Current Music: "The Man in Me," Bob Dylan- The Big Lebowski Soundtrack
Do you expect a Cinderella team to come out of nowhere, shattering expectations and rocketing onto the national scene?
The team abides.
Do you expect that same team to falter under the spotlight and attention, thereby returning the natural order of the big conferences and established names?
The team abides.
I am, of course, talking about the University of South Florida Bulls. Barely a decade old, they have catered to all manner of college football fan. You want unprecedented success? Try knocking off Auburn in 2007, a team that has been playing football for over a hundred years—seriously, some of their tackling dummies are older than the Bulls—in Jordan-Hare, surrounded by over a hundred thousand hostile fans. Let's follow that up by taking down top ten West Virginia at home in front of a sold-out crowd, clobbering FAU (35-23) and they-wish-they-were rivals UCF (64-12), and rocketing up to #2 in the national rankings.
Do you want a return to the status quo? Try losing the next game to Rutgers, faltering in Big East play and disappearing from the national memory. Since joining the Big East, the Bulls have not won more than 4 conference games in a single season, the worst record coming in 2008 (just 2-5). Given that the Big East is widely considered to be the weakest of the BCS conferences, this stat is less than impressive.
The question is: which team will show up for 2009?
The offseason additions of Mike Canales (offensive coordinator) and Joe Tresey (defensive coordinator) are an encouraging step. Canales has worked closely with QB Matt Grothe to improve his decision-making, thereby making him more adept at running the spread system Canales is instituting. Tresey was the architect of the Cincinnati Bearcats' defense, a swarming turnover machine that led their squad to the Big East championship, their first since 1964. And let's not forget that this defense is led by All-American George Selvie, the nation's leader in tackles for loss (68), and second in sacks (25.5). The addition of blue chip recruit Ryne Giddins can make this D-Line more of a nightmare for opposing QBs than it already is.
But the o-line is young, with only 2 starters returning. And unless a bona fide RB emerges as an every-down back, the rushing duties will fall again to Grothe, who has led the team in rushing the last 3 years. RB Jamar Taylor is out 8-10 weeks with a knee injury, which means it will be between Mike Ford and Mo Plancher. All this reminds every South Florida fan that if something should happen to Grothe, it is going to be a looong season.
Yes, there are questions. But there are also answers. The schedule is a mixed bag in 2009 –the first 3 games are Woffard, Western Kentucky, and Charleston Southern—hardly a murderer's row. But they also head to Doak Campbell to face FSU and host Miami in November—two in-state games that are huge for bragging rights and recruiting. Both Coach Leavitt (the only coach in the school's history) and Matt Grothe have stated again and again that the goal right now is a Big East Championship, and everything else is gravy. The Bulls can hang with any team in the country, but the conference always poses unexpected challenges.
The tools are all in place.
Let's hope the team abides.
