Trib: Bulls on verge of milestone victory

[USFishin]

Bulls on verge of milestone victory

By ADAM ADKINS | The Tampa Tribune

Lee Roy Selmon has watched the University of South Florida football program since its infancy and can't help but be taken aback with how quickly it has grown.

One thing that always brings excitement for the university's former director of athletics is a milestone, which the Bulls are on the cusp of reaching.

USF's next win will be its 100th.

"It's great because you see the excitement around the community, on the faces of the kids, the alumni and the students, and that's what you enjoy. So I'm excited to reach that," said Selmon, who currently serves as the president for the USF Foundation Partnership for Athletics. "That's another one of those key points in a program's history."

Key moments have surrounded USF's previous quarter-mark wins â 25, 50 and 75 â and a look back over the 14-year history shows how quickly the Bulls ascended from their humble beginnings.

A little more than three years after bursting onto the scene with an 80-3 drubbing of Kentucky Wesleyan in the program's first game, the Bulls picked up victory No.â25 in a 21-13 home triumph against Connecticut on Oct. 28, 2000. The win came during a landmark season for the Bulls â their transition year from Division I-AA to I-A.

Marquel Blackwell was a key figure during that time as the team's starting quarterback. Blackwell, now a USF program assistant, remembers all the talk then about where the program could go, but that wasn't the focus of the players.

"The biggest thing was to go out and be competitive and win. There wasn't any question about it that eventually we (as a program) would be able to play for something, but our biggest mentality was to just go out and win," he said. "You think about the big picture, but at the time, the big picture didn't mean a whole lot."

It was less than a year later, on Sept.â8, 2001, Blackwell and his cohorts managed the first signature win in Bulls history â a 35-26 triumph at Pittsburgh. The win, hailed at the time as monumental, helped put USF football squarely on the map.

Win No.â50 came in dramatic fashion during USF's first season in Conference USA in 2003. What transpired on the field during that 38-37 double-overtime triumph at East Carolina, however, paled mightily in comparison to the decision made four days prior, one that stands as arguably the most significant in program history.

On Nov.â4, 2003, USF officially accepted an invitation to join the Big East Conference.

It was then-director of athletics Selmon, along with USF President Judy Genshaft, who served at the forefront during that critical juncture. Sparked by the departures of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College for the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East was looking for stability through addition.

USF, Selmon believed, had everything to be a viable candidate: a presence for the conference in Florida, one of the nation's largest media markets and success, albeit over a relatively short period of time, on the field.

"Things were moving pretty fast," Selmon said. "One thing I did not want to do was go out and be pushy. I just felt we had enough to sell by just telling our story."

Shortly after a face-to-face meeting with Big East officials in New Jersey, USF officially received its invitation to join the conference, Selmon said. They wasted no time in accepting.

"I think it was paramount," current USF director of athletics Doug Woolard said of the decision.

Arguably the most exciting time in program history centered around win No.â75, a 35-23 win at Florida Atlantic on Oct. 6, 2007. That triumph followed consecutive victories over nationally ranked opponents Auburn and West Virginia, and one week later the Bulls would earn their best start ever â at 6-0 â with a 64-12 shellacking of UCF at Raymond James Stadium.

The stream of success vaulted USF to No.â2 in the national rankings.

"That was quite the wild ride," said senior offensive lineman Jacob Sims, a redshirt freshman at the time. "It was like that unknown territory, and every week it was something new. It was really, really exciting to see the program in that position. ⦠It gave you the sense that we're getting on that national stage and starting to make it big time."

USF will be back on a national stage Wednesday, when the Bulls try for win No.â100 in a nationally televised matchup against Rutgers at Raymond James Stadium. Whether USF earns the milestone victory in its first chance remains to be seen, but it will come at yet another significant point in program history.

Skip Holtz, hired after USF terminated the first coach in its history, Jim Leavitt, is now in charge. And he's tasked with moving the program forward.

The potential for that, however, is great. Holtz recognizes the tie-in to a BCS conference and a fertile recruiting ground surrounding all sides of his home base as key ingredients.

"The thing that excites me with this program is I don't think there is a ceiling on it," the Bulls' first-year coach said. "There are a lot of things, I think, in store for this program."

There were plenty of milestones over the past 14 years, but there are plenty more left to reach.

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[Guest nybullsfan]

I hope we earn win #100 by CRUSHING Rutgers 100-0!!

Go Bulls!

[DELdaBull]

I hope we earn win #100 by CRUSHING Rutgers 100-0!!

Go Bulls!

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