hype and unreachable goals

[Bullsfan2000]

I have started to realize over the last couple years USF fans are spoiled with success and continue to hold unreachable goals for this team. Year after year we get so hyped up on messages boards like this one. We have lofty goals...like most successful teams but come on we have to be realistic in our assessment of success. We all want to win the Big East but we just have a very young team that just can't get out of their own way. We knew we were goin take some lumps this year but the cupcake schedule gave us confident that we were better than we were. The first five games of the season were a joke. Lets move on from the two disappointing  loses. Cinci and Pitt were and are the better teams. We still can have a successful season if B.J. progresses. Remember Grothe started his career off great but never progressed  into anything but a mediocre quarterback with the constant ratio of interceptions to touchdowns.

[theman123]

What success?  We have never won a conference championship, never had a 10 win season, and haven't won a better bowl then the Pizza bowl.

[slowdown]

I have a goal for the team of showing up to play in every game!!

The loss to Cinci really didn't bother me.  We played tough but they made the plays while we made the mistakes.

Pitt game was very different IMO, getting down early and still refusing to attempt passes and do things to get back in the game?  The coaches showed they lacked heart with that, no wonder the players played soft.  

[Brad]

What success?  We have never won a conference championship, never had a 10 win season, and haven't won a better bowl then the Pizza bowl.

What?

Talk about a selective recounting...

Some would say the following would be a success:

1)  A #2 ranking in 2007 (the biggest spoiler)

2)  A #10 ranking in 2008

3)  Wins over ranked teams such as Auburn, WVU, KU, FSU, etc.

4)  Two losing seasons in 12

5)  Four bowls

6)  Rise to BCS conference, growing attendance

Just plain going from an idea to national awareness in 10 years.

Discount it all you want...there are several other teams that would love to have even that level of success.

[bigworm]

2007 just goes to show you what the team is capable of (the first half anyway). It is disappointing to have the same collapse every year.

[Frishmanflz]

USF fans are so unrealistic it is crazy.  You all have no clue how lucky we are to have a team that is competative, has risen so fast in such a short peroid of time.  IF you were unaware FSU, UM, and UF (the big three if you will) all started off as nothing as well.  Lets take a look at their progression shall we???  FSU started in 1947 and took them until 1992 to join the ACC, UM started in 1927 and took them untill 1991 to join the BE (mind you they were quite good as an independant for a few years before that) and the national darling UF started in 1906 joined the SEC in 1933 and didnt win their first conference title till 1991.

Now lets look at USF shall we.  Started football in 1997 in Division 1 AA, joined D1A in 2001 and CUSA in 2003 then made the jump to BE in 2005.  Does anyone else see a difference in our ascension into big time football versus those other teams???

It takes time to build a program.  Sometimes I wish we would have come into the BE and fell on our faces for 10 years while building a solid program instead of how we overacheived.  Now its like being 5-2 is a bad thing and if we are not undefeated we suck and all the coaches should be fired, the players benched, and the university should shut down the athletics program.  

Our program is now basically an awkward teenager in the grand scheme of things and is going through its growing phase.  IF you think we can go from nothing to NC contenders overnight then you are sadly mistaken.  I am proud to be a USF Alumni, proud to be a USF Football fan, and proud to see my program growing each and every year.  

[Brad]

If anything is possible, it is that we are coached better to the big game than we are to the week in and week out challenge of conference play.  It has been mentioned before.

My guess is that some games are circled as program-defining (rightfully so) and become the focus of attention.  We need to be ready for each and every conference game in addition to the big games.  There can be little doubt the FSU game was circled as is the Miami game.

There was a poll here.  Some thought beating FSU and Miami was more important to the program's growth than the BE title this time around.

Most need to realize we are still a growing program, not a steady or established program.  We still need to win statement games but also win conference games in my opinion.  Ask UCF....still in search of a statement game win.  They have won their conference - and granted it's different being non-BCS, but they too need the statement wins just like us in order to continue to climb.

I think we've been more focused as a team on the statement games and not the conference games.  Perhaps it's an offshoot of our history.  I think we're at the point however, where we have to be able to win at least 5 conference games to reach the next plateau.  We need to treat the conference with increased focus. But we had FSU this year and the Gators next year.  Don't you think most players think about those games ahead of Cincy and Pitt, UConn and 'Cuse?  Coaches need to find a way to prepare for both..it's tough I think.  You have to manage to what best benefits the program.

[South_Florida_Flip]

A Big East championship was certainly not an "unreachable goal" when the season started.

[Brad]

USF fans are so unrealistic it is crazy.  You all have no clue how lucky we are to have a team that is competative, has risen so fast in such a short peroid of time.  IF you were unaware FSU, UM, and UF (the big three if you will) all started off as nothing as well.  Lets take a look at their progression shall we???  FSU started in 1947 and took them until 1992 to join the ACC, UM started in 1927 and took them untill 1991 to join the BE (mind you they were quite good as an independant for a few years before that) and the national darling UF started in 1906 joined the SEC in 1933 and didnt win their first conference title till 1991.

Now lets look at USF shall we.  Started football in 1997 in Division 1 AA, joined D1A in 2001 and CUSA in 2003 then made the jump to BE in 2005.  Does anyone else see a difference in our ascension into big time football versus those other teams???

It takes time to build a program.  Sometimes I wish we would have come into the BE and fell on our faces for 10 years while building a solid program instead of how we overacheived.  Now its like being 5-2 is a bad thing and if we are not undefeated we suck and all the coaches should be fired, the players benched, and the university should shut down the athletics program.  

Our program is now basically an awkward teenager in the grand scheme of things and is going through its growing phase.  IF you think we can go from nothing to NC contenders overnight then you are sadly mistaken.  I am proud to be a USF Alumni, proud to be a USF Football fan, and proud to see my program growing each and every year.  

Well stated.

[Brad]

A Big East championship was certainly not an "unreachable goal" when the season started.

I thought it was not unreachable, but unlikely...although I thought when most picked us to be middle of pack in BE, I thought we'd contend for the title.

Then when MG went down, so did those thoughts of contending.  I think that would hold true in the same situation at any other school.