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| Bulls On Parade: The Rise of South Florida George Streeter |
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| Despite their recent loss at Rutgers, the South Florida Bulls and their fans still have plenty to be excited about. This has been one of the most surprising and unpredictable college football seasons in recent memory, and it’s not even November yet. We have seen Michigan lose at home to a Division 1-AA team, USC lose at home to a 40-point underdog, and Notre Dame begin their season with just one win in seven tries. The biggest surprise of them all, though, may have come when the first BCS rankings of the season were revealed. That’s when everyone got to see the South Florida Bulls come in as the #2-ranked BCS team in the country. That must have been a misprint, right? They must have meant to say the University of Florida was ranked #2. Or maybe they meant to say Florida State was ranked #2. No folks, the BCS had it right. That was South Florida ranked second in the country. |
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| So how did this happen? How does a program in just its 13th year of existence climb to the top of the college football mountain? Well, let’s start with the head coach: the university hired Jim Leavitt in 1995 to come in and build a football program from scratch. Leavitt got his start by coaching under such legends as Hayden Fry at Iowa and Bill Snyder at Kansas State. By doing so, he got a first-hand look at how to build a program. Fry revitalized a struggling Iowa program and Snyder transformed Kansas State from a laughingstock to a national power. After one season at Iowa as a graduate assistant, Coach Leavitt joined a staff at Kansas State that already included future head coaches Bob and Mike Stoops. Leavitt and Bob Stoops actually shared the defensive coordinator duties until Leavitt left in 1995 to start the South Florida program. Leavitt’s best coaching attributes may be his willingness to outwork his opponents and his relentless approach to recruiting, both of which have come in very handy at South Florida.
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| With fans like this, who cares about the football program? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Programs like USF are really benefiting from the NCAA-imposed 85 scholarship limit. This means national powerhouses like USC, Florida, Ohio State, etc. cannot just stockpile talent and leave the scraps to the lesser-known schools. Now every team has an equal opportunity to obtain good talent and Coach Leavitt and the Bulls are taking full advantage of that. The state of Florida is known for being a hot-bed for high school football talent. USF realizes this and has built their program with home-grown talent. Almost their entire roster is filled with players from Florida. This not only creates a sense of pride within the program, but it also gets the fanbase excited. The state of Florida has plenty of talented players to go around, and with a limited number of scholarships to offer, teams like Florida, FSU, and Miami can’t grab them all. Leavitt has been able to take this talent and develop it into success on the field. Their win over West Virginia on September 28th marked the third time in as many seasons that the Bulls have knocked off a team ranked in the top 10 nationally. Another signature win came just three weeks before that when they marched into SEC country and beat the Auburn Tigers on their home field. The Bulls are starting to prove that they can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the country, and Jim Leavitt is quickly becoming a household name. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Just how good can this program become? In a recent interview with radio host Steve Czaban, Bobby Bowden claimed that South Florida reminded him of his own Florida State program when he first took over in the early 70’s. Bowden said he believes USF can be right up there with FSU, Florida, and Miami in the next 10-15 years. Not bad praise from a man who has more wins than any other coach in Division 1 history. I’m sure Jim Leavitt and the rest of the USF family would be just fine with that. Call it parity, call it mediocrity, call it what you want. The landscape of college football is changing. We’re seeing more and more upsets and fewer dominant programs in the college game. So don’t be shocked the next time you see South Florida ranked in the top 10…… just get used to it. |
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| Leavitt is a highly animated coach, and his manic style has put USF on the college football map | ||||||||||||||||||||
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