Still strong: Season tickets top 27,000

USF football continues to build on a record number of season tickets sold, with more than 27,000 now sold with less than a week before the Aug. 30 opener against Tennessee-Martin. The Bulls will continue to sell season tickets until the Sept. 12 home game against Kansas.

The Bulls announced Sunday that its least expensive option -- a family plan of four season tickets (two adults and two children) for $350 -- has sold out. USF is now offering a similar package in a different section, with a four-pack of tickets costing $396.

A few more links to offer up on an otherwise slow Sunday before the first week of game preparations for the football team ...

-- Attack of the undersized quarterbacks! Matt Grothe is mentioned in this Kentuckysports.com story, as are two diminutive September opponents, Kansas' Todd Reesing and N.C. State's Russell Wilson.

-- The Southern Ledger believes a defensive lineman may win the Heisman Trophy winner -- good luck with that -- and gives George Selvie the picture as they discuss the possibility of a breakout national star on the defensive line.

-- The News & Observer's J.P. Giglio, who had the Bulls ranked as high as anyone in his AP ballot, picks the Bulls to finish second in the Big East behind West Virginia.

-- Rivals.com's David Fox has his Big East preview, and aside from that same "anxious vs. eager" misstep, it's good stuff. He does explain that nobody will confuse UT-Martin vs. USF with Tennessee vs. Florida ... would anyone confuse it with Florida vs. Citadel, since that's the comparable game on the Gators' schedule? Tennessee doesn't have a I-AA team this year, so give them credit for that.

-- The Orlando Sentinel sat down four college beat writers for a Q&A session on the state's college football teams. Not too much USF -- all four pick West Virginia to win the Big East, and there's one vote for Jim Leavitt in a question asking which state coach you'd want if you had to win one game. No, none of them picked George O'Leary, but Howard Schnellenberger got a vote.

-- Haven't really gotten to mention the new look at USF's official site, but I do like the new "Gameday Central" page for each week's football game. A ton of information on one page, which makes my job a little easier when it comes time to write an advance capsule for each game.

-- Will West Virginia be undefeated when the Bulls go to Morgantown in December? The Charleston Gazette's Mitch Vingle thinks so. He's bold enough to predict a score for every game, including a 36-24 win for the Mountaineers over the Bulls. Only two teams get within a touchdown of the Mountaineers -- Auburn and ... Louisville.

-- Very excited we're up to 56 followers for the blog's free counterpart on Twitter.com. I'd said I wanted 100 by the season opener, so it'll have to be a really good week. Just another way to get your USF fix and find out when there are new posts here on the blog ...

Comments

[BullTiger]

Make it 58 on TWITTER...I'm in!

[Blake]

It would be absolutely amazing if we could cross 30k in season tickets by the Kansas game! And I definitely think we can do it.

[G.A.]

Bunch of you guys signing up on the Twitter this morning. Happy to see that ...

[Dave W]

Why is the Rivals link going to the Erie Times-News? It was just a little surprising for me; I checked out my high school- we aren't ranked :(

I think undersized QBs who can move have the same advantage that short RBs have; the D-linemen may not be able to see them roll-out or scramble. And those guys all have similar arm strength to plenty of 6'4" guys who can't run, so I'll take the mobile short guy any day (in college).

[G.A.]

Erie's using Rivals.com features. I suppose I could find the same story on Rivals, but in fairness, I found it on the Erie paper's site.

[Twitter]

Greg - last time we knew about Twitter you told us it was on hold. You never told us, until today, that it was back on (at least from what I remember).

I just signed up!

[G.A.]

Twitter ... think I might have said something in the comments, so sorry if that got lost along the way. It's been back for a while, so no hitches on this end now ...

[Comments]

I see... I don't usually read all the comments unless I asked a question in the comments section and I am looking for the reply/answer.