The latest UCF spin

[USFFan]

"USF waited to schedule us until they knew we would suck" or "USF waited until they knew they would win."  

The latter is funny if only because most of these same UCF fans "knew" UCF would kick our butts until about 7:20 pm on Saturday.  

The former is also full of crap.  In the following article:

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/332159911.html?MAC=c17fcd613c266535ca10fc6e8f6b6b0f&did=332159911&FMT=FT&FMTS=FT&date=May+3%2C+2003&author=PETE+YOUNG&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&printformat=&desc=USF-UCF+comes+to+fruition

the St. Pete Times reports on May 3, 2003 that this series between USF and UCF was agreed to in December, 2002.  Even if you don't believe that, the article itself came out before the start of the 2003 season.  At that point, UCF had just turned in a 7-5 record for 2002.  Now, since you were coming off a winning record and everybody at UCF was convinced you were about to win the MAC, how exactly is it that USF knew you were going to suck more than a $10 hooker on the Orange Blossom Trail?  

USFFan

[BULLheaded]

honestly who cares....

It's their problem if they can't stand the fact they had to wait and play a quality team instead of a patsy. That attitude in itself shows why we passed them up, maybe if they spent the last 8 years worrying about how to become a power instead of wasting time trying to prove they were better then USF things might have been different for them saturday.

[Guest S.  Bien]

This has been a long time coming.  I've been telling many knights about the talent differential, but few wanted to believe it.

Brandon's propoganda machine fueled much of the over-fervent behavior, all created from Orsini's idealisms.

I've watched enough games to know that if they were going to line-up Paul Carrington, and Welsh against us at DE then it was going to be a long day.  I told them, nice athletes, not DE's and certainly not great players like some contemplated.  

They talked about Wilcox being their future RB.  I told them he was a transition back at best, with some average speed.  I watched him in HS, he was slightly impressive but not going to get outside on us.  Kevin Smith was supposedly this find, and the RB they got from JC that Brandon would have you believe everyone in the nation wanted, quickly moved to FB when they realized he had no shake to his game, and zero speed (**** playing in the Upper MW JC leagues they couldn't distinguish that?).

Make no mistake, since the spring Coach O'Liary has brought in 4 prep school kids, and 6 JUCO's.  If they were not ready for this game they will never be ready.  They've got 10 JC players on their team, and 5 prep school kids.  For all the talk of academics over athletics they sure do have quite a number of borderline transfers.  Conversely USF has two JC transfers on our team, and no prep school kids.

They tried to load up with athletes but it didn't work.  Their real problem is the system.  O'Liar is a disciplinarian that has this thought of 'if you build it they will come' mentality.  It works in the BCS ranks, which is all GOL knows when it comes to college, but now with an actual heirarchy established you really, really need to be serious talent evaluators, real great salesmen, and willing to be very flexible with your program- like Leavitt has been.  You also need to be creative with your systems because you can't just line-up in a power-I set, with two WR's, and max protect with TE''s (which is what they try to do), and expect to blow people off the ball with average talent.  That's a huge flaw in GOL's thinking, he should know that with average talent, and little promise of drastic immediate talent upgrades, he must spread things around a bit, use confusion, mis-matches, and one-on-ones to create opportunity.

The second year into the GOL experiment and I think it could be a failure for them.  He seems to stubborn to learn other systems or ways, and refusing to believe that his old-school way has trouble working in the non-BCS world.   Look at all the good non-BCS programs, they do it with crafty offenses, and defenses that are short on size but long on speed and athletes.  It allows them to steal a BCS win or two, but to always be competitive in the non-BCS ranks.  With GOL's system it just won't be truly effective until he gets in superior talent (relatively speaking of course) at all the positions.  Until then I see his teams having real troubles with UAB, UTEP, Memphis, Houston, ECU, USM, and Marshall who all have better athletes at some positions and spread the ball around to create mis-matches and exploit UCF's weaknesses.  

What's worse for UCF is they've invested SO MUCH in GOL, and Orsini sold the boat on him- 5-7 year contract- that they really have no other choice but to stick with it.  If not they won't have much money to hire anyone real good.  But if I was them, I'd drop him now while the opportunity hasn't become irreparable, and really go after a great young mind- but make sure they identify that young mind first.  See if they can't grab a Chizik (who I was glad they didn't get in the first place and I said it to all UCF fans).  GOL has been the best thing for USF fans because he just doesn't have a clue what's been occurring down on the non-BCS ranks, and really doesn't care to understand.

[BullDoug]

Interesting take on GOL philosophies, Sbien.  I agree they should cut GOL loose if possible & ASAP.  That program keeps throwing big money away & its a shame.  There is a ton of potential in O town for them to be a strong midmajor.

[BULLheaded]

I can't blame them for believing in their team, we all hold out hope regardless of the reality of things. I'll let them worry about their own team BUT I guess it just baffles me some of the things they say about us. This whole idea of waiting untill they suck (can you tell this one really cracks me up?) let's just be a little silly here and say that was true....somehow leavit knew that in 2005 ucf was going to suck so he hurried to make sure he penciled in a contract to take advantage of the situation (it was actually a 2 year deal so we should all feel great about next year since he KNOWS they will suck and that's why we are playing again) What I have to ask a ucfer is:

you guys knew we wouldn't be much competition when we first started up our football program yet complain we didn't play you then ie...you knew we wouldn't compete

how exactly then would that be different then us playing you now...assuming we knew you wouldn't compete

so your complaint is essentially that your pissed off that we didn't play you when you knew we sucked...that's the basic gripe right?

[bulls96go]

SPIN SPIN SPIN

[WoolyBully]

This may - or may not have - already been posted:

Rivalry Could Be Great One

Let's get one thing straight. South Florida was avoiding Central Florida. It's important to be clear about this because USF coach Jim Leavitt tried to have it both ways in talking about the future of the USFUCF series.

The schools met for the first time in football Saturday night in Tampa, with USF winning, 3114.

On the one hand, Leavitt talked about how the Bulls weren't avoiding anyone by naming all the big schools the Bulls played in their early years.

On the other hand, Leavitt acknowledged that it wasn't in the Bulls' best interests to play UCF earlier.

Things couldn't have worked out any better for the Bulls. They avoided UCF in the years when UCF would have been favored and finally played the game when the Golden Knights' program was at an all-time low.

So now they get to be all smug with the attitude on how this is why they might not want to continue the series. They've moved past UCF and they're looking for bigger things. Of course the more they try to paint UCF as being small-time or being beneath them, the more they're indicating that they view UCF as a rival.

It should be noted of course, that if things were reversed, UCF would feel the same way. UCF wanted to play USF earlier because it wanted to establish itself as the bigger (or at least better) football program. But to give the Knights credit, they had more to lose in those earlier games.

But enough with the verbal positioning. Let's get to it. Should this series continue?

UCF has continually expressed its desire to continue it. USF continues to waver. Leavitt said before the game that he wanted to see what the crowd was like.

Perhaps the most shortsighted comment on this came from exUSF athletic director Paul Griffin. "I'm not sure it's in South Florida's best interest," he said in the Orlando Sentinel. "At least in perception, [uSF] has blossomed and moved on. What's to be gained?"

Let's see, how about fan interest? The 45,139 fans was the largest in the school's history, except for the first game.

As far as "USF has blossomed and moved on," it's not so much that USF has moved on as that UCF has bottomed out. Until the Bulls prove otherwise, the Bulls are what they are -- a mediocre Division I program. UCF has to improve a lot just to reach mediocrity, but it's easier for that to happen than it is for USF to join the ranks of the state's Big Three.

USF has avoided many of the problems and mistakes that plagued UCF, but it's bordering on repeating one of UCF's greatest sins -- having an overinflated idea on how good it is.

One of the best things for USF would be if both schools were competing for titles in their respective conferences. Where else is USF going to find a great outof-conference rival? Florida State? Florida? Miami?

I don't think so.

USF certainly has its program going in the right direction, but some of its good fortune has nothing to do with the quality of the football team. USF got into the Big East instead of UCF in large part because the Tampa TV market is bigger than the Orlando TV market.

Luck also played a part in that the conferences weren't expanding in the early post-Daunte Culpepper years when UCF was viewed as a hot, up-and-coming program.

It will be the ultimate in stupidity if school officials prevent this from being the great rivalry game it could be.

Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com or at 863-802-7549.

I am amazed at the Knight fascination with time travel. Either they want to go back in time to play us at our IAA level...or they concoct some fantasy team of players from the past that "if only they were here"....

One thing though: The Knights do have a long row to hoe to get to mediocre.  8)

[Guest Anthony Mozzicato]

Seventeen!  Nothing more to say...

[Sitting_BULL]

Soon to be 18.  I don't care if Marshall is having an off year, there's no way they don't beat these clowns!  Lets be real, they lost to friggin Buffalo who's currently averaging 1 point per game!

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I can't in my wildest (and I am "Wild") dreams, understand how they thought they were going to come over here and beat us?

[The_Reaper]

Sounds like a lot of people are trying to save their jobs!!!