* Jim Leavitt, please call home–specifically, USF Athletic Director Mark Harlan.
We apologize for criticizing USF football for being good enough to frustrate fans who wanted more–who wanted the program to reach the “next level.” We apologize for piling on after too many composure-collapsing losses to Connecticut and Rutgers.
We remember road upsets of Auburn, Florida State, Pittsburgh and Miami. We recall being among the 67,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium for that huge win over 5th-ranked West Virginia in 2007. We’re now nostalgic for the Meineke Car Care and PoppaJohns.com bowl games that USF used to “settle” for. Those were the days.
And as for that speculation about a new, on-campus football stadium as an alternative to Raymond James Stadium: The bottom line is still winning. Right now, the 4,000-capacity, on-campus soccer stadium would suffice.
* If there’s one guy weighing in–empathetically–on the Ray Rice scandal who ought to be ignored, it’s ESPN’s Ray Lewis. Recall that it was Lewis who took a plea deal on that 2000 Atlanta murder charge and later pled guilty to obstruction of justice in a botched case that was never solved.