what scares me

[Barbie]

I remember the days when many people got UF and FSU mixed up all the time.

LOL, People still do.

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

Quit being so melodramatic. Auburn and West Virginia are big boys .... There will be no stigma based on this year.

there is no melodrama.  do u think i WANT sports writers and CFB fans to look at USF and think "meltdown" or "fluke" ?  do u think im making it up because it feels good?  get real.

college football, more than any other sport, revolves around PERCEPTION.

the Big East is 6-1 against the SEC, and 3-0 in BCS bowls since realignment.  $1000 says the "Big Least" ******** starts up again next August, and next December when they're configuring BCS NC bids, a 1-loss Big East team will get less consideration than a 2-loss SEC team.

why?  because perception is everything in college football.  the entire ranking system is objective and based on perception.

if we are perceived as a team that can play one or two good games a year, but can't get it done when it counts, that will affect our perception AND our rankings.  writers and coaches are already hesitant to vote for us, the program doesn't need more nay-sayers.

Exactly! That's ALL that happened ....... It's not the end of the freaking world like you Chicken Littles are trying to make it out to be. MAYBE, because of that game we won't be in the pre-season polls but you don't even know THAT for sure.... and even if we are or aren;t in the pre-season polls, our perception next year will be based on how we do next year.

who said it was the end of the world?  i haven't read ANYONE on this forum say that the blowout in El Paso destroyed the football program completely, or even partially. the only people saying that are the clowns making sarcastic "shut down the football program!" comments.

it DID, however, damage our credibility and national respect, making it harder to earn in the polls next year (and maybe that's not such a bad thing, since apparently some of our fans and players felt we "deserved" that #2 ranking).

any realistic, objective fan can see that.

[bulls96go]

this loss will be a gnat on a horse behind.

with how we played this year, and what we have coming back we will be ranked top 25 IMO.

if not we will be very close...

If we do NOT win our games next year then the perception will be negative

just keep winning!

[mikebeau]

people that confuse or don't know who USF is aren't college football fans, outside of their school. 

think about your knowledge(if you really love college football). 

[Donno]

[ At least because no one knew we were playing Oregon or that the Sun Bowl even existed we wont have to worry about our national perception being hurt. I guess that is one positive.

You haven't heard? That loss set our program back 2 to 5 years ..... Word is that the BE is having second thoughts and may kick us out and bring Temple back.

You are right... the correct calculation is 25%...which in our 11 year history puts us right in that range.  Serious, I studied it in Stats class although that was before all these message boards and now we are the laughing stock of the country so maybe we need to factor in the increased speed of information!

Good thing we didn't lose by 36 that is a 35% setback

Well for those people who actually know who we are.

[smazza]

usf needs to win national games like ru and sun bowl

[Triple B]

Quit being so melodramatic. Auburn and West Virginia are big boys .... There will be no stigma based on this year.

there is no melodrama.  do u think i WANT sports writers and CFB fans to look at USF and think "meltdown" or "fluke" ?  do u think im making it up because it feels good?   get real.

Please feel free to use this thread, or start a new one, to supply links to ALL the credible sportswriters that think this year was a fluke and/or we melted down .... but please don't bother with the CFB fans. From your other thread, you're basing that on Internet message boards and I couldn't give a rats ass what anonymous clowns in cyberspace think of us .... and I'm not really sure why you care.

And please, I'm not saying that the loss meant absolutely nothing but it's not near the catastrophic incident that you're trying to make it out to be.

And just as an FYI, I heard both Brett on with JP Peterson and a high school football aficionado on with Bobby Fenton both say that the bowl game would have a negligible, if any, effect on recruiting if I understood them correctly.

[Triple B]

[ At least because no one knew we were playing Oregon or that the Sun Bowl even existed we wont have to worry about our national perception being hurt. I guess that is one positive.

You haven't heard? That loss set our program back 2 to 5 years ..... Word is that the BE is having second thoughts and may kick us out and bring Temple back.

You are right... the correct calculation is 25%...which in our 11 year history puts us right in that range.  Serious, I studied it in Stats class although that was before all these message boards and now we are the laughing stock of the country so maybe we need to factor in the increased speed of information!

Good thing we didn't lose by 36 that is a 35% setback

Well for those people who actually know who we are.

If people are laughing at us but no one's around to hear it does that still make us a laughing stock?

[CyberBull]

It takes time, but we as fans can help OUR program by supporting it as much as possible.

we can also help our program by being objective and demanding accountability when it's necessary.

"support" isn't defined by blind homerism. 

it's defined by what is BEST for the program, and sometimes what's best isn't always sugarcoated and fluffy and fun to talk about.

sometimes there are bitter pills that need to be swallowed.

Obviously you don't know me very well, b/c I am anything but a blind homer. I think many who have read my posts can verify this. I am all for being objective, as opposed to people like you and smazz who are unrealistic.

[CyberBull]

You haven't heard? That loss set our program back 2 to 5 years ..... Word is that the BE is having second thoughts and may kick us out and bring Temple back.

while your effort at comedy is worthy of a spot alongside Jeff Foxworthy on the Blue Collar Comedy hour, the reality is that Monday's beatdown gave college football fans and writers the perception that USF is not ready to play with the big boys.  that is a stigma that will be tough to shake, and will likely impact the willingness of some writers and coaches to vote us up in the polls.

the opportunity to take some forward forward momentum from this season into 2008 was squandered.

but hey, your joke about the Big East dropping us was the epitome of hilarity!  no, seriously, i can't stop laughing!   :

...please stop with the asinine comments. If USF would have beaten Oregon the story would have been spun by the media and those with an agenda about how USF's victory was tainted b/c Oregon didn't have Dixon and Stewart was running with a bad toe.

the bottom line is that USF is going to make a name for itself by continuing to have seasons like this year with hopefully some special season sprinkled in between over the next 10 years. Furthermore, in the long run this embarrassing  loss will hopefully springboard this team to working even harder in the off season, as the players realize that you have to pay your dues, work hard and sometimes get lucky.

Some of you guys think its so easy to build a program....if that is the case why are there over two dozen BCS programs that have never been ranked as high as USF?

If you guys have a short cut to the big time, please share it with us, until then winning and losing 'big' games is part of the process that make a program. Sorry your are to impatient to go along for the ride.