USF's Future

[Bayfisher]

What are going to be the positives coming from this season for the Bulls? No matter the finish.  They seem to have the support of the city and had a glimpse of national attention. They did had a chance to win every game so far and lost their three games by only 15 points.  All were in reach.  A few consistency lapses really hurt them.  Combined with depth and poor special teams play.  Have they done enough in the past couple of seasons in order to draw better players in the future? Just wondering what everyone thought.

I am really happy the area has something to be proud of as far as college football is concerned.  It seems like just yesterday I told friends up North that one day USF would be a good team and they said "Who".  I remember them laughing at the Bulls sticker on my boat every time they visited.  I also remember seeing on the news that the team didn't even have enough pads to practice in the beginning. They really have come a long way for their short time. For them to even go as high as they did is a credit in its own right.

[krazybuc]

They're gonna have much better recruits from here on out.
They have a much larger fan base now.
They can expect more national attention.
The school's gonna make more money from their football program which is a big plus.

[BucsBullsBolts]

This year was just another building block in the program. The meteoric rise this year got them national attention so they can, if they want to, broaden their search for recruits further outside the state.... but I'm not really sure that's even needed.... Just keep raising the quality of the Florida players we get. What's been encouraging is that all this current success has been with recruiting classes that I don't think have broken the top 50 in rankings. If there is one thing that Leavitt and his staff have done is take less than stellar talent, on paper, and win at a pretty decent level.

As far as the city supporting, the shot to the top picked up a ton of bandwagoners and the good thing about that is that all of them won't have jumped back off. That's really the only way to build a fan base these days in a market like Tampa. It's still going to be a lengthy process because of the lack of people growing up being Bulls fans. The seed's been planted with the current students and all the kids being brought to games but it will still be a long time before the support is going to be anywhere close to the older, traditional programs..

[BucsBullsBolts]

They have a much larger fan base now.

It's larger but I'm not sure how much larger it is. The L'ville game may be a good indicator, as will the bowl interest...

[Runole]

They have a much larger fan base now.

It's larger but I'm not sure how much larger it is. The L'ville game may be a good indicator, as will the bowl interest...

Tend to agree..  and that is the next task for USF to consider..  Are they interested in packing the stadium or are they going to hope all the Big East teams will help fill RJS?

Personally, the only decision I have disagreed with is the aversion of USF having an annual game every year with UCF.  That will always be an attendance +.  It seems many USF fans don't want to see this.  Personally, I believe fans in the seats is a big determiner in the solvency of a program.

I do believe they will become a local favorite for High School players in the bay area and it won't be long before they can keep most of the good ones home and even away from Miami UF and FSU.

[BucsBullsBolts]

Personally, the only decision I have disagreed with is the aversion of USF having an annual game every year with UCF.  That will always be an attendance +.  It seems many USF fans don't want to see this.  Personally, I believe fans in the seats is a big determiner in the solvency of a program.

This whole USF/UCF thing has been going on since USF football was born. When the Bulls were just starting out UCF wanted nothing to do with scheduling USF. Then, as the Bulls started to make some nice strides on the football field, UCF comes back and wants to start a rivalry. By that time, USF was already making a small name for itself and making inroads with high school players and the cons outweighed the pros for playing UCF.... and the cons for playing them now outweigh the pros even more. The only positives of playing them now are the attendance bump, which won;t be that big of a deal if the Bulls continue their growth, and one less ooc game to have to worry about..... I;m pretty sure Woolard would probably give them a 2-1 or even a set up like WVU-Marshall has, but UCF thinks they are above those now....

[Runole]

Personally, the only decision I have disagreed with is the aversion of USF having an annual game every year with UCF.  That will always be an attendance +.  It seems many USF fans don't want to see this.  Personally, I believe fans in the seats is a big determiner in the solvency of a program.

This whole USF/UCF thing has been going on since USF football was born. When the Bulls were just starting out UCF wanted nothing to do with scheduling USF. Then, as the Bulls started to make some nice strides on the football field, UCF comes back and wants to start a rivalry. By that time, USF was already making a small name for itself and making inroads with high school players and the cons outweighed the pros for playing UCF.... and the cons for playing them now outweigh the pros even more. The only positives of playing them now are the attendance bump, which won;t be that big of a deal if the Bulls continue their growth, and one less ooc game to have to worry about..... I;m pretty sure Woolard would probably give them a 2-1 or even a set up like WVU-Marshall has, but UCF thinks they are above those now....

If Elon will outdraw UCF every year I would tend to agree with your assertion.  If this weeks Louisville game outdraws the UCF game will also give your assertion a bit of support.  However, if the Louisville game doesn't outdraw the UCF game it would appear that my assertion has some value.   Attendance is what makes a CFB program viable.

[BucsBullsBolts]

Personally, the only decision I have disagreed with is the aversion of USF having an annual game every year with UCF.  That will always be an attendance +.  It seems many USF fans don't want to see this.  Personally, I believe fans in the seats is a big determiner in the solvency of a program.

This whole USF/UCF thing has been going on since USF football was born. When the Bulls were just starting out UCF wanted nothing to do with scheduling USF. Then, as the Bulls started to make some nice strides on the football field, UCF comes back and wants to start a rivalry. By that time, USF was already making a small name for itself and making inroads with high school players and the cons outweighed the pros for playing UCF.... and the cons for playing them now outweigh the pros even more. The only positives of playing them now are the attendance bump, which won;t be that big of a deal if the Bulls continue their growth, and one less ooc game to have to worry about..... I;m pretty sure Woolard would probably give them a 2-1 or even a set up like WVU-Marshall has, but UCF thinks they are above those now....

If Elon will outdraw UCF every year I would tend to agree with your assertion.  If this weeks Louisville game outdraws the UCF game will also give your assertion a bit of support.  However, if the Louisville game doesn't outdraw the UCF game it would appear that my assertion has some value. Attendance is what makes a CFB program viable.

You're not paying attention. I said one of the only positives at this time IS the attendance bump, so the attendance of the Louisville game doesn't come into play one way or the other.... and you can't look at Elon like that because we get them with no return game. You'd have to add two Elon type games together and compare to one UCF game, attendancewise, to get the real effect
With UCF, you're only talking about 10K-15K extra butts in seats once every two years so it really isn't that big of a deal in the overall scheme of things...

Attendance of a team's OWN fans is what makes a CFB program viable.
   

[olafberserker]

We had no attendance problems for WVU.  Winning is the key and building a strong alumni base.  It's an 11 year old program.  Buidlign the base takes time.  I'd say the attendance figures are probalby decent when taking that into account.