Oracle: Time to retire Numbers

[JTrue]

If we ever get to the point where we're retiring numbers, there has to be some sort of criteria other than, "He was pretty good for us." I love me some Andre Hall, and he was a beast for us and definitely carried the offense in his time, but are we really going to start retiring numbers for him being an above average college RB for two years? Or JPP for playing one season where his stats were good, but not great? If the standard for having your number retired includes just being a 1000 yard RB or 6.5 sacks, we're going to run out of numbers for actual players in about 5 years. Im my opinion, you retire a number because the player:

a) won a Heisman

b) had multiple All-American seasons

c) died tragically while an active player

d) drastically altered the course of college football

Edited February 21, 2020 by JTrue

[DELdaBull]

1 hour ago, JTrue said:

If we ever get to the point where we're retiring numbers, there has to be some sort of criteria other than, "He was pretty good for us." I love me some Andre Hall, and he was a beast for us and definitely carried the offense in his time, but are we really going to start retiring numbers for him being an above average college RB for two years? Or JPP for playing one season where his stats were good, but not great? If the standard for having your number retired includes just being a 1000 yard RB or 6.5 sacks, we're going to run out of numbers for actual players in about 5 years. Im my opinion, you retire a number because the player:

a) won a Heisman

b) had multiple All-American seasons

c) died tragically while an active player

d) drastically altered the course of college football

Selvie  is the only one close to this criteria 

[JTrue]

19 minutes ago, DELdaBull said:

Selvie  is the only one close to this criteria 

And I get the idea of honoring people who were pivotal in the creation of the program and our early years, but where do you draw the line? If you add Blackwell, you've got to add Grothe, and Flowers. If you add some of the OG guys, what's the criteria for that? Played around when we started and were 4 year players that were good for us, but average or a little better in the grand scheme of college football? Do you start tabbing people who had big moments for us? Does Hugh Smith make it? If he does, why do you stop with him and not add Andre Davis or Rodney Adams?  Do we really want to have numbers hanging from the stadium for guys who most fans don't even remember? We'll start looking like Kentucky and have 40 numbers retired. They have a RB with a retired number who's accomplishments in his retired number bio on their website have things like, "third in UK rushing history" and "SEC offensive player of the week" in 1986.

Edited February 21, 2020 by JTrue

[smazza]

14 hours ago, brybull1970 said:

If they are going to retire numbers they need to do it in this order:

1. Selvie - first All American

2. Flowers - all time Total Offense leader

3. Grothe - second all time Total Offense, and the face of the greatest era of USF football

4. Mack - all time Rushing Offense leader

i would put selmon up there first- grothe and flowers if you want it to truly be special---

add the others if it is for pr

7 hours ago, chapelbull said:

No, but that was also a tribute to a Hall of Fame Hometown boy that helped get the team off the ground

rays retiring his number was ridiculous

[BDYZR]

On 2/20/2020 at 10:11 PM, JTrue said:

If we ever get to the point where we're retiring numbers, there has to be some sort of criteria other than, "He was pretty good for us." I love me some Andre Hall, and he was a beast for us and definitely carried the offense in his time, but are we really going to start retiring numbers for him being an above average college RB for two years? Or JPP for playing one season where his stats were good, but not great? If the standard for having your number retired includes just being a 1000 yard RB or 6.5 sacks, we're going to run out of numbers for actual players in about 5 years. Im my opinion, you retire a number because the player:

a) won a Heisman

b) had multiple All-American seasons

c) died tragically while an active player

d) drastically altered the course of college football

Maybe the first to do it, but, every player mentioned were pretty good football players. But as @NewEnglandBull said earlier, Ring of Honor for a lot of them. I'm just not a fan of retiring numbers.

[MikeG]

not sure the fans are clamoring for any of this.

then again--- the Bucs put Jimmie Giles in their ring of honor which seems incredibly generous.

as for Boggs--- there is also a seat in the right /center field stands that celebrates one of his home runs.

I don't mind people getting honors-- most of the time it is fans or organization driven. But Giles seemed like a reach even for the Bucs.

[Rocky Style]

This is dumb.  We haven't even won a championship yet.  And you start with MG8. 

[Brad]

@Bullschmutz, you messing with the wrong guy....   

 

[Brad]

Where would we retire the numbers to?  The Jim Leavitt USF Football Hall of Fame?

[bowman1]

When I think of retired numbers in college football, the main one that comes to mind is #44 at Syracuse, worn by Jim Brown (All American, CFB HoF and NFL HoF), Ernie Davis (2 x AA, Heisman Trophy Winner and CFB HoF) and Floyd Little (3 x AA, CFB HoF and NFL HoF)

Incidentally, #44 was retired by Syracuse during our game against them in 2005