SPT:  Auman nearly perfect-UCF must read

[Brad]

College football

USF already has a big win over UCF

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published September 14, 2005

Gene McDowell knew what a threat to his football program looked like.

In his final years as coach at Central Florida in the mid 1990s, he saw it in the young South Florida program being built in Tampa.

"I knew from Day1, they would be the one that UCF should be concerned about. I've always known that," said McDowell, who was a player and longtime assistant at Florida State before coaching at UCF. "We knew in Tallahassee that the one we had to worry about was in Gainesville. It's for all the same reasons. It's your competition for money, for recruits, for conference affiliation, everything."

UCF launched its program in 1979, 18 years before the Bulls played their first game. But in the past eight years, USF has maneuvered its way into a BCS conference, leaving UCF in its wake. Bulls officials set ambitious goals, pursued them aggressively and benefited from good fortune.

"(USF) has vaulted ahead of UCF now, and from where I sit, that's a pretty awful development," said McDowell, who coached the Knights from 1985 to 1997. "It's revolting to a UCF fan, and when they ask how UCF allowed that to happen, it's because somebody was asleep at the wheel."

* * *

Asked about the evolutions of UCF and USF, Knights assistant athletic director John Marini concedes "they are two vastly different routes."

USF launched its program in 1997 in Division I-AA and moved up to I-A in 2001, and in that short time, it already had caught up with a much older UCF program.

"We were significantly different than many startup programs in the past 20 years," said Paul Griffin, USF's athletic director from 1986-2001. "We set our path very clear, and it was very aggressive. There was no lack of clarity where we were heading."

By contrast, the Knights started in Division III in 1979, then moved up to D-II in 1982. UCF's original plan was to move to I-AA in 1984, but because of more than $1-million in debt early in the program's existence, it did not make that next step until 1990.

"We overprojected revenues, underprojecting expenses, and it crippled the program's progress for a while," Marini said.

UCF moved to Division I-A as an independent in 1996, the year before USF played its first game. Quarterback phenom Daunte Culpepper gave the Knights a national buzz, earning national player-of-the-year honors and leading UCF to a 9-2 mark in 1998.

But Culpepper's success also revealed the program's glaring weakness. As an independent, the Knights had no conference affiliation to help them in the postseason, and despite nine wins, they couldn't land a bowl appearance.

"People ask all the time, "You built up all that momentum with Culpepper and going 9-2. Why couldn't you sustain it?"' Marini said. "It really boiled down to conference affiliation, and we proved how important that was when we went 9-2 and still got shut out of the bowls."

And when Conference USA looked to expand its football membership, it turned to USF, which had played in the league in all other sports since its inception. UCF was left to join the Mid-American Conference in 2002, where it played for three seasons.

"(USF) had an affiliation with their basketball program," McDowell said. "For football, that made it an automatic, a no-brainer for (Conference) USA to do that for them. The day that happened, it moved them ahead of UCF in the eyes of recruits. Fans probably didn't know it then, but I knew it."

* * *

When USF launched its program, UCF stood as the state's second-tier program, behind the Big Three of UF, FSU and Miami. But Griffin said the Bulls didn't look to UCF as a model or an initial goal, aiming higher from the start.

"(Coach Jim Leavitt and I) never saw them as a competitor or a peer or a target," Griffin said. "We always wanted to be associated with the BCS. Jim always talked about the Big Four (in Florida), not the Big Five or Eight. By constantly reinforcing that in a very public way, people knew what we wanted."

Timing also worked in USF's favor, in that the Bulls were establishing themselves as a viable I-A program right as Miami started a domino effect of changing conferences. Such opportunities weren't around five years earlier when UCF sought to move into a major conference.

"There wasn't much expansion going on," said former UCF athletic director Steve Sloan, now at Chattanooga. "It's not how long you've been I-A, it's when teams begin to move and when slots become available. USF was fortunate."

When the Big East sought to fill its vacancies, the conference's first discussions of expansion had UCF as a candidate and not USF, but the Knights were quickly dismissed from consideration. Two things emerged as major advantages that swung momentum to the Bulls.

First was USF's ties with Conference USA, which would supply the Big East with three of its eight schools, as well as two more in other sports. Another was USF's presence in a larger media market. Tampa/St. Petersburg is the nation's No.12 market, while greater Orlando is 20th.

The difference is just 96 miles, but there's a greater difference between the Big East that USF has joined this fall and the C-USA ranks where UCF now takes the Bulls' place. As the two schools finally meet on the field Saturday, McDowell said one of USF's wisest decisions was not to play UCF in its early years. Playing the Knights meant acknowledging them as peers, and the Bulls went a long time without doing that.

"I did try to get USF to play us early on. I talked to them until I was blue in the face, but they wouldn't hear of it," McDowell said. "I don't blame them. They wanted to wait to play them until they could beat UCF, and that was a smart move."

And while UCF is eager to make this an annual rivalry, USF - and especially Leavitt, who has been decidedly wait-and-see - hasn't been so keen to play the Knights every year.

"They've passed them by," Griffin said. "Why give (UCF) a platform to say that isn't true?"

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[lotsofbull99]

But all my Knight friends keep telling me "UCF is light years ahead of USF"

[SadUCFKnight]

George O'Leary, a stadium on the way, a coach from LSU's national champs team as our defensive corridator and the 8th largest school in the nation with tier 3 status.  Yeah, the game our cards will turn our way in this long poker game, trust me.  Just like UF used to be way ahead of FSU, and UM.  I can't wait until the BCS implodes and we start beating the big 3 before anyone else in the state.  I have been following UCF football for a long, long time, trust me, something special is happening in Orlando, it just takes time baby.

[TyBull]

George O'Leary, a stadium on the way, a coach from LSU's national champs team as our defensive corridator and the 8th largest school in the nation with tier 3 status.  Yeah, the game our cards will turn our way in this long poker game, trust me.  Just like UF used to be way ahead of FSU, and UM.  I can't wait until the BCS implodes and we start beating the big 3 before anyone else in the state.  I have been following UCF football for a long, long time, trust me, something special is happening in Orlando, it just takes time baby.

Blah, Blah, Blah....

[ZeroBullChip]

George O'Leary, a stadium on the way, a coach from LSU's national champs team as our defensive corridator and the 8th largest school in the nation with tier 3 status.  Yeah, the game our cards will turn our way in this long poker game, trust me.  Just like UF used to be way ahead of FSU, and UM.  I can't wait until the BCS implodes and we start beating the big 3 before anyone else in the state.  I have been following UCF football for a long, long time, trust me, something special is happening in Orlando, it just takes time baby.

And that's why the smoke in mirrors game is actually out of oveido.   All you have is talk, and talk about more talk.  You are nothing but our ugly kid sister that just got a facelift.

[KB]

SadUCF,

Hang in there buddy.  Hang in there for a long, long, long time.   You're right, it does take a long time.  USF long time =  8 years.  UCF long time = 25 years and counting.   Enjoy the wait.

[E.T.]

Great Article ! ... love the fact it's load with Great sources.

Thanx Greg!

[ZeroBullChip]

I must say that Greg is a great step up from the previous beat writer from the times.  

[Bobcat99]

I agree, his articles & blog have been awesome.

[beastiebull]

Greg is great.  UCF's own admin is saying USF has "vaulted past them".  I love hearing the knights say how they are "building something very special in orlando".  They want us so desperately to believe that.  Coach leavitt was the perfect man with the perfect vision and just the right amount of aggressiveness and cockiness to put us ahead of the rest.