TAMPA --On the cover of the University of South Florida 2007 football media guide the players and head coach Jim Leavitt are hoisting the Papajohns.Com Bowl trophy.

That picture signaled the end to a magical 2006 season, in which the Bulls defeated East Carolina for the school's first-ever bowl victory and finished with a 9-4 record.

The players and coaches are gushing with pride and confidence.

However, USF's standing goes no further than Tampa's Fowler Avenue.

Heading into the 2007 season, there are still doubters.

Doubts USF can be a Big East powerhouse, and doubts the Bulls can compete with conference favorites West Virginia and Louisville. USF has beaten both schools over the past two seasons, but still there are naysayers.

In 2007, the Bulls are picked to finish fourth in the Big East behind WVU, Louisville and Rutgers.

With 19 returning starters, including a Big East Rookie of the Year in sophomore quarterback Matt Grothe, the Bulls are feeling disrespected.

"Maybe, people feel we are moving up too fast," said senior wide receiver Amarri Jackson, a Sarasota Riverview graduate. "We have not been in the Big East that long, and we are working hard to get to the top, and that may have surprised some people, but we will show them."

On Tuesday, Tampa's Raymond James Stadium was buzzing as USF held its annual media day. Torrential downpours delayed team pictures for about 30 minutes, but the rain couldn't wash away the team's obvious moxie entering the season opener against Elon College on Sept. 1.

"Our expectations have always been high since I've been at South Florida," said head coach Jim Leavitt, who's entering his 10th season with the Bulls.

"We won our bowl game, and we have a lot of returning players, so I'm excited about it. I hope we get used to these kinds of things."

The only way to change the minds of the critics is win on a consistent basis. That means beating the teams rated ahead of them in the Big East, ending all speculation about who is the better team.

On the other hand, that's easier said than done.

The competition doesn't get much tougher than matchups against Auburn, West Virginia, Rutgers and Louisville.

That's when the Bulls must seize the opportunity to prove their worth.

"We are always down rated at the beginning of every season," said senior captain Mike Jenkins, a defensive back and 2003 Southeast High standout. "This is just motivation for us. It gives us more anger to play with."

Feeling disrespected or not, the Bulls are aiming for their first Big East title in '07.

"Of course," Jenkins said. "We are coming up real quick, and a lot people don't want to face that fact. If we come out and play our A (game) I won't put us below nobody."

USF's schedule

Sep. 1 - Elon, TBA

Sep. 8 - at Auburn, 9 p.m.

Sep. 22 - North Carolina, TBA

Sep. 28 - West Virginia, 8 p.m.

Oct. 6 - at Florida Atlantic, 4 p.m.

Oct. 13 - UCF, TBA

Oct. 18 - at Rutgers, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 27 - at Connecticut, TBA

Nov. 3 - Cincinnati, TBA

Nov. 10 - at Syracuse, TBA

Nov. 17 - Louisville, TBA

Nov. 24 - at Pittsburgh, TBA

http://www.bradenton.com/sports/story/118404.html

Quote:"Of course," Jenkins said. "We are coming up real quick, and a lot people don't want to face that fact. If we come out and play our A (game) I won't put us below nobody."

Don't lose the games to UCONN and Kansas every year and people will stop putting USF 'below nobody'.

If they beat Auburn, and don't fall asleep against North Carolina afterwards, they'll come into the West Virginia game with a top 25 ranking.

Of course, if they lose to Auburn, they could get down and lose the next 3 straight. You never know what will happen until the game is played.

I think the first is the more likely of the 2 possibilities.

Where are these "doubters"? I've seen many more articles proclaiming USF a "budding superpower" than not.

Would you believe, elsewhere?

L-yes Wrote:

Quote:"Of course," Jenkins said. "We are coming up real quick, and a lot people don't want to face that fact. If we come out and play our A (game) I won't put us below nobody."

Don't lose the games to UCONN and Kansas every year and people will stop putting USF 'below nobody'.

agreed but i think those two losses were more of a product of a young inexperienced team. the uconn game we bought ino our own hype and we overlooked our opponent (sound familiar? ). the kansas game was in large part due to grothe's growing pains much like the cinci game, plus the lack of any type of ground game. next year should be better and hopefully we can go through one season w/o an inexplicable loss.

bitcruncher Wrote:If they beat Auburn, and don't fall asleep against North Carolina afterwards, they'll come into the West Virginia game with a top 25 ranking.

Of course, if they lose to Auburn, they could get down and lose the next 3 straight. You never know what will happen until the game is played.

I think the first is the more likely of the 2 possibilities.

one game at a time, unc is going to be much better this year w/ butch davis and that recruiting class. it won't be a pushover game by any means.

USFMike Wrote:

L-yes Wrote:

Quote:"Of course," Jenkins said. "We are coming up real quick, and a lot people don't want to face that fact. If we come out and play our A (game) I won't put us below nobody."

Don't lose the games to UCONN and Kansas every year and people will stop putting USF 'below nobody'.

agreed but i think those two losses were more of a product of a young inexperienced team. the uconn game we bought ino our own hype and we overlooked our opponent (sound familiar? ). the kansas game was in large part due to grothe's growing pains much like the cinci game, plus the lack of any type of ground game. next year should be better and hopefully we can go through one season w/o an inexplicable loss.

Familiar? Not really, unless of course you think USF is a bad team. Louisville has finished first and second in it's two years in the league and wins a conference title about once for every two years on average. USF has made a habit of winning some big games and in the same season losing to middle of the road to simply bad programs. Until USF can get past that point and win the ones they should I don't see why they should get loads of respect.

Though as someone else noted I have yet to see a preseason article that hasn't been complimentary of USF. This 'lack of respect' article is out of left field. If anything this article should have come out of Cincy.

I agree we are not there yet. But you forget is only a couple of years ago that your Louisville team was losing to teams like USF 6-6, very similar to that Kansas team you mentioned.

This USF squad is the deepest, most well balanced and experienced bulls team we have had in our short history. Hopefully that transalates into beating those we should beat even on the road.

USFMike Wrote:

bitcruncher Wrote:If they beat Auburn, and don't fall asleep against North Carolina afterwards, they'll come into the West Virginia game with a top 25 ranking.

Of course, if they lose to Auburn, they could get down and lose the next 3 straight. You never know what will happen until the game is played.

I think the first is the more likely of the 2 possibilities.

one game at a time, unc is going to be much better this year w/ butch davis and that recruiting class. it won't be a pushover game by any means.

If the Bulls play the way they are capable, they should have no real problem with North Carolina.

L-yes Wrote:

USFMike Wrote:

L-yes Wrote:

Quote:"Of course," Jenkins said. "We are coming up real quick, and a lot people don't want to face that fact. If we come out and play our A (game) I won't put us below nobody."

Don't lose the games to UCONN and Kansas every year and people will stop putting USF 'below nobody'.

agreed but i think those two losses were more of a product of a young inexperienced team. the uconn game we bought ino our own hype and we overlooked our opponent (sound familiar? ). the kansas game was in large part due to grothe's growing pains much like the cinci game, plus the lack of any type of ground game. next year should be better and hopefully we can go through one season w/o an inexplicable loss.

Familiar? Not really, unless of course you think USF is a bad team. Louisville has finished first and second in it's two years in the league and wins a conference title about once for every two years on average. USF has made a habit of winning some big games and in the same season losing to middle of the road to simply bad programs. Until USF can get past that point and win the ones they should I don't see why they should get loads of respect.

Though as someone else noted I have yet to see a preseason article that hasn't been complimentary of USF. This 'lack of respect' article is out of left field. If anything this article should have come out of Cincy.

who said anything about being a bad team? you were clearly the favorite in tampa correct? just like we were clearly the favorite in conneticut. and just like us who was looking ahead to the west va game you overlooked us and got stomped 45-14. and i agreed with what you said, in order for the program to take another step they can't afford to lose games they're supposed to win.

USFMike Wrote:one game at a time, unc is going to be much better this year w/ butch davis and that recruiting class. it won't be a pushover game by any means.

Either yesterday or Tuesday, ESPN did a featured segment on Butch Davis and UNC Football.

ESPN did mention how in just a short time, Davis and his staff was able to recruit some top players away from other Top 20 programs to sign with UNC...however they all agreed that the current talent at UNC is "weak"...even compared to the rest of the ACC...but give Davis another 2-3 recruiting classes...and UNC Football might be "back"...but this time...STAY back and not falter.

USFMike Wrote:

L-yes Wrote:

USFMike Wrote:

L-yes Wrote:

Quote:"Of course," Jenkins said. "We are coming up real quick, and a lot people don't want to face that fact. If we come out and play our A (game) I won't put us below nobody."

Don't lose the games to UCONN and Kansas every year and people will stop putting USF 'below nobody'.

agreed but i think those two losses were more of a product of a young inexperienced team. the uconn game we bought ino our own hype and we overlooked our opponent (sound familiar? ). the kansas game was in large part due to grothe's growing pains much like the cinci game, plus the lack of any type of ground game. next year should be better and hopefully we can go through one season w/o an inexplicable loss.

Familiar? Not really, unless of course you think USF is a bad team. Louisville has finished first and second in it's two years in the league and wins a conference title about once for every two years on average. USF has made a habit of winning some big games and in the same season losing to middle of the road to simply bad programs. Until USF can get past that point and win the ones they should I don't see why they should get loads of respect.

Though as someone else noted I have yet to see a preseason article that hasn't been complimentary of USF. This 'lack of respect' article is out of left field. If anything this article should have come out of Cincy.

who said anything about being a bad team? you were clearly the favorite in tampa correct? just like we were clearly the favorite in conneticut. and just like us who was looking ahead to the west va game you overlooked us and got stomped 45-14. and i agreed with what you said, in order for the program to take another step they can't afford to lose games they're supposed to win.

UConn's fans will tell you they're a bad team. Will USF's say they are? I think USF has good to great talent. I just see you guys as the most inconsistent program in the league cabable of beating the #2 team and in the same season losing to the #8 team. It seems to be a trend over the last couple of seasons.

Maybe the guy wrote the article about me being the lone USF critic.

L-Yes
The reality is that USf has had good talent but has not had depth nor have they been a well balanced team.
The last few years we have had pretty god defensive teams but our offense has lacked the balanced and depth needed to be a consistent winner.
The year we lost to UConn we were a run dominated team, IF the defense was good enough to stuff the running game and Hall then USF would have trouble scoring as was shown in the UConn and NCST games.
Last year it was the opposite, we were more of a passing team with very liottle running punch, so if you had an agressive defense that could pressure the QB as UL and Cincy did then we would struggle.
This year is the first time that USF seems to have enough talent and depth to be a double treat in offense. We will see what happens but I think the times of defenses being able to mark ONE guy on USF's offense and shutting it out are over.

i will say this, looking back on that year we really overachieved. we had a horrible qb, our receivers were young and couldn't catch, recruits from when we were div 1aa were still in prominent roles. we were much like cinci was last year we ran the ball and played defense. so i would not say we were a good team that year, gritty and overachieving for sure but we didn't have near the talent we have this year, we had to fight for every win we got.

I hope the Bulls beat the dog snot out of the Holes. Going to have a ton of Pirate fans pulling for USF on the 22nd.

If you ask me, I think UCONN is being seriously disrespected right now. Our team should be much better with an older OL and a new QB. We will surprise a few people. People forget last year's team had bunch of freshmen and sophomores. It won't be cake walk to beat us this year.

I do agree with other posters here that USF is one of those unpredictable teams where one week it can win against #2 league team and lose to #8 the following game. Great teams show up no matter what game they are playing.

SF Husky Wrote:If you ask me, I think UCONN is being seriously disrespected right now. Our team should be much better with an older OL and a new QB. We will surprise a few people. People forget last year's team had bunch of freshmen and sophomores. It won't be cake walk to beat us this year.

I do agree with other posters here that USF is one of those unpredictable teams where one week it can win against #2 league team and lose to #8 the following game. Great teams show up no matter what game they are playing.

You're right. USF was favored by only a touchdown at our place last time-it's not like they were going to crush us.

Had we pulled out the home game vs. RU (a two point loss) we would have been bowling that year. Sheesh.

EDIT: I cannot understand why teams like UVA, UCLA, etc are being hyped up due to last year's youth but Connecticut is still ranked 90-th to 100th despite the fact that a freshman offensive line and running back did a very good job against both Cincy and Pitt at the end of last year...of course Edsall just had to put the veterans on the line back in at the Syracuse game...ugh.

uconnbaseball Wrote:I cannot understand why teams like UVA, UCLA, etc are being hyped up due to last year's youth but Connecticut is still ranked 90-th to 100th

I'm not sure many are hyping UVA. As for UCLA, how can we compare them to UConn? UCLA beat USC last season, and return most of their team.

UVA is projected to be a Top 20 team by Herbstreit and is constantly in Preseason Mags Top 40...and they lost to Western Michigan and ECU.

That is some pretty good hype right there. They're stuck right with us right now.

You are right about UCLA, sure. But on a different note...they sure do not deserve all of the accolades they are getting. They did lose 6 games last year.