5 Question Friday!

[jfcohio]

Sorry about last week. I had a major computer crash. New hard drive, and few hundred less in my pocket - and, 5 question Friday returns.

1. With some tough losses - what will make this a productive season for you?

2. Do you feel Jim Leavitt has been a successful coach for USF?

3. Do you feel USF football has been successful to this point in time?

4. What do you feel will make this program successful in the next five years? (Bowl game appearance? Conference champion? National Champion?)

5. Do you feel football or basketball will ultimately have more success once we join the Big East?

I'm going to let you start this one, and add my answers later...

[Velcro]

1. With some tough losses - what will make this a productive season for you?

Beat UAB at UAB, Beat Pitt at Home

2. Do you feel Jim Leavitt has been a successful coach for USF?

YES! No one else would have this program where it is now (regardless of this bad year)... Big East baby!

3. Do you feel USF football has been successful to this point in time?  

8 year old program earns big east berth... um... YES!

4. What do you feel will make this program successful in the next five years? (Bowl game appearance? Conference champion? National Champion?)  

More than one bowl, one conf championship would be nice.

5. Do you feel football or basketball will ultimately have more success once we join the Big East?

Ultimately... football, as long as the Big east keeps BCS...the benefits to USF will be incredible.  Basketball will profit off of football's success.

[BullDoug]

1.  A 6-5 season and the team gets better.

2.  Are u serious w/that one.  OF COURSE!  :

3.  See No. 2.  : again

4.  Multiple bowl appearances, competitive for conference championships,  beating Top 35 teams consistently and being rated 25 or better every other yr.

5.  Football but define success.  More wins?  Bulls have already had 9-2 & 8-3 seasons.  Can't get much better than that.  Beating UF, FSU, or UM?  That's a tall order especially when they are not coming into RJS.  Gaining some national notoriety?  The Big East will help some 'cuz right now USF doesn't have much of that at all.  Until the Bulls are 8-3 for multiple seasons continuously, nobody outside of USF and the Tampa Bay area's gonna give a hoot.  More $?   Yep as long as the BCS autobid is intact and the NBE keeps 4-5 bowls.

[79 Bull]

1.  A 3-2 second half of the season with flashes of hope (and better discipline) for 2005.

2.  Yes.

3.  Yes.

4.  Bowl appearance 3 out of 5 years and vying for BE championship in years 3-5.

5.  Football.  I believe football will always be number 1 or 2 in 5 years in conference with basketball consistently holding down a 6-12 slot.

[WoolyBully]

1. With some tough losses - what will make this a productive season for you?

A: productive would necessarily have to be a modicum of improvement from week to week, regardless of W/L record.

2. Do you feel Jim Leavitt has been a successful coach for USF?

A. Yes...imagine languishing in IAA land for 12 years.

3. Do you feel USF football has been successful to this point in time?  

A. Yes...success being measured on overall progress. To go from not having a team to where we are now in seven years. There's schools that have been around a lot longer than us who would love to have our problems.

4. What do you feel will make this program successful in the next five years? (Bowl game appearance? Conference champion? National Champion?)  

A. Being able to compete within our conference to avoid finishing in the lower half.  While conference champion is a reasonable goal within the next five to seven years, I don't think we'll see a Nat'l Championship for a long, long, long time.

5. Do you feel football or basketball will ultimately have more success once we join the Big East?

A. You use the term ultimately. By that , there is no end timeframe. If you are really asking will USF ever compete equally in football and basketball, yes - when they're middle of the pack.  But ultimately, I  think USF will garner more success football (over time) than it ever will in basketball.  Why? How long have we had a basketball team?

[GarySJ]

1. Playing hard, showing improvement, and better discipline. Oh, and no more logo-stomping.

2. Of course. It is absurd to suggest otherwise.

3. Of course. It is absurd to suggest otherwise.

4. Become an annual bowl-level team in the Big East. Oh, and lose the worthless I-AA home games. (Lose meaning "drop them off the schedule like a bad habit," not "score less points than the I-AA team".)

5. USF is much better positioned to be successful in football. Basketball is going to be a tough road.

[Bishop of Bulltown]

National Championship within 20 years, that's all i gotta say

[E.T.]

1. With some tough losses - what will make this a productive season for you?

A winning record.

2. Do you feel Jim Leavitt has been a successful coach for USF?

YES !!!

3. Do you feel USF football has been successful to this point in time?

YES !!!  

4. What do you feel will make this program successful in the next five years? (Bowl game appearance? Conference champion? National Champion?)

First Two  

5. Do you feel football or basketball will ultimately have more success once we join the Big East?

FOOTBALL

[Jim Johnson]

1. With some tough losses - what will make this a productive season for you?

Productive is an interesting choice of words.  Finishing 6-5 would do it for me.  Our first losing season as a I-A team would be disheartening.

2. Do you feel Jim Leavitt has been a successful coach for USF?

Yes. And he deserves to be here as long as he wants to be our coach.

3. Do you feel USF football has been successful to this point in time?

Unbelievably successful.  Name one other program that has done what USF has done.  UCF and UAB both jumped to I-A in the 1990's - both are still in C-USA.  USF could be playing for a national championship next year - less than 10 years after our first football game ever.

4. What do you feel will make this program successful in the next five years? (Bowl game appearance? Conference champion? National Champion?)

Do you mean "what will make USF successful" or "what will signify success"??

To "make" USF successful, we need to:

- Keep Coach Jim Leavitt, but hire assistants with more experience with BCS schools

- Recruit more All-Americans and true blue-chip players (not only from Florida), especially at Quarterback

- Develop a new offensive scheme (I suggest one similar to the NFL's west-coast offense)

- Grow our fan base and alumni participation so that we can sell out the lower bowl of Raymond James for the entire season and raise our overall budget

- LEARN HOW TO SCHEDULE NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS

To "signify" success over the nest five years:

- Five winning seasons

- Five bowl games (including one BCS bowl from winning the Big East)

- Ranked in the Top 15 during the season at least twice

- Ranked in the Top 25 at the end of each season

- Beating two Top 10 programs (hopefully one OOC - Auburn or UF)

5. Do you feel football or basketball will ultimately have more success once we join the Big East?

Both programs will have more success.

Basketball will benefit from the competition and exposure in the north east.  To be sure, it will be a challenge to compete with the big boys... but there is no reason why we couldn't be the next Notre Dame (other than the fact that USF is not Notre Dame)... ND's basketball program was not that good until it joined the Big East... Something I think could happen.

Football could do very well, consistently in the top half of the conference with WVU, Louisville, and Pittsburgh.  Moreover, getting to a BCS bowl will be a TREMENDOUS boon to recruiting.

JMHO

[Brad]

From the home office in Higley, Arizona...

Remember that song?  "Standin' on a corner in Higley, Arizona what a fine sight to see...it's a girl my lord in a flat bed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me..."

1. With some tough losses - what will make this a productive season for you?

3 more wins and a defense that bounces back to the quality it has possessed before.

2. Do you feel Jim Leavitt has been a successful coach for USF?

Without any doubt.

3. Do you feel USF football has been successful to this point in time?  

See the answer to #2.

4. What do you feel will make this program successful in the next five years? (Bowl game appearance? Conference champion? National Champion?)

In five years a .500 record still saves, only if barely, a successful program.  I am not the Elias Sports Bureau and can not tell you how many teams languished for more than 12-15 years, but I believe FSU to be one of them.  What I am saying is, I will not forget the strides made, and I expect us to do even better in 5 years, but I will not make any championship or bowl a barometer of our success.  We will win championships and we will win bowls, but I choose to judge the success by a multitude of factors.  

5. Do you feel football or basketball will ultimately have more success once we join the Big East?

I think initially we will take lumps in both sports, but we will succeed first in football.  Basketball  may take a long time...I'll set my 58th birthday as a day to reflect.  Until then, I expect very little.  We're a football school.

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Questions I would like to see asked on some future Friday:

1)  If you had your choice would you like to be the inventor of "velcro" or "post-it notes"?

2) Did you eat "Boo-Berry" as a kid and, if so, were you excited to see it as part of the Halloween offering from General Mills this year?

3)  As an adult, did you ever wonder what General Mills was?  Does it not sound more like a maker of animal feed (or carpet) than a child's cereal manufacturer?

4)  Even with what we know about cigarette smoke and it's damage to many generations, should the candy cigarettes really have been pulled off the shelves?

5)  Is multi-tasking a good thing?