Is there another football program in the country like ours?

[Guest BasketBull.]

I'm curious if there's another school that has a similar path to ours.

Right now, we are not a weakling newbie, but at the same time we aren't a traditional powerhouse.

The big boys (old guards) hate us:

1) The guy at Auburn didn't even vote for us after we beat his a$$ in his own stadium.

2) The guy with the bag of money at 'Bama was taking shots at our players.

3) Grandpa up at free shoe U hasn't exactly offered us lemonade in public. And we aren't ever going to get a game w/them as long as he's around.

4) Even the former WVU coach was giving us $hit right before we beat his a$$ again -"We're like the Yankees..."

I am willing to bet that some of the old guards saw the Sun Bowl score and felt pretty good about themselves, that they were right about USF and how we got "put in our place."

So, where are we in terms of the traditional hierarchy of football? And who are our "friends"?

Yes, there's the Big East, but that's just because we are in the same conference and they aren't exactly our friends.

At the top of my head, I'm thinking Miami is our friend. If they didn't respect us, they wouldn't have signed the deal. And if they hated us, they'd never have agreed to such a deal.

This upcoming season is critical. We need to kick some major a$$ and get out of the shadows of newbie land and turn into a national contender. Scheduling is going to be tough if we don't.

[Jihme]

FAU is like a really young USF.

[RealitySmackdown]

I'll throw out the names of a few of our "friends" when it comes to building our football program.

Pittsburgh - they signed and honored a home and home with us. They signed the deal when we were a I-AA.

Louisville - forget out Petrino and Leavitt running up scores in these games, when Louisville secured their place in the Big East, they then lobbied for us, because they knew first hand of our upside, we owe gratitude to Tom Jurich.

Miami - 6 year deal with the team of the 80's unreal.

I'll also throw out a few programs that have held us back or hurt us: So Miss took shots at us when we joined C-USA. UAB cause such a stink about us that our C-USA membership was delayed 2 years. That delayed membership costs a lot of great Bulls including Marquell Blackwell a chance to play in a bowl game (the 2002 team belonged in a bowl and may have gone to the Liberty Bowl if they had a chance). Utah, Middle Tenn. St., and Baylor each had us come to their place before defaulting on our home game. UCF offered us a bad deal in the media when we were having scheduling problems about 5 years ago, they would have been the only winners in that deal and they painted the picture that we were wrong for not accepting their kind offer of help. Eastern Michigan canceled a series way too late with us.

[CoolBull1]

Thanks for dredging all that up again!  Seriously, it does remind me who I need to despise and cheer against every time their name shows up anywhere!

[Guest pascobull]

FAU is like a really young USF.

Except they are much more likely to fall back to 1-aa than to even be in a BCS conference. That stadium looks like a no go and once their coach retires they are done. FIU has better potential.

[BullsFanInTX]

I'll throw out the names of a few of our "friends" when it comes to building our football program.

Pittsburgh - they signed and honored a home and home with us. They signed the deal when we were a I-AA.

Louisville - forget out Petrino and Leavitt running up scores in these games, when Louisville secured their place in the Big East, they then lobbied for us, because they knew first hand of our upside, we owe gratitude to Tom Jurich.

Miami - 6 year deal with the team of the 80's unreal.

I'll also throw out a few programs that have held us back or hurt us: So Miss took shots at us when we joined C-USA. UAB cause such a stink about us that our C-USA membership was delayed 2 years. That delayed membership costs a lot of great Bulls including Marquell Blackwell a chance to play in a bowl game (the 2002 team belonged in a bowl and may have gone to the Liberty Bowl if they had a chance). Utah, Middle Tenn. St., and Baylor each had us come to their place before defaulting on our home game. UCF offered us a bad deal in the media when we were having scheduling problems about 5 years ago, they would have been the only winners in that deal and they painted the picture that we were wrong for not accepting their kind offer of help. Eastern Michigan canceled a series way too late with us.

Someone please refresh my memory about the deal UCF offered, what were the terms.

[psteazy]

i love how everyone hates us.

i honestly wouldn't want it any other way.

[alumna1210]

i love how everyone hates us.

i honestly wouldn't want it any other way.

Agreed.

When we make to the NC game, it will be that much sweeter looking down on all the little angry upturned faces who don't want us there.

[GarySJ]

Let's not confuse long-term dislike with short-term spats.

Yeah, Tuberville didn't vote for USF in his top 25 right away... but he got on the bandwagon pretty quickly when USF kept winning. Besides, we'll probably never play them again. So let's just remember Auburn as the site of our greatest victory to date. Lord knows Florida and Alabama haven't done much winning against the ol' War Eagles lately.  >

USF's biggest detractor, and for the longest time, has got to be UCF. They whined, cried, and stomped their little feet when we wouldn't play them (as early as 1997, when they were a I-A program and we were losing home games to Drake). Then they pretended they didn't know or care who we were, with remarks like George O'Leary's "what conference are they in?" crack. Then they made excuse after excuse after excuse when we stomped them into the ground. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

As for allies... USF should be tremendously thankful not just to Louisville and Pittsburgh, who were mentioned earlier, but the entire Big East Conference (including the non-football schools). We've been treated with far more respect and fairness than we ever got in C-USA -- a league of schools that had far less reason to look down their noses at us. Funny how that works. We've lost a lot of games in men's basketball, but no Big East school has ever said we didn't deserve to be in the conference. And I am thankful for that. Our 15 conference-mates seem to recognize our overall worth, and accept us. And that's a good feeling. Every one of us should be proud to be associated with the schools of the Big East, in both academics and athletics.

To speak further of Louisville... Tom Jurich's support of USF is a total 180 for those of us old enough to remember the pre-football days at USF (which isn't all that long ago). Every year Denny Crum would bring a ranked basketball team to lowly USF, stomp us into the ground, complain about our fans, and generally adopt the attitude that we didn't deserve to breathe their air. If you'd told any USF fan 15 years ago that Louisville would be one of USF's biggest supporters in matters of conference realignment, they'd have thought you were crazy.

Over the last ten years, we've earned the respect of a lot of good universities. Even if those are only the other 15 Big East universities, it's still a monumental step up from where we were in the early 90s. Yeah, we've got detractors, but screw them. For the most part they're just jealous. Especially UCF.

[80mins]

as far as where our altitude ranks in the grand scheme of institutions, I'd say that those who are at a similar place ot us (between the nobodies and the big boys) is because they're on their way down (or on their way back up), not on their way up as we are.