FSU Student Paper Writer slams USF

[tamiamibull05]

Saw this article in the FSU student newspaper. It made me sick as a current Nole and former Bull. Luckily, it's not representative of the overall view here of USF (which is noticebly better than the view of USF from UM, UF and, of course, UCF)...just some arrogant a-hole who's jealous of the Bulls' great success. On the reply board, he was given a little hell from his peers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

USF still no FSU

By: Frank Longobardo

Posted: 10/4/07

If a college football fan from the state of Florida was in a coma for ten years and suddenly woke up today to see that the University of South Florida was ranked in the top ten, they would be quite perplexed.

That person would have only known South Florida as a Division 1-AA independent team in 1997 and then look at the current top 25 rankings and be confused that Florida was the only one of the big three schools that was ranked.

Though I haven't been trapped in a coma for ten years, I still look at what is going on today in college football in the state of Florida and I am also quite perplexed.

While what South Florida has done in their short existence of ten years in playing football is nothing short of amazing, I am already tired of seeing the entire state and now the entire country jump on to the USF bandwagon.

Congratulations USF, you've made it. But don't start comparing yourself just yet to FSU, UF or Miami, three schools with incredible football tradition.

Yes, they have had a great season so far and have upset two big-name programs in Auburn and West Virginia, but look at those wins a little bit closer and they are not that impressive.

Winning at Jordan-Hare Stadium is huge for any team outside of the SEC, but this is not a typical Auburn team. Yes, they did beat Florida at the Swamp, but Auburn lost to Mississippi State at home and struggled with New Mexico State at home for the first half.

As for their victory over West Virginia, while South Florida's defense has been solid all season; but my guess is that if Pat White was healthy and played the entire game, the outcome would have been different.

USF may have forced six turnovers against the Mountaineers, but their offense committed four of their own.

That leads me to Matt Grothe, who everybody said was the next big thing at quarterback. I, on the other hand, have not been so impressed. He had two interceptions against West Virginia and is only ahead of one other starter in the Big East in passer ratings.

All of this leads me to my biggest gripe, which is the University of South Florida overall.

First off, their fans, a.k.a. students, aren't the brightest crayons in the box considering all it takes to get into USF is an online application and $30 - no essays needed.

They don't even have their own stadium. I know that they are only a program that is a decade old and Raymond James Stadium is right there, but how can you consider yourself a big-time program when you don't even have your own stadium?

Now that UCF has one, you're the only one in the state that doesn't.

Speaking of UCF, the only way South Florida could get a non-conference rival was to get a contract with the Knights, which is not even being renewed after this season. In fact, up until a few years ago, USF refused to even play UCF. `

Not to mention the fact that the only time USF can sell out a game is when they are playing West Virginia in prime-time on a Friday night. I would like to see them sell-out on a consistent basis.

Does USF even have a fight song? If they do, I would like to hear one of their students recite it; they probably couldn't.

Their little Bulls hand gesture happens to look a lot like Texas' Hook 'em Horns hand gesture. That's probably because its the same thing and they ripped the Longhorns off.

Their coach Jim Leavitt, who helped start that program from scratch, will definitely jump at a big offer that he gets from a national powerhouse program.

I would like to see South Florida's fans travel like Florida State's or Florida's fans do.

I mean the 'Noles played a neutral site game against Alabama, who was only ranked 22nd and FSU was unranked, and Jacksonville Municipal Stadium had 85,000 people in it; more than were at the Super Bowl about three years ago. Could USF do that?

UF does that on a yearly basis, better than Florida State does, with their annual game against Georgia in the River City.

Finally, I know that Florida State still has two open slots for non-conference games for the 2008 season. My suggestion to Dave Hart and the rest of the administration in the athletics department, schedule South Florida for next season.

Make the game either neutral site for a one-time deal or a home and home series and let's see if USF can hang with the big boys of college football in the state of Florida.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© Copyright 2007 FSView & Florida Flambeau

http://media.www.fsunews.com/media/storage/paper920/news/2007/10/04/Sports/Usf-Still.No.Fsu-3009307.shtml

[alau255]

I LOVE all these articles.  It shows we have arrived.  All that I know is we are ranked 6 and last I checked the are not ranked.  And if you can get your AD to schedule USF go ahead we would love it.

And how can people actually think Pat White being in would have led to a WVU win.  When he left WVU had not even scored a point yet.

[Brad]

That's rich...so we all have our funny guys.  Let's do that home and home...afterall, why would FSU need a neutral site?  :ROFLMAO

[Singabull]

Just a jealous FSU fan because his team hasn't done anything since the 90's.

[Held_AccountaBull]

Leavitt will jump at a big offer from a national powerhouse? what an idiot, this moron obviously didnt do his research. sounds more like a bitter article because he knows we could easily handle fsu

[WWMJD]

My response:

Dear Frank,

It may shock you to learn that an application essay requirement is not the typical measure of judging a school's academic standards.

Believe it or not, there are those of us who chose to go to the University of South Florida based on academics. 

The University of South Florida is one of the nation's top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community engaged public universities as designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

In addition to this, we have the top Honors College in Florida and I had the pleasure of working with some of the best and brightest in the state.

As for football, your signature win this season was against Alabama.  Wow.  Congratulations.  Did they have a parade?

Jealousy has certainly reared it's ugly head in this article.  I understand that it may be hard to cope with the fact that maybe USF is quickly becoming both an academic and athletic powerhouse, but don't worry, you'll always have the "party school" designation.

Yours truly,

Chris

USF Alum, B.S. in Computer Engineering, Cum Laude

[Mag Pie]

Pathetic.

[usf97]

Is it just me or does this person sound like they need to go back and take a writing class. The whole article rambles. Writing skills aside....I'm sure we would be happy to schedule a 1 and 1 with FSU. Sounds like some fans are getting insecure. I also notice he fails to remember that FSU really has a very limited football tradition. It's not like they have always had Doak Campbell, heck if you go back a little further it was an all girls school.

I also find it amusing that suddenly no one is impressed with Grothe. We have won every game we played....why would he need to do more to impress you?

[AndytheBull]

I could only read about half of it and had to stop. The Oracle gets a bad rep sometimes, I dont think they would put something so poorly researched, completely disgusting piece of trash like this.

I dont think we are going to have to worry about the team overlooking anybody, all these hit pieces should give plenty of motivation.

[SixtySix]

That's rich...so we all have our funny guys.  Let's do that home and home...afterall, why would FSU need a neutral site?  :ROFLMAO

to show us how well they travel.