Why do kids not want to come to USF?

[lmiusf]

Bullpride, well said. Give it few more years. Skip is a very engaging person. He'll win a lots of battles. If he pull out a win at uf and beat miami. And he continue to show his face on national tv. You'll see a jump in recruiting next season. My son is 13, and know all about USF. He played pop warner and college coaches is recruiting him now. I'll make sure he becomes a Bull. 

What position Bulldozier?

[bulldozier1]

He played free safety, runningback, kick returner this past season. He only has two years of football. So he plays off natural ability. I believe when he get high school, he'll most likely linebacker. Right now, he's about 5'6 125 at 13. I don't want to put him on weights now. Don't want to stunt his growth.

[Guest Scherdin]

There's a myriad of factor but these 2 are the most important:

1.  Name Recognition in the NFL-Mike Jenkins is the best player we have in the league and even though he is good he isn't a household name.  The more successful players you put in the NFL the more players will consider you as an option, this is why Miami recruits the way they do year in and year out. 

2.  Tradition-Very few kids have grown up being USF Fans from the time they can remember and this is probably the biggest factor for instate kids.  Most grow up as a fan of one of the big 3 unless their parents have attended another university and even then when growing up in this state it becomes a choose one of the 3, or even choose one of the 2 (UF FSU) in some areas.  It's hard to compete with a recruits "life long" dream.

Those are really the biggest factors that are holding us down at the moment.  Facilities, OCS, and other things are nice but are usually not the deciding factor for most quality recruits.  If we can get more successful players in the NFL and start to wins some conference titles and BCS bowl games the other stuff will fall into place.  As much as some people would have you believe it's a **** measuring contest about facilities and having a OCS and what not its really all about putting kids at the next level and winning consistently so you can get into a kid's head years before he even has an inkling that he will play college football.   

+1, these are the best reasons. 

I think we are about to see some nice changes with recruits.  We will probably have 5-7 NFL starters in the next couple of years and getting these guys to get in front of these kids will help.  Our facilities and deal with UA are getting better and better each year.  And Holtz and his staff seem to be building some strong ties to the area (except in Bradenton  ). If we can put some solid winning seasons and get to some better Bowl games, I think you will see a lot more local talen stick around.

[theman123]

To answer your original question:

-We've never won a conference championship

-We've never won a national championship

-We've always finished in the middle of the pack, in an average conference

-We don't send players to the NFL year after year.

-We have the lowest recruiting budget of all BCS teams.

These are all reasons why we don't bring in top talent all that much.

[Bullpride08]

To answer your original question:

-We've never won a conference championship

-We've never won a national championship

-We've always finished in the middle of the pack, in an average conference

-We don't send players to the NFL year after year.

-We have the lowest recruiting budget of all BCS teams.

These are all reasons why we don't bring in top talent all that much.

But when you take all that into account we do a good job bringing in talent despite the lack of all the aforementioned.  A few more big breaks, ala a couple more T-Rex's and Giddins, and the perception will eventually change and we'll achieve those goals above and start swaying a few more key recruits.

[nobull.Bulls]

Once we win a Big East title or two with the talent with have, we'll likely start to bring in a good amount of blue chip recruits

[Oldsmobull]

Winning Big East championships would be nice, but I don't think conference titles or even being in the SEC or ACC is what it takes for USF to win over the blue chip Florida recruits.  What will win over the Florida high school recruits and get them to come to USF is consistent wins over UF, FSU and Miami--that and being a top 10 nationally ranked football team.  Guess that success is like putting the cart before the horse though.  It takes time, but I think USF is on a fast track to get to the next level in recruiting.

[postmortem]

It just takes time. When I was in elementary and middle school (I'm 23 now) kids would come up and ask you "are you a gator or a seminole?" There were no other options. UF and FSU were the only 2 schools you were a fan of. USF has to become part of that option for kids growing up. I've never heard a recruit say "It's always been my dream to be a USF Bull!" But that happens 5 times a year for UF, FSU and UM. Our day will come.