TAMPA -- USF athletic director Doug Woolard officially signed a five-year contract Tuesday to make Under Armour the official outfitter of USF athletics, finalizing an agreement that has been in place since November.
Under the deal, Under Armour will pay USF $1-million over the five years and will provide more than $1.8-million in uniforms and apparel to USF's football, baseball, softball, soccer, golf and tennis teams, as well as USF's athletic staff.
USF's football team, which started wearing Under Armour uniforms this fall, now has extra incentives that would come with elite-level bowl games. The Bulls get $25,000 from Under Armour if they play in a BCS bowl game, and that doubles to $50,000 if they play in the national championship game, and doubles again to $100,000 with a national title.
Here are the notes Joe Rienzi filed for Wednesday's paper:
TAMPA — USF coach Jim Leavitt said Friday’s win over then No. 13 Kansas was a good win, but he and his players are looking forward to Saturday’s game against in-state opponent FIU.
"They’re going to come out to play regardless of what we do," junior defensive end George Selvie said. "Like FAU last year, they’re going to come out ready to fight."
Junior quarterback Matt Grothe — who won his first career start 21-20 against FIU in 2006 — said the Bulls aren’t going to look past the Golden Panthers, especially after the Bulls needed to come from behind to win.
"It was a little scary, I remember that," Grothe said. "The last couple of years we’ve had games we went to where we did do as well as we should, but (tight ends) coach (Larry) Scott told us the other day that we need to take care of business."
After Tuesday’s practice, defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said the Bulls cannot look past FIU and expect to win. "This is a trap game, I think," he said. "If we don’t go out there and take care of our business and improve as a football team then we’ll be in trouble."
Leavitt, however, did not want to call Saturday’s game a trap.
"They’re good enough to beat us without calling it a trap," he said. "They’re a good football team. It’s not anything about a trap. They’re good."
Times sportswriter Greg Auman, who covers USF, will post news and thoughts on the Bulletin and we invite your participation in the comments area.
They Mayans forgot to "carry the one".
Posted by: Steve Stacy | September 17, 2008 at 03:13 PM
sportsfan, this might be the last shot. the Mayans were close, but they forgot to take into account the particle collider that's warming up.
Posted by: cg | September 17, 2008 at 01:11 PM
I learned today from my co-worker that the world is gonna end in 2012 cause thats when the Mayian calendar runs out. Greg can we win a National Title before the world ends?
Posted by: flsportsfan83 | September 17, 2008 at 12:37 PM
Greg, don't mess with science. If you do, all life as we know it will stop instantaneously and every molecule in our bodies will explode at the speed of light. Total protonic reversal.
Posted by: Mike Lakeland | September 17, 2008 at 11:32 AM
More Leavitt Haiku:
It is not a trap.
They are a good football team.
Not awfully good.
Posted by: Steve Stacy | September 17, 2008 at 09:07 AM
No, pretty much everyone is "awfully good." I'll go back through Tuesday's presser and see if I can find a reference. It's there.
Posted by: G.A. | September 17, 2008 at 09:07 AM
Windbane hit it right on the head.
Football team + awfully good = Leavitt taking the team seriously
Football team + any other sideways/backward/forward compliment = Leavitt not worried about team
It's science.
Posted by: Mike Lakeland | September 17, 2008 at 07:44 AM
I think the lack of awfully indicates what he really thinks. You have to adjust for the Leavitt scale.
Posted by: Windbane | September 16, 2008 at 11:10 PM
Are they "good"?
Or, are they "awfully good"?
That's what I want to know....
Posted by: gbudzban | September 16, 2008 at 10:36 PM