Wow! Matt Simms, son of Phil, brother of Chris...

[Triple B]

Everybody needs to lay off CJL.   He might be one of the best coaches in the country.

Ari, knock off the shtick. The only one casting any aspersions towards CJL is the idiot Kanigit. Quit trying to bait someone into an argument with you about Leavitt. Personally, I'm amazed that smazza hasn't gone off on you after one these ridiculous posts ...... maybe he's one of "you", too!  

[Triple B]

In other words, this thread doesn't concern the Tinmen so why are you here?

Someone must have used "ucf" in a sentence on this thread. I'm sure MTK does a search on that and feels the use of those letters entitles him to insert his drivel on any thread using that letter combination ...

[Guest Ari_Hinkelberger]

you are such a tool box.  

[Triple B]

you are such a tool box.

A very astute tool box ...

[Bullpride08]

Everybody needs to lay off CJL.   He might be one of the best coaches in the country.

He has single handily taken something that was non-existenet and turned it into a wining, money generating, football producing program that is going to rescue this school from 40 years of dark depressing athletics.

From day one he has made progress every year.

We started out as a program that thought it was a big deal to play Georgia Southern and Western Kentucky -- to a team that has 2 home and home series with mutil-national champion Miami -- and has wins over 9th ranked Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, UConn,

We got the Gators in back to back years coming up.  We got Auburn, UNC and Kansas on the schedule.

We made a Bowl Game last year.

There is very little to criticize with respect to this program.  You can' start a program and in 10 years expect to land the Tim Tebow's of the world.

I really don't think you need Tim Tebow.  I think Blackwell was an exceptional QB and he wasn't hearalded.

Jim Leavitt turned down millions and nationwide prestige with Alabama to build a nationall champion at a school that hasn't even contended for one in a single sport.  We are a school with a basketball and baseball program that are in the gutter, but have a footbal program with complete promise,

And the entire time he has done nothing but produce with very little.

We have a young OC.  He made some retarded calls last year at UCONN.  He also called a brilliant game against UL.

I give the guy another year or two to show what he is made of.

He needs a QB.  This Grothe kid could be the anwer, or maybe another year with a hopefully much improved PJ.

In 20 years the entire athletic program is going to be named after this guy and he will be the Bobby Bowden of Tampa, Florida when all is said and done.

He took this job making like 75K.  Probably less this his coordinator pay at K-State.

It was pure dumb luck that we got this guy, but it was a huge blessing.

It is very hard to find anything to hit him over the head with, considering what he has produced.

Turn your attention towards a basketball program that has been in the gutter for almost 2 decades.

**** Ari, in one post my opinion of you almost changed completely.  Well put until you had to throw in your hoops dig. I wouldn't say we've been in the gutter for 2 decades, but definitely the past five years have been quite futile.

Otherwise a good post and right on the mark.

[Bullpride08]

i agree that we have to go after some big named players but you have to be smart about it. the point was about rose, he was a heavy fsu lean throughout the process and he was recruited nationally along with uf and miami. fsu wanted him badly and we were barely mentioned as a canidate although leavitt recruited the heck out of him. now leavitt did talk a bit about how close they were to get him, but i'm a bit skeptical of that considering we did not make his final 3 or 5 based on the many interviews he gave leading up to signing day(unless the newspapers have some personal vendetta against usf and they purposely left us out).

i'm not as connected as you but on paper that looked like a wild goose chase, this wasn't peyton or mompremier but one of the top 10-15 recruits in the nation and we were going head to head with st. bobby and his national championships. no disrespect to the players we recruited but we really did not land a signature player last recruiting period, besides stirrups who everyone thought was going juco and he did, and the staff says so in post interviews. we also picked up only one left tackle which was a bit of a need (although i do like ide, he's a sleeper and a project) now did our desire to get rose have something to do with it, who knows. could we have diverted some of those resources we used on rose and maybe pick up a quality 3 star left tackle or would it even make a difference, who knows all you can do is speculate.

much like you i trust the staff however it's legitimate to wonder if they got caught up in the race to get rose and missed out on a quality left tackle that we could've gotten if we pushed more.

now to tie it all together, i'm all for going after simms, i think the pros outweighs the cons plus we have grothe if we happen to wiff at qb this year, however i don't fault people who may be a bit wary that our pursuit of sims may hurt our recruiting of voss or marve.

The papers were not all together fair.  Rose's overtures to us were just as strong as ours to him.  Remember Leavitt doesn't like taking visits just for the sake of a kid visiting.  Leavitt has told many kids before they visit that if they're not serious about USF then let him know and let him go another route.  Rose was serious about USF, honestly the days leading up to signing day it was a USF v. FSU battle.  Clearly FSU was the front-runner but we gave Rose a lot to think about.

One thing you should know is Leavitt does not waste time on the recruiting trail if he doesn't believe something is worth his time.  He's very keen about only pursuing guys that have a genuine interest in USF.  He wasn't even thinking about Matt, in fact was only going to talk to him because of his brother's ties to the area.  However it was Phil who sought Leavitt, and told him the interest from the Simms family is genuine.  I believe Phil flying down to meet should say it all.

Believe me if there is a top caliber athlete that Leavitt is pursuing then it's for a good reason.  It's a calculated risk, one he knows he has a shot at landing.  He doesn't waste time, he doesn't waste energy on futile efforts.  He won't go after every top athlete, he'll pick the few that reciprocate interest and try to sell it.  We all agree that to be a great program we need to land a few of those players so why not take your best shot at a couple of calculated risk.  Look at Rose, it wasn't like Rose was our only OT we signed, Boger, Ide, Hermann, and Warren already gave us a solid OL class.  Rose was simply icing on the cake if we landed him.  We didn't but then again we didn't lose anything either.  

[Bullpride08]

it's very easy why do you think programs offer more scholarships than they can give, because they know some will be loss through attrition. if there is a chance to get stirrups on the field, and there was, you sign him, worse case scenario you can have a leg up after he graduates juco. miami has been doing this for years they place their inelgible guys like richard gordon in prep schools and sign them as soon as they are elgible. it's part of college football. obviously you prefer to not have to do this for every player, but stirrups was an exception.

i believe 2 did not make it last year because of grades, which is about par for the course at most major programs.

Odd, you're debating with a UCF guy about not signing a kid and putting him in prep school or JC and possibly landing him after he leaves those institutions.  Isn't it funny that under O'Leary's guidance UCF has signed over 20 kids from Prep or JC schools.  SO, if O'Liar has proven time again he's willing to take a risk on a transfer player from JC or Prep why is it he wouldn't be willing to sign a kid and place him in those schools?   When you take it into context it's got to make people chuckle, clearly they're not beyond signing JC transfers they just can't get the good athletes to bite.

Mavprick is ignorant, blinded by some hatred for us and me.  He hates anything that could be construed as positive.  No one is debating with me we're just having a discussion on our intentions with certain high profile players.

[Bullpride08]

Bien is right most of the time, except for Ronnie Banks ;^)

Back when UCFers were trying on BigEast shirts b/c they were "so in" the Big East,  Bien was the first to say slow down.....it's USF's game to lose. Fast forward three years and USF is poised to collect nearly $8-million in BE related revenues.

Got BCS?

Nope just an overpaid cheater.

Thanks Cyber, but I still contend, and Sheriff can attest, that in practice Ronnie Banks threw one of the nicest balls anyone has ever seen at USF.  I guess it wasn't until we got him into a game did we all realize that despite that great zip the kid had a $.02 head.  I still can't forget all those ducks and dives by Ronnie in the 2003 TCU game.  That kid looked like he was sipping a slurpy to fast, and TCU could see those deer in head lights.

Chalk that up to our first real glimpse into coaching problems on the offensive side of the ball.  All those blowouts under MB and we never got Banks into the game.  We never learned about his true misgiving until he was handed the reigns in 2003, and then it only took 3 games.

[bullpop]

Joe-

I disaree with your first post  that Phillip Simms is an a-hole and that everbody knows it! Phil was one of the guttiest Qb's ever and a proven winner. There is NOONE who prepared more for a game or for his current gig as the best commentator in the NFL. I've met Phil 2 times and he was cordial and down to earth. Where do you come up with this stuff? Also ran into Chris at a Rays game in May. Reminded me of his Dad- no entourage, chatting it up with the folks. My daughter fell in love with him because of his "regular guy' attitude.

[Guest Ari_Hinkelberger]

Just remember boys:

"They all look real good coming off the bus."

Come talk to me when they play.