Knights need to show they can be big nemesis

[Jim Johnson]

From Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel:

Knights need to show they can be big nemesis

Published September 15, 2006

Don't tell us this is just another game.

Don't tell us next week's conference opener against Southern Mississippi is more important than this one.

Don't go there.

This IS the season, UCF.

It's OK to go up to Gainesville and get your doors blown off by a vastly superior Florida team last Saturday. It's not OK to lose at home this Saturday to an inferior USF team that your fans desperately and deliriously want to beat more than anybody else on the schedule.

UCF Coach George O'Leary was given a 10-year, $1 million-per-season contract during the offseason. If you make a salary like that, you better win games like this.

UCF wanted a rivalry, and now it has one. But here's the thing about a rivalry: You win it, the future looks bright, the beer tastes better. You lose it, the season looks bleak, the beer tastes like it was brewed from Lake Apopka bilge water.

Everything is at stake Saturday -- the passion of UCF's fans, the quality of the players, the reputation of the coach and the status of the program. All that momentum gained by last year's march to the Conference USA Championship Game will be lost with a defeat to USF.

Let's just lay it on the line right here, OK? The fans need to show up Saturday, and so do the Knights. If there aren't at least 40,000 fans at the Citrus Bowl on Saturday, it will be disappointing. And if the Knights lose, it will be demoralizing.

This is where we really see how UCF's program measures up. The Golden Knights are not in Florida's or Florida State's league; we know that. But are they at least in USF's league?

USF coaches and administrators certainly don't think so. They don't even want to play this series with UCF, because they think their program is so much bigger and better. To them, UCF is a nuisance, not a nemesis. To them, UCF is not the Golden Knights; they are the Golden Gnats.

Once again this week, USF Coach Jim Leavitt all but said he doesn't want this series to continue beyond 2008. And the only reason Leavitt agreed to play UCF until 2008 is because USF's exit agreement with Conference USA required it.

After UCF's 31-14 loss in the inaugural game of the series last year, USF's arrogance is understandable. Another UCF loss in Orlando would solidify the Bulls' claim that they are in a conference with the big boys of the Bowl Championship Series and are much too important to be wasting time with the little tykes at UCF.

Even worse, another USF win would reinforce the superiority of Leavitt's renegade program over a UCF program O'Leary is trying to build the right way.

O'Leary preaches discipline and teaches character. He refuses to recruit players who can't meet the NCAA's minimum academic requirements. Leavitt's program is an embarrassment and has become a rehabilitation clinic and halfway house for dregs and druggies.

Leavitt had nine recruits who were booted out of school for being academic non-qualifiers. Quarterback Carlton Hill, who was named the starter in the spring, was arrested on drug charges and since has left for junior college. Three other starters, according to The Tampa Tribune, are serving six-game suspensions for testing positive for drugs. And last week, USF's starting tight end was arrested for DUI -- and still was allowed to play in a one-point victory against Florida International.

Leavitt is not just doing his best to kill a good rivalry with UCF; he's trying his hardest to single-handedly destroy USF's own reputation as an institution of higher learning. USF's president and state politicians should be ashamed of themselves for allowing a publicly funded state university to run its football program like a Mississippi junior college.

This is why UCF must win Saturday.

This is why the white Knights must conquer the dark side.

A victory for UCF might just send a message and save the rivalry.

A victory for USF is sickening affirmation for all that is wrong with college football.

Mike Bianchi can be reached at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com.

[Guest]

Just a side note: This column confirms for me that this guy is a complete tool.

[T-Man]

Wow we are the DARKSIDE......  We are the Oakland Raiders to this idiot...  I almost believe this guy is OUR BEST friend right now!  He is giving soooooooo much bulletin board material we should thank him...  Hell if we beat this team tomorrow they may have to issue a suicide watch for the entire toon town..

[The Sheriff]

The Dark Side rules!

If I saw this jackass in person, I would knock his silly ass out. I feel like we're the second coming of the U...

[cophbulls]

Short memory that one has. Forget P.J. Smith does he? No daughters must he have. DUI worse than ****? Drug usage worse than false imprisonment? Argue pre-O'Leary will he? Then forget does he Ron Ellis? DUI worse than sexual battery? Nov 1, 2005.

Dark side? USF? I think not. Misguided? Absolutely. Dark Side? Well let's just say there is a reason they are not white knights.

[BULLfreak]

mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com

GET HIM

[cophbulls]

Oh Mike,

Your misguided attempts at rallying your troops to beat the 'dark side' is vaguely entertaining. Your bashing of the USF football program is absolutely spiteful, childish and unneccesarily derrogatory. You bring up arrest and other misgivings about USF but fail to remind us of your own mickey-mouse town university woes. PJ Smith ring a bell? How about Ron Ellis? I think sexual battery, **** and false imprisonment are a hell of a lot worse than DUI and drug usage.

And we all know about George O'Leary's sparkling character and past history. At least Leavitt really has his Degree and really did play football. What kind of character is Georgie teaching your boys?

Can UCF beat USF on Saturday? Absolutely. This is their best and probably last chance to do so. Can UCF lose to USF on Saturday? Absolutely. USF talent and skill level far surpasses that of UCF's especially on the opposite side of the ball. The big difference is experience at skill positions. UCF has a core group of players who have been in big games before. USF does not. There is a reason the opening line on the game was USF -2. There is also a reason why the line has moved to UCF -2.5.

However the biggest reason why UCF will lose this game will be because the team, the fans and the mickey mouse media are wrapped up in the 'we belong in the same league as USF' identity crisis. USF, the fans, the team and the media do not have these mental health issues. We (I say we because obviously I am a USF fan) know who we are, we know where we belong and we know what are chances are to get to where we want to go.

We realize that we are not fielding our best team ever, but we are not worried about losing to UCF because they are UCF. We are worried about losing to UCF because then we will have a loss. We could be playing SE Collier County Community College and our concern would be the loss. We could be playing Ohio State and our concern would be the loss.

You see, our team, fans and media spend time focusing on how to win the game, not bashing our opponent or their program. And we especially don't have to have the media whip up some armegeddon scenario if indeed our home town loses.

Is our team a shining star for football programs to emulate, probably not.

Neither is UCF.

[EXBULL21]

That guy is an idiot....

What great posterboard material for the team.  Somone should forward this article to the football assistants so that it can be circulated around.

Just another reason why I left Orlando and won't ever go back.  Bunch of A-holes who think they are the next UF.

[EXBULL21]

Hope everyone sends this guy a message....what a joke!

[E.T.]

;D

He is a fool . . . he really seems to want to make this a rivalry  :

Go BULLS !!!