TheUpperHand

I must have missed their press release where they stated they didn't care about football. They maintained FBS Independence in football vs dropping down to FCS like Idaho. They didn't shutter their program like UAB did at one point. Jim Mora is being paid better than around 50 other FBS coaches. I think they're adapting to the downgrade from the Big East and lack of success in the AAC as best as they can, but I don't think it's fair to say they don't care about football. They're investing in a strong program to subsidize a weaker one.

Aren't all facts from the past?

Yes. Let us all recall that 2x Big East Football Co-Champion(and 5x NCAAB Champion) Connecticut has found an adequate home in the Independent Conference.

I can think of a worse way to open up a season.

Me and my wife are trying to figure out an over/under on when I'll say "Not this s*** again" for the first time.

Just for sake of relative comparison, here's a chart of coaches performance per year along with their strength of schedule. Performance is based on Jeff Sagarin's college football algorithm-based ratings. Strength of schedule sourced from TeamRankings.com.

The '10 wins' bullet point is overstated. We had 10 wins for a few reasons, none of them CCS: Flowers, Johnson, Tice, Valdez-Scantling. When he got the chance to build the team he wanted, we got worse and worse. Homeboy wanted to slow the offense down but didn't build a defense. The point differential in our games went from +15 > -4 > - 8. We had 5 blowout losses in his last year. CCS is a bad coach. CJS is one of the worst coaches of all time, period.

With how things have gone in the past few rounds of expansion, I'd be skeptical that we'd get much consideration for that. Heck, if I was VPoA, I'd be making that same pitch. But I wouldn't dwell on it too long; I'd be focusing on what we're doing now and what we're going to do this year (and cross my fingers that CAG delivers). The last time we beat a ranked team was 2016. The last time we beat a ranked OOC team was 2011. How many people are still involved with the program from then? The giant-slaying mythos is long over IMO. Had we done a better job at building a brand and maintaining relevance, we might be able to sell that. There are plenty of teams that haven't been good in a while but are still being carried by their brand -- we're not one of them. We didn't sustain success and invest in the program when we should have and missed our opportunity to capitalize. We have to start from scratch and CAG needs to win, period. The fans will come back if we string together a couple winning seasons. But we have to be consistent. We need to win the games that are relevant vs losing the headscratchers. I'm skeptical that we're going to do it -- CJS didn't, CCS didn't, CSH didn't, CWT was probably 1 loss away from being in the same bin. I like CAG, seems like a nice dude, seems to care, seems to believe in the team. I hope he does it.

Nah, I think most conferences are thinking short term "What have you done for me lately" or "What can you give me now" to raise the profile of the conference and try to keep existing members, advertisers, and TV broadcasters happy. Good academics is a plus, but they're broadcasting our football games, not dissertations or institutional research. We've got to improve the product on the field ASAP to get those votes. When we got into the Big East, we were a football program on the rise and an OK educational institution with a "commuter school" tag. As we improved our academics (R1, Preeminent University Designation, AAU, etc.) our football took a downward turn and we got passed over when the ACC came calling, when the Big East dissolved, when the Big 12 expanded, etc. We've signaled a commitment to the football program by upgrading facilities and getting ready to break ground on an OCS, but we really crapped the bed by not doing it 15 years ago and having a losing record 8 out of the last 13 seasons and losing 42 out of our last 50 games.

Ah look at this young guy here. He was in for a wild ride over the next 13 seasons.

Yeah it was an absolutely frustrating 4th quarter. We were winning 17-3 halfway through the fourth quarter. Held them to negative yards rushing. They returned a kick 98 yards to score and then completed a 34 yard TD pass with just over a minute to go. We intercepted the ball and set up for a 27-yard FG. Missed it wide as time expired. We threw an INT in our OT possession and allowed them the FG to win.

I forgot about that home win streak. That was my first season watching USF football. My girlfriend's (now wife) parents had season tickets and invited me to come to the games. You're right though, Mike -- second longest in the nation at the time, behind Miami. We had some cool things going: home win streak (21 games until TCU 2003), undefeated in overtime (9 games until Rutgers 2011), never shutout (100 games until NC State, 2005), longest streak of 30+ points score (24 games until Houston, 2017). It'd be nice to start some of these up again... Horned Frogs Look To Snap USF's 21-Game Home Winning Streak - TCU Athletics GOFROGS.COM Horned Frogs Look To Snap USF's 21-Game Home Winning Streak n

You can probably check back Friday, pretty sure you won't miss anything

I was bitter about CCS from Day 1 when he said he’d slow the offense down. CJS at times had us looking like we never played football before. Im hoping for the beginnings of fast-paced offense like the heyday of the GCO and an aggressive disciplined defense (please make sure they can tackle). All I want is to enjoy watching usf football again. Haven’t done that since 2017.

You know, you’re right. I was matching wrong. We lost to Houston but beating UCF would have put us both at 7-1 and given us the head-to-head tiebreaker. That would definitely be #1 most meaningful game by far.

If you could swap the results of any one-score loss in USF history which would you pick? Here's my Top 5. 1. USF (42) at No. 13 UCF (49), November 24, 2017 This was a back-and-forth game that ended up being named one of the best of the college football season. There was nothing on the line for the Bulls as we were eliminated from conference championship contention by virtue of our loss to Houston a month before. However, a victory over the Knights would be a defining chapter in the war on I-4, likely denying UCF a Peach Bowl berth and most certainly their claimed National Championship. 2. USF (28) at Florida (31), September 17, 2022 We were in the midst of a 4 – 23 slide with another 9 losses forthcoming so a win here wouldn’t have done much. However, had this been our “third times a charm” moment against the Gators, The Swamp would be silent as one of the worst teams in the country managed to pull out a seemingly impossible victory. 3. No. 2 USF (27) at Rutgers (30), October 18, 2007 While the Bulls would go on to drop two more games after Rutgers, they were one score losses. Would a win here and a possible Number 1 ranking in the polls have given us enough fire to overcome the VooDoo Five curse and a close homecoming loss? An improbable National Championship appearance probably would end as bad as the bowl loss against Oregon, but might have been enough to forever alter the trajectory and perception of the program. 4. USF (3) vs Miami (6), November 19, 2011 Since Skip Holtz was getting extended anyways and we were doomed to go 3-9 the next season, why not make it two in a row against Miami as well as secure a bowl game by moving to six wins on the year? This is assuming this win doesn’t give Doug Woolard enough reason to keep Holtz for a year 4 and forego the Willie Taggart hire. 5. USF (10) vs No. 18 TCU (13), October 10, 2003 In USF’s inaugural CUSA season, a win here would have been our first victory against a nationally ranked team and likely would have been enough for us to secure our first ever bowl invite. This might have provided some solace following the prior years snubbing as a nine-win independent. Honorable Mentions: · USF (27) vs No. 20 West Virginia (30): I could probably swap this for #4 on the list above. We had a nice semi-rivalry with West Virginia, they were ranked, and a win here would have denied them the Big East Championship. I respect WVU more than Miami, though so this ends up in the honorable mentioned column. Would have been a nice talking point, but not as meaningful as beating a major instate opponent. · USF (20) vs No. 23 Rutgers (22), September 29, 2006: A good win vs a ranked conference opponent that would have allowed us to break the 10-win barrier for the first time in program history. · USF (33) vs No. 20 Cincinnati (38), November 3, 2007: Another opportunity at a 10-win season. A win here and we might end up in a more manageable bowl game, enabling us to finish the season ranked. · USF (13) at UCF (17), November 26, 2021: This would have been the lone highlight of a two-win season. Why not put another iconic U on the War on I-4 trophy in the bounce house with one of our worst teams ever? Which one-score loss in USF’s history would you like to see swing in the other direction? Bonus: If you could swap the results of one game, period, whether it was one score or not, what would you pick? I think I’d go with the 2016 Temple game. It would have guaranteed us our first AAC championship game berth. We would have played Navy, which we already beat that year and likely would have secured our first championship. Sure, there were a lot of ranked teams that we've lost against and would have been cool to win, but this was our best opportunity to win a conference championship, I think

Still waiting for that giant to wake up...

Mine wasn't quite as inspiring

Finally, an achievable body. Haters may not like it, but this is what peak male performance looks like.

Getting hopes up for a positive USF outcome:

I can probably get you some 4K renders of those god awful mascots if you'd like.

Lemme finish this beer and I’ll give it a shot. Anyone have the ACCs number?

It's that thing other teams use on us to keep us from scoring.