OttawaBull

The good news: Due to the hockey strike/lockout/whatever, the pay sports package my cable network has up here is instead offering NCAA football and basketball this fall. So for the first time in over a year, I get to see the Bulls on TV! The bad news: I watched the game. Sheesh, how the heck did we get to this level of 'suck' so quickly after being worldbeaters? Didn't UAB enter 1-A only a year or two before us? Why are they on the fast track while we're heading straight into oncoming traffic? At this point, I doubt this team could even make the 1-AA playoffs, let alone a 1-A bowl game.

I think I'd lose my confidence too, if every other pass was dropped by the receiver.

I guess since I started the subject, I should mention MY status. Like many others here, I paid for USF thanks to the Army GI Bill and graduated with an MIS degree in '98. Turns out I hate that field. So now I'm going to a local college here in Ottawa for a year-long program in technical writing. I think it's safe to say that my athletic allegiances will stay with the Bulls. ;D

Wow, is there some USF pipeline to that show or something? I can't remember the guy's name, but two seasons ago there was another ex-USF athlete on the show. It was particularly noticeable since both he and one of the other contestants (Hawk, I think) were almost always wearing USF shirts. I'll be sure to vote if I happen to watch the show. Justin

I was just curious as to how many regulars here went to school at USF and how many didn't? I think one of the biggest marks of success on a college sports program is how many non-alumni follow it. Look at your typical SEC schools. The majority of its fans either never went to college there or just plain never went to college period. They're just people living in that state who fall in love with the school for regional regions (not unlike affiliation with pro teams). So, what's the breakdown here?

I couldn't agree more. I'm not sure if you (lotsofbull) post on any other message boards, but putting a bunch of large images in your signature is just bad netiquette. Not only is it a pain to scroll through them on each page, but for people unlucky enough to have dial-up access, it takes MUCH longer for a page to load. By now, I think most people get the point that you don't like UCF.

I can understand not having much faith in our chances this weekend (heck, I don't either), but you actually seem excited about USF getting beat. Any reason why?

I don't know about that argument. My old high school in Massachusetts has been playing football for well over 100 years, but I doubt they're gonna beat us anytime soon. Though you never know...

Actually, I've been plenty mad at CJL and anyone else responsible the last two, maybe three, years due to penalties and what seems like the inability to control the players. And that was even after wins. However, someone already pointed out we had a relatively small number of penalties (for us, at least), so I won't hold THAT grudge against them. Like I said before, I'm not really sure who to blame. I'm lucky to see Top 25 teams on TV up here, let alone USF, so hopefully you'll all make sense of it and those of us out of country can get a better idea on what the heck is up with our Bulls.

I don't know if it was mentioned elsewhere, but what was the attendance tonight? I'd have to think Army would bring a bunch of veterans in. Heck, I'm one, but I still rooted for USF.

Obviously, I'll still root for the Bulls, but for the first time in USF football history, I'm actually ashamed of our team. I'm too far removed to know what the exact problems are, but whatever needs to be done, they need to do it soon. Whether it's saying to heck with this year and playing no one but the young guys with potential (in anticipation of next year) or taking drastic steps by firing coaches, there needs to be some kind of repercussion for the catastrophe that happened tonight. To heck with the QB argument, it doesn't sound like we have skill on either side of the ball. Actually, our offense might be a little better considering they were at least able to put 35 point on the board. This is just plain embarassing. I don't even want to think about what Louisville is going to do this woeful team.

For what it's worth, blogs don't necessarily have to be a journalistic thing. In fact, before the word "blog" gained popularity, there were several sites out there like Diaryland or LiveJournal, where people keep online journals for themselves or for friends trying to stay updated on their lives. Most of the content on these types of sites are exactly what you'd expect from something called a journal/diary: daily accounts, observations, and random thoughts about the author's own life. I've had one since May 2001, since I like to write, and if that's your thing, I'd highly suggest it. Sometimes you just want to comment about something, and whether anyone else ever sees it or not, at least you have an outlet. In really outlandish cases, you might follow my lead and eventually marry one of your fellow bloggers. How the hell else do you think I wound up meeting a Canadian chick, huh? Of course, in proving that not every blog is of a serious nature, my latest entry tackled the subject of how I came to realize that real-life lesbian sex is probably nothing at all like the magnificent girl-girl scenes I've watched over the years in adult movies. Yep, not exactly CNN-level material. ;D

1. Who: Me 2. Where: Algonquin College, here in Ottawa 3. When: This Monday at 6:30 PM 4. Why: Because by that point, I'll have finished the 4 major projects I have due for my technical writing classes. 5. How: That's the question, how indeed?

I saw this yesterday on Yahoo, and it definitely sounds like a great idea to me. I'd be all for this bowl since that's only a 3-4 hour drive from where I am. Other than that, the only convenient USF game for me is every other year in Syracuse. The only downside to the Toronto Bowl is that our opponent would be a MAC team. Forgive me if that doesn't pique my interest all that much.

I didn't have any way to follow the game tonight (other than the Net, which is way too abstract), but from the look of the score, it seemed to be a close game.  Was it? Considering the poor state of our QB position this year, I gotta admit that I'm not too upset about the score.  I may not like them, but USM is a strong team lately, so as long as we could keep it close, even with what could be considered out B team, I'm pretty happy. Other than Louisville, I don't see any other game on our schedule that should be too difficult to win.  I'm not even gonna get started on how much Pitt blows this year.

1.  I watched the first hour since I'd never watched a debate before.  I'm relatively unbiased, especially since I don't live in the U.S. anymore, but as far as public speaking goes, Kerry was a much more confident and controlled debater.  Does this make him a better president?  Beats me, but he's definitely better at speaking than Bush, who looked uncomfortable throughout the whole debate. 2.  Tan 2003 Chevy Cavalier 3.  Soccer, from age 4-17. 4.  Nope. 5.  Office Space, the main character's response to what he would do if he had a million dollars:  "I would relax, I would sit on my @ss all day, I would do nothing."

I hope he doesn't have his heart set on any of those other BIG Florida schools since last time I checked, they recruit at least 1 major QB a year. Man, it's nice to have a glut at our future QB position.  Kinda wish I had a time machine right about now.

1.  I can't think of a solid favorite at the moment, but for some reason, I've always had a soft spot for Necessary Roughness. 2.  Don't know other college players well enough. 3.  In 1989, I drove from Massachusetts to California at the beginning of the summer and then from Cali to Florida at the end of the summer.  That rocked. 4.  Faith No More in Munich or Nuclear Assault/Overkill at The Channel in Boston. 5.  Friday 5's are pretty popular on all the blogging sites, so why not here?

First off, I hope that Drew makes a full recovery and is back on the field this time next year.  That said, does anyone know how well the USF player (Jenkins?) who made the hit on him is doing?  I know he's fine physically, but mentally, the situation must be pretty rough for him.  Obviously, it was just a part of the game that went really wrong, but sometimes these guys blame themselves for something that isn't really this fault.

Of course, if you're of the "glass half empty" persuasion, you could always wonder why a 1-AA team can beat a non-elite SEC team, and we can't even score a TD.  :-/

You just answered your own question.  If we're losing to a team that is arguably worse than Alabama or Arkansas by the same type of score, wouldn't it stand to reason that the coaches haven't learned anything from our past losses?

Never thought I'd agree with smazza, but this is too true.

The thing is, it doesn't appear we're learning anything.  In my opinion, this loss was worse than the ones to Alabama and Arkansas in the past two seasons, so you've got to wonder what Leavitt and company are really taking from these embarassments.

I've been wondering this for a couple of seasons. I'll admit I don't have any clue what the coaching side of football entails, but I have to wonder whether Leavitt and his crew are as good as people seem to think they are. I guess my biggest concern is that while he may have been a great candidate for bringing a team into 1-AA and then making the jump to 1-A, is he really the person we need to continue our progress? Maybe he is. I don't know, and I won't lie and say I have enough experience with college football to make that kind of statement. All I do know is that we've been around long enough that the "we're a new team" argument doesn't work. Also, last time I checked, we haven't won a single game in which we were a big underdog. As far as I'm concerned, a great team has to be able to do that.

Man, it's like being in kindergarten again, when some kid first learns the word '****.'