These 8 p.m. kickoffs make for long days of waiting before kickoff, so for those of you not already inebriated beyond the point of blog-reading, I offer up all kinds of game-day links to help the hours pass like minutes -- nay, seconds!
-- Nobody gets Bulls fans in a tizzy like the Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi, who writes about the USF-WVU game and says that "boosters and fans don't really care if their school is recruiting questionable characters and taking academic risks. Not as long as those risks result in victories." I think Mike get some e-mails from this one.
-- National press clippings -- can you call stories that only appear online clippings? printings? -- continue to come in, such as SI.com's Austin Murphy,
-- West Virginia clips ... the Charleston Daily Mail talks to ESPN's Sean McDonough, who can boast actually visiting Jim Leavitt in the old trailers. McDonough says "Florida has been turned into kind of a four-school state." Columnist Jack Bogaczyk makes more cigar puns than you can snuff out! Hey, do you have Prince Albert in a can? I link to the Wheeling News-Register if only in amusement that they put (New York) before Yankees, so readers wouldn't confuse them with, um, generic Northern stereotypes.
-- Curious phrase of the day: the Ocala Star-Banner's Dwight Collins says USF is "no longer an illusion performed with smoke and mirrors." When exactly were the smoke-and-mirrors years?
-- More coverage from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, with a preview story from Alan Dell (the guy sits next to me in the press box, so I've got to throw him a link), from the Bradenton Herald's Bulls 101 story and George Selvie feature; and from the Lakeland Ledger, which has a great pic of the couch and clever sign "SAVE A COUCH. BEAT W.VA" that's been on a trailer driving around campus all week. Pat Zier tries to build a story around Jim Leavitt quotes, a challenge for any writer.
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
The "smoke and mirror" years refer to cee's description of the program- cee was Ocala's only source (because they all have their heads in a horse- nice rhyme) and it turned out that we were actually always a good team.
Posted by: Dave | September 28, 2007 at 06:01 PM
cee...I really don't like you.
Posted by: Robert | September 28, 2007 at 05:12 PM
I think the "smoke and mirror" years were when we had to endure Pat Julmiste........
Posted by: Reality | September 28, 2007 at 05:09 PM
"SAVE A COUCH. BEAT W.VA"?
after tonight, it will be "SAVE YOUR BREATH. FIRE LEAVITT"
the choke artist will come out tonight and we will show our true colors. our only chance is if white/slaton/devine/reynaud turn the ball over and give us the game (like they did last year). tonight will be ugly for us.. pat white will dominate us on the ground, and in the air: bring an umbrella, white will make it rain with all of his TD passes.
pat white knows how to win in ray jay (see his last visit here). he owns us and we need to just accept that. we have reached the pinnacle of pizza and carwash bowl games with jim leavitt.. tonight will be our wake up call to finally move on.
Posted by: cee | September 28, 2007 at 04:45 PM