Greg Auman

i believe the local watch party is at the Clubhouse on Fowler ... game's at 3:30 on friday ... greg

you guys beat me to it. i called the big east, and they've already talked to the west virginia newspaper, which is using an old loophole in discussing the tiebreakers. if usf wins out, the bulls are in the bcs.

what's funny is this is, relatively speaking, an insightful post from smazza. cold in connecticut in november? what website is giving you this kind of longterm projection? me, i can only get a 10-day forecast ... sorry to pile on, but couldn't resist. we did a big feature back in august about all the new cold-weather gear the bulls purchased with an eye toward the uconn game: BUNDLING UP Moving to the Big East means many things for USF: an upgraded status in a BCS conference, a huge step in the young program's ascent, national exposure. Oh, and a new wardrobe. The Bulls, having played in weather below 50 degrees just twice in their history, will make three trips to the Northeast in November. And while one is in Syracuse's cozy Carrier Dome, the other two could bring unprecedented chills. With that in mind, Bulls equipment manager Jeff Parsons loaded his shelves with gear designed to help USF minimize its disadvantage in colder climates. Before last year's Nov. 20 trip to Cincinnati, which turned out to be a balmy 59 degrees, the Bulls had never purchased cold-weather gear for football. Coaches and staff already had jackets designed for temperatures down to 50 degrees. But the Bulls expect it to be much colder at Rutgers on Nov. 5 and at Connecticut on Nov. 26, so they ordered 32 black winter coats. Some players will brave the cold in short sleeves, but for those who want a little help, they have it from head to toe: long-sleeve turf shirts, winter leggings, hand-warmer pouches and HeadGators, which can cover the neck and head. The winter budget of $15,767.75 represents only about 9 percent of USF's annual football apparel budget, which is $181,500 for the 2005-06 school year. And despite long trips to Syracuse, Rutgers, Penn State, Connecticut and Pittsburgh, the travel budget of $588,000 is only 10 percent higher per game than last year's $445,000 five-game budget. The Bulls will travel by bus to their Oct. 1 game at Miami. They probably can leave the winter leggings at home for that one. … GREG AUMAN, Times staff writer greg

oh, and cann hasn't practiced yet since undergoing minor knee surgery in late september. realistically, he's a 4 and will be the top backup to richardson and buckley at that position once he's healthy. he's got a good outside shot where he can step outside and create mismatches there. aris williams can't come off the bench this year -- he's sitting out the season after transferring from valpo. greg

i haven't heard much of mattis as a two-guard. even with sills gone, i think you'll see holmes or dennis at the 2 whenever possible. mattis is a 3, which better suits his athleticism and wingspan. he'll be a great rebounder, but i don't know if he has the perimeter shot to be a 2. he had 12 rebounds in last night's scrimmage, more than solomon ... with marlyn gone, he should be the team's best dunker as well. greg

not sure why it'd be strange. only makes things a little sadder -- still makes you happy to know that he was able to stick around to see his daughter born, and to spend a short amount of time with her. solomon jones mentioned that bradley and his girlfriend had gotten engaged. again, this is someone who leaves behind a lot of people who care very much about him ... greg

this isn't official, but my recollection is that only two teams were bowl eligible last year and didn't play in bowls, but remember that clemson and south carolina penalized themselves with no postseason play after the brawl at their game ... greg

just fyi, the sunday soccer game has been moved to Wisconsin, which serves as a (very, very) neutral site for USF vs. Syracuse ... (Orange is already there to face Marquette on Friday) ... greg

i'm pretty sure we're the only ones that took a picture. i'll try to add it up on the blog later today. wonder if the rutgers folks will do it again this january ... greg

hey! sbien's back! now if only we can get howie back ... i think he sees me inching closer to his post total and will be back soon to get back up to a more comfortable lead.

guys, just so you understand this, USF is completely at the conference's whim when it comes to TV contracts. once the games are allotted to ESPN and its offspring by the league, USF can ask to have a game released for local broadcast, but even then, ESPN doesn't want to create competition against games it already has on. it's a complicated deal, but USF has very little say in it. greg

ga tech would be a good match, but in talking to paul griffin, i don't think that game's going to happen right now. greg

only 10 of the 12 games next year have been scheduled. one of the remaining two will be at home, giving USF six home games. greg

hey all. the espn folks tell me today that Verizon will not have ESPN360 access in time for the USF-Pittsburgh game. So the only local options are Adelphia and Knology. Sorry if i got anybody's hopes up with Verizon. greg

roodly is just a walk-on. came out last year but didn't make the team. his best role should be helping the bulls prepare for smaller, quicker guards ... greg

hey guys. ESPN360 has a new deal with Verizon (obviously a big client for them), but they're not sure it'll be in place by Oct. 15. Two local high-speed providers who do have deals in place are Knology and Adelphia. I believe both have a good presence in Pinellas. Apparently, ESPN360 is available during the game on both college campuses, providing the schools make the proper requests to ESPN. Still waiting for a few callbacks before I put anything in the paper ... greg

just my opinion here, but there have been enough of these "wow, a positive story in the oracle" threads in the past few weeks. would probably be fair to these guys to just start the thread as "Oracle: Conference Savior?" and let people be stunned/pleased/etc. once they read it. just a thought. greg

ah. the dreaded cut-and-paste. at least i got like 0.2 seconds of cross-traffic. that velcro's a quick draw ... greg

hey. thanks for the link, even two days after the fact. we were able to get a cool basketball shot of amarri from his HCC days in the paper, and while it wasn't posted online with the story, i uploaded it today to my blog. (shameless plug) ... www.sptimes.com/blogs/usf greg

usf's plan is to fill the remaining two games with a "guarantee" home game, likely against a I-AA opponent, and a road game to open a home-and-home series, likely against a BCS team. if you go with seven home games next year, then in 2007, when the big east is back to 3 home and 4 away, it sets up only five home games out of 12 that year. problem is, many schools are already booked for several years ... greg

we had this story on our Tampa and State front today: http://sptimes.com/2005/09/28/Tampabay/Fans_want_call_of_unn.shtml

hey all. tough to blog on something like this -- when you're dealing with arrests and allegations like this, can't really treat it informally. i was out of town most of the day today, didn't get back into town around 9, so wasn't able to put a full day into this. not putting a headline on it tomorrow, but we have a story that will mention that at least seven fans were arrested, some on felony charges that include battery on an officer and resisting arrest with violence. trib was on top of the arrests last week, which were comparably pretty petty, so i imagine they'll be on top of this as well. anybody that wants to offer information about what happened in the north end zone can e-mail me at aumanac1@aol.com. i'll talk with TSA tomorrow about their policies, but i can all but promise you they'll say the safest way not to get tasered is to stay in your seats. once you go on the field, you're trespassing, historic win to celebrate or not. greg

barring any injuries, it looks like only five of the true freshmen will play this season -- carlton hill, taurus johnson, jessie hester, tyller roberts and mike benzer. they're the only ones who have played this season. nearly all the rest aren't dressing for games. of course, that could change -- last year, chad simpson didn't play until the cincinnati game ... greg

E.T. ... good call! my HTML is soooo bad. i'm trying to update my signature to get the logo in there. had added it to my profile, but it gets squished into the little square and is too distorted to read ... greg

i'm just happy my signature doesn't say "I love YaBB 1 Gold - SP 1.4!" (not that i don't) ... had somebody nice enough to e-mail me and suggest a change. it's the online equivalent of being told your fly is down ... greg i'll check on the 5,000 tickets. sure enough, our initial story in may 2003 says 5k ... not sure why it changed.