CyberBull

Does anyone know why replays were at a premium last night? Hardly any replays all night....

You gotta earn on the field and until the Tinmen have a meaningful victory against a quality BCS opponent it's all smoke and mirrors.

Got hooked watching terrible Bulls basketball teams in 1987-88. Gosh those days were fun.... Been an addicted Bulls fan ever since.

Bill Carey's Bio: http://pressreleases.scripps.com/release/660

you are a phcking moron and I hope the mods grow a set and chase idiots like you away. Do the math...if you sign 29 kids but only have 22 scholarships, don't you think the staff knows something? In response to the bolded text:  It's doubtful that the knight fan knew all the facts CB.  You did a good job educating him, and that is what really matters.  He's new, he certainly doesn't know the expectations of our board.  He does now.  We can't just zap anyone that joins a conversation unprepared.  We'd be zapping all sorts of posters, USF and otherwise.  I mean, he does get one strike by being a knight, other than that, I plan to be fair.  Sorry, I must have contracted Leavittitis, which is a nasty distaste for stupid questions or factless inuendo.

now you know why this guy is happy....

Smazza is correct in this case.  Those other teams have such depth that a few losses don't hurt too much.  We've picked up an awful lot of walk-ons recently and some are being called on to fill gaps.  Let's hope these walk-ons have the ability to fill those gaps successfully. Virginia Tech has a thriving walk-on program, as does Texas A&M, Clemson, FSU etc... The difference between the schools smazza listed and USF is that fans from those schools don't turn on their own team and don't have unrealistic expectations about a 9 year old program.

you are a phcking moron and I hope the mods grow a set and chase idiots like you away. Do the math...if you sign 29 kids but only have 22 scholarships, don't you think the staff knows something?

Bien you just don't get it.... Don't you know it's just easier to rip on your own team just for the sake of trying to be different or in the case of smazza, for sake of adding another useless post. When beatwriters read this board and see the negativity that seems to overwhelm this place is it a wonder that they go back and slant their stories the way they do? Sure somethings aren't going as planned but USF is not any different than other well known BCS teams that oversign players, or former national champions that open the season with kids on suspension etc...

MAYBE.....the depth chart is wrong....or the other kids are playing better right now. Are some of you guys really Bulls fans....b/c you do everything to make it sound like you are not. The ball hasn't been snapped once yet we arelaredy have the usual yobos taking shots at the team, players etc.... Get over it...

I'm concerned for this teams chemistry, depth & experience level.  Am I justified in being a bit skittish? where did you read about buie and hill as academic losses?

Amen, Cyber .......... Rational people may disagree and I disagree with the majority of the board here.  I have had absolutely no knowledge of any suspension or off-field problems but if someone has substantial information I think they should feel free to share it in any forum they choose.  Where would you draw the line?  If the Tampa Tribune had this information do you think they should sit on the story until CJL gave them permission to publish it?  Would you apply the same standards to other news?  The only complaint I would have is with "fans" that make literally hundreds of unfounded accusations and then always point back to the one accusation they have ever been correct about. Grouper -- the press doesn't need CJL or USF's permission to publish anything, however they are all smart enough to realize that they can be held accountable if they publish too early or erroneously. The fact that it finally broke this weekend suggests that both beat writers felt comfortable with their sources and had nothing to do with USF's giving them permission. oh btw....if I was Amari Jackson I would be pissed off that my name was dragged through the mud. He has enough problems w/o having to deflect things that are not true.

Hey KL what do you suppose the half-life of this post is going to be? Some people won't like the truth.... Nobody circles the wagons better when it comes to lies and deception than O'Liar and Friends.

Poor KL he so blinded by O'liar that he has no problem with his head coach overlooking major crimes by his own players.

I gotta give you props for that, it shows that you raised a boy that knows he needs to work to get where he wants to be.  Not seen often enough in today's society! Ditto...although I would extend that out to the majority of the players that have come through USF. Don't let the media jade you into thinking that the majority of the players on the team are like knuckleheads we read about today.

Some of you guys just don't get it. It's not about condoning what these kids have done...it's about doing what is right for the university.  Nobody is bigger than the university. USF is in the process of doing the right thing. They were handling things internally as evidenced by the appeals process currently underway. However, it should have been USF's decision when to break this story NOT A BUNCH OF WANNABE REPORTERS ON A MESSAGE BOARD who don't have a clue. IMO, this puts the university in a defensive position, when they were clearly doing everything right, including protecting the confidentiality of the student. Sounds to me that some of you for the sakes of "breaking news" would likely publish our game plans if you were somehow able to get a hold of them. Don't laugh b/c this happened in the Big12 a few years ago.

smells like troll....

Its more like the glass is broken

Geesh.....be freakin thankful that we have TWO major newspapers covering our athletic teams. They both do a good job. End-of-story.

Correction: first three games should be pretty easy so we should let Ricky rest until the real season starts at Kansas.

The Tribune report from a few weeks ago had direct quotes from notre dame's athletic director saying that they were interested in playing USF in Tampa. you win some you lose some....go figure. Sounds like notre dame changed their mind....again. Who knows what will happen in 5 years. I appreciate both newspapers making the effort. Not many programs have the benefit of two major papers covering the day-to-day events of the program.

Way too much information....my point was that confidential information is not news, especially when there is nothing concrete to go on. "Rumors from a good source" are not enough for us to start taking shots at these kids. I trust our administration enough that if they did something wrong we would know. However by speculating it gives the program a black eye and makes us look like a bunch of tabloid reading yahoos always looking around for a good scandal and assuming the worst. Bottom-line for me that none of us know jack-**** of who did what. Without real evidence I think it is irresponsible for people to assume that player x or player y did something wrong.  Oh btw...this is the first I have heard of your situation. Tough break...

not to be a **** but....perhaps you would like to share all the circumstances on why a certain trophy wasn't purchased and what has happened to the money. you may have had externuating circumstances about why a very public project went into the crapper, yet we have no details. Do you want your confidential personal life spilled online? All I am saying is that some things need to be remain confidential...or at least until overwhelming evidence is available, otherwise it's not fair to the kids whose reputation your are spoiling. Case in point: what if this rumor was started by a fan from another school whose main purpose is to harm the school. Laugh if you want but there was a circle jerk of UCF fans ready to turn in  USF for having a camp in July over what was written on a message board. That was until they realized that every other school in the nation, including Florida the week before had similar camps. That one still makes me laugh... Oh one more thing: since when did rumor become "news". The internet is a great thing but is has spawned to many wannabe journalists w/o a clue about ethics.

AND you're proud of that?  Priorities, priorities, priorities. Ever thought it was the coaches job to announce it on their time table?  Ditto. Come on folks....let's show some pride and the best interest of the program when making these undocumented accusations about our players. I hope the mods have the good sense to monitor this thread and start pulling posts that make unsubstantiated remarks about our players.

INSIDE LOOK: COLLEGE RECRUITING A helpful hand Brantley IV owes much of his recruiting success to his dad BY BYRON SAUCER STAR-BANNER Trinity Catholic senior quarterback John Brantley IV has verbally committed to play college footbal at the University of Texas. ANTHONY SMITH/STAR-BANNER Related Stories Parental Guidance Trinity Catholic quarterback John Brantley IV is shaping up to be Marion County's most coveted football prospect to date. But it didn't happen by accident. Before Brantley was awarded a 5-star rating by Rivals.com or committed to play football for defending national champ Texas, his father was laying the foundation behind the scenes. Sending out tapes, making contacts and actively marketing his son, John III, had a plan. Now it's all coming together. Q: When did you know Johnny had the ability to play at the next level? A: You never know, really. He's played ball since he was in fifth grade and you kind of get a gauge on it each year. . . . As he got better, obviously you start thinking about things and what you can do. We got in the best system for him at Trinity, where he could throw the ball and take advantage of some of his skills. The right system is critical. Q: What were the first steps in getting his name out there? A: I would send guys I trusted tapes (of Johnny) to get some good, sound advice about it. You know, 'how does Johnny need to improve?' I'd send it to guys like Coach Chan Gailey (Georgia Tech), Coach (Steve) Spurrier (South Carolina) and even Coach (Bob) Stoops (Oklahoma) out there for his staff to look at. This was his sophomore year, so there was an awareness, but I wanted the feedback to see what he needed to do, what camps he needed to go to, because at that point you want some awareness of where your son is at. Q: First indications of interest from colleges? A: You'll get a letter saying, 'come to our camp. . .' Mark Richt will send a little note or Clemson and then it doesn't take long for the word to spread. It kind a took off from there. Now it's up to the kid. Now they have to hold up their end of the bargain, because you can only do so much as a parent and as a coaching staff. (Johnny's) taken advantage of it. He has run with this thing. He's gotten in the weight room, took baseball off, sacrificed to get bigger, and gave us a chance to go out and evaluate these schools. Q: Why the early commitment to Texas? A: Recruiting has totally changed. It looked funny with us in April committing to the University of Texas, but I guarantee it, two weeks later, that quarterback slot would've been gone. It came to that point where you've got to be able to react. That's the process. There's no secret to it, as far as putting in the time, the energy and the money - and I've done it. As a concerned parent, trying to give your son the best opportunity to go play at the next level, we made that effort and expense. Fortunately, for us, he upheld his end of the bargain. Q: Is the process the same across the board? A: To be fair, some of these (prospects) are not in a position to do what we were able to do, which is get out there and financially explore (our options). It's unfair to some of these kids. That was an advantage for us. We basically give up our five official visits. We'll take one official visit, and that will be to Texas. People ask, 'well why doesn't this guy commit?' Well, a guy's not ready. He likes the process, he likes the attention. He wants to make a good, sound decision. Q: Where does the burden of promoting a high-school player fall, with the parents or the coaching staff? A: I think it falls on both of you equally. The coach has a big input. He has more at stake with those colleges than those parents. The head coach can make or break the deal early on. He can say, 'hey, he's the real deal. Y'all need to get down here and look at him.' Now if a parent gets back some sound advice on 'how good is my son; does he have a chance to play at the next level?' I think (a parent) would know by their freshman year. You usually know early on who the players are gonna be. Then it's up to them to do the right thing in the weight room and the classroom to go to that next level to play. If a kid can get some guidance from his parents and his coaching staff, the (possibilities) are endless. But he needs to know, realistically, what his chances are playing at what level. Everybody wants to play big-time college football, but your size or your ability might not give you that opportunity. But don't let that stop your dream. It doesn't matter if it's Concordia or Liberty or Newberry College in South Carolina, don't shortchange what he can do, because he can still reach your goal of playing in the NFL. There's a lot of small college players who make it to the NFL. Just because he can't be a Gator doesn't mean he can't play college football. Q: What role do the camps and combines play? A: I haven't really figured it out. They know the ones that are coming there and I think they watch those guys for rating purposes - the Rivals and Scouts - they do a good job of recognizing these kids. But they have a good feel of who they are before they get there. If a guy goes there and doesn't have a name, it's hard for him to be recognized. I mean, he has to do something just phenomenal to catch their attention. That's not to say it doesn't happen every camp, because it does, but they know who they're looking at when they get there because in most cases they know who's coming to their camp. Q: Is that the future of recruiting? A: I think you're gonna see some of that go away. I think the NCAA is watching it real hard. The number one thing is you need to sit down with your head coach and have him tell you where he thinks you're gonna fall in the scope of things. Where you can play college football? Is it Division I, Division II, I-AA, lower end Division I. Then you need to find those schools and go to their camp. As a parent, take them to that camp. Right after Johnny's freshman year, we took him to the Florida State camp, the USF camp, just for some exposure. Get into a camp setting. That gave Johnny a big advantage at the Nike Camp because he'd been doing camps since his freshman year. Because you're under the gun to perform on that one day. That one 20-minute session might be the difference between you going to Notre Dame or you going to The Citadel. Some guys, if you're not used to it, can't handle it. Q: Do coaches recognize the difference between players, as far as guys who need some extra help and those who have parents filling in the gaps? A: The good coaches do it. I hate to say it, but there are parents that are not involved. . . . Parents need to be involved because this is a huge decision. But there are some parents out there who have to take care of their own problems to support their family, and in some cases (the recruiting process) is not a priority. We kind of made it a priority. We wanted to know what the options were out there and we went out and found out what we needed to to make a sound decision. If (a prospect) ends up at a different school - not a Miami or Florida - it's all a positive because they're still fulfilling their dream of playing football and, hopefully, playing on Sunday one day. Q: How much time and money did you spend on Johnny's recruiting process? A: I'd hate to put a number on it. It doesn't matter what that number is, because it was worth my time for us to get to that decision. I don't ever want to look back and say 'you know, I wish I'd spent more time doing this or that.' I have no regrets. . . . I spent a lot of time and money and effort doing it, but I probably enjoyed it as much if not more than Johnny. . . .You've got to be involved because your kids are always looking for somebody to give that support and help and knowledge. Q: How has the process changed since you were recruited to play at Florida in the '70s? A: I was basically recruited by about four or five schools in the Southeast and that was it. You didn't even think about it. (College coaches) would show up and you might see 'em at games and stuff, but it was strictly word of mouth. Let's face it, the Internet has created so much awareness. . . . It's pretty scary out there compared to what it was 35 years ago when we were doing this. Q: How much contact did you have with recruiting services before Johnny's early commitment? A: They'd call all the time. They end up getting your mobile number. But I think if you're truthful and play the game, they're fun. You're only gonna market yourself. If you're on the front page of Rivals.com, it's only gonna enhance, because I'm gonna tell you, probably 90-95 percent of the schools out there are looking at Rivals and Scout every day to see the movement of players. When the word hit on Rivals that we were announcing (our college choice) in four days, the phone just started going crazy. Q: What information do you provide when services call? A: It was pretty standard on what you needed to say. Stay within the box, don't get carried away. Here's our favorite schools right now; here's where we're gonna go this summer; Love 'em all - love Alabama, love Georgia - he didn't show his hand too much. The services are good. But I'm gonna tell you, they can get old. They can wear you out. Q: How did your connections help with the process? A: It didn't hurt having the Brantley name. With (uncle) Scot playing eight years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and both of us playing at Florida. There were some advantages. And coaches look for that legacy. They feel like there's something to be said for that. Being a coach's son is an advantage. He had a lot of advantages going into it, but if he doesn't run with it, it all goes for naught. Q: Where does Marion County rank in the recruiting world? A: I think it's getting back to where it should be. Florida has a tremendous reputation. Not only speed now, but every phase of the game. It used to be that people came to Florida to find speed - backs and receivers and quarterbacks - now Florida has everything. Marion County, I think they're doing their part. A lot has to do with our youth program, the way we're developing our kids gives them a huge advantage when they go to the ninth grade to compete. . . . It seems like Marion County's holding its own. We've got some very good talent around here, and it's gonna be around here for a long time as Ocala grows. ____ You can reach Byron Saucer at 387-2491 or email him at byron.saucer@starbanner.com