks and watch his cover band) that I bypassed USF for her for that very reason. I literally told my daughter "look somewhere else." He was disgusted. I feel it, but USF ain't "next level" until they make that change. The results and failure is right there - who is in the Big 12? UCF Who can make the next jump. Not us. They should have been on it 15 years ago and not fired Leavitt. Tell me I'm wrong. We are an AAC team I watched 8 minutes of on Nov 26th....a dude that was die-hard...die-hard 15 years ago. I could care less. Build a stadium tomorrow and get to the business of making it a true campus experience.

A-f***ing-men

Indian Burial Ground

This.

Buongiorno. I'll say this - there may be a savior out there that can deliver the BCS a la UCF. Who the hell wants to hang their hat on a 62 year old coach we ran off years ago? Probably nobody. There was a ton of good work and momentum prior to Judy and Woolard trotting out the nuclear option. Then some costly timing (to say the least) with Skip Holtz ******** the bed at the precise wrong time. Everything Leavitt built in 12 years was literally demolished in a quick 3.

Ah ****. The blowback of posting at midnight and why I was never a true journalist. Genshaft. Castor can move on to sainthood. Apologies for soiling her name.

The West Virginia game was packed. The Louisville game was packed. A stadium full of Wisconsin fans and a shuttered upper deck is a long way from "packed".

A few years back I noted the only way you put this program back on solid ground is bring CJL back (if he'd even come back). He famously declared himself as the "most powerful man in the building" and Castor and Woolard ran his ass to the woodshed. Woolard is long gone, Castor is now gone (although she casts a long shadow). CJL did a lot of **** wrong. Glaser and I interviewed him off and on back in the day and he was no media darling. He was an old school football coach that demanded (and got) a lot from his players and was terrible once he stepped off the turf. He pissed off administrators, media types, donors - you name it. Guy couldn't win a conference championship because he was entirely predictable. Better DC than head coach, but in terms of player pickups and development. Unrivaled. He listened, had a nose for talent, and got crazy results. I remember watching Grothe play a 7 on 7 tournament and saying "that's our next QB" to Glaser. Guy was undersized but overhearted. Leavitt thrived with those guys. He'd win the big one and lay a 14-inch turd against Connecticut the following week. I'll post this goofball-diatribe again because USF has a longitude and latitude platted firmly on the cursed Indian burial ground. You can bring in all the short-term Skip Holtz, Taggarts, Strongs you want. If they win they move on and if they lose they eventually get canned. The AAC might as well be the Big West. They want to coach here about as much as you want to pay a seat license fee to go watch sub-par football on a Saturday night with 14,000 fans. At the time I had access enough to the "story" of Leavitt's canning that it seemed more setup than reality. Brad, Glaser, Auman, McMurphy (who wanted his head) and certainly others seem to have a lot of the same backchannel info. Good on McMurphy for catching a few deep balls after the Tribune. Who knows what to believe? Castor and Woolard simply pulled the choke chain and bam...Jim's back to being a linebackers coach....for a Super Bowl runner-up (3 pts). CU, Oregon...that's higher cotton than a bovine-themed directional school with a f--king pirate ship in their north endzone. Listen, I get that you can't always "come home again" (looking at you Bobby Petrino) but this program is on ice. It is in the purgatory of college football - no on-campus stadium, a parade of coaches looking to retool their resume. It needs some controversy and a solid dose of excitement. That 49-0 drubbing was NOT a fluke. They'll get two touchdowns (and possibly a field goal) at GT next week but they'll get beat pretty soundly. The season dropped off a cliff last year and that is not just coaching. That is the player group. There may be a star or two buried in that pile but it isn't like what you remember. Not at all. Name the great players of this program and most of them come from the Leavitt era. Taggart was the closest thing we had to a spark in the past 10 years. So yeah, Leavitt...he'd probably never come back and I'm sure I'll take a boatload of **** for even the mention of his name but if you guys love empty stadiums and December 20th bowls in Frisco, TX and (gasp) Tampa, FL....carry on.

The true kick to the stones would be if Taggart picks up Strong as his DC. http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2016/12/report_willie_taggart_targetin.html

Yes, you are probably 100% correct. I didn't put it out there for clickbait. I do think we'll see CJL in a head coaching role soon. Or maybe not. The guy has the USF payoff money and seems to be making decent scratch and not having to shoulder all the blame like an HC would. His defenses just excel. Maybe DC is his long-term perfect role. My only logic on bringing it up relates to loyalty. Clearly the next coach we bring in will have 3 years to do well (Taggart) and move on or suck ass like Holtz and be told to move on. I guess that is every college program, but the Leavitt relationship with USF was different. He wasn't going anywhere and that may have been part of the problem. If he found his way back to USF (and wanted to) would things be different? I don't know. I just know the guy could coach and invested every thread of his day into the program. I feel like he does that everywhere he goes, but with USF it was different. USF is that bad-luck, mid-major doorstop that is a stepping stone to everywhere else - except for Leavitt. I get the lack of conference championships and all that and, yes, really the only thing that is going to put asses in the seats is a Big5 conference affiliation. But there was general excitement in the Leavitt years that things were building and improving and getting better. The AAC was the proverbial wind out of everybody's sails and the timing all matched up. I know it is pie-in-the-sky and I do think that with all things considered Charlie Strong is the best fit for the job. In two years he'll be gone and we'll be on our next search.

I like the cut of your jib.

Love it. All we need now is Martin Fennelly to write an article citing "unnamed sources"

I I feel like people would be ok playing Louisville, WVU, Pitt and Cuse on the regular.

It was cool to see USF dismantle Temple and FSU this year.

You want to win football games. If you think Leavitt can't make the AAC his ***** you haven't been paying attention. Another coach could as well, but I don't need to remind too many about the Holtz years.

True (BTW love your pic). Listen, you can apply what you said to one fan - me. But there are a lot of us not donating, showing up to the games, watching on TV, going to watch-parties, etc. The team is 10-2. If you think it is all working and saying "virtually abandoned USF football, why should I care". Again, 10-2 and nobody cares. That's a bad sign. What happens when they are 3-9? Well, maybe you shouldn't care about me - one fan. But the pool is getting smaller and there is a reason. It isn't "the good old days." It is making smart decisions. I'll admit I liked the Taggart hire and hated the Holz hire, but I hated the Leavitt fire. Set us back so, so, so, much. And that's the trough we're eating of right now.