Bulls Pit signs off until next season

With the Bulls' football season over, Bulls Pit will take a break until next football season.

Until then, here are a few other places that will keep you in touch with all things Bulls:

• Follow Bulls action on Greg Auman's USF Sports Bulletin.

• Keep up with University of South Florida news on The Gradebook.

• E-mail Karen McAllister if you have any campus news or photos you would like to share.

Bad stadium + uninteresting matchup = 2008 magicjack St. Petersburg Bowl!

Uninteresting to the unaffiliated viewer, that is.

I just finished my first semester of law school. I cannot believe how quickly that went, and more to the point, I'm not really sure what I just learned. Exams were incredibly stressful and basically turned me into a hermit, which explains the lack of posting. Sorry about that. Anyways, there's a lot of things I can write about, including the Big East season in review, what USF can do to solve the choking problem, who should still be coaching, where I think we need to focus on recruiting (here's a hint, the coaches appear to already be on it), and the most depressing group of people this side of a Nietzsche fan festival, the USF men's basketball team. But since I've been drinking and am in a loud bar as I write this, I'm just going to write a little something about the upcoming bowl game.

First, I don't think this game will meet the three year attendance threshold. Why? Outside of USF, there isn't a remotely interesting team to the Tampa Bay area that could play in it. Even though a significant percentage of the population calls USF their alma mater in the area, they aren't selling this game out. Plus, it's indoors. In Florida. In December. In a baseball stadium. A baseball stadium that is easily one of the three worst in the world. I can speak from experience that when a northerner goes to Florida in December, he or she will be spending as much time as possible outdoors. So Rutgers fans can whine all they want. I don't think they would have sold this game out, either.

Second, Tyrone McKenzie is right. This is the best non-BCS, non-Gator Bowl option for USF. It's basically a home game, allowing recruits to attend and giving everyone a nice Christmas break (OK, that's a bad thing for a player). But at home, USF is a better team. On turf, I think we'll be even better (at least faster). I don't think Memphis has a chance to keep up with our defense. But our offense? This goes into...

Third, Matt Grothe absolutely has to not screw up in this game. Grothe is the player most at fault for the losses. Terrible INTs, fumbles, and just all-around bad decisions (nothing comes close to the decision to allow Greg Gregory anywhere near the play chart, however. Or to take two timeouts in the first 6 minutes of the third quarter). If Grothe doesn't show up for this, and I'm pretty iffy about it, then next season will basically be a repeat of this year, and we're pretty much doomed to perpetual "Clemson" status (meaning better than average, never a contender).

Fourth, we get to see T-Mac play one more time. He's a great linebacker, and in my opinion, is the better than Moffitt and Nicholas. I never saw Kawika Mitchell play, so I can't make that comparison, but to me, T-Mac was the second best LB in the conference this year, behind only McKillop. With Selvie occupying more blockers than the rest of the team combined, only T-Mac really stepped up his game this year.

Fifth, and finally, 8-5 is not the end of the world. It's nowhere near what we expected, but given the collapse of other teams this year, like WVU, Auburn, Wisconsin, and Cal last year, I think we might be able to whether the storm and come out for the better next year. Some positive momentum would be a great start to building for 2009. Depending on how early NFL draft entry shakes out, USF could very well be the favorites next year. If Selvie stays and LeSean McCoy leaves, USF will certainly be a major contender (obviously contingent upon Grothe channeling his inner Trent Dilfer- meaning, he needs to learn how to manage the game).

So I'll probably be writing more stuff in the days to come; at least I'll have a recap up tomorrow night. I see USF taking this 35-10. It will help us determine if the real USF is the one that played against Kansas and destroyed NC State, or the real USF is the one that choked against Pitt and got demolished by Rutgers. Interestingly enough, NC State is playing Rutgers in the Pizza Bowl. Go figure.

And Rutgers fans, that's why USF couldn't go to that bowl. No one would want to see a rematch. For what it's worth, I have Rutgers winning that one 42-17. Might as well do the others, too. Pitt will win a close one (and a must-watch) 27-21, WVU will win running all over UNC, 31-21, and UCONN will win over Buffalo 17-6. In the big one, Cincy will win because a) the ACC is terrible and the biggest joke in the history of football and b) Cincy is legit and has one of the best coaches in the country. So you read it here: The Big East will be undefeated once more in bowl play. And even more fun, the Big East will be 3-0 against the ACC.

*Addendum: Greg White is now my hero. I'm sorry, but he named himself after an obscure character from a cool 80s movie that no one outside the age range of 28-38 with the exception of college students who accidentally saw the movie on TV will understand. I am one of those college students, and "Teen Wolf" changed my life. For the better.

Stylez > Ocho Cinco. But both are really cool.

Will USF Bulls hit a catwalk during a St. Petersburg Bowl punt?

A Times editor had a simple question: "Could a football hit one of the catwalks at Tropicana Field?"

We had fun getting the answer, and the Tampa Bay Rays were nice enough to let us find out last week. So on Friday morning, Greg Auman met up with photographer Lance Rothstein and the strongest leg he could find, that of former USF goalkeeper Mike Pepper, the morning-show radio host on 1010 CBS Sports.

Watch tampabay.com's video

USF student hit by car dies

TAMPA -- A University of South Florida student died Wednesday morning after she was hit by a car while crossing Fletcher Avenue the day before, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Jessica Palmer, 18, of 1828 SW 102 Way in Miramar, was running across Fletcher not far from USF Palm Drive when a 1993 Volkswagen driven by Sharon Sanchez, 25, of Dade City, struck her, said Debbie Carter, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

Palmer had not been using a crosswalk, Carter said. The student was taken to Tampa General Hospital with serious injuries.

No charges have been filed against Sanchez, Carter said.

--Robbyn Mitchell, Times staff writer

USF student hit by car, taken to hospital

TAMPA -- A University of South Florida student was hospitalized Tuesday night after she was hit by a car while crossing Fletcher Avenue, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Jessica Palmer, 18, of Miramar, was running across Fletcher not far from USF Palm Drive when a 1993 Volkswagen driven by Sharon Sanchez, 25, of Dade City, struck her, said Debbie Carter, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

Palmer had not been using a crosswalk, Carter said. The student was taken to Tampa General Hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. "She was pretty banged up," Carter explained.

No charges have been filed against Sanchez, Carter said.

--Robbyn Mitchell, Times staff writer

Finally, some heart!

Steve put a nice comment after my previous blog entry. I missed every one of my predictions. I'm ecstatic that I did. But prior to yesterday, USF hadn't shown any ability to stop high-caliber running attacks (as in, we'll stop the average to pretty good running teams, but watch out for the elite, powerful ones), the stats show USF as being about .500 when Grothe gets picked, and team just laid an egg against Rutgers. So I think my predictions were well-founded.

It seems that when I have any level of hope, something screws it up. But if I'm a pessimist coming into the game, they come through. So I'm saying I don't think we have a chance at WVU. Hopefully I'll be wrong again.

Pessimism has a benefit, too. If you're right, you get to brag. If you're wrong, you get to feel happy about a win. Really can't miss. Maybe college football has a place in philosophy classes. Move over Nietzsche- Dr. Lou Holtz will be required reading! Actually, the ESPN college football encyclopedia should be for any college football fan.

This was an anomalous win for USF, for sure. Grothe struggled (9-18 with a pick in the red zone), the running backs, outside of Jamar Taylor's big run, were bottled up (about 3 yards a carry), and we racked up an amazing number of offsides penalties (I can't think of a worse penalty. No positive can come of it). Normally when two of those three happen, we lose. See the three previous games. In the fourth quarter, I thought the team did a good job maintaining composure. That's something that doesn't always happen.

I have to give Tyrone McKenzie a shout out. He's one of my favorite all-time Bulls, and he showed up big time. He should have been the Big East defensive player of the week. And Dontavia Bogan showed great speed on those kick returns. Can he return punts?

So the focus is now on WVU. Wally has plenty of time to prepare for Pat White's final home game (that means he's likely to explode). Grothe's ankle looked tender, so he's got some time to heal. Getting to 8-4 would be a huge boost, although I don't think anything stops us from going to the St. Pete Bowl. I just don't see the offense having enough to get past WVU (which actually has decent defensive stats in Big East play), especially if Grothe has the same struggles.

On the Big East picture, I hope that Rutgers knocks Louisville out. Why? To screw Notre Dame over, thats why. Any time that happens, I'm happy. And hopefully Cincy takes care of Syracuse. I think Cincy has the best chance to win a BCS bowl game, and for purposes of showing why we're better than the ACC, that's an important thing. Especially because it means Brian Kelly probably will be gone (to Notre Dame maybe?), and that guy is a USF killer.

I might talk about basketball at some point in the next two weeks. But I probably won't.

And let's go Bulls soccer! I'm not a big soccer fan in general, but anytime USF is winning, I'll support them. A Big East championship is an awesome accomplishment, and the bracket in the NCAAs is such that we might get in a nice little run. 

Your photos: Matt Grothe and Rocky

Melissa Bidgood, a USF grad, shares photos of Matt Grothe and Rocky visiting Sand Pine Elementary.

Looks like Rocky had some fun on the school's playground, too.

Share your favorite Bulls photos: E-mail them to submit@tampabay.com. Make sure to take credit; include your name and some info about the photo in the body of the message. Then view your photos in our Bulls gallery.

You also can join our Community Photo Gallery for free and build your own photo galleries.

I have no faith in Bulls football team anymore

Before enrolling in law school, I knew I was in for a challenge. I'm still really happy I decided to come, but I swear that I heard a snap come from inside my head on Wednesday when we turned in our big legal writing assignment for the semester. It was at that point that I knew my brain was broken. It didn't really hurt- the only way to explain it is that I was filled with an emptiness inside my noggin.

I didn't watch a single game yesterday, and will be withholding from the NFL today, but here are my football thoughts:

1) Myron Rolle- a true ideal of the student-athlete. Probably hasn't received enough publicity.

2) Every ranked team in the ACC lost. I think that is hilarious. What a joke of a conference.

3) Syracuse over Notre Dame. Let there be no confusion- I hate Notre Dame and everything their overrated joke of a program stands for. Charlie Weis now has the same winning percentage as Bob Davie and Ty Willingham, except neither of those guys ever really stunk up the joint in quite the same fashion. And congrats to Greg Robinson. He set Syracuse back light years, but for the seniors up there and for him, it has to be gratifying to go in to South Bend and win (because who doesn't want to beat Notre Dame at their place?).

4) Cincinnati over Pitt. Cincy is a really resilient football team. In fact, they are the exact opposite of USF. When Cincy is in trouble, they rally around Brian Kelly and their seniors. Pitt even mounted a comeback. USF would have just laid down and taken the beating. The onus is now on Cincy to not embarrass the conference in the BCS game.

5) National Championship. I don't care. Some worthy team will get left out. The Big 12 really ate itself up this year. Oklahoma looks like a shoe-in at this point, but they lost to Texas, which lost to Texas Tech. There is no logical way to sort this mess out. And a playoff won't solve it, because even if we go with a 16 team bracket, instead of the 8 I've seen proposed, who gets left out of the Big 12? Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma would all deserve a spot, but someone would be left in the cold. My solution? Go back to the pre-BCS days. Just have one big vote at the end of the bowl season. Every coach gets a ballot- no media and no "legacy" voters.

Onto the USF game.

1) It's Sunday night. You're kidding me. It's NFL night, OK. Can we get that straight?

2) UCONN will run all over us. 200+ yards sounds about right.

3) If USF turns it over in the first half, we'll lose.

4) Tyrone McKenzie and Ben Williams will go down as two of the most important players in USF history.

5) UCONN will win 31-17. I have no faith in this team anymore.

And quickly on basketball- I didn't pay to watch the UVA game, but I listened to it online. I thought the guys played hard, and with Gilchrist and Mercer, we would have won. That said, you can't blow two chances at the end. Heath probably could have come up with a better play than letting DJones try to be Kobe.

Take Flat Santa to Sunday's game

Going to Sunday's game against Conneticut? Make sure to take  Flat Santa.

Print him out, cut him out   (please!) and pose him with tailgating fans, players or Rocky.

Wow us, people, because we'll award gift card prizes in four categories: Best Overall, Best Photo with a Celebrity, Must Unusual Location and our fave, Flat Santa/Pet Look-alike Contest. (Dress your dog/cat/rabbit/hamster in little Santa hats or suits and pose them with Flat Santa. Awww.)

Then e-mail your photo to submit@tampabay.com. Be sure to include where Flat Santa is, who is in the photo, what town you live in and your e-mail address (we won't publish it). Then view them in our Flat Santa gallery.

Bulls fans still had fun

 

Garrett Baskind, Marissa Dean, and Chelsea Lawson had fun tailgating before Saturday's game against Rutgers. (Not sure whether they were still smiling after the game; the USF Bulls lost to Rutgers 49-16.)

These Bulls fans were all pumped up before the game.

tbt* photographer Luis Santana captured more smiling fans before Saturday's game.



Stephanie Tassoni, Maria Classon, Lindsey Fairbrother, and Amanda Fairbrother tailgating at the Raymond James Stadium parking lot before the Rutgers game.          

View more of Santana's pics