KB

where did Chad Simpson end up going?

why would you show it on campus for a home game? the Pitt game last year was an away game.

106 AA...got them through USF ticket office.

Another link to get us in the mood ... http://usfweb2.usf.edu/ua/affmb/flash/?msource=KMMBFlash&tr=y&auid=1921451

i'm not blaming anyone, i was just curious. i can't wait to see it.

thanks Eric, when will bullsclub.com be up and running?

i would also like to see the video. Thanks

http://usfweb2.usf.edu/ua/affmb/flash/?msource=KMMBFlash&tr=y&auid=1921451

Sidney Ponton?

Received mine: 106 Row AA

Great news on the number of members. I'm just curious, how many members do other state bands like UF and FSU have? Thanks.

USF Middle Linebacker Moffitt Is Always In Overdrive By MARTIN FENNELLY - Tampa Tribune Published: Aug 24, 2006 They broke the mold when they made Ben Moffitt. Actually, the mold simply died of exhaustion. It's hard to know where to start with South Florida's junior middle linebacker, husband, father of two, student, leader, hunter, fisherman, churchgoer, Wal-Mart shopper (well, sort of) and rearranger of opponents' molecular structures. It's hard to start because, well, Ben Moffitt never stops. "You just get used to it," he said. Meet your point of light, or headlights, USF fans, your high-octane hero, the Bushnell Express. Ben Moffitt should be named commuter school president. He long-hauls it each day, down I-75, 55 miles to school and practice, then back to Bushnell, where he'll always be from. He gave up his Ford pickup and squeezed into a Kia in the name of mileage. It takes him 45 minutes to an hour each way. "A little Kia. God love him, my 6-foot-2 husband," says Ben's hero, wife Shauna. "I love that man." Attention Wal-Mart Zombies The USF coaches love that man, too, and not just because he led the Bulls with 96 tackles last season or doesn't get the notoriety like senior linebackers Stephen Nicholas and Patrick St. Louis. "The shadows never bother me," Moffitt said. "These guys deserve the attention. That'll never affect me. Never." "He's kind of a throwback guy, hard-nosed," USF defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Wally Burnham said. "He's our quarterback." Burnham has coached linebackers forever. Nine of his linebackers were NFL drafted out from under him when he coached at Florida State, including Derrick Brooks and Marvin Jones. They all had something in common. "A burning desire not to fail," Burnham said. "It kills them to fail. Derrick had it. Marvin had it. Ben has it." Mind you, athleticism never hurts. They still talk about the 6-2, 240-pound Moffitt running down speedy West Virginia quarterback Pat White last season. Also the 14 tackles, one sack, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble he had in last season's upset of Louisville. Moffitt is as nice as you can get off the field. Then he gets on one. "There's a switch you've got to flip." Put it this way: If Gentle Ben's grandma had the ball … "Bless her heart," Ben said, "she won't make it." Losing is hard for him. Take the Pittsburgh loss last season. If you were shopping in Wal-Mart around 3 the following morning, you probably noticed the zombie in aisle 4. "Oh, man, I was frustrated," Moffitt said. "We flew in that night, and I drove home and laid down in bed. But it was no use. I thought, 'Where is there a place that's always open?' So I walked around Wal-Mart in the middle of the night. Three and a half hours. Finally wore myself out walking. Went home and finally went down around daylight." Moffitt smiled. "Losing's personal." He Does It All He always bounces back. One reason is Shauna. They met as students at South Sumter High School in Bushnell. She was keeping stats for the team when she saw him. He saw her right back. They were married less than three years later. They're two-deep at adorable children. There's Trevor. He's 3. And Rylan. She's 2. They tried living in Tampa when Ben was a USF freshman, with Shauna commuting to Bushnell for her job in the county property appraiser's office. But Ben decided to move the family back to the place they love. "He's just a country boy," Shauna said. He drives 20,000 miles a year to and from USF. And no matter where Ben Moffitt gets out of the car, responsibility awaits. Two small kids will give two-a-day practices a run for their money. "He's a great father," Shauna said. "He's a diaper changer, a bath giver, a hair doer." "Guys at school ask, 'How do you do all this?'" Ben said. "You just have to push yourself to another level." Moffitt works for his father's tree service every summer. He climbs, cuts, chops, chips, drags, sweats. He has done it since he was 8. "I was taught to give a man an honest day's work." Anywhere he goes. "I can't get him to sit still," Shauna Moffitt said. "If he's not working for his dad, he's out in the yard doing something. Ben's always going. Ben's Ben." Who needs gas?

New Recruiting Software Is The Latest Quantum Leap In USF's Football Program By BRETT McMURPHY The Tampa Tribune Published: Aug 24, 2006 TAMPA - Through its brief 10-year history, the University of South Florida has had to overcome its share of recruiting challenges: selling players on a school with trailers as football offices, no conference affiliation and operating on a shoestring budget. A new athletic facility has replaced the trailers, the Bulls begin their second season in the Big East this fall and the budget continues to grow by leaps and bounds. As much progress as they've made, the Bulls will make another quantum leap next month with the debut of a new software-based recruiting program. The program includes a customized Web site that USF coaches can use to communicate with recruits and track the responsiveness to their recruiting pitches, while also making the recruiting effort much more efficient. "This puts us on the cutting edge," USF offensive line coach Greg Frey said. USF purchased the software program, RecruitingRadar, from BlueChip Athletic Solutions (BAS), an Atlanta-based company. USF will pay BAS $28,800 annually for the service, Associate Athletic Director Rick Costello said. All of USF's information on recruits - names, phone numbers, family members, 40-yard times, high school coaches, statistics, academics, highlight videos, etc. - are available to USF's coaches on a laptop computer or their hand-held palm device. The software manages text messages, e-mails, postal letters, NCAA compliance logs, contact and evaluation history on each recruit on their hand-held device and even alerts coaches on a recruit's birthday. Just this week, USF recruiting coordinator Carl Franks' Treo reminded him of a recruit's birthday. "It makes it easy for me to send a text message or an e-mail that says 'Happy Birthday,' " Franks said. Another bonus: USF's coaches, perhaps the nation's only Division I-A staff that had to use their personal cell phones, will finally have university-issued cell phones. In a trade out with Cingular, the coaches will be provided Treos or BlackBerrys at no cost to the university so they can access their recruiting database anytime and from anywhere. "BAS analyzed our recruiting message and converted it to a Web site that teenagers respond to and can visit 24/7," Boston College recruiting coordinator Jerry Petercuskie said. As much as it helps the coaches become more organized and efficient in detailing all of their recruiting information, the coaches are also as excited about the new Web site geared toward recruits - www.theusfbulls.com- that should launch by the Sept. 2 season opener. "If we're able to identify more with them, it's incumbent, as coaches, to understand the culture of our prospects," Franks said. "If we don't do that, we may have a difficult time understanding the world they live in. Adopting their technology will make our lives that much easier. This brings us more up to speed, being able to provide communication to recruits without being so intrusive to the families and recruits." One benefit is the coaches can track the interest of a recruit. "It gives us some feedback on how well we're marketing our Web site," Franks said. "If a young man is hitting the Web site during the season, but then isn't visiting the Web site around signing day, it gives me immediate feedback. "It also lets us know what's important to each individual. Some may be interested in our engineering school, the music school, how many linebackers we have, our wide receivers coach, the stadium we play in - getting feedback from them helps us market our program." In March 2005, Duke became the first program to utilize RecruitingRadar. Since then other schools have utilized the program, including Georgia Tech, Boston College, Kansas State, Vanderbilt, Central Florida and Tennessee. "South Florida is an absolute poster child for this," said Steve Kennedy, CEO and founder of BAS. "South Florida has a lot to sell. It's not bad playing in Raymond James Stadium, it's not bad having the beach around the corner. It's not a bad spot for nightlife. There's also a huge strength in being in a BCS conference. But there's not a whole lot of people who know that. "We want to help extract what is good about South Florida and put out that message for them." While the general public can view the Web site, recruits will be supplied a sign-on and password allowing them to instant message coaches or visit recruit specific features on the Web site. "This puts all the information in front of the kid and they can see if what Coach Frey is telling me is the truth," Frey said. "Not to mention, it's fun looking at the highlight films. They can see, 'Do they run my style of offense, my style of defense?'" USF coach Jim Leavitt, who credited Franks' persistence for implementing the new software, is eager to get the Web site up and running. "You should see the Bull on the Web site," Leavitt said. "I like the eyes on it. You click on the eyes and the heart to see what we're all about. It's going to be pretty good." Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.

;D

How many did we have to start with?

I rarely listen to him, but when I did this morning I heard him say that he talked to Paul Dee (Miami's AD) yesterday. Paul Dee told him that they were still having discussions with USF about an annual series.

August 17, 2006 Leavitt expects Amarri back today From Greg's Blog Junior receiver Amarri Jackson, the star of last year's stunning upset of then-No. 9 Louisville, is expected to rejoin the team for Thursday's afternoon walkthrough, coach Jim Leavitt said Wednesday night. Jackson was dismissed from practice a few minutes early Tuesday when he continued to jaw with coaches during the post-practice conditioning runs. Leavitt had been disappointed with several players' attitude during practice, but had singled out Jackson in sending him to the locker room early. Jackson missed both of Wednesday's practices as well, prompting concern that the problems had heightened, but Leavitt said his absence had to do with "family difficulties" back home in Sarasota and that Jackson would be back with the team after this morning's practice. That said, another receiver has clearly stepped to the forefront in the first 10 days of practice: freshman Carlton Mitchell from Gaither. Asked to name the fastest player on the field Wednesday, Leavitt first answered with cornerback Mike Jenkins, joking that cornerback Ryan Gilliam and receivers Taurus Johnson and Ean Randolph might argue with that. Then he stopped and said he'd bet Mitchell is faster than all of them, even with a 6-foot-4 frame that makes him one of USF's biggest targets. Asked if he could move into USF's top eight -- a good measuring stick for justifying him playing this year and not redshirting -- Leavitt said he's already in that group. Receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey and quarterback Pat Julmiste, in separate interviews, both mentioned Mitchell's emergence as a playmaker with surprising speed.

Jackson is back Posted August 17, 2006 by Brett McMurphy Wide receiver Amarri Jackson returned to practice Thursday, two days after being dismissed from practice by Coach Jim Leavitt and missing Wednesday’s practice for personal reasons. So, for now, he’s back on the team. However, make no mistake, if Jackson isn’t careful he could end up like a couple of other talented USF receivers: Johnny Peyton and Carlton Hill. Stay tuned.

From GoUSFBulls.com Meanwhile, senior wide receiver Darren Haliburton, who played sparingly last season and did not make a catch, has opted to transfer to a Division I-AA program where he can play right away in his final season of eligibility. Haliburton, who originally transferred to USF from Rutgers and played just one season with the Bulls, found himself in a deep and talented pool of receivers at USF. “I think a lot of Darren, and we certainly all wish him the best in his future,†says Leavitt.

Is Gene Coleman back?

I thought the gates opened at noon last year for the L'ville game? Anyone remember?

All the more reason to pipe it over the speakers as they play.

Joe, Are you saying we shouldn't play and chant our fight song at all?  It would be very nice if the whole stadium would chant it together.  I would even put the words on the jumbotron so new fans and alumni that don't know the tradition could follow along until it catches on.

Traditional bands is a must. I would go a step further and have microphones near the band in order to pipe the band music over the speakers, especially after a touchdown. At times it's hard to hear the band after a score. This would also help in everyone chanting "S-O-U-T-H F-L-O-R-I-D-A" at the end of the fight song.

I also went to Steve and Berry's. I didn't realize how big that place was. They did have a few USF sweatshirts and tshirts, but not as big of a selection as other schools.