michibull

Wow!?!? Is this seriously being discussed? BB is a young man that's just getting back into playing competitive football; he has had many different changes of scenery and life events (transfers, marriage and child). Let's give BB and this team time to learn, grow and gel. My goodness, it's ok to question schemes, play calls or mistakes. It's only 4 games and we were just talking last week if he will be the GOAT of USF football after next year. I mean, come on man, let's all just take a breath and realize this is a development and growing process, enough of the instant gratification menatlity that plagues our society. We are 4-0 and all of our goals are in front of us.

We have plenty of talent, good coaches and a young motivated team. These are kids and they will have good days and bad days. The fact that we won on a bad day is a good sign. A win is a win is a win. Let's not get all caught up in this what if's and hypotheticals. Absolutely we can this thing!! I'll take a 1 point win every single week. In years past, we would have lost this game in grand USF fashion. The fact that with CCS we are able to still win a lot of these close ones is encouraging to me. Let's move forward and continue to improve. Go Bulls!!

This should be our priority each and every year. If we don't win the AAC, nothing else matters, if we do, it's out of our control anyways. Go Bulls!!

Agreed 100%, for our rebuilding team, confidence and playing opponents that you can continue growth is big. We showed a lot of improvement last year, and I am actually excited for this year. I think we are finally on the right path, have some stability and have the right coach. We still have a long way to go, but I feel we are finally making progress.

Fair enough, I just don't want us to get like MIchigan fans, because the sound terrible/sad up here.

Haha, I see what you did there. No, I don't believe in restricting people's free speech (whether it's PC or not). I am more or less suggesting that we stop singling out UCF, whether it's who they play, what their program is doing, how evil they are, etc. There are rarely discussion on if we want Houston to beat X team or, did you see what Cincy did? Usually that all goes back to UCF. I would rather us treat them like any other team, that's all.

By the definition of the word "rival", everyone in our conference is our rival. The point of this is that we should not treat UCF different from any other conference foe (which again by definition are our rivals); that we shouldn't be paying them anymore attention than we do anyone else in our conference. That's all.

Yeah, basically UM ignoring MSU bothered MSU big time, but now that MSU is better than UM, UM makes excuses and tries to cut down MSU to make it seem like UM is still better (which makes MSU laugh and feeds right into the fact that they are more successful). My analogy here is that we were UM (being the better program and aiming at UF, FSU and MIA as rivals, which would be OSU for UM) and that the more that we treat UCF as any other AAC team will bother them more than us treating them as a bigger deal than that. You are correct that things have changed in the last 10 years, but they shouldn't be a bigger deal to us than anyone else in our conference, in my eyes, everyone in the AAC is a rival.

Listening to sports talk radio up here in Michigan, I've learned a lot about rivalries and psychological warfare. MSU fans were ALWAYS considered the "little brother" and it angered MSU fans for the longest time because UM wouldn't acknowledge them as a rival because they were "small time" compare to OSU. Since UM has fallen to the wayside and MSU has had really good success, UM fans are all angry at MSU saying, "just wait till next year" and they are OBSESSED with all things MSU, and Spartans just laugh at them. I don't want us to become that. If we just took the stance of UCF just being another Conference opponent, it would be a more effective response to get under the skin of UCF; we are effectively feeding into what they want and like.

I specifically call out UCF, because there is way too much attention paid to them. At this point in time, ECU is the most dangerous "roadblock" we have, because we play them NEXT. I am focused on ECU, Tulsa, Uconn, Houston, Tulane, Cincy, Temple then UCF; because if we stumble against these teams, the game against UCF means nothing. I don't care who UCF plays until we play them. I don't care if they have an OCS, IPF, Coach X, Player X or if they get X amount of funding, it doesn't affect me or USF. As far as I'm concerned, they are not any different from the other school in our conference. Are they on a good roll? Sure, doesn't mean we have to talk about them or ask if it's good or bad that they win all or no games, or what that one UCF fan said to that one guy, in that one place. In terms of road blocks to Conference Championships or Conference Expansion, why are they any different from Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, Uconn or anyone else for that matter. They are ALL competition and we shouldn't give UCF anymore attention than we give them (let's face it, Houston is in a better position than any of us for expansion).

Everyone talks about how UCF is obsessed with us, and with how much we talk about them, we come off little like they do. The only way to remedy this is to cut them out of our lives. CJL had it right when he didn't want to compete with them; it wasn't about being afraid to lose to them, it was about having bigger goals than that. All of our goals start with winning our Conference Championship. We want to beat any and everyone that's in our way, and no one team is bigger than the next. Every team goes through good years and bad years, every conference changes a little, and who we play changes every year. Our school and sports programs are not defined by how we compete against one school or the other. We should judge ourselves by who we were yesterday and not by somebody else. Are there standard setters out in the football world, yes, but even that changes with time; USC, ND, FSU, Mia, UF, Ala, it all goes in cycles with coaches and players. The only thing we control is ourselves and the only thing we want to improve is ourselves and that's what we need to focus on; screw everybody else and the horse they ride on.

Ugh, I'm hesitant to respond to another UCF topic. A couple points: 1. We always make fun of how pathetic UCF is for being obsessed with us. By making topics and comments about UCF, we are giving the the same attention. We need to just stop talking about them and start treating them like any other team. There is no need to even mention them unless it's game time. 2. Any loss by ANY conference members to OOC opponents is bad for ALL of the conference members. 3. Any loss by conference members to OOC teams has no effect on the conference championship. 4. Most importantly, all USF should care about is winning the AAC. If we don't do that, nothing else matters, no NY6 bowls, no top 25, no CFP. Lets stop focusing on UCF, talking about UCF, and competing with UCF. We should be focused on the AAC championship and beating anyone and everyone in our way. I don't care about anyone but USF and right now the only team I am thinking about is ECU.

Call me crazy, but I don't want UCF to ever win a game. I would prefer for us to go 13-0 every year and UCF to go 0-12. We can win the conference and go undefeated without UCF ever winning a game. As long as we schedule good out of conference games, we don't need anything from them.

You know what, I was going to argue about how most rivalries were created pre-expansion and that this is a special situation; but, upon further thought I actually agree with you Puc. If rivalries were even considered, Pitt/WVU would have been packaged, Louisville to SEC for Kentucky, Penn st wouldn't have blocked Pitt from Big 10 for 30 years, Syracuse/Buttgers would have been packaged (which would be as close to a comparison to USF/UCF in terms of close Tv markets), and UConn could be in the ACC with BC. Ok, Puc, you've changed my mind.

Yup, and we are still broke, even if we get a raise.

Yes, which equates to no respect or playoff chance.

We are #6, but not P6. Big 12 revenue is 364mil, AAC 74mil(down 6%), TV revenue: Big 12 200mil/season vs AAC 20mil/season. These numbers show that we are nowhere close to a Power conference. Our best bet is Fox Sports or CBS Sports or YouTube Tv, but they'll only pay a max of 80mil/season, that's only 154mil for AAC, dude, there's no chance to be a P6 conference. Our only chance is being part of an expansion.

This is very true. It's a crap shoot for sure. I agree that money is the #1 thing.

In the same respects, we should have been in before WVU and on par with Louisville. By current usnews stats, list of candidates goes Cincy, Uconn, Temple, Houston, USF then UCF. It has a lot to do with money and academics, but it's not everything. At the time of expansion, WVU and Louisville were winning more consistently and Pitt and Syracuse had all of the money. At this point in time a conference is not going to add a non competitive schools. With the CFP being what it is, they want to improve the strength of the conference so they can get a team in the CFP. Yes, I agree that academics l, money and alumni are important, but there is a lot that goes into it, including performance and infrastructure.

Yes, college football is about making money and rivalry games make money. As with all aspects of life, things change. At one point UCF was below us, but the last time I checked, they are a more successful (I will not say "better" because they do all of the wrong things) football program than us (multiple conference championships, IPF, OCS, NY6 bowl victories), geez I want to puke now; but, the point is, at this point in time, UCF is the next darling for Big 12 expansion. We are the school who does things the right way, unfortunately, that is not the way college football works. UCF is a nasty, dirty, vile program, who cares about nothing or no one but themselves and that's why they have had the success on the field, and in the eyes of college football, that's ok (because of the ESPN/Orlando crap). The bottom line is that our best chance at P5 will most likely include UCF. If we can get in without them, that would be great, but the odds are not likely.

TheGreatOutlaw gave his reason in the quote (natural rivalry), which I agree with. I hate UCF more than most, but bitter rivalries are what college football is SUPPOSED to be about. UF/UGA, Ala/Aub, UM/OSU, USC/UCLA, all these schools hate the other, but it's amazing when they play. In terms of why it makes sense for any conference to take both, $$ TV ratings (last years game was huge ratings), Orlando/Tampa tv markets and a travel partner. In addition, the Big 12 have 10 teams, I doubt they expand by only one team. Also, what is the instant appeal about playing Big 12 teams that we don't have any history with, the only one we would have is WVU (which would be amazing to rekindle that); so it would be nice to have a few teams we have history with (UCF and Cincy).

Sad but true.

I couldn't agree with you more!! It is unbelievable that it hasn't happened yet. I always thought USF/UCF were a given and then Cincy/Memphis should be added as well. It would give the Big 12 some added football strength stability, basketball quality and tv markets; seems like common sense to me.

If I'm not mistaken, I remember CSH stating that one of his goals was to improve the teams academics; which he was very successful. I think CJL always had us on the boarder when in comes to academic performance. Which that said, it's seems that CSH went too the extreme and ONLY recruited for academics and not for talent. When we first hired him, I was excited; he was THE up and coming coach and everyone looking for a coach wanted him. As it turns out, we were wrong. To be honest, I was in that camp of CJL has plateaued (4-3, 4-3, 4-3, 2-5, 3-4, 3-4, 3-4 in conference play), but we should have kept him and made adjustments else where on the coaching staff. That's all hind sight now and we went through the dark Holtz era in USF Football. I had no expectations of CWT, but I am so excited about CCS. If he wants to make USF his home, I think we will be in a good position in a few years when the next round of expansion happens.

This is what gives me hope. I worked for a company making really good money (for what I did, I was still on a budget, haha), but unreal stress and it wasn't worth it. I have know plenty of people that have worked a few years in a pressure cooker just to leave for less money and better quality of life. He has seen the dark side, now he has the complete opposite, hopefully we give him a nice raise and we reach a satisfactory deal. With CCS being 58 and his wife's family being close, I think we stand a good chance.