Apis Bull Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 1,586 Content Count: 23,185 Reputation: 2,332 Days Won: 65 Joined: 09/05/2002 Share Posted April 3, 2017 At times, USF's chronic football attendance issue festered like a nagging blister in Willie Taggart's otherwise buoyant psyche. Once the Bulls had turned the corner on his watch, brandishing one of the most dynamic offenses in all of Division I, Taggart periodically called out the area for failing to support the team in-person. Even women's hoops coach Jose Fernandez chimed in with some castigating of his own. Five months before his first game, Charlie Strong hasn't reached a similar level of frustration -- yet. But it's clear he understands the plight of his predecessor, who watched the Bulls draw an average actual turnout of 27,601 fans for seven home games in a breakthrough 2016 season. "I think about last year, we won 11 games, and there's no reason for our fans to not come out and support this football team," Strong said after Saturday's situational scrimmage on campus. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/bulls/new-voice-same-plight-charlie-strong-seeks-local-support/2318929 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisa el Toro Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 132 Content Count: 10,380 Reputation: 1,058 Days Won: 18 Joined: 08/11/2003 Share Posted April 3, 2017 He's right. It drives me nuts to hear about USF grads throwing their money and time at UF or FSU simply because they've always done it, not because they actually attended those institutions. Support your alma mater, support your Bulls. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skingraft Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 743 Content Count: 13,357 Reputation: 2,482 Days Won: 63 Joined: 12/11/2006 Share Posted April 3, 2017 1 word: schedule its not strong enough to bring in the new or casual fan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jchem1995 Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 51 Content Count: 3,343 Reputation: 1,094 Days Won: 5 Joined: 04/02/2014 Share Posted April 3, 2017 There's a lot to this puzzle. Conference / schedule / lack of anything positive from local media outlets to help create a buzz. I do my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeB Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 961 Content Count: 9,759 Reputation: 592 Days Won: 9 Joined: 08/05/2005 Share Posted April 3, 2017 USF Admin needs to really push this season on the Community. Every chance they get and every dollar they can spend to spread the word on this team will come back to them tenfold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Admin Topic Count: 13,332 Content Count: 97,011 Reputation: 10,813 Days Won: 469 Joined: 05/19/2000 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Schedule and consistency. Some may still be suffering from the toilet years. Would be nice to slay a giant or two to attract attention again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George_Bullnard_Shaw Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 55 Content Count: 6,740 Reputation: 1,743 Days Won: 17 Joined: 11/04/2012 Share Posted April 3, 2017 Attendance lags performance. Our schedule is thinner than bargain basement bulk toilet paper and a university in a large metropolitan area has to compete with tons of entertainment offerings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bausfkid Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 295 Content Count: 4,131 Reputation: 818 Days Won: 15 Joined: 06/20/2005 Share Posted April 3, 2017 We all do our part to support USF, now it's time for the bay area to do their part (USF Alumni, Athletics, High Schools, Marketing, the list could go on and on) no matter if they play the Seminole Warhawks each week. FSU has Miami and Louisville at home this year. Everyone else is an also-ran at best. Miami has ND at home this year. Everyone is no one in college football. UF has a whale of a home schedule this year (Texas A & M, UT, FSU, LSU). Go Bulls! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triple B Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Moderator Topic Count: 1,612 Content Count: 74,566 Reputation: 10,836 Days Won: 423 Joined: 11/25/2005 Share Posted April 3, 2017 19 minutes ago, Skingraft said: 1 word: schedule its not strong enough to bring in the new or casual fan If you're going to try and simplify it to one word, it would be "conference", which encompasses the schedule .... but that's still a ******** excuse after the last two seasons. There is no freaking legit reason in the world that the last home game last season shouldn't have sold out the lower bowl. I still think it all goes back to the BE invite and the 2007 "success" story. It may have been better to organically build a program rather than have the artificial boost of those early BE years ... but who knows if that would have worked out better or not. Bottom line, IMO, I just don't think USF has the ingrained passion for athletics that's needed to be where most on here want us to be .... and like G_B_S brought up, the area, with all the other offerings, sport-wise and other things, does nothing to help the situation. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullsfan27 Posted April 3, 2017 Group: Member Topic Count: 193 Content Count: 5,254 Reputation: 545 Days Won: 1 Joined: 01/26/2014 Share Posted April 3, 2017 We need to win a few conference titles and a couple of NY6 bowls to make us a stronger candidate for exapansion. The fact we are located in tampa doesn't help as Tampa isn't a college town and has 3 major sports teams (rays, bucs, and lightning) we have to compete against for the entertainment $$$. The conference affiliate doesn't help but that can be taking care of if we can show we belong with the big boys which will only be achieved by winning a few conference titles and NY6 bowls. A national title wouldn't hurt as well but that would be extremely hard for us to do as the probability of a G5 team getting into the 4 team playoff are extremely low. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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