BULLheaded

Matt-- he has that football experience from his days working at WSU.  He may have just as much if not more than the other finalist in that regard. So I'm not sure I see that USF has gone a different route exactly from the original intent. While his more recent experience was NOT at a football school, I'm not convinced he doesn't have the necessary skills. If you focus on that side too much, you might overlook the connections he has in the AD community itself.

PS-- I'm not picking one over the other. I'll be happy with whoever they get in there.

He was an assistant at Washington State over 10 years ago. There was no BCS then and the football environment is nothing even remotely similar these days. Aside from that I'm not even sure how much I would count experience from that long ago as we all know how hard it is to take something back up after being away even for a couple of years much less over a decade.

Maybe I am focusing too much on this so I'll just trust that those making the decisions see something more then I do and hope he can deliver. I'm not quite as trusting as you and bien but if he is the pick I'll keep an open mind.

In this day and age 90% of the ADs out there look the same to me as Woolard. So he has been the AD of a small school that has shifted around from conference to conference and had to deal with budget constraints. How many ADs don't have that experience?

On the other hand he is coming from a small school with no football much less BCS so he has never had to deal with the environment we are getting into with the big east. Give me an assistant with the proper experience over an AD without it. Its funny how going into this search all I heard was how this was a top priority and they are preferring the one candidate without any of it.  :-/

From what everyone is posting it sounds like he is the most likely choice so I'll support him if chosen, however up front I'm disappointed in this one which I feel is a weak choice and mostly even in the running due to his personal relationship with the head of the search comittee.

OK, end of rant. Now I'll just sit back and hope for the best.

Woolard had NCAA Football experience from his Washing State job

I'm just not sure that having been away for quite a few years from being an assistant at a school with football is what we need. I'm assuming that he didn't work in the current BCS environment and if he did it had to have been very breif and he has been out of it for quite a while. I feel much more comfortable with a candidate that has been entrenched in this environment and is ready to go to the next level. Experience or not in the past woolard will need to shake off the rust and I'd prefer not to have to be the school to break him in.

I have to agree in hoping that Oliver is the choice. Woolard just didn't impress me at all and I'm afraid that part of the reason he has made it as far as he has is due to his admitted close relationship with the person heading up the search comittee. On the other hand Oliver really did impress me, from the little info we got in the papers I liked Hollis better but Oliver should be a fine choice.....I'll just cross my fingers that we take the right person

days......or minutes?  ;D

for me this is a nice payback for what happened last year on halloween. That move made it impossible to see the homecoming game THIS move will actually allow me to see the Pitt game since the wife gave me the news of a wedding we have to go to friday night (in NEW YORK!)

I was totally bummed out but now...woooohoooo!!

Coming from Michigan State was also a strong reason for me to vote for Hollis. Growing up in ohio in a family of nothing but Wolverines I know a bit about the Big Ten, there may be equal positions but I doubt there are many higher preasure positions then to make a program successful in the Big Ten. The fact that he did so at a school that is overshadowed by ohio state and michigan tells me that he can handle that preasure and frankly I think we're going to need someone who is like that. Also, if you aren't from lancing you are either a buckey or a wolverine, MSU isn't exactly as overshadowed as we are with UF and FSU but it is very similar so he should have some good ideas on how to break through all that like he did at MSU. Also, I liked the enthusiasm he showed for our program along with an aggressiveness in his attitude towards how he wants to proceed.

I think Oliver and Spetman were also pretty strong but I was really disappointed in Woolard's interview.

As far as the coaches, I thought their preferences were strange as well but then it was also mentioned they only had a breif time with the candidates and on some level I'm sure their opinions will be based on how they feel they will get along with the new AD (in other words, does my job feel safe) and that is probably not the best reason to choose the AD.

I have to agree on this one.  I've felt that all the applicants so far had some pretty good strengths that would benefit us (based on just the interviews) but all I got after this interview was he had some minor experience years ago with washington state. He never even mentioned anything he achieved other the some generic comment about washington state being decent when he was there.

He must come accross better outside the interview since the coaches all seemed impressed but based solely on the article he comes across (hands down) the weakest of the 4 IMO.

so you are saying, for a co-defensive coordinator at a top big 12 school coming to start a program from nothing

at a non bcs conference is NOT a step down, not a huge reach beyond the "job" for something more challeging.

an assistant getting his first head coach position was not a step down IMO. No more of a step down for an assistant leaving a program that only VERY recently had been anything worth a darn vs an assistant leaving such a well established and successfull program like michigan state.

Anyway, my point was basically that

1)as we have seen with leavitt an assistant from a good program can do a fantastic job and

2)I don't think it is too realistic to expect a successfull AD from another BCS program to just drop everything and come running to USF just because we have potential.

Am I running around the room screaming my head off over these candidates? No, but then I also don't expect to see the AD's from LSU, Michigan, Ohio State or any other well established programs to come rushing to Tampa. Overall I think they have come up with a good solid list of assistant candidates from some successfull programs.

It is pretty amazing how fast they are getting this facility completed. I thought the estimated date was the begining of next year!

bump!

just a fan!

i still think this is a great job for someone with somthing to prove.

you need a leader not a social climber looking for the next job.

you need the JL of AD's

great fan true, however not too realistic  

It is the assistant ADs that have something to prove...or ADs from non-bcs schools and I assume that wouldn't be what your looking for too right? What exactly would an AD from a prominent BCS program have to prove that would give them the incentive to leave (and most likely take a decent pay cut) and come to USF? Is the assumption that no other schools can be a place to achieve a vision?

Leavitt was not the leader, he was an assistant to Bill Snyder who was the leader. I'm not sure why you think that just because someone would be coming here as their first head AD position that it means they are social climbing...same could have been said about Leavitt.

You are right, the person needs a vision, we don't want someone coming here looking at us like a step ladder however I just don't see the need for it to be a current AD and I actually would be wondering what baggage they are carrying to make them leave their current job in the first place.

i was and many were. this guy was co defensive coordinator and the person he was co DC with stoops goes to OU. this what i mean by a "heir apparent" this guy JL was going places and choose the challenge of usf

he brought energy and know how and a vision with him

that's the kind of candidate i was hoping for when there is a "buzz" about this job. the candidate that everyone says "huh, why is this guy giving up a sure thing" ans:

because he has a VISION of what he can accomplish here ala JL

Unfortunately what your saying doesn't really make much sense. You had a buzz because Leavitt was an ASSISTANT coach at a BCS school (your using hindsight on stoops as nobody knew what he would be at that time) that decided to take his first head coaching job with USF

How is this different then the two ASSISTANT ADs from BCS schools that are applying to USF for their first head AD position? According to your logic you would have only been happy if it was Bill Snyder leaving K-State for USF because he had a vision instead of some lowly assistant coach like Leavitt.

On the contrary I'd say that an assistant coming from Michigan State is more prominent then an assistant from Kansas State.

Personally I think if there were any ADs coming from BCS schools we'd probably want to steer clear anyway since it would probably mean there are "issues" causing them to leave their current position anyway.

So my question is, what does "Exposure" do for us that outweighs having people in the seats.

What it hopefully does is generate more interest in the team so that the question becomes is it better to have more people in the seats for THAT game or to grow the number of people in the seats for the future games. Obviously the product put on the field has to prove to those that are getting "exposed" that it is worth watching but with out the expusure in the first place we'll never get anything more then small number of die hards. I think the halloween move last year was a completely different issue though, I doubt that on a night where most families are outside with their families that it gave us much exposure so in that case I think we lost attendance without much (if any) benefit of added exposure.

btw, I seem to recall that the decision was supposed to be reached by last week. Has there been any official announcement?

very true, although I'm glad they are doing something to go after the heavy hitters. The more of those doners the better!

I'll just stick with the more "budget" oriented golf tourneys  ;D

ouch! that's unfortunately a bit too steep for my golf budget  

labor day is a family day

no one will watch game on TV that is why day is open

since when? lol

somehow when I think about "family holidays" labor day just doesn't pop up in any way shape or form. Labor day was nothing more then a holiday from school/work.

I mean do we have labor day feasts? or is labor day a day of giving or labor day holiday specials on tv or labor day ANYTHING? lol

I like this move, unlike halloween last year it isn't like labor day is much of a "celebrated" holiday. Schools are out, most people are off work and it's early enough to make it home at a decent time if getting enough sleep is a concern. I just can't see the negative in going for the national attention in this particular case.

I'm having trouble believing any of you.  If Leavitt left and USF hired Spurrier...you all would jumping for joy...and your future BE comrads would be shaking in their boots!!  Smazza isn't the only one with sense here is he?

I'm not sayin that you all want Leavitt fired...but I think you would trade him for Spurrier!!

There is a big difference between wanting spurrier if leavitt LEFT then to choose to remove leavitt for spurrier.

Obviously if leavitt left then spurrier would be a decent pick up. But I don't see why it would be such a stretch to believe in leavitt enough that we are happier with him as our coach. Spurrier did alot at uf yes but look at the resources he had to work with, I'm not convinced that spurrier would have been able to have even half the success leavitt has had under the same curcumstances. When spurrier was at a school where he could handpick all the greatest talent in the state of florida (aka the US) yeah he was a genious. However just looking at his dismal failure to not only succeed but to even have the balls to stick it out with equal talent to other teams in the NFL I don't think it is out of the question that he would be far less then impressive when forced to work with the talent leavitt has.

So in response, no I personally would have no interest whatsoever in firing leavitt for spurrier.

Just to elaborate a little, that would be for roundtrip bus trip and 2 nights hotel stay.

I spend so much time on the computer that I really cherish actual printed media like books and magazines. Not only that but printed material can be left in doctors waiting rooms, on the coffee table etc... that can generate some interest that the web won't reach. Besides, I can't easily take the web into bed for a quick read before I crash or more importantly I can't take the web with me for that needed "bathroom reading material"  ;D

your welcome!  

Bullwark,

Check your IM.  My e-mails to you have all come back undeliverable and I didn't have anyway else to get in touch with you. Glad you posted this or we may have never found out who you are!  

I'm pretty sure that the helmets are riddell but they may actually have an option of using other helmets. I remember years ago when Bike was a popular helmet for college players I would see both Bike and Riddell helmets on the same teams. I haven't seen any other brand though since riddell came out with those newer revolution helmets.

The book store used to even sell the full size helmets but I remember checking them out and all the logo stickers were coming off and I wasn't about to pay over $200 for a helmet that would eventually just be a plain gold helmet lol

the riddell mini helmets are much better. These shut helmets just look completely generic in comparison. I believe the sports fanatic site has the riddell version

You'll have to time it just right ET...will be good luck for a bowl WIN!  ;D

LOL well I might need just ONE reincarnation to catch up!  ;D