USF's "AQ" football legacy

[Quo Vadis]

Was arguing with some UConn and Cincy fans on another board about which of the three Big East "left behinds" was least deserving of getting promoted to a Power 5 conference and it made me think about our football legacy in the Big East as a member of the "big boy club", in terms of how we performed inside and outside the conference. Here's how it looks to me:

 

the Good:

 

4-2 bowl record

 

25 - 1 against non-AQ OOC opposition. Until the loss to Ball State last year, we never embarrassed the conference by losing to a rent-a-win.

 

9-10 record against AQ OOC opposition. Yeah, that's a losing record, but IMO very respectable for a school brand-new to the big time.

 

Some very nice high-profile road wins against elite names: Notre Dame (2011), Auburn  (2007), Miami (2010), FSU (2009)

 

 

the Bad:

 

22 - 34 Big East record. We never finished better than 4-3 in the conference. Worse yet, the trend was downhill, as we've had 5 straight losing conference records.

 

Never made it to a BCS bowl game.

 

 

 

Overall, i think our body of work between 2005-2012 has been pretty good. The Cincy and Uconn fans tried to say we didn't do much for the conference's reputation, but i disagree. Our STRENGTH was how we performed outside the conference. We won our bowl games and we played very respectably versus some big-name OOC competition. Cincy was 7-9 and UConn was 9-9 versus AQ competition, no better than us. And most of their wins were against small-profile teams like Baylor, Maryland, Duke, and Vanderbilt. We consisently scheduled big name - 8 of our 19 games were against the three Florida power schools, and we also played teams like Oregon, North Carolina, and Penn State in addition to the big names mentioned above. We did not feast on games versus Duke and Vandy.

 

Our failure of course was in the Big East. We tended to start strong and finish weak, and as a Florida team we were at a big disadvantage having to travel up to the cold zone for conference games in October and November (Florida never does that, e.g.).

 

I know our last couple years have been in the toilet, but we have a lot to be proud of concerning our time as an AQ program.

Edited February 25, 2013 by BatonRougeBull87

[Triple B]

I know our last couple years have been in the toilet, but we have a lot to be proud of concerning our time as an AQ program.

We did some good things, football wise, during that run but not near enough to be able to make a decent case over those two, considering they won conference championships ... and when you throw in other sports, our case would be thrown out of court.

[charsibb]

Maybe we are the NCAA D1 example of the Peter Principle.

 

We were promoted to our level of incompetence. Now, we're being demoted, and it will be twice as hard to EARN our way back up. Especially given the environmental changes taking place.

[Quo Vadis]

I know our last couple years have been in the toilet, but we have a lot to be proud of concerning our time as an AQ program.

We did some good things, football wise, during that run but not near enough to be able to make a decent case over those two, considering they won conference championships ... and when you throw in other sports, our case would be thrown out of court.

I am not very bright, but i was bright enough not to argue our basketball vs UConn and UC basketball, lol.

[Triple B]

Maybe we are the NCAA D1 example of the Peter Principle.

 

We were promoted to our level of incompetence. Now, we're being demoted, and it will be twice as hard to EARN our way back up. Especially given the environmental changes taking place.

Could be a valid theory ..... if we had done anything in CUSA.

[Triple B]

I know our last couple years have been in the toilet, but we have a lot to be proud of concerning our time as an AQ program.

We did some good things, football wise, during that run but not near enough to be able to make a decent case over those two, considering they won conference championships ... and when you throw in other sports, our case would be thrown out of court.

I am not very bright, but i was bright enough not to argue our basketball vs UConn and UC basketball, lol.

:thumbs up:

[slick1ru2]

Wonder what good/great span of football did programs like Duke or Vandy or either Miss school have before their conference invites. Or was it something not measured in w/l or TV market that got them in?

[Triple B]

Wonder what good/great span of football did programs like Duke or Vandy or either Miss school have before their conference invites. Or was it something not measured in w/l or TV market that got them in?

Realize that you're not entirely serious but, actually, Duke and Vandy had won numerous association/conference championships before becoming charter members of their current conferences ...

[smazza]

legacy is terrible as usf has never won anything at any level

Edited February 26, 2013 by smazza

[JTrue]

Is this rhetorical? We have an AQ legacy?