SpeedBull

Totally! I really like this young man, he’s a beast!

Congrats Wildrover, your last two sentences are the most juvenile and whiny anti-Bull garbage that I’ve read in a while. A great double shot of crap. Nice work! My “evidence” is stated in my initial statement. He’s a highly respected coach and by every account a GREAT recruiter. College sports are driven by recruiting. Do you remember the Skip Holtz era? He couldn’t recruit this state and he nearly single handedly destroyed the program. Oh yeah, We were 10-2 and won a Bowl game in Coach Strong’s first year. Not bad. The offense was pretty vanilla compared to last year, no question. But we still put up crazy offensive numbers. I would like to see some more innovative offensive game planning, I’m hopeful that he will adapt (as Taggart did) as the years progress. Every one on this board agree on 1 thing. Right now, and probably forever, USF will a stepping stone program for most coaches that come through. Coach Strong is a guy that has strong ties in this state. He’s a respected man that’s no spring chicken and has been around the block. Maybe, just maybe, we could keep this man around a while? Maybe he would like to plant some roots and build a legacy here? Maybe people like you will wake up and realize this?? Probably not. The fact that you would “win” either way next year if he has a good year or bad year tells me everyone one TBP all we need to know about you. Troll somewhere else dude, your argument was weak. Go Bulls!!

He’s a GREAT head coach for THIS PROGRAM. We need consistency. We need a guy that can recruit the state of Florida. Coach Strong is highly regarded by the High School coaching community in this state. People that are rooting for his exit are delusional.

Great info! Maybe this bowl victory will help get him “more attached” to the program. On an unrelated note, as much as I hate the played out Gatorade bath, it seemed that Coach Strong and the players really enjoyed the celebration together after the game. It was the first time I saw some joy and real emotion from CCS and it was pretty cool. I, for one, am looking forward to a good season next year. We are losing a lot of great Seniors, but I have confidence in CCS recruiting abilities. GO BULLS!!

LMAO...Russell Athletic is terrible. If USF ever goes with Russell, just shut the program down. Hell, my 7 year old son has Adidas gear for his soccer team.

We need to get the white numbers back on the green jerseys. The beige on green looked pretty crappy to me. I doubt that we will see the ever changing, multiple unis of the pre-Strong Years. It will be interesting.

Amen. Enough already. I’d like to see Coach Strong here for a long time. Stop trying to drive this guy out of town.

Are you saying it’s been done before?

I have been trying to sort out how I feel about all of this. I keep coming back to the same thing. I can’t help but to be happy for Taggart and Leavitt. I always liked FSU. I loved Bobby Bowden. I never liked Jimbo and still can’t stand Winston. He’s a scumbag. As a result I stopped liking FSU. Willie Taggart set his goals high. He wants to be the first black head coach to win a National Championship. It would/will be a tremendous accomplishment. I am rooting for him to get it.

Buffs Are We

That’s funny, the lighter green Nike jerseys are one my all time favorites. I like the white numbers on the green as opposed to the gold numbers we’ve had the last couple years.

Fair enough, good conversation/debate . I’m sure the OCS will come in time. Patience has never been a strength of mine. One of positives that I take from the IPF is that is shows another level of commitment to the program. It seems logical that an OCS will follow. I’d just like to hear a more definitive statement about one. I keep waiting for an announcement with Judy Genshaft and Jeff Vinick telling us about plans for the new stadium. I don’t have any insight or information about that, but it just seems like something he’d get involved with and I really hope he does. I guess at the end of the day I just feel that this program has earned it. Earned the right to their own home. To further build on the traditions that have begun to be established. When the OCS happens I know it’s going to pump a lot of life into the program.

If we’d “break ground tomorrow” then why wait? Also, I see P5 entry and an OCS as separate issues. I don’t see getting into the P5 as the be all and end all for this program. The mindset of some on this board is hard for me to understand. In one sentence, we are this meager, broke little school that would crumble financially if we built an OCS...then the next sentence we are a viable, deserving candidate for P5 expansion. It’s very inconsistent.

We had great records the past 2 years and piss poor attendance. Nobody cares about USF outside of USF....therefore we should focus more on the students of USF. They have always been and always will be the target customer. As long as we are in Ray Jay it’s not going to change. The mid 2000s aren’t going to happen again (even then it still wasn’t great).

“If my aunt had a package, she’d be my uncle” - Jim Rome

#6 actually made me chuckle. I love Quinton but his calm demeanor doesn’t exhibit his competitive spirit . He can look “bored” or out of it but he just keeps on fighting. A special player indeed.

Great analogy. The IPF is definitely not going to increase attendance or interest in the team for students or alumni.

I am not denying the fact that attendance is down in all sports all across the country. I’m also not denying the fact that the shine can wear off of a new stadium pretty quickly and it doesn’t solve all the problems. I’ll even go as far as to say that the Tampa Bay sports market may be one of the most fickle in the country. We have so much to do here outside of sports. It is by and large a band wagon town. It always will be. USF Football is fighting an uphill battle as it is competing against the Bucs and Lightning for general interest and dollars in this town. I keep going back to the same point though, the focus needs to be on developing excitement and loyalty from within. The customer base needs to built from within. On campus with students and alumni. The average non-USF person will likely never care as much about the program as we do. I don’t expect them to. We need to create more rabid USF Alumni. Each class that comes through and graduates without a real connection to the team is a missed opportunity. As for the financial aspects of the stadium. I don’t know all of the ins and outs. All I know is that many other schools have figured out ways to make it happen.

Marketing was my major as well, with an economics minor. I guess I just understand it better. And no, it’s not completely different. Every year that we don’t have our own stadium is another year we look like Tampa’s JV team. Perception is reality.

Perhaps you are correct. Regardless, if we are still clinging to a game that happened 10 years ago as an example of what RAY JAY can be like then I rest my case.

An OCS isn’t a magic bullet, but it’s just a neccessity in my opinion. It just has to happen if we are to be taken seriously. So many say “there’s no evidence that attendance will improve”. Well you know what? There IS evidence that it WON’T improve staying at Ray Jay. Ever notice how Wendy’s and Chili’s have all done facelifts on their restaurants? Why do you suppose they do that? The menu is the same. Do they think loads more people are going to discover their restaurants? No, they do it to freshen up the brand. To enhance the customer experience. Business is business. The game day experience is the product. The team and the University is the brand. It all has to get better. Change is necessary.

You can call BS all you want. I really dislike Ray Jay for Bulls games. I think it effing blows. You can’t hear the band. It’s a sea of red and pewter. It’s about as sterile as The Trop for Rays games. It sucks. In the early and mid-2000s the program was young, fresh and new. It didn’t matter as much. And yes, back then there was a certain novelty to being in an NFL stadium. Now it’s 2017. We are a 20 year old program that has many signature wins and a good (albeit small) core of hard core fans. The program has outgrown the “upstart” reputation. What I am witnessing is that UCF, that program that Leavitt dismissed and many of us (myself included) thought was inferior to USF.....they have surpassed us. If they have not surpassed us, they are right in the verge of doing it. They have an identity....They have excitement on campus. USF better wake up and realize what’s going on. The days of us being thought of as superior to UCF are long gone.

This sums it up perfectly. The WVU is the pinnacle of USF home games in the home of the Pewter Pirates and it doesn’t compare to the 45,000 seat “rust bucket erector set” for a game day atmosphere.

What is the “bullet wound” in your opinion?

I would go to more games, I have a family of 4. I believe that a lot more people would go to more games, particularly those folks that live by the campus. I would say definitely more students as opposed to “possibly” more students.