SpeedBull

I am not saying that I disagree with you. At this point we are perennial losers in the AAC. I just think we need to start over. We squandered all the momentum that we once had. The University needs to acknowledge it…change it and move forward. I strongly believe that without an OCS we should just fold the program up. We can’t keep taking about WVU in 2007. It’s pathetic. I’m not saying that you said it…but that game seems to be the lifeline that anti-OCS people like to cling to.

I believe people will show up regardless of what conference we are in. Kids want to tailgate…go to games and hang out and enjoy college life. I will again use App State as just one example. They are winners. Winners breed excitement. If you think that USF will be perennial losers in the AAC then that is another conversation altogether. I will grant you this…it may be too little too late. This should have been done YEARS ago. It literally disgusts me when I think about what’s been allowed to happen to our football program.

We were “supposedly” in the final 8. We were picked last because we suck. We suck because the University has dropped the ball. We allowed UCF to pass us by. UCF passed us by because they created excitement around their program. The excitement brought them better recruits. Better recruits created better teams. Better teams win. Winning creates better opportunities. This is so obvious. At least it should be.

Upset or scared? App State would kick our ass if they played us.

I’m not even talking about an invite to a bigger/better conference. I am talking about relevance and survival of the program. The lack of an OCS has been a catastrophic failure in generating student interest and alumni interest. We are nowhere near being worthy of an invite to a bigger conference. We are picked LAST in the American Athletic Conference. Let me repeat that….we are picked LAST in the conference that we are trying to get promoted from. This program is on life support….this stadium should have been built years ago.

This is absolutely, 100% correct. All of it. This university and this program has gone to the well of relying on blind faith and loyalty for WAY TOO LONG.

The NFL stadium may have been a great recruiting tool for the original players. Kids that were not on the radar of bigger programs and were getting a shot a playing for a brand new team and being part of something new. People that bought into the BS that Ray Jay has been a recruiting tool since about 2000 are really naive, gullible or just not very perceptive. It has been clear to me since the beginning that we needed an OCS. I am honestly pleasantly surprised that it FINALLY seems unanimous on TBP at this point. I’ve argued with many on this board about this for years. Better late than never I suppose…

I have been beating the OCS drum for years. Since the beginning really. The squandered opportunity to capitalize on the incredible momentum that this program had in the beginning is a failure of monumental proportions. Where we were compared to where we are is sickening. We took a summer trip to Boone, NC over the summer. Home of App State. Beautiful campus, great little college town and a beautiful little stadium. You can’t tell me that USF can’t build something similar. I adamantly disagree with the notion that a 35,000 seater is a mistake. The mistake is not building it. I also reject the notion that winning comes before building it. Build the MFing stadium. Jeff Vinik has enough money under his car seat to build this thing. USF needs to get off their asses and make this happen. Hustle. Let’s go. If not, just fold the program. Then I can turn my full attention to USF Soccer once and for all. Here are a couple shots that I took…the entire time I was thinking “How the eff haven’t we built one of these yet?”

Supply and demand. There is a finite supply of players that are good enough to start at mid-level programs. There is competition locally for those players. I believe UCF is a much more attractive option for those players. No different than any other business trying to recruit talent. There has to be a reason for the better talent to choose USF. I just don’t see it. I hope CJS can figure out a way to do it, but he will have to be the best recruiter that this program has ever had. I really hope he can build it.

I don’t think they caught us....there was nothing for them to catch. I think we disintegrated. But for arguments sake, let’s say they caught us. I’d say they did it by making better hires. By creating excitement around their program (building an OCS for example). By recruiting better players. By coaching those players better. As for my point, I’ll ask it again. Why would a kid that’s not getting recruited by the big boys choose USF over UCF? We were never getting the UF and FSU recruits. We were getting the next tier below. I believe that we are no longer getting them, and I believe UCF is.

Completely disagree. USF Football program absolutely lived. It was exciting, we were winning big games on the road. It was exciting and it felt like anything was possible...and we freaking owned UCF. The program was very alive and now it’s not. There is a direct correlation with the rise of UCF and the death of USF. Why would any kid being recruited by both schools choose USF anymore? This program failed to capitalize on the early momentum.

That’s some funny ****!!

I’m afraid it’s been dead for a while. We let UCF blow by us. USF once had all the momentum in the world. The state of this program is incredibly disappointing. It’s been a complete failure.

Agreed....**** that seems like a lifetime ago.

This would be a cool throwback T-Shirt

Agreed....to me the biggest difference is Scott came from arguably the best program in the country and he was there as a part of the rebuild from the beginning of it. He was Swinney’s right hand man. There is absolutely no comparison to Taggart in my mind. This was an unbelievable hire for USF.

This one feels different to me. There was some enthusiasm for those other guys, but to me this one feels different. Maybe it’s because we’ve fallen so far. I also think a top assistant from arguably the top program in the country feels different than Taggart coming from WKU for example.

I just threw up in my mouth. The Golden Knights....what a horrible mascot and even worse logo.

This was a great interview indeed! Really excited about this new era for Bulls Football. It feels so much different than anything we’ve had in the past. Everyone should listen to this interview.

The dude has some heavy hands. He was throwing bombs every time. I am not too confident his boxing career will go very far, but wish him the best. He was fun to watch when he did play for the Bulls. I wish him luck.

Nice, they should hire you as a consultant.

I said it’s part of the story. I already explained what I think the story is. Long story short...program was on record pace from the jump. We jumped up through conferences, fastest team to 150 wins, huge road wins. Lots of excitement. The excitement went away through a series of bad hires etc. Now we have a new coach, new AD, new excitement. A “story” is what you make of it. We were relevant at one time. We became irrelevant. We are making a commitment towards relevance again.

Exactly...part of the story.

Oh yeah...how do you know how “it works”? What makes you the authority on what’s newsworthy? Just curious.

I think this is right. I also think that talking about coaches and their next moves etc. is “filler” for the announcers. They keep that stuff in their back pockets to talk about in the event that it’s a crappy game or a blow out. They didn’t have much time in that game to talk about anything but the game. It was non-stop action and very fast moving. A great freaking game. Granted, Herbstreit is always going to seem to favor OSU...I think this may be the reason for talk of their DC and not CJS. Perhaps they were going to mention it when they had a chance in down time later in the game. I don’t think that ESPN has an inherent bias against USF in particular. They will uncover every story line imaginable leading up to the National Championship game. I’m sure CJS to USF will be mentioned at some point between now and the conclusion of that game. As I’m typing this I just had a thought.....why can’t Michael Kelly and USF’s marketing team approach/pitch ESPN on making a little piece about the move? If they can present it in a way that ESPN deems interesting and news worthy it would be make sense for them to talk about it. Something along the lines of “USF was once an exciting start up program...mention all of the “firsts” that we accomplished....mention how we’ve struggled to maintain/capitalize/improve upon that early momentum. Talk about the Leavitt, Holtz, Taggart, Strong tenures...and the new found excitement of the CJS hire. If you take a step back and think of the USF football story, it’s actually pretty interesting. ESPN loves this kind of stuff. Kelly is a highly regarded guy in college football. I think that USF should make some calls and pitch the idea of hyping up the move.