Hey! It's the inaugural rebuilding era!

[FullOfBull_At_Work]

Remeber the inaugural game, the inaugural season, the inaugural loss (Citadel)? Well here it is, the first big downturn.

On the plus side, by the looks of some of these knee jerk posts, alot of you boys could use a little character building in the way of dealing with adversity.

Actually, all Florida teams could. Gator fans cry like babies when they have two losses. They've only been a power for twenty years or so, still relatively new, so their fan base still really doesn't know all top rankings are fleeting, as opposed to Alabama fans and Oklahoma fans that seem to deal with downturns more even keel.

BTW - Do not count Hobbie out just yet. I have no expertise, so I can't look at the situation and tell if it's really him that's the problem. But you can count on this:

JL's been at this 20+ years. He must have seen this coming. He surely sees it now. He has to think about the long term. The long term is skill recruits, it is good qbs, it is florida skill receivers. Change to lots of I forms and option plays, you scare those recruits off. Play as much spread with what you got and pray to get through this season with most of your butt.

The problem has been the blue chipper recruit. We could get the 3-4 star before this year, but to get that top guy, especially qb, you have to have more than we had. Hate the gators if you will, but have you been to a home game there with 90000 screaming fans? It's electric. It takes a special person to see the Dante-an advantage coming here holds.

If you look up and down the sagarin from where we sit, I'd much rather be us, the 1-2 bad years in 7 guy instead of 1-2 good years in 7 the rest have. Harvard will still be down here always. We won't.

Tell you what, man that timing of our program could not be better. We are not even a year removed from invite to a BCS conference. If USF football waited one more year, it could have been bad.

[smazza]

bama and ok don't deal with downturns well

the bulls better improve next  year of leavitt  will be gone

[fullofbull@work]

Point missed. Nobody likes downturns, but its been my observation that true fans that have followed a sports organization for decades have shed the sophomoric over-reacting I have witnessed here.

smazza, I believe you are in the minority in your opinion that we should put Leavitt on probation. I think if we didn't have him, and had the same set of players we have today, things would be far worse (see O'leary, George).

Another thing. I would not be surprised if we won tomorrow night. I think we will at least play close. We do not have the talent separation a review of stats may suggest. Our guys got embarrassed and I think they will give it their all againt UL. Onr of the things I love most about this game is it is about heart. Of course, my Bull rose colored glasses are soldered solidly on my face.

Wow hat was long winded, gotta stop drinkin' so much watching Thurs night football...

[Guest wildrover]

I'm starting to get pretty sick of these people who say that those of us who critize this team where we see problems are sophomoric.  Optomist like to call us pessimist but I prefer realist.  This team has a lot of problems right now, are we not supposed to discuss them, are we not supposed to propose solutions, are we just suppose to sit back and talk about how good things were to this point cause if we don't we will be accused of not being "real fans" whatever that means.  I would think anybody who takes the time to post here, whether its a good or bad post is a "real fan" or else they wouldn't take the time to do it.

I'm also a real big believer that "sunk costs" have nothign to do with your outlook for the future.  Its not what you done, or even what have you done for me lately, its what will you be able to do? that counts.  If you people who like to critiise  those of us who evaluate this team with a critical eye take a look at Penn State, they say their coach has earned the right to coach till he says no more, as a reslut he is leading them into the realm of mediocrity.  They are a shadow of what they once were and just because their coach is a legend it doesn't mean he can compete in college football in 2004, the game changes and evolves just like anything else, Jo Pa hasn't moved with it and now his team suffers and its excused because ofwhat he once was.  There are a lot of people on this board who share in that same sort nostiligia and claim that just because JL has gotten us to this point he gets a free pass.  Because our O is struggling its not Hobbie's fault, well if its not theirs than who's.  

Personally I'm not ready to cut of JL's head, I think we have a young team that needs time to develop but it does get frustrating after all of last season and all of this season watching this team regress.  To be okay with that I think is folley, that's not how progress is made.  You have to want to get better you have to want to fix your problems and you have to work to do so, what I have seen thus far is no effort toward fixing those problems.  Maybe its the QB or coaching or inexperience or whatever but I'm not gonna just take a downturn in stride and say its okay we've done good till now, I will look at it critically and see if I can discet the problem.  The I will put my analysis out there and see who buys it and who doesn't.  I thought thats what these boards were for.  But accoridng to some of you, I guess not.

[fullofbull@work]

I agree absolutely discuss the good as well as the bad. In good times as well. I'm thinkng more of the broad, patent and often one lined exclamations for wholesale change that usuallly lack analysis.

I personally believe that you shouldn't do business with you're as good as your last quarter attitude or whatever. Probably why we look at the same thing that is frustrating to both of us with the different attitudes.

[smazza]

we didn't even compete against UL

a team we beat last year

how did this happen in one year

[goodknightfl]

It happened by having a team with alot of experience.. that lost a lot of key players.. typical Mid major problem.. U build 2 or 3 years toward 1 or 2 good years then u rebuild again..  as for complaining fans.. its fun to throw a temper tantrum.. U guys will be fine in a couple of years..

[smazza]

when you have the talent pool that exists in florida i blame the coaches

there shouldn't be teams 0-6 and 2-4 in d1 football

it falls on the coaches because we are  in 3rd best state for talent

[The Sheriff]

Harvard is undefeated currently and have dominated the past seven years or so... just food for thought... their QB will play in the NFL next season (he's rated as one of the top ten QB's in America) and his brother is an All American high school tight end that USF should recruit, but won't because he's on the West Coast.

[smazza]

who is harvard's coach?

has he been there all 7 years