USF vs. Miami week is here, and I am already miserable my two favorite college football teams are set to face off against one another. I never cared to see these two teams play, but USF really wants this to turn into a big rivalry that will last for years. I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon because rivalries develop over a long time period, and generally they are born out of hatred or when another team has denied the other something they want on numerous occasions. Florida State and Miami are big rivals because Bobby Bowden would have somewhere in the neighborhood of about 4 National Championships (maybe more) if it had not been for the University of Miami. This game isn’t on that level as neither team is in contention for a conference or national championship, but despite those facts this is a big game for USF for several reasons.
- USF can make a statement by beating Florida State and Miami in the same season which few teams have ever done. This is significant because it will show that USF does have the athletes to compete with these teams on the same field of play.
- It will give USF respect on a national level and not just in state, the state of Florida has a wealth of talent, but USF has focused too much on recruiting here in state. You only become a power house program when you recruit on a national level. USF has made great strides and had several big wins, but they have still failed to win a conference title. Part of the reason is Florida High school football typically emphasizes speed over power, quickness over size, while football in the north traditionally is geared toward “power football” which leaves USF with match ups against those opponents.
- USF will see a small boost in recruiting, and let me be clear on this if USF wins it’s not going to sway the 5-star recruit who chose Miami to come to USF all of a sudden. What will more than likely happen is the recruit will de-commit from Miami and chose to go to USC, Ohio State, Florida, or another powerhouse program. USF will see a boost in the areas where those “2nd tier” players who can go to Miami, Florida, or Florida State and sit for two or three seasons then end up starting their Junior and/or senior years. The reason is these players will see an opportunity to play at USF almost right away rather than sitting on the bench at one of the power house programs.
- It will be bigger for the schools educational exposure, let’s not forget that we are all here for academic reasons. The reason why schools pump so much money into their athletic programs is it generates recognition and dollars for the school. USF beating Miami would put USF on the radar as sports shows and columnists talk about the program, that grows the name which strengthens the brand on a national level. In the long run it will strengthen the degrees of the students who graduate there because the name will be associated with something positive and more people will have heard of the school.
- The Bulls have had a history of not finishing strong in recent years and if they can beat Miami and win at UCONN they will more than likely draw a fairly decent bowl game. The alternative is not good if USF loses to Miami is will only confirm USF is not ready to play big time college football, and even though everyone is expecting Miami to win it won’t do USF any favors to not have a good showing.
The bottom line is USF needs to win this game, and one other big reason is I believe Jim Leavitt has taken this program as far as they can go. The past few years has been more of the same, a big upset win here or there followed by head scratching defeats in conference. I wonder what USF’s record would be had they not started out the season playing Wofford, Western Kentucky, and Charleston Southern and replaced them with reputable teams? USF does need to avoid putting to much weight on this game if they win, it would be a big one as I have indicated above but with no conference championships under their belt and this Miami team being very beatable they need to temper their excitement should they pull out a win.
