NCAA Football South Florida Football

Was it really only four years ago that the Big East was in danger of losing it's BCS status? Miami and Virginia Tech left in 2003 and Boston College in 2004. The conference sent Pitt, one of several 8-4 teams in the Big East to lose to Utah in the Fiesta Bowl. And there wasn't much reason to think the conference was going to get better any time soon. The conference was written off by the media and the blogospher didn't even bother to poke fun.

But something happened last week that most of us didn't even notice. The Big East was granted a spot in the BCS through 2013.

The reason is simple: no one noticed the news. No one questioned the Big East's place at the adult table. The reaffirmation wasn't even a note in BCS meeting coverage. "It was quiet,'' Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said Tuesday. "The way I like it."

You'd never make it as a blogger Mr. Tranghese. You need to rub it in someones face every once in a while. The least you could do is hold up one of those foam we're #1 hands. Or one of six, I guess. How bout a little woot-woot? Oh fine!

Despite the picture on the right, you can't just point to West Virginia and say their two BCS bowl victories and three straight top ten finishes are the reason. But I won't argue with you if you do. It really has been the improvement of several teams in the Big East that has brought the conference back to respectability. Louisville was expected to be one of the better teams in the conference. And mostly, they've come through. But the real surprise has been the improvement of South Florida, Rutgers, and Cincinnati. And more recently, Connecticut.

While the conference still isn't flooding the first round of the NFL draft with players, it is putting a lot more teams in the top 25. Sure, some coaches have left for "greener" pastures. Others like Greg Schiano and Jim Leavitt have made commitments to their schools that don't involve contracts. There's a balance, and certainly enough rising programs and programs that are there to keep the Big East respectable. At least until the Big 11 10 decides to add another team. Wankers.

I did this last year, so it seems only fitting that I would do it again.

And it wasn't even close. Louisville had five players drafted, while Pitt and West Virginia had three apiece. Rutgers, South Florida, Cincinnati, and Connecticut had two each. And for the first time since 1975, Syracuse did not have anyone selected.

That's 19 players drafted. And any way I slice it, that's just not all that good for a BCS conference. Looking at the distribution of what rounds the players were taken, it was pretty well spread out over the entire draft for the Big East. But that doesn't make it feel any better. It's especially bad if you look at a team like West Virginia that has had three 11 win seasons in a row along with three straight top ten finishes. They've had exactly four players drafted in the last three years. And Chris Henry and Pac Man Jones the year before that. So we won't even go there.

The ACC? Yeah, that conference we've been quietly laughing at after Miami, Va. Tech, and Boston College left. Yeah, they had 33 players drafted this past weekend. The coaching must really suck over there or something.

Pac 10? Oh, they had 37 players drafted. SEC? 35. Big 10? 28. Big 12? 27. Hell, C-USA had 11 players drafted! Patriot League? Never mind.

Even more upsetting for West Virginia fans, two players left early for the NFL and weren't drafted. Those two being Darius Reynaud and Johnny Dingle. Yeah, sorry folks. Those Dingle-Berry photo's won't be happening anymore. Those are definitely two players the Mountaineers could have used this year, though. I'm not saying that their stock would go up any with one more year of college. But it sure wouldn't go down.

Louisville will have the most holes to fill as well. You don't replace Brian Brohm, Harry Douglas, and Art Carmody. I know there are others, but those three were special at their positions. West Virginia won't be far behind with the loss of Slaton and most of the secondary and defensive line. Rutgers, well we don't know how bad it is because we haven't seen anyone but Ray Rice run the ball. The rest of the conference should be fine. And that's not a good thing if you think about it.

I can't see this being an effective policy

One immediate change from past seasons: first-year DT coach John Hendrick will not allow any profanity from the players.

Hendrick, an ordained minister, joined the Bulls' staff after a one-year stint at Division I-AA South Carolina State.

We wish Hendrick well, but count on this bit of news circulating to USF defensive line recruits from rival schools. Young men (er, um, most men) swear. A lot. Athletics is a warm environment for the uncouth mouth.

Attempts to curb profanity tend to be in vain and recruiting is the lifeblood of most successful college football programs.

Something has to give.

(H/T: The great Wizard of Odds)
Sorry, No Photos

OMG! Football news! February is like the worst sports month in the world! Unless you like meaningless mid-season NBA and NHL games. Sure I love NCAA basketball. But that love has been tainted by my coaches fashion sense and my teams ability to rip defeat from the jaws of victory. So I'm kind of not liking February at all.

Anyhow, some good news today football fans. The Big East released the 2008 football schedule. And while that's nothing compared to being in the stands after hours of tailgating and screaming obscenities at opposing fans and players, it is a reason for hope. The hope that another football season will soon be upon us.

And lookie, there are actually some good out of conference games this year. In September:

Cincinnati @ Oklahoma-Will the Sooners crumble again in the face of Big East might?

Penn St. @ Syracuse- When this game was scheduled Jo Pa was heard saying, "That Paul Pasqualoni is a tricky devil. We're going to have to find a way to shut down McNabb!"

Kansas @ South Florida- The Bulls can't be looking at this game the way they were a year ago.

West Virginia @ Colorado- This game fills the void left by Maryland opting out of the series. And given the size of Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, that's quite a void to fill.

Iowa @ Pitt- Again, Iowa might not like this game as much as they did when they scheduled it.

Rutgers vs. TBA-Ah, the unknown enigma that is TBA. You just never know what team you're going to play.

Raymond James Stadium in Tampa is a typical publicly financed stadium. It was sold to the public as necessary to keep the Buccaneers in the NFL, and that it would be an engine for economic development with many other events that could be held there. That, even if the stadium doesn't make money in the "traditional" sense -- pay for itself and operating costs rather than with subsidies from the local government through the Tampa Sports Authority (TSA) and Hillsbrough County -- the overall impact on the economy justifies it. The same multipliers and indirect economic gains that are also used to justify new convention centers all over the country.

The problem is that actual pool of available events for a football stadium is rather limited. They can get the Super Bowl every so often, but that's not even every five years. As usual, the stadium sits vacant most of the year.

The TSA has managed to add a December event for the next couple of years. The ACC saw the dreariness of Jacksonville in the past couple of years and went looking for other options for their championship games. Tampa bid and got the ACC Championship for 2008 and 2009, with an eye on getting the permanent site after the 2-year stint in Charlotte.

When the story of Ben Moffitt's impending divorce and the lie of his happy married life broke, the big story were allegations by his estranged wife that she did his papers and took his online exams. You would think an academic institution would take these allegations very seriously, even in the context of a divorce proceeding. Schools at least like to pay lip-service to the notion of the student athlete and academic integrity.

Well, um, South Florida is apparently uninterested in such quaint notions. They are not going to investigate unless one of Moffitt's former professors comes forward and expresses more than just concern.

"Professors in the courses would have to have some cause or suspicion that something inappropriate was happening and they could follow up on that," USF spokesman Ken Gullette said Friday.
...
"The information we have is information we're getting from reporters," Gullette said. "There's not much to do at this point."

USF President Judy Genshaft would not comment on how the allegations might affect the school's academic credibility, and she referred questions to Gullette.

Offhand, I'd guess that the allegations are disturbing and worthy of some investigation regardless of the situation. The fact that USF has no urge to look into matters unless absolutely pushed says much more about the academic credibility at South Florida. They want the professors who didn't catch anything the first time to be the ones to demand the review -- and call into question their own practices.

Every time South Florida played a game that was televised, there was inevitably a point where the announcers would wax rhapsodic about Ben Moffitt's devotion to his family. How he would commute 55 miles each way daily to go home to his wife and children. It was a great story, and soft-focus feature piece. The Bulls were happy to play it up, this year with "Linebacker. Leader. Husband. Father" tag lines in promoting him.

Turns out his marriage was falling apart. He apparently left his wife in early November, and stopped visiting his kids about a month after that. Despite leaving his family, he was still talking to any media that wanted to go with the cuddly story and promote Moffitt up through the Sun Bowl.

All of this is embarrassing to Moffitt. It certainly wouldn't land him much in the way of "father of the year" or "husband of the year" awards. For USF this would be a mildly embarrassing episode, but minimized since Moffitt is a senior and won't be returning next year. The problem is the additional allegation the soon to be former Mrs. Moffitt has made.

...Shauna, 26, made public Thursday a larger allegation, saying that she had taken multiple online courses for her husband and written papers for his college classes to keep him eligible to play football.

"I have written every single paper he has ever written in five years at USF," said Shauna, who works as a data specialist in the Sumter County Appraiser's Office.

Can you say major NCAA violations?

Sure, things looked bleak when Dennis Dixon collapsed in a heap against Arizona and Oregon soon went on to three straight defeats. Oregon's quarterbacks looked like garbage and they were presumably left for dead against South Florida in the Sun Bowl.

I guess they didn't get the memo.

A nobody reserve named Justin Roper has been magnificent for the Ducks this afternoon, leading them to a 46-14 third quarter lead against an above average Bulls defense. Turnovers have helped, but Roper is 15/26 for 181 yards and 4 touchdowns in just three quarters of work. Not bad, huh?

I think Oregon got silly in sticking with its dropback veteran Brady Leaf instead of taking its lumps with the more mobile Roper and it cost them several winnable games and ultimately the Pac-10 championship. Contrary to the concerns of some, the spread can go on when a quarterback gets injured. Just like with more pro-style offenses it is up to a coaching staff to find and develop the appropriate style of quarterback to run the system in case a starter goes down.

In doing so, Oregon found its mojo in a big way as the run/pass game is clicking. Johnathan Stewart, aided by a functional quarterback for the first time in a few games has gone off for over 200 yards (a Sun Bowl record) including a 71-yard touchdown run.

From a #2 ranking to unranked with 3 straight losses, South Florida was reeling. Their BCS dreams, Big East championship goals all fell quickly. Of course nothing restores confidence and makes a team feel better than beating up on a bad team.

That is what USF is doing to Syracuse today. A 27-3 lead early in the 3d quarter and it could have been much worse. The Bulls committed 9 penalties in the first half to really slow things down and take away a couple other scoring opportunities.

The Bulls have been so much faster than the Orange. Completely taking away what had remained of the Syracuse running game. On offense, just moving through Syracuse's defense.

The biggest difference for USF in this game is that the Bulls seem to be remembering to run the ball with someone other than QB Matt Grothe. Tailback Mike Ford is having a great game and the first time he has run for more than 70 yards since the Auburn game -- which was also the last time he had more than 8 carries.

Forget it! When the award is handed out at the end of the year, just keep you hands in your pockets and look the other way. Yes, Big East homerism running on all cylinders here. But I find it hard if not impossible to think that George Selvie, defensive end for South Florida, isn't one of the top four linemen in all of college football.

By any measuring stick, Selvie has all the defensive linemen that are still eligible beat. And those linemen would be Glenn Dorsey of LSU, Chris Long of Virginia, and line backer James Laurinaitis of Ohio State. Here's a little breakdown of the stats. In order, they are tackles, tackles for a loss, sacks, and because a couple of them made them, interceptions.

G. Selvie -------49-- 27.5-- 13.5-- 0

G. Dorsey ------46-- 8.5--- 5.0---- 0

J. Laurinaitis -51-- 7.5 ---5.0---- 2

C. Long --------65---- 16----12---- 1

OK, not the prettiest thing you've ever seen, but it does put things in perspective. 27.5 tackles for a loss!!! It's unreal what this kid is doing. And unlike Long and Laurinaitis, he's done it against the likes of West Virginia, Auburn, and North Carolina to name a few. While Long and Laurinaitis have done it against much weaker competition. I have all the respect in the world for Glenn Dorsey, but to be honest he hasn't been as good as advertised this year. I don't have any doubts that he is that good, but for my argument I'm looking at what they have done on the field this year. Not what they are capable of doing.

Luckily for Selvie, and not so luckily for the rest of the Big East, he's a sophomore and should be at the top of this list next year. But for my money, he's at the top of the list this year.