Jamie

I think it's time to revive and update a long-lost USF celebration for the social media age. I write for another site now, but I came over because TBP inspired this idea, and really everyone should get to share in the fun. I started talkin’ bout the Bulls here when I was a student about a billion years ago. After UCF went 0-11 in 2004, _____ Eats It and other posters made a bunch of George O’Leary donut Photoshops to commemorate the Knights taking the donut in his first year as coach. I think there was an entire thread of them. I don’t know if any of those old Photoshops have survived. Maybe they’ll come up again now that I’m mentioning it. Now we’re in 2015 and history has repeated itself. The Knights have finished an 0-12 season in O’Leary’s last season as coach. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, donut to donut. They’ve come full circle, glazed and filled with jelly. So let’s celebrate on the Internet. It’s simple. Take a break from shopping or traveling this weekend and treat yo’ self to some tasty donuts. Then take a picture of you in your USF gear with your donuts, post it to your favorite social media site (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you want) and use the hashtag #UCFDonut. Let's celebrate this magnificent achievement together. Again.

Yeah, lots of fun losing at home to a team with an RPI near 200. Then don't watch ... USF basketball obviously isn't for everybody. Don't worry, I didn't.

Yeah, lots of fun losing at home to a team with an RPI near 200.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gSQg1i_q2g LOL ... That is freaking perfect. I have yet to see anyone on here offer a realistic solution. Almost everyone is just 'rambling'. Bingo. Actually not even "almost," anyone who has something to say about what we need to do moving forward is rambling. 1. Get rid of Woolard immediately. We pay him to get results (he'll be the highest-paid AD in the American when Louisville leaves) and there are no results. He is collecting paychecks, laying low, trying to avoid attention, and hoping to slip out the door quietly in 18 months. And he's been doing that for awhile now. 2. Find someone who still sees the same opportunity in USF athletics that we all saw 10 years ago. They need a lot of energy, good communications skills, media relations skills, and a real, tangible plan to rebuild our department. No empty platitudes like "Why not USF." They need to tell us what needs to be done and how we're going to do it. They have to be ready to sell USF athletics hard to the alums, the casual fans, and the business community, because no one's done that for a long time. This is not a cushy job for some retread AD to come in and coast towards retirement. We already have someone doing that. 3. We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and acting like we're powerless. This "oh, what could we do, woe is us" attitude has got to stop. No one's coming to save USF and no one's giving us anything. It's on us to solve our own problems. The right leader will set goals we can help achieve, and a vision we can rally around. We don't have either of those right now. If you don't think this is "realistic," then you probably don't think there are any problems to begin with. And if you honestly still believe that, then I'm sorry, but you're as delusional as the UCiF fans we all used to make fun of.

You all should be more angry than USF should be ashamed. What is it going to take to force change?

UCF won a BCS bowl game. USF had a press conference for its mascot.

Yeah, it sounds a whole lot worse than it is. The story doesn't do a good job explaining it.

Far be it from me to ever defend Woolard, but this auditor either doesn't know how contracts work or doesn't know how football coaches get paid. The coach may get $200K a year in state money but the rest comes from an account that is exempt from that. The severance comes from that account as well. Florida isn't the only state with a rule like this. The other three people who were overpaid are a more legitimate issue but it's not nearly as much money.

Texas doesn't have the equipment they have up north. (Maybe they should, but that's another argument.) When snow or ice hits we basically sit around waiting for it to melt. I've lived here 11 years and this is the worst one I've seen. Freeways shut down all over the place. Most side streets are impassable. The problem is people try and drive during the day and some of the ice melts from the friction, and then it refreezes at night so the roads get worse and worse. I had SMU season tickets this year and I wanted to go (I have plenty of cold-weather gear). Normally it's an easy 20-minute drive. Wasn't happening yesterday. Light rail backs right up to SMU and that wasn't available either. Even the buses they use as backup were getting stuck. I'm surprised that many people made it to the game. It was the coldest home game in SMU history. As for why they have a stadium -- they built it over a decade ago and they have extremely wealthy boosters. USF does not have that.

That statement has no method of measurement. For example without a eye on compliance or fiscal responsibility, we could win more. Simply offer the best recruits a million dollars each to not tell anyone we paid them and play for us. Then we could be the winningest program in the Big East. Or we could only take 4.0 GPA kids and lose every game, but have the best GPA. There has to be a balance and a standard of measurement. Scoreboards are a pretty good standard of measurement. Championships too. Those are part of it, but don't paint the whole picture. I do agree with you on finances, though. That could get really ugly if football doesn't turn it around quickly. We spent several years telling ourselves we weren't going to borrow a huge pile of money like UCF did to build their stuff, and then we ended up borrowing a huge pile of money anyway. What revenues are those going to be paid off with? More student money?

That statement has no method of measurement. For example without a eye on compliance or fiscal responsibility, we could win more. Simply offer the best recruits a million dollars each to not tell anyone we paid them and play for us. Then we could be the winningest program in the Big East. Or we could only take 4.0 GPA kids and lose every game, but have the best GPA. There has to be a balance and a standard of measurement. Scoreboards are a pretty good standard of measurement. Championships too.

**** yeah I can blame them .... So the students get more blame from you for not going to a brutal football game than the athletics leadership does for sucking them dry for $20 million per year to balance the budget?

You know, you're allowed to make your own evaluations.

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it. "We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East." That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

There's your next generation of donors to USF being given no reason to get excited about their school.

That is absolutely ridiculous. ADs do not just hire coaches. They set the tone for the entire department, and right now this department is a complete shambles. USF is completely hopeless as long as people keep thinking the way you're thinking. I work for an AD. I know what they do. He's done everything you'd expect a AD to do Is there an expectation that the AD do those things well, or is it okay just to do them with no accountability for the results of those actions? Hold him accountable in 2 years when we see how well Willie is doing... He'll be taking his golden parachute by then. We can't let him have two more years. It's not just football either. Look at how little momentum carried forward from the basketball team going to the NCAA tournament. It was the same lethargic crowd in a nicer building. And speaking of no accountability, how long do we let Lelo miss the NCAAs before he's finally gone? He's on 8 years and counting, and that's the easiest sport on campus to do well in. Doug has set a tone of mediocrity and indifference. That's why UCF has blown past us as a department on his watch. only football is better.... Football is like a hundred times better, MBB is equal, baseball is better, some of the Olympic sports are better. The thing is when Doug got here, you would be laughed out of the room for even thinking UCF was CLOSE to USF's athletic peer. Now they've passed us.

Are you sure that the AD you work for isn't actually Woolard? He walked into USF when it had loads of potential and they've capitalized on virtually none of it. There are no results to point to and it doesn't look like there are going to be any results any time soon. If that's what a good job looks like to you, I want to come work wherever you work because that's the cushiest place to work in the world.

That is absolutely ridiculous. ADs do not just hire coaches. They set the tone for the entire department, and right now this department is a complete shambles. USF is completely hopeless as long as people keep thinking the way you're thinking. I work for an AD. I know what they do. He's done everything you'd expect a AD to do Is there an expectation that the AD do those things well, or is it okay just to do them with no accountability for the results of those actions? Hold him accountable in 2 years when we see how well Willie is doing... He'll be taking his golden parachute by then. We can't let him have two more years. It's not just football either. Look at how little momentum carried forward from the basketball team going to the NCAA tournament. It was the same lethargic crowd in a nicer building. And speaking of no accountability, how long do we let Lelo miss the NCAAs before he's finally gone? He's on 8 years and counting, and that's the easiest sport on campus to do well in. Doug has set a tone of mediocrity and indifference. That's why UCF has blown past us as a department on his watch.

It's a fan account. That nickname ended up being pretty apt, by the way.

That is absolutely ridiculous. ADs do not just hire coaches. They set the tone for the entire department, and right now this department is a complete shambles. USF is completely hopeless as long as people keep thinking the way you're thinking.

Doesn't make it any less true.

This is the sum total of his incompetence. One of the worst teams I've ever seen on a football field. A complete check-out by the fan base and the students after less than a month. There is nothing left. It's all burned to the ground. And he watched it all happen. There's no defending him.

McMurphy obviously had it out for Leavitt, but USF could use someone on the beat who will challenge them on their actions like he did. No one has been willing to ask tough questions and reject stupid answers.

Why is it a ridiculous poll? I'm curious to know if people here honestly feel like USF is being fought for, because I don't get that feeling from our leadership. I'm sure they've picked up the phone and called people, but overall I don't get the sense that they know what to do. And you can tell they don't know how to present themselves or talk to the media about all this because no one mentions USF in any context. Read some articles about the Big East. Most of them don't talk about us. Not as an expansion candidate, not as someone wondering what to do next, not even as a school that is screwed. The media has decided we are not worth thinking about because USF has not given them any reason to.

I wouldn't have let Collin write a post just to try and get raises for his buddies. I hear the same things he does. Doug has created a cesspool in that building.