Yet another polarizing discussion on the current state of USF Athletics

[michibull]

5 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

(please forgive this “War and Peace” post but it’s therapeutic for me.)

Dave, this was my position as recently as last year but I must admit my fandom is falling and falling fast. I have found myself shifting my time to the pro teams I love with the Rams, Red Sox, and Rangers taking up more and more of my interest. UCF passing us in the Big12 sweepstakes was such a gut punch for me. And now they dominate us in all sports and USF is not even on the map with the big three sports. Last place in the conference for all three of the major programs. My support of Michael Kelly is also over. He is terrible at hiring and apparently firing people as well. He can get the stadium and then move on.
 

On top of that, like most of the world, I could care less about the women’s programs. I would be the luckiest person in the world if that did it for me. There is no buzz and no excitement to it. I mean am going to go over to my neighbor and beam with excitement telling him how well the women’s tennis team is doing? Indeed, I see people on this board who probably feel the same way about the women’s teams but they hang on to it and follow it because the men’s team are so bad. I just can’t do it.
 

Perhaps it’s because I live far away so I don’t here or see much about USF as much as you guys do in the Tampa area. So when the teams sucks the university is literally out of my eye. The alumni association has regional sites but they are basically dead and if any do in fact have an event (so rare) it’s usually not geared toward older alumni. The Athletic Program and the university rarely reach out to alumni who are out of state. Almost everything in terms of communication, opportunities, and functions are in the surrounding area of Tampa. Hell, I could not even watch the spring game on the Internet because of some lame excuse. I get it, most of everyone is in Tampa but how throwing a bone once in a while. This is an international university but the administration and athletic department acts local.  
 

But here I am and I have not yet given up. I am waiting for something good to happen from Scott and Gregory. I am excited about the IPF and the potential of a stadium but that will mean zero unless we win games. So I am here to support and give USF my love but they should not take it for granted….win some ******* games and be a player in getting this program in a better conference. 

Ahhh…I feel better now. Have a nice day everyone.

I am in the same boat with you NEB. A lot of my buddies went to Michigan State and back in the mid 00’s it was fun to watch and talk football because they felt like we were at the big boys table with them. All that is over, they view us on the same level as WMU or CMU, just another mid major with no chance of winning anything meaningful. We watch mostly Lions and Tigers and my 10 year old son is slowly becoming a MSU fan (started with USF). This site is my only form of connection with USF and it’s fans. ESPN+ is my way of watching games; other than that, there’s nothing. 

[Triple B]

7 hours ago, USFreak said:

the on-campus stadium.  USF really, really misjudged the importance of that.  

Although we'd need to clarify the definition of "importance" there, I think this "misjudging" all falls back to the overall disservice the BE did us with the invitation ...... to the administration and almost as important, the fan/donor base. Less than a decade into its existence, the football program was in the highest level of college football and the only one prepared to compete in it was CJL. If memory serves me correctly, even though it was kind of born out of necessity, it was a Kanigit booster who was an integral part of getting the Wok done. To my knowledge, there was no such interest here like that ..... and it's not hard to maybe understand why <insert aerial pic of THE WVU game>.

Although there's plenty of positives to an ocs, there's nothing to indicate that having one would have kept us from relegation and there's nothing to indicate an ocs would have gotten us back to the top level in the last go round. Looks like the support for one now is at the highest it's ever been and we get it done ......... with the cherry on top being it leading to an invite back to the big boy's table.

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, NewEnglandBull said:

Ahhh…I feel better now. Have a nice day everyone.

 

1 hour ago, El_Toro_86 said:

It was also therapeutic for me to read it

We take checks and PayPal .....

 

 

[Dave_Glaser]

Maybe I come from a different perspective as an alum who worked at the university, worked with the athletic department, and now has a daughter who’s an alum. Believe me, I’m just as frustrated - if not more - about how our three primary sports programs are performing. That said, having been around the campus frequently, I suppose the real reason for my hope comes from the transformation I’ve seen in the university itself. While none of us are happy with the investment or commitment we’ve seen in athletics, the same can’t be said on the academic side. USF has become a vibrant academic institution that is building a national reputation. It is on a trajectory to become one of the top public, national research universities in the U.S. If - and it’s a big if at this point - we can find that same energy in athletics, we have ourselves a well-rounded institution that makes us very attractive to any major conference. Can you envision USF as a member of the ACC some day? That, to me, would be the culmination of this university’s journey. Rather than bemoan where we are today, I prefer to do my small part in making USF what it can be tomorrow. I’ll admit that I haven’t been that active as a donor, ticket buyer in athletics of late because of the struggles. I’ve focused my giving on the academic side. But now that we can see the payoff that’s happened there, and the seeming alignment to push athletics to another level, I’m ready to do my part.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Dave_Glaser

[Dave_Glaser]

And I’ll add this, the university’s leadership is filled with smart people who care. I’ve met many of them through my daughter’s recent journey as one of USF’s top students. I don’t have the personal connections to athletics that I once did, but I’m hopeful that’s the same case in those buildings.

[NewEnglandBull]

1 hour ago, Dave_Glaser said:

Maybe I come from a different perspective as an alum who worked at the university, worked with the athletic department, and now has a daughter who’s an alum. Believe me, I’m just as frustrated - if not more - about how our three primary sports programs are performing. That said, having been around the campus frequently, I suppose the real reason for my hope comes from the transformation I’ve seen in the university itself. While none of us are happy with the investment or commitment we’ve seen in athletics, the same can’t be said on the academic side. USF has become a vibrant academic institution that is building a national reputation. It is on a trajectory to become one of the top public, national research universities in the U.S. If - and it’s a big if at this point - we can find that same energy in athletics, we have ourselves a well-rounded institution that makes us very attractive to any major conference. Can you envision USF as a member of the ACC some day? That, to me, would be the culmination of this university’s journey. Rather than bemoan where we are today, I prefer to do my small part in making USF what it can be tomorrow. I’ll admit that I haven’t been that active as a donor, ticket buyer in athletics of late because of the struggles. I’ve focused my giving on the academic side. But now that we can see the payoff that’s happened there, and the seeming alignment to push athletics to another level, I’m ready to do my part.

All good points Dave, thank you.

[Friscobull]

10 hours ago, Dave_Glaser said:

And I’ll add this, the university’s leadership is filled with smart people who care. I’ve met many of them through my daughter’s recent journey as one of USF’s top students. I don’t have the personal connections to athletics that I once did, but I’m hopeful that’s the same case in those buildings.

Unless these top students are engineers or Accountants or something in that realm, being an honor student in Sociology doesn’t get us too excited, no idea what your daughter majored in but Judy crushed our sports programs and sent us back decades but she built a worthless honors college, not impressed.

[olafberserker]

Nice man caves.   Pretty cool.  I'll go ahead and point out here that baseball has been to the NCAA tournament 4 of the past 7 seasons and won a conference and regional just about 365 days ago.  Not sure why they keep being lumped in with men's bball and football's debacles?

[Dave_Glaser]

38 minutes ago, Friscobull said:

Unless these top students are engineers or Accountants or something in that realm, being an honor student in Sociology doesn’t get us too excited, no idea what your daughter majored in but Judy crushed our sports programs and sent us back decades but she built a worthless honors college, not impressed.

Wow! Not even sure what to say. That’s some superficial view you have there - and obviously not a very educated one. Must be tough to be you. We’re done here.

[puc86]

11 hours ago, Dave_Glaser said:

And I’ll add this, the university’s leadership is filled with smart people who care. I’ve met many of them through my daughter’s recent journey as one of USF’s top students. I don’t have the personal connections to athletics that I once did, but I’m hopeful that’s the same case in those buildings.

Have you ever been in a room with a bunch of  programmers that think they are all great, smart and care? What you end up with is a bunch of unusable over developed garbage that would resonate with no one while blowing the budget on its way to taking forever to never make it to market.
 

That anyone there thinks that anyone else there is even doing a serviceable job on their path to embarrassing universal failure and is willing to work with them as opposed to actively trying to get everyone else fired is why no one there is actually smart or actually cares about anything that actually matters and they all absolutely do not deserve to be gainfully employed in the professions we have the misfortune of subsidizing for them.

 

The Biden and Trump administrations would both laugh at the amount of incompetence, waste, failure and yes men circle jerking that takes place on Fowler. The results speak for themselves about the level of competency and that they continue to think they are the right group doing all the right things is why while even one person remains in the athletics program we are doomed for failure.
 

Maybe these are the people meant to get facilities built (which is laughable because no one actually has any faith in them if they are being honest) but they, much like Moses, should never be able to enter the promised land they led us to. If they are here and leading our program when we get facilities built we may as well just move back into the trailers because just like lotto winners they will squander the house they over extended on because if they had any idea how to be successful they wouldn’t need to get a windfall to demonstrate any of it.