Mandel :-(

[MaltLiquorBull]

I think alot of the voters feel the same way.  When we turn things around (and we will) voters will remember how we tanked in the past, and they will be very skeptical before putting us near the top 10 again.  I know when it comes to rankings, past history should not matter, but it does.  On the good side, the next time we get to a top 10 spot, we will be the real deal.

[Ecobull]

IN THE 16 GAMES SINCE MANDEL VOTED US #1:

- We are 9 and 7 with 4 of our wins coming against Syracuse (twice), Tennessee martin and FIU.

- We set pretty much every defensive record for getting crushed in the Sun Bowl.

- Two teams we crushed in late 2007 (Pitt and Ville) beat us the next time we played.

This is the sad truth. The crazy thing is in the middle of all this we gave our coaches a mighty pat on the back by handing out raises (some deserved). This type of negative attention ma force people in key positions to take notice of the problems.

[Sunil]

It hurts to read, but Stewart is right on point. It's going to be a battle to restore our image as an up and coming program.

Hope that it is a temporary setback this year and not a prolonged stay in mediocrity.

[IncrediBULL]

I agree with him on this one.  We have not proven anything yet.  We are in a down conference and could lose most of our games in it.  We are near last place in the BE...

[usfgrad84]

The team and coaches should have thick skin to these types of articles, but it should also be a wake up call.  I said this about basketball and the same needs to be said here.  When we entered the BE we accepted the good things as well as the more difficult things of becoming a big time athletic program.  Like it or not big time athletics is about money. 

Makiing a lesser bowl or perhaps not even making a bowl at all affects our revenue.  Tanking this year probably has a negative affect on season ticket sales.  Crappy performance means we probably are TV less next year.  Its nice to talk about having better facilities, perhaps an increase in coaching salary pools.  Jim's dining hall., etc... 

I guarantee when things are assessed at the end of the year these  financial issues will be taken into consideration when Woolard sits down with Leavitt to assess the program and the season. 

Thick skin is one thing, but blind eye?  I think not.

[IncrediBULL]

They need to post this in the locker room.  Every locker, every coaches office, etc... 

Mandel speaks the truth, and unless they want the opinion to chnage, they need something like this for fire or motivation. 

[Kyle]

Can't really argue with that. I have no doubts that if this team played every game like the 3rd quarter of the Kansas game they could win the national championship but when your upperclassman play as badly as they've played at times this year there wont be many positives.

[bullwark]

Mandel is right on the money!  Great assessment of the program.

[smazza]

IN THE 16 GAMES SINCE MANDEL VOTED US #1:

- We are 9 and 7 with 4 of our wins coming against Syracuse (twice), Tennessee martin and FIU.

- We set pretty much every defensive record for getting crushed in the Sun Bowl.

- Two teams we crushed in late 2007 (Pitt and Ville) beat us the next time we played.

Mandel was kind.

numbers dont lie

leavitt needs to go

[usfgrad84]

IN THE 16 GAMES SINCE MANDEL VOTED US #1:

- We are 9 and 7 with 4 of our wins coming against Syracuse (twice), Tennessee martin and FIU.

- We set pretty much every defensive record for getting crushed in the Sun Bowl.

- Two teams we crushed in late 2007 (Pitt and Ville) beat us the next time we played.

Mandel was kind.

numbers dont lie

leavitt needs to go

Wrong.  Leavit doesn't need to go. 

However, if he fails to address the issues that brought us to this point then you can make an argument.  Failure to achieve the goal is not a reason for dismissal.  Failure to repeat the same problems without addressing them with the same results may be.