Please exercise some self restraint

[SpikeBull]

We overachieved in national recognition.

I was buying a UTEP shirt (that Miner/pickaxe dude is cool) at the mall and the cashier mentioned that there was a demand for USF stuff. We asked "Oh this week?" and he replied "No during the season!". Imagine that, USF demand in EL Paso, Texas before we were a blip on the Sun Bowl radar!!

[dabull80]

Can we say fan attendance over-achieved ?

30kk  to 50k  nice jump.

Not a nice way to end your season but overall it was a very good season.

If we believe in our coach then our goal still is out there - Win the BE.

[IncrediBULL]

Last year we were not on the map.  This year we are.

Regardless of how things ended up, EVERYBODY has now heard of South Florida (even if some mistakingly call us the bull dogs :-) )   We were ranked at one time higher than FSU, UF, and Miami.   Miami did not get a bowl game.  We handed UCF a big ole loss and shut Kevin Smith down.  

USF overachieved based on how people felt about us at the beginning of the season.  We should have a great year next year too.

[Ruger7mmmag]

We had a great season this year and did exactly what I thought we would do.  What bugged me the most is the games we lost were to teams we should've WIPED THE FLOOR WITH and that's been a trend which is disturbing.  It tells me our coaching staff CONSISTENTLY can't keep this team focused and we don't have the raw talent of bigger programs (yet) to still win when we're "off".  I don't know what it is, but it's hard to see a guy as emotional as Leavitt not being able to get guys "up" for any games.

When I heard statements from Wally stating he could tell BEFORE the game the team was flat, HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU NOT DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING to change that atmosphere?  The difference in getting to the next stage is our coaching staff's ability to install a KILLER INSTINCT. 

As much as I love CJL, he doesn't show it and you can see it in games where we starting calling off the dogs in the 3rd quarter when up by more than 2 TDs rather than run up the score.  Running up the score is what great teams do.  Look back at most of the top 3 teams in most years and more times than not, they obliterated the weaker teams without mercy.  When FSU was rolling, it was their goal EVERY game during their prime to pitch a shutout on defense and put up 500 yards of offense.  They didn't take their foot off the throttle if one of those goals was within reach no matter if it was UF or Duke.  All they knew was they were going to keep pounding you until you decided to run the clock out to stop the beating.  The more time a team spends running on all cylinders, the more reps and chances they don't let down in future games and I think you saw that kill us in our losses as we weren't sharp at all on offense and the defense feeds off of that.

Make no mistake, I'm not calling for CJL's head, just hoping he becomes more ruthless.  It's not his job to limit the damage and the bigger stats you put up, the better chance you have at recruiting superstars in those areas.  Put up big leads and it allows your defense to put up big sack/turnover stats which will in turn help recruit on that side of the ball.

I'm happy with this season, extremely, even with Oregon loss.  But if we are 9-3 next season, that's a bad deal with the state of the Big East and our OOC schedule.  We won't sniff a BCS bowl with more than 1 loss next season if we don't win this conference bc chances are there won't be as many upsets as there were this year and our bowl tie ins next year will still suck.

[crambone]

I agree with Mike on this... Who would have thought Rutgers -- last year's Cinderella -- would deem a win over USF worthy of storming the field?

In all fairness, most fans don't know when it is appropriate to rush the field versus when it isn't.

Just playing devil's advocate...

[usfbullcpa]

This is more of the posting I thought I would see from Real Bulls Fans.  Man, look to the future, be glad this year had the excitement it did, and realize 50% of all the teams lost their last game.

If the Rose Bowl can be sucha big blow out, well, we will blow out someone at a much more important time.  Maybe this teaches a young team the importance of attitude and preparation (players and coaches).

Nuff Said, here is Basketbull.

[Bullshark]

I don't think anyone can be dissapointed in the season as a whole, we certainly weren't worse than we were last year.  Both Auburn and WVU were overachievements the way I see it. Winning at Auburn was in a class by itself, but we didn't really know if WVU would change their plan against us, how long they held a bad taste in their month for us or the revenge factor.  Additionally, last year, their defense was horrible, this year it was a lot better. 

Our schedule was lop-sided with two victories which got us ranked all the way to number 2, way to early and then playing with a bulls eye on your chest with 6 more games to go in the BE .  Teams playing you the best they have ever played.  I do believe that in week 6 "arguably" (with all the upsets coupled with our wins, we had the best resume to be at number 2.  Now this would change in week 7, and maybe some top 10 teams hadn't reached their top level of play yet, but there was noone who had our claiber wins BY week 6. (what do you do, do you just put LSU there and argue "hell, I'm sure they'll make it there they're LSU"...they're a namebrand...screw the resumes)  Basically, I still feel that on Sunday of week 6, we "could" have been the number 2 team and therfore we belonged there.  Now I don't think we would have stayed even if we went undefeated and I don't think our wins over the stretch, would have rivaled an undefeated SEC team, etc. 

Just like BIGBULLY, I didn't think we would play OSU in the NC game.  We were probably overmatched playing Oregon, minus mistakes, we probably walk with a respectaible loss.  Noone is dissapointed with the season, any dissapointment comes from the golden opportuniteis we had and never capatilized on.   

[smazza]

I know we are ALL disappointed about our bowl loss, but people should try and remember that 2007 was NOT supposed to be our best year. Our best years were SUPPOSED to be in 2008 and 2009 when we are expected to have a senior laden team. In reality, we actually OVERACHIEVED this year.

The other thing you should keep in mind, is that this is crunch time in recruiting, and a LOT of recruits visit THIS board.

Scout just updated their visit list for USF and it is UNBELIEVABLE.

http://southflorida.scout.com/a.z?s=359&p=9&c=6&yr=2008

Last year, USF had 21 of out 25 players who took an official visit SIGN with us. That percentage is UNHEARD of for ANY team.

So, NOW is the time to put things into LONG term perspective, and temper your comments. NOBODY on here is more unhappy about losing than anybody on the team.

Get a grip! LOL

last year we returned 20 starters- typically that is when you have best year

unless there is an influx of great talent that starts and stars next year i cant see how we will be better

[smazza]

i hear ya Mama.

i'm not mad at the season overall.  we had some good wins, got some national exposure, and maintained our level of success from last year.

but i'm also disappointed by some of the missed opportunities.  i never for a minute bought into the NC talk, or even the #2 ranking, but i did expect us to improve on last year, and we had AMPLE opportunity to do so.

hopefully the recruits on that Scouts list recognize that we are on the cusp of contending nationally, and that their talents and contributions could be the missing piece we need to get there.

:gobulls

very well put

[smazza]

We had a great season this year and did exactly what I thought we would do.  What bugged me the most is the games we lost were to teams we should've WIPED THE FLOOR WITH and that's been a trend which is disturbing.  It tells me our coaching staff CONSISTENTLY can't keep this team focused and we don't have the raw talent of bigger programs (yet) to still win when we're "off".  I don't know what it is, but it's hard to see a guy as emotional as Leavitt not being able to get guys "up" for any games.

When I heard statements from Wally stating he could tell BEFORE the game the team was flat, HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU NOT DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING to change that atmosphere?  The difference in getting to the next stage is our coaching staff's ability to install a KILLER INSTINCT. 

As much as I love CJL, he doesn't show it and you can see it in games where we starting calling off the dogs in the 3rd quarter when up by more than 2 TDs rather than run up the score.  Running up the score is what great teams do.  Look back at most of the top 3 teams in most years and more times than not, they obliterated the weaker teams without mercy.  When FSU was rolling, it was their goal EVERY game during their prime to pitch a shutout on defense and put up 500 yards of offense.  They didn't take their foot off the throttle if one of those goals was within reach no matter if it was UF or Duke.  All they knew was they were going to keep pounding you until you decided to run the clock out to stop the beating.  The more time a team spends running on all cylinders, the more reps and chances they don't let down in future games and I think you saw that kill us in our losses as we weren't sharp at all on offense and the defense feeds off of that.

Make no mistake, I'm not calling for CJL's head, just hoping he becomes more ruthless.  It's not his job to limit the damage and the bigger stats you put up, the better chance you have at recruiting superstars in those areas.  Put up big leads and it allows your defense to put up big sack/turnover stats which will in turn help recruit on that side of the ball.

I'm happy with this season, extremely, even with Oregon loss.  But if we are 9-3 next season, that's a bad deal with the state of the Big East and our OOC schedule.  We won't sniff a BCS bowl with more than 1 loss next season if we don't win this conference bc chances are there won't be as many upsets as there were this year and our bowl tie ins next year will still suck.

i like this take