Big East battle comes to USF backyard

[Apis Bull]

Big East battle comes to USF backyard

A new billboard along I-4 sends a message from new USF foe Rutgers University to Tampa Bay area football players - We want you!

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published December 22, 2004

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TAMPA - Looking for a sign that USF is moving into tough recruiting battles in the Big East? Try I-4.

Heading west on the interstate, near the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, drivers will notice a billboard with a group of football players and a curious message: "Season's Greetings from Rutgers Football."

It's a creative recruiting tool for the New Jersey school, which recruits Florida heavily. And that group photo isn't a team picture: It's just the 27 players from Florida who were on Rutgers' 2004 roster, including Jefferson's Robert Baham and Sickles' Dan Biernacki.

"Tampa is a very big market for us, and the billboards have helped with recruiting," said Kevin MacConnell, Rutgers' associate athletic director for external affairs. "It's just about exposure. I think it makes a lot of sense. Kids we're recruiting say, "Oh, my God, my face is going to be up on a billboard.' "

Rutgers (4-7, 1-5 in the Big East in 2004) is a contender for Armwood's Demetrius McCray and Jefferson's Alex Suber and Devin Giles, with McCray and Suber also considering offers from USF.

The promotion is all about recruiting, as the signs went up Dec. 1 and will go down the week after National Signing Day in February. Rutgers is renting five such billboards, including four in the Miami area, where they've run in past winters. The total cost to run five billboards for two months is less than $20,000, MacConnell said.

And, before you ask, Rutgers has cleared the billboards with the NCAA, which MacConnell said has no problems because current athletes are used only to promote their own football program and no recruits are targeted specifically.

Coach Greg Schiano, entering his fifth season at Rutgers, was the defensive coordinator at Miami for two years and recognizes the benefits of recruiting Florida. USF, which begins play in the Big East next fall and will travel to face Rutgers in 2005, is expanding its recruiting territory to include New Jersey. As for marketing there, USF associate athletic director Tom Veit quipped that the climate was an obstacle.

"We were going to buy a billboard in Jersey, but the snow was going to cover it up," he said. "We understand that everyone in Jersey wants to be here in Florida for the holidays."

Link

Veit's quote is pretty funny.

[79 Bull]

TV could have taken the high road and said how imaginative or clever it was of Rutgers to do that.  And then he could have explained his recruit marketing plan to identify and discuss the differences.  (I guess we need to have a plan to make that work.)

[Apis Bull]

Man, you need to lighten up some.   ;D

[Bullogna]

Again see my post on Questions for the board.

[79 Bull]

Man, you need to lighten up some.   ;D

I know, I know.  I need to get away from bashing marketing.

I just think the "we live in paradise where it doesn't snow" act is tiring and this was an opportunity for Auman and TV to discuss recruit marketing.

[Brad]

How about buying some billboards in Tampa wiseguy - no snow problems there.  I'm with 79 Bull on this.  His attempt at humor shows just how unprepared he was.  I don't find it funny at all.  

[Omniscientbull]

Fat a$$, oh I meany Tommy, just feels bad that he can't think of anything creative.

[Zonald]

Yea, that's a pretty good idea for Rutgers.  $20k for all that doesn't seem to unreasonable to me at all.  

[The Sheriff]

Smart ploy by Rutgers makes us look foolish. We so have the chance to take our University to the next level, yet we sit back on our hands and watch another University become more proactive than us in our backyard. Should we just give up and lay to waste now?

If I was in Tampa, I would make a road trip to that billboard late at night to make some minor changes. I wouldn't mess with the kids on it, but I would change the headline.

[bulls96go]

relationships count.

i know we are on guy's in our area like white on rice, a billboard will not sway them.