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USF: The Program that Almost Was
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:16 pm
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:16 pm
Yeah it nearly sounds like a 30 for 30 topic but I figured this could be an interesting discussion. Has anyone ever seen a program climb out of obscurity, appear to be on the "cusp", and then completely collapse?
Jim Leavitt was their first ever coach in 1997. In his final 4 seasons he had 34 wins for the Bulls scoring wins against WVU, @UNC, NC St., @AU, and @FSU. If I recall correctly they were steady in the polls for a while and climbed up pretty high at times.
So Leavitt gets canned. I'm not sure how the USF fans felt about the Skip Holtz hire but I didn't think it was a bad hire considering Skip's resume. ECU had won 3 games in it's previous 2 seasons before Skip. By Skip's 3rd and 4th seasons (his last 2) ECU won 18 games and 2 CUSA titles. So it seemed to make sense to me that he could work with an "up and coming program"
In his first season Skip went 8-5, the same record of Leavitt's last season. However in Skip's last 2 seasons the Bulls went 5-7 and then sank down to 3-9 losing to teams like Ball St. and Temple. Skip was let go and their new coach, Willie Taggart, went 2-10 in his first season last year.
So what the hell happened? Did their recruiting really fall of that much because of Leavitt's departure?
As deep as the state of FL is has USF just been getting boxed out too much? UF is always talented, FSU has reemerged, UCF has won 10+ games in 3/4 seasons, nearby 'Bama and AU are rotating title game appearances, SC and Clemson have been top 10 programs the last 3 years and both love to get into that FL talent pool, etc.
Jim Leavitt was their first ever coach in 1997. In his final 4 seasons he had 34 wins for the Bulls scoring wins against WVU, @UNC, NC St., @AU, and @FSU. If I recall correctly they were steady in the polls for a while and climbed up pretty high at times.
So Leavitt gets canned. I'm not sure how the USF fans felt about the Skip Holtz hire but I didn't think it was a bad hire considering Skip's resume. ECU had won 3 games in it's previous 2 seasons before Skip. By Skip's 3rd and 4th seasons (his last 2) ECU won 18 games and 2 CUSA titles. So it seemed to make sense to me that he could work with an "up and coming program"
In his first season Skip went 8-5, the same record of Leavitt's last season. However in Skip's last 2 seasons the Bulls went 5-7 and then sank down to 3-9 losing to teams like Ball St. and Temple. Skip was let go and their new coach, Willie Taggart, went 2-10 in his first season last year.
So what the hell happened? Did their recruiting really fall of that much because of Leavitt's departure?
As deep as the state of FL is has USF just been getting boxed out too much? UF is always talented, FSU has reemerged, UCF has won 10+ games in 3/4 seasons, nearby 'Bama and AU are rotating title game appearances, SC and Clemson have been top 10 programs the last 3 years and both love to get into that FL talent pool, etc.
This post was edited on 8/20/14 at 1:17 pm
12
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:18 pm to theGarnetWay
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:19 pm to theGarnetWay
USF was #2 at one point in 2007.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:20 pm to theGarnetWay
I remember when they rose to number two in that crazy 07 season thinking they had the potential to catch lightning in a bottle like Miami and make the jump to a major program. They just kinda fell off the map relevance wise after they lost that year
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:22 pm to ShaneTheLegLechler
Yeah I recall seeing them in some pretty big games on a regular basis for a while, not I can't recall the last time I saw a USF game on TV.. and that's saying something considering how many games come on each Saturday.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:26 pm to theGarnetWay
dont forget about their big time win over kansas in 2008. i think im actually being serious
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:35 pm to rockchlkjayhku11
Grothe was so good.
Not much since at QB.
Not much since at QB.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 1:35 pm to rockchlkjayhku11
They had to fire Jim Leavitt b/c of an investigation by USF officials found that he had struck a player in the locker room during halftime of a game against Louisville the previous November 21. Leavitt claimed he was merely trying to console the player and never struck him. School officials found that Leavitt was not truthful about what happened, and also found that he had interfered with the investigation
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:02 pm to theGarnetWay
quote:
Has anyone ever seen a program climb out of obscurity, appear to be on the "cusp", and then completely collapse?
Tulane. Arkansas. Kansas. Illinois twice in the last 15 years.
quote:
So what the hell happened?
They had a good year, that really didn't end up being that good.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:09 pm to saintsfan22
Amp hill.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:09 pm to saintsfan22
quote:
Tulane. Arkansas. Kansas. Illinois twice in the last 15 years.
Tulane, KU, and Illinois were all one hit wonders. Despite their post-Petrino collapse Arkansas has some good football history and an established program.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:13 pm to theGarnetWay
Have they been eclipsed by Central Florida?
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:15 pm to theGarnetWay
quote:
Tulane, KU, and Illinois were all one hit wonders. Despite their post-Petrino collapse Arkansas has some good football history and an established program.
Agreed, schools like Arky, TAMU and SCAR are in another category, although to your credit, SCAR has pretty much lifted itself out of said category.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:15 pm to saintsfan22
quote:
They had a good year, that really didn't end up being that good.
This. They ended up losing 4 games that year and never finished a season ranked.
Leavitt was clearly the stabilizing force behind the program but he was a psycho. USF and UCF never are able to recruit as well as you think they should, being in Florida. Leavitt and O'Leary are great at finding under the radar talent and fielding a good to great defense every year. Holtz and Taggart haven't been able to replicate that.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:17 pm to theGarnetWay
South Florida was ranked as high as #2 in the polls in the wacky 2007 football season.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:19 pm to rockchlkjayhku11
quote:
dont forget about their big time win over kansas in 2008. i think im actually being serious
It was big at the time
KU was coming off its 12-1 season, was 3-0 and ranked in the Top 15
But as for USF... I remember it seemed for a while that their offense led by Matt Groethe was unstoppable but then they got figured out.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:51 pm to theGarnetWay
quote:
Tulane, KU, and Illinois were all one hit wonders.
But going undefeated or a BCS bowl is more on the cusp than rising to the middle of the Big East.
Also UCONN is another program which did the same.
This post was edited on 8/20/14 at 2:52 pm
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:55 pm to saintsfan22
quote:
But going undefeated or a BCS bowl is more on the cusp than rising to the middle of the Big East.
Nah, if that's the standard is someone really going to argue that Hawaii and Northern Illinois were also on the cusp?
Although USF did have it's fair share of losses Leavitt and Co. brought a program, literally from nothing, to a team that was a consistently ranked team and would even knock off some of the big boys of CFB.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 2:59 pm to RollTide1987
quote:
South Florida was ranked as high as #2 in the polls in the wacky 2007 football season.
That's been said about three times already.
Posted on 8/20/14 at 3:02 pm to theGarnetWay
quote:
Nah, if that's the standard is someone really going to argue that Hawaii and Northern Illinois were also on the cusp?
Well Northern Illinois is a better program than USF ever was.
quote:
to a team that was a consistently ranked team
They never finished any of those Leavitt season's ranked.
This post was edited on 8/20/14 at 3:03 pm
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