* Whoever would have thought that the biggest intrastate college football game of the year would be matching schools from Tampa and Orlando–not Tallahassee, Gainesville or Miami. But Friday’s USF-UCF game is exactly that. For the (9-1) Bulls, it means a chance for a best-ever-in-its-history season can happen with a win against the undefeated, 13th-ranked Knights.
USF has had good teams and big wins over two decades, but by each season’s end there was an inevitable sense of disappointment and reflections on opportunities lost. USF has never played for a conference championship, let alone won one. The year (2007) the Bulls advanced to a No. 2 national ranking–and played before 67,000 fans at the RayJay in a win against West Virginia–ended with a downward spiral and a humiliating Sun Bowl loss to Oregon.
The Bulls have played better as underdogs. Big wins against Auburn, Notre Dame, Florida State, Miami and Clemson, for example, are part of their grid history. This Friday, as 11-point underdogs against UCF, the Bulls get a chance to do it again. A win puts them into the AAC championship game against Memphis. A win there puts them into a big-time bowl game. And a win there… . Well, that all rides on Friday’s outcome. A climactic win like this is overdue.
What’s truly ironic is that there was a time, during the Jim Leavitt era, when USF didn’t even want to schedule UCF, because it was a step down in stature. Now a win would elevate USF in prestige and the national rankings and position them for their best season ever. Ever.
Make history. Go, Bulls.
* Here’s the memo that those three UCLA basketball players arrested for shoplifting in China either didn’t get or didn’t heed. “When you go overseas, especially in an official capacity representing your university, you are also–de facto–representing your country. When your travel involves a country with high-profile, problematic geopolitics such as North Korea, Iran or, in this case, China, you also run the risk of an international incident if you break any laws. Especially the really obvious, universal ones. Be on your best behavior and don’t do anything DUMB that would reflect poorly on your country, your university or you–in that order.”