MikePhillips

I don't see how moving the game to an OCS would improve attendance Students were outnumbered EASILY 10 to 1 in the stands, probably more. There was maybe.... 1,000 students in the student section? I'm not sure the exact number, but the first three rows had people in it, the rest up to the top was empty Moving the games to an on campus stadium, would drive away 70% of the people who are attending the games. I attended USF from 1996 to 2001. I went back from 2008 to 2011 to get my Masters. You what didn't change AT ALL at USF? The horrific parking situation We all know that 90% of the operating budget for Parking Services is to ticket, boot and tow cars. I have absolutely NO DOUBT that if an on campus stadium was built, parking would be an absolute NIGHTMARE for people. You'd have 1 lot, with about 3,000 spaces it in to park in for the game, and 20,000+ spaces around the campus that would get your car tickets, towed, or booted. Where else are you going to park? Across Fowler at the MOSI? At Perkins? Maybe at University Hospital? University Mall? Call me crazy, but I don't want to walk 3 miles with my daughters to watch a USF Football game. Nor do I feel like having my student records on hold because of parking tickets I got while trying to attend a USF game. If an on campus stadium was built, I have ZERO DOUBT that they would rig that disaster for the sole purpose of ticketing cars for revenue. Have they done anything different in the past 20 years on campus at USF? You've got overflowing student parking right next to empty staff lots. The only place where we MIGHT have a chance to do it, is if we filled in Lake Behnke, built the stadium on the plot, and used ALL the empty grass along Fowler for parking. But that'll never happen Once USF goes back to batting .500, we'll see more people come out to the games

Unfortunately I really don't see much hope for Channelside in regards to a place to go for locals. The problems with the location are quite severe. If there are any venues in the St Pete Times Forum (I still call it the Ice Palace), traffic down there is a nightmare. Parking sucks, I despise parking in parking garages. The only thing worse than drunk drivers, is dealing with drunk drivers in a parking garage. Your doors get beat up, it's tight and dangerous to drive in, you have cars flying up and down, pedestrians, you have to sit and wait if there is a line of cars in either direction to see if someone will let you out, parking garages are awful when they are crowded. If you want to have the "parking garage" experience, park in the Straz Parking lot during a play or performance, and see how much is can suck to get out. The next thing is just trying to navigate down there. The roads are like spaghetti trying to get in and out, one way roads, can't turn here, gotta turn there, it's just not an easy location to navigate to. I still get off at Ybor from the Crosstown / I4, then just turn left and drive over. Seems to be the easiest way. The next thing is once a location "sucks", it tends to be haunted with that reputation for a long time. It's extremely difficult to get people to come back to a place they didn't enjoy going to the first time. You want to revive that area? eff' channelside and bring back the Ybor of the mid 1990's. Close off the streets, allow folks to carry alcohol on the street, let's get the party back into Ybor.

I started at usf in 1996 when we didn't even have a football team. the only place to get usf shirts was the dinky bookstore that was behind the post office near the leading docks. usf football is just one of the dozen or so athletics programs we attend during the year. baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, track, I bring my family to many events. If you give up on this team, don't bother to come back when they get it back off the ground

LOLOLOL that comment about the "University Mall" just made me laugh out loud As a shopping tip, don't go into the Fredrick's looking for lingerie for your wife/girlfriend there, unless she REALLY likes leopard print

No, no, no and no I'm not rationalizing staying at RJS. I'm saying that if USF decides to build a stadium on campus, they need to do a much better job accommodating the MASSIVE amount of traffic they will be getting for the games, than they are currently doing for their students trying to park to get to class. Parking at USF was horrible in 1996 when I started going there, and it's even worse now. Those same people who are responsible for the parking logistics for the campus right now, will certainly be involved in the logistics and planning for the campus stadium. And if parking services is involved, which gets 90% of their revenue from writing tickets and booting cars, you KNOW they are going to purposely design the parking to be a disaster. Because that's when people get desperate, that's when people try to sneak into lots where they aren't permitted, and that's when they can write hundreds and hundreds of tickets, boot and tow dozens of cars to fund their department. I don't want to park at the University Mall, and have to walk 3 miles to go to a USF Football game with my family. There is no room on the current USF Tampa Campus, to build a 45,000 person stadium and a parking lot to accommodate 25,000 cars. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=usf+tampa&ll=28.061623,-82.411473&spn=0.016966,0.033023&hq=usf+tampa&t=h&z=16

going to games since 1997, playing in the bucs stadium always felt "generic" It's not our home, we drape banners over it and of course they try their best to accommodate, but it doesn't feel like home We are playing in the Bucs stadium. Walking around and seeing 2/3rds of the concessions closed up doesn't help much either. I will say that the Bucs stadium does appeal more to alumni than students, and it definitely appeals to "away crowds". It's neutral, I've rarely heard instances of vandalism or car damage to visiting team's cars, so it's "neutral" But it doesn't feel like home. It was nice in 1999 when we moved into it, before they started draping the sponsorship banners over the wall, because we made our own banners and draped them. The one thing that scares the hell out of me, is how USF handles parking. Knowing USF and "parking services", they'd have a stadium that holds 50,000 people, with enough spaces to accommodate about 1/3rd that, and surround the stadium with dozens of "faculty lots" which would ALL be empty after 4pm. Of course, attempting to park in the faculty lots would end up getting your car towed, so you'd end up having to park at the University Mall and walking 3 miles to the stadium. Sun Dome / Gym Parking Lot during the first week of class - now multiple that catastrophe times 50 When you consider how USF has historically handled "parking", and the absolute nightmare they would create, I think RJS seems like a pretty **** good alternative than dealing with USF's parking services http://usfparkingservices.com/ You know the horror you feel when it's the first week of class, you see this on the horizon? Multiply it times 50

this kid just started college at USF... 3 months ago? Maybe 5 if he went during the summer? He's got amazing talent, he has a cannon for an arm Give him some time to sync up and built up the rapport with the receivers and offense, he's only going to get stronger, faster, more accurate, and more confident His spirals come out tight, he knows how to throw a football I see an incredible amount of potential with him. This guy just went to his high school prom a couple months ago, and he's playing college football today. Basically, he's a high school kid playing with and against seasoned college athletes, with 3, 4, 5 years of experience and growth His red-shirt was burned in effort to save what's left of this season. The thought of him starting 3 months ago would have been laughable, and he's done pretty good for being thrown into this situation. Let's not forget, he has thrown some amazing passes that were DROPPED by the receivers. He hit them square in the hands.... dropped Many could have been touchdowns! There is plenty of blame to go all the way around, but considering the circumstances, he's done really good in my opinion

I think it was called Blue Samarai It was next door to an AMAZING bar that closed down in the mid-2000's, Big City Tavern on the second floor You probably got tattoo'd at the Blue Devil, it was next door to the Irish Pub (not the James Joice) I probably sound like those hippies with woodstock, but Ybor was an amazing party place, people used to call it the "mini-mardi-gras" We could make a thread on 1990's Ybor memories LOL

while the loss stung like hell, there was a LOT to like Yes, I understand where we are at as a team. Yes I understand our record, blah blah blah Looking past the loss, I saw an awful lot in tonight's game that can certainly be built on. The defense truly played their asses off, and deserve the recognition of 5 turnovers. While this only underscores the lack of offense, think about that again- 5 turnovers from the Defense We've got a lot that is starting to "click", you have to do an awful lot of things right to win football games. This game proved that some of those knobs are being turned in the right direction. I saw passion, I saw enthusiasm, I saw hard work on the field. I didn't see a "lazy team" who got their asses kicked, I saw our players fighting for the win. Yes, we lost, but we didn't get whooped. 3 points? Their best season EVER and our worst season ever.... and they could only manage to beat us by 3 points? 64-12 like in 2007 when that guy from the Orlando Sentinal came down and took a picture of himself in full UCF Gear, when he hopped on our bull statues in our brand new USF athletics facility... that's a whooping 23 to 20? Sure, congrats on the win and good luck in the BCS post-season... but that isn't anything to brag about. Considering where this USF team was, at the beginning of the year, this was a MAJOR improvement for us as a program. Sure, no one wants to lose to UCF, but let's not lose sight on the positive parts of the game today. They kept it close, they kept it EXTREMELY close, it was definitely within reach of the win coming into the last 90 seconds of play. Let's give our guys some recognition on their improvement and progression as the year has gone on. Had they played like they did tonight, all season long, we'd be looking at probably a .500 season. They did pretty **** good in my opinion. I was proud of them.

When I got to Tampa in 1996, I loved what Ybor was I bounced down in Ybor in the late 1990's, Luna, Empire, Harpos, Irish Pub, etc What happened in the early 2000's was simple - politicians got paid, to stop pushing Ybor, and to start pushing Channelside by the big businesses that were moving in. They stopped closing the streets in Ybor, and tried to force the party over to Channelside. Channelside sucked, it was trying to get drunk at the mall. Generic, boring, and it just simply lacked the soul that Ybor had. Ybor in the mid to late 1990's was a party mecca. I used to meet people from all over the southeast USA who would come down to party there. It was an amazing place. You had everything down there, trance, house, industrial, goth, blues, jazz, just a massive party from one to the other. And they killed it, trying to force everyone over to Channelside. As of right now, it's a great place to eat and go during the day, but the nighttime vibe is a bit off. The movie theatre in Centro is one of the nicest in Tampa, and it's a great place to go when other theatres are packed and crowded. I drive from Riverview with my family all the time to go to the Centro Ybor movie theatre, I happily drive right past Brandon Regency because of the hood rats at Brandon. In Ybor, you have tons of places to ear. Berninis is still amazing, Green Iguana is awesome considering it's "bar food", they make great food. Creperia is delicious, La Terraza is good, and of course El Puetro is one of the best places you'd ever get a skirt steak. Daytime it's great, as the night starts approaching, time to dodge out and go somewhere else. It does not have the "late night" draw it used to. I wish it did, I miss Luna's, Bar Tampa, Empire, Ampitheatre, ahh the good ole days

For being 18 years old, White is amazing Cannon for an arm, plays with passion and emotion, I really enjoyed watching him play. His passing is amazing for his age, he's got amazing placement and he's going to do awesome. A QB like that really helps the team recruit good wide recievers. He will have a GREAT career at USF and beyond. The offensive line is doing a great job of giving him the space and time he needs to throw the ball. I really liked what I saw last night, had to keep reminding myself that he's 18. He handles himself very professionally on the field and on the sidelines as well. He's got the maturity of someone in their 20's He threw some amazing passes last night, he did great!

His arms are fine, eff'n kid is 18 years old Post a pic of your arms when you were 18. At 18 years old, your metabolism is going so fast, it's pretty hard to pack on muscle unless you are eating 5000+ calories a day Let's see a pic of your arms when you were 18 years old

that Army game in 2003 was awesome. I'm pretty sure that's when the 5 Blackhawk Helicopters flew overhead in formation I was like "whoa... how come we don't roll like that..."

also big thank you to the Cincy cheerleader who noticed it fall off and hit the ground, and ran over and handed it to the USF mascot escort

People who attended the game last night, might have noticed the absence of Rocky, our mascot While playing with the Cincy Bobcat, the right horn fell off He was immediately escorted into the tunnel.... Have not seen any reports if the horn was able to be successfully re-attached, my daughters have never laughed so hard as a game, as they did when the two mascots were wrestling on the ground. All gave some, some gave all :-)

video I ripped from the DVD a few years ago. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAi0TznVzgE

^^ I graduated from Cooper City High School in 1996. Went straight to USF for the Summer B Semester. I never toured the campus, only been to Tampa once for a Busch Gardens field trip. I lived in the "Village" that summer, you guys remember those houses? Had no clue where anything was at, had to go to the loading docks to get a phone book, and found a AAA stand in the University Mall that gave me a map of the area LOL Only a couple of people from Cooper City went to USF with me, maybe 3 or 4. I had a great time in high school, don't get me wrong. But I'd trade all 4 years of high school for 10 more minute in Beta dorm LOL Oh I can't forget Leon Matthews, because he was my roommate and was a great person. He had a gorgeous little daughter, and had pics of her all over his side of the dorm. And of course, Ryan Benjamin for getting me a ball used in the first ever USF game. I spent half my loan check to get it too. I'll post a pic here shortly of it

Maybe try to lighten up the mood in here. Off the 1997 Roster, who were some of your favorite players? Charlie Jackson always has a special place in my heart, that guy was just a great person. When my wife (girlfriend at the time) came up from Miami to see her first USF game, I asked him in the Fontana cafeteria to come over and say hi. He came over, reached up from the field and gave her a gentleman's handshake. Totally sealed the deal from there LOLOL Bernard Brown I still see in Riverview, wonderful person. I still remember when he broke his ankle, that was a terrible injury. I see him occasionally here in Panther Trace coaching kids in the field near the pool Jason Butler was just crazy, absolutely nuts. He was also one HELL of a softball smasher. He played softball on my team over at Greco. That guy could seriously smash softballs, dented a few of my bats too LOL Lance Holtke was hilarious, girls went crazy for that dood I went to middle school with Demetrius Woods, at Highland Oaks in North Miami Beach, but I moved over to Pembroke Pines and ended up going to Cooper City, while he went to NMB High Larry Scott is a great person, I'm glad he got picked up as a coach at USF. What are some of your memories of the original 1997 team? I remember them all being extremely humble, extremely friendly students and I loved that OG team to death. Great people

Why is he your guy? I want to look forward to next season but I am having trouble. Here is what I like about Taggart- 1) He was an athlete, and a **** good one. He BEAT USF as a quarterback of Western Kentucky in 1998. Yea that was 15 years ago, but it still happened. I was at that game. Players need someone they can respect. Taggart is a respectable man, he has the past experience to earn that respect, and he still looks like he's in **** good physical shape right now. He's not some 280 pound overweight coach, he still looks like he can wear pads and knock helmets. 2) He's from Bradenton, and he's not stranger to Florida culture. We all know the state of Florida is a hot bed of talent, the fact that he went to high school 30 minutes from our main campus certainly gives him an edge to this area. He talks like Florida people talk. 3) Look at his history - Western Kentucky lost 20 STRAIGHT games before he came in as coach. You think life sucks as a USF fan when you're 0 and 4? Western Kentucky lost TWENTY (yes, 20) straight games before he took over. WKU 2007 - 5 wins, 7 losses WKU 2008 - 2 wins, 10 losses WKU 2009 - 0 wins, 12 losses WKU 2010 - 2 wins 10 losses (Taggarts First Year) WKU 2011 - 7 wins, 5 losses (Taggarts Second Year) WKU 2012 - 7 wins, 6 losses (Taggarts Third Year) 2012 WKU was invited to the Papa John's Bowl, and lost to Central Michigan 21 to 24. See his stats for yourself- http://www.totalfootballstats.com/WesternKentuckyHilltoppers.asp Right now, USF is playing WKU's 2008/2009 Season. Just like history proved, our 2014 season will most likely be like WKU's 2010 season, our 2015 season will be like WKU's 2011 season, and our 2016 season will be like WKU's 2012 season. Taggart is ABSOLUTELY the right man for this job. You can't make chicken soup out of chicken poop, and I'm not saying that's the quality of our players, but our program is in shambles after the "Holtz New Era". Give this man some breathing room, he has the tools, the field knowledge and the commitment to turning programs around. He already did it to a team that lost 20 straight games, and he took them from 20 straight losses to a bowl where they lost by a field goal. Show some support, and give this man some breathing room so he can work. Taggart is not going to build the "rugby" style offense that allowed us to squeak by teams in the past. That whole "have the quarterback scramble for 200 yards a game, then panic when he gets hurt" offense is not how you build a succesful program. Yea it's winning... till 80% of your offense gets injured. Just let him do his thing, we're in the suck right now, and there is no better person than Taggart to pull us out of it. He's been here before, he's got ties to this area so he's not going to dodge out and leave us. He'll fix us up

anyone can be a "fan", when the team is winning Showing up to games you know that your team will lose, renewing your season tickets, knowing that it's going to be another brutal year, showing support when all is hopeless, that's what shows true support. Still flying colors on a winless season, is the definition of "fanaticism", aka being a "fan"

There is nothing you can say to him, he needs to be given the proper time and patience to rebuild this program. He's in front of a "snowball of suck" that started growing in 2010 with the firing of Leavitt, and has now grown to the size of the watertower in front of the USF Federal Credit Union. College football is not like the NFL, players rotate in and rotate out on a yearly basis as they graduate from high school, and graduate from USF. This is not his fault, nor has he been giving the ample amount of time needed to do much of anything with this program, which has been left in shambles for him to try to fix up. You can't expect a CEO to bring a company from negative earnings to profitability in a couple months. You can't expect a brand new football coach, to step foot into a failing program, and have him turn it around in a couple months. What Taggart, and the players need, is love and support. Not negativity, not constant negative criticism, not hate comments, they need to know, that we are with them through this rebuilding process. This could EASILY end up being a winless season. If you aren't prepared to handle that emotionally, I'd suggest you find something else to watch on Saturdays. I like what he is doing so far, and I definitely think he is the right man for this job. I was there in 1998 when he put it on USF as the QB of WKU, he was awesome to watch Let this man do the job we are paying him to do. Stop expecting miracles overnight, embrace the horror of how far the program has sank since Jim Leavitt was fired. Taggart is a winner, he has proved that both on the field as a star quarterback, and he's proven that as a coach. This is a man that the players will grow to respect, and will play hard for him. You just need to give him the time, and the patience he needs to fix the damage done to this program in the past 3 years, then start the program on the course needed to fit his coaching and recruiting style.

Well those numbers are actually HUGE, when you consider that UM has roughly 15,000 students, and the campus is about the size of the SunDome parking lot. I'm all for supporting your favorite team, but what sickens me UM bandwaggoners is the obnoxiousness from people who didn't even go to the college! You want to support an educational institution you never attended, that's great. A little weird considering it's COLLEGE FOOTBALL, but live and let live. But I don't want to smell your bad breath at an athletics event, when I'm there cheering for my alma matter and fellow students, and you're..... wearing a tshirt from a college you never attended If you actually attended UM, good on you, go nuts. If you didn't go to UM (which 90% of the people we'll get to meet on Saturday fall into this category), have the common sense to understand the context of what's actually going on there, and show a little courtesy I know it's asking WAY too much considering we're talking about UM here, but it's appreciated

If we can just get some EXTREMELY good luck at the beginning, I think anything is possible Maybe a picked off pass for a touchdown early, a botched snap ran back for a touchdown, etc This season is not about wins anymore, it's about trying to figure out what we have to work with, what we can do right, and build on that and put the rest of the puzzle pieces together to become a formidable competitor USF Football is like a jigsaw puzzle right now, we have 1 or 2 pieces somewhat figured out, now we need to get the other 98 pieces to start going into place. For me, I watch the games to see if we can just get a couple basic things right. I'm not even looking for wins at this point, I'm just looking for light at the end of the tunnel that the team can build on. When you are ranked dead last, it's not about winning anymore, it's about just trying to keep it close. Baby steps at this point

I grew up in Miami, and in Ft Lauderdale. So I know the "UM Bandwaggoner" crowd VERY well Let me explain to you, what 99% of these UM Fans don't even know- The University of Miami... isn't even located in Miami. It's located in Coral Gables. If you rounded up all of these obnoxious UM fans, drove them down US-1 and physically pointed at the UM campus... they wouldn't even know what they were looking at. I've got three degrees from the University of South Florida... you own a University of Miami T-Shirt. You didn't go to UM, no one in your family went to UM, most of them didn't even attend or better yet, graduate from ANY of the colleges down in Miami (FIU, Miami Dade, Nova, etc) I was at the game when USF played UM for the first time in the Orange Bowl in 2004 (or 2005, can't remember the exact year). Most obnoxious, rude, disgusting group of people I've ever met are UM bandwaggoner fans. It takes a certain level of scumbag, who never attended the college they are supporting, to talk smack to a REAL student or alumni from another school. "I didn't go to UM, no clue even where the campus is located... but the shirts say Miami so I'm going to support them and talk smack to you, who actually graduated from the school you're here to support" Very few fans get under my skin like the UM bandwaggoning fans do. When you're at the game on Saturday, take a look at those people cheering, and ask yourself if they look or act like the type of person who can afford the 6 figure bank roll it costs to go to UM, or even have the mental capacity to get a college degree from ANY college for that matter. It funny, but when I wear this jersey to the games, rarely does anyone actually say something to me. So don't tell me "we coming", when you didn't even go. How about you do some "going", as in "actually GOING to UM", before you tell me "you coming" Deal?

Underperforming teams tend to have a significant amount of sarcasm from the players in the locker room and on the practice field. The "As if that's going to matter" attitude towards other players who are trying to put in the work, can infect an entire program Just imagine trying to find the motivation to put in one more rep, dig a bit deeper during drills, and put your skin on the line for a bunch of sarcastic players who are just going to mock you for the efforts. Not very motivating huh? I'm not saying that's what's going on here, but I've seen it on the sports teams I've played on. So the first thing I would do is try to rid the program of negativity from the inside, then distance the program from the negativity on the outside. Fans, press, administration, etc The drive to "get better" has to come from within, and negativity is a cancer towards that internal motivation. Root it out and distance yourself from it. If you look in the past 8+ years, we've played rugby style offense. Hike the ball to the quarterback, let him fun for 7 yards. Ride him like a horse till he gets hurt, then panic. Let's look at what has happened to our past 2 quarterbacks- BJ Daniels - broken ankle Matt Grothe - career ending knee injury Luckily Blackwell didn't get severely hurt. This is not real offense, sure it wins games, but at what cost? Taggart is making us play offense, real offense. Yes, it's exposing holes and weaknesses everywhere.. EVERYWHERE, but at least it's real offense. If you were starting from scratch, would you base your team on a rugby style "hike and run" offense, or would you build an offense where the QB hands the ball off to RB's, and passes the ball? This way is going to take some time, but it's the right way to go