Taking over Florida: A BBCF South Florida Dynasty

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This is my attempt to bring South Florida from the depths of the Big East to a National Champion and bring down the other big 3 in Florida.

A few notes. Bowl Games only, Western Kentucky has been added to the Sun Belt, Temple is back in the Big East, I can be fired if that happens the dynasty is over.

Lets begin the running of the USF Bulls.....

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My first day on the job I get to take a good look at my roster and see what I have to work with.

I've got lots of young potential talent that needs some molding. Starting with a true FR QB named Max Arnold. He is just as good as SR Dick McClellion and RS SO Thomas Saxon. The assistancs think that Saxon should be the started this year, but I'm going with Arnold. He has more potential and I'm not going to challenge for the Big East title this year anyhow.

At RB I have 4 guys all one year apart. SR started Eric Rice will be pushed by SO Shane Mathews and FR Najeh Eason. All three guys will get carries this year and depth shouldn't be a problem. Since I've decided on a one back veriticle attack offense my FB won't be a big necessity, but I have three young guys who will do just fine for us.

I have the most talent on offense at WR with only one SR this should be a nice group for the next few years if I recruit well. SR Kelvin Harris will be my #1 guy followed closely by JR Eric Faggins and SO Bobby Griffing. JR David Carson will also be in the mix, but the other three guys will need some more work before they get playing time. At TE RS JR Paul Kennedy will start followed by developing FR David Ekiyor and SO Sam Jones.

Seven OT, five OG and three C's shape up the O-Line. Again only three SRs make up this group of fifteen. My OTs are SR Ron Grisby and SO Cecil Daniels, but not much developed talent behind them. This is a hugh weekness for this year, but if my guys come along fast it won't be an issue. At OG I have some of the same issues with SR Darrel Goss on one side and JR Frank Pitman on the other. Looks like the prior coach here didn't develop much depth just potential. I'll be fine at C with SO Gary Seales starting and FR Elmer Glover pushing for playing time.

On to my defense. I've decided to play a 3-4 defense as I only have one quality DT SR Ike Alexander, but FR Mike Caver could be the future here to allow me to switch to a 4-4 or 4-3 in the coming years. At DE I have three JRs and two FR so I'll have to really worry about that next year, but JRs Bobby Malone & Troy Morris will be my bookend DEs this year.

My LBs will be ILB SR Tommie Tindale and JR Troy Thompson followd by OLB SR Jerry Winfield and SO Cedrick Burch. Burch is my week link on the defense so I need to really watch his side of the ball.

CB is lead by my team leader JR Harold Holman and SR Devin Kingsriter. IF Holman goes down I'm screwed as my secondary is just average at best now. FS will be SO Todd Sloan and SS is SR Dino Mays....neither guy is worth a lot, but it's all I have to work with.

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I check in with the AD to find out that the media has tabed us to finish 4th in the conference. I should make a bowl game with this team and will have to load up my three other non-conference games with a few cupcakes to get me half way there, the fourth spot is with annual rival Central Florida.

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I request a home game with in-state team Florida International. They are picked to be 119th of 120 teams this year so it should be an easy tune up win in week 1 if they accept.

For week 2 I ask for a home and home with San Diego State starting at my place.

Finally for week 3 I ask for an away game against Michigan State. I'm hopeful they'll return for a game next year.

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I'm turned down by mighty Fla. Int. in week 1 for them to travel to 'Bama. Guess they pay better in the SEC. So I offer up the same week to Buffalo, and they gladly accept.

Both SDSU and MSU take my offers for weeks 2 & 3.

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Here's how the first year of Bulls football looks

Week 1 vs. Buffalo (projected to finish 12th in the MAC)
Week 2 vs SDSU (8th in the Mtn. West)
Week 3 @ Mich. St. (9th in the Big 10)
Week 4 @ Louisville (2nd in the Big East)
Week 5 OPEN
Week 6 vs. Temple (9th in the Big East)
Week 7 vs. Cincinnati (6th in the Big East)
Week 8 OPEN
Week 9 vs. Rutgers (3rd in the Big East)
Week 10 vs. UConn (7th in the Big East)
Week 11 @ West Virginia (1st in the Big East)
Week 12 @ Syracuse (8th in the Big East)
Week 13 @ Pittsburgh (5th in the Big East)
Week 14 OPEN
Week 15 vs. Central Florida (10th in Conference USA)

I should win all of my out of conference games with Michigan State being the only close one. In conference I have some very tough road games along with a three game stretch in weeks 11-13 that could determine my fate in the conference. Facing Louisville, West Virginia & Pittsburgh on the road will all be killer games and one's I'll probally lose. Rutgers is the only conference home game I think I could lose as well so a 8-4 finish with a bowl game would be great for us.

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There are no Big East teams in the Top 25.
West Virginia makes it close tied for 26th in the Media and 27th in the Coaches.
We're tied for 43rd in the coaches poll with 18 points.

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I'm a 14 point favorite at home vs. Buffalo.

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Well we snuck out a 17-14 win. That's the good news, the bad news is this team might not make 6-6 if we struggled with Buffalo.

Buffalo lead at the half 7-0 until we tied the game with an 8-yard TD pass from Arnold to Griffing with just over 4 mins. left in the 3rd quarter. We threw the game winning TD with just over 3 mins. left in the game as Arnold hit RB Eric Rice from 4 yards out.

RB Eric Rice was the player of the game with 168 rushing yards on 36 attempts. 1 TD (rec.) and 2 fumbles (1 lost). Neither of my other two RBs got a carry so I need to tweek my game plan a bit there.

On defense we did sack the QB 5 times and got one int. so hopefully that is a sign of things to come.

my next opponent SDSU lost to Iowa St. 27-43 and was never in the game going down 27-0 in the 1st quarter.

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Got my study hall report and if all these guys on the list don't keep their grades up I'm in big trouble.

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we pick up 3 points in the Media poll to come in at #40 and #39 in the Coaches poll with 14 points.

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we open as a 19 point favorite over SDSU. Their defense gave up over 550 yards last week and their offense only produced 233 yards mostly by the QB passing the ball.

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I gave Saxon the start at QB this week to keep him happy and see what he can do as a QB in case Arnold is lost due to academics. Not a bad performance going 18 of 25 for 265 yards 2 TDs and 1 Int. Rice was the star of the game again taking all the RB carries for the second straight game and earning player of the game. He had 155 yards rushing with 4 TDs, 1 receiving (no fumbles either) on 34 carries.

SDSu scored first on a 23 yard FG, but then the Bulls offense took over and never looked back. We scored 3 unanswered TDs to lead late in the 3rd quarter 28-3 before SDSU got a TD to score their final points of the game. In the 4th quarter we tacked on another TD and a FG to make it final 38-10 in favor of South Florida.

The defense got 4 more sacks this game and 2 INTs, hopefully the inferior competition gives us confidence going into our next few games.

Up next is 0-2 Michigan State. They lost to WVU 43-3 and to South Carolina 55-14. So I'm the easy team on their schedule.

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We've lost starting JR CB Raghib Perkins to a Torn Tendon. He appears to be out 3-5 weeks, but I don't expect him back unless we make a bowl game at this point.

In academic news we lost SO WR Bobby Griffing and starting SR OG Darrell Goss to poor performance in the class room. The other guys got their act together for the most part, but I do need to worry about my other OG Frank Pittman so I'll give him some more study hours to pick up the pace.

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I'm guessing we might have impressed someone as we are now tied for #37 in both the Media and Coaches Poll. 31 points to 21 respectivly.

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Our first road game and we open up a 10 point favorite.

MSU is horrible on defense thus far allowing 560 yards a game, good news for us. Their three major defensive formations have allowed 8 yards or more per play...again good news for us.

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Not as impressive as I had hoped we'd be but we win 20-6 and we played pretty bad too. All 3 RBs got to play this game thanks to injuries (Matthews is out 3-5 weeks due to a elbow sprain). We also lost starting JR WR Eric Faggins for the year with a spinal compression. With Griffing still suspended we'll be thin there on the road against Lousiville this week.

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MSU started out with a FG late in the 1st Q, but just at the end RB Arnold got a 14 yard TD run (missed the XP) to put us ahead for good.

Thompson tacked on 2 FGs in the 2nd Q from 28 & 42 yards out and the thrid saw RB Eason score from 11 yards out and get a 2 point conversion too.

MSU kicked a late 3rd Q FG to end the scoring for the game.

DE Bobby Malone was the player of the game with 4 tackles and 2 sacks.

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We're tied for 35th in the Media poll with 20 points and tied for 34th with 32 points in the Coaches poll.

Should have noted that WVU cracked the Top 25 last week @ 21M/22C and that is where they are again this week.

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Next up is Louisville. (2-0,0-0) with a big win at home vs. Arkansas 55-9 and a close game at TCU 27-23.

We are a 9 point underdog in this one, not bad with how we played 2 of our 3 games. Louisville has relied on their QB for the first two games averging 527 yards a game. So my DBs will have to play a perfect game for me to pull the upset.

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Well we blew the game and literally gave the victory to Louisville.

After leading 20-6 going into the half my team, and mostly my QB fell apart. We gave up 17 unanswered points as Louisville converted 2 late interceptions into 48 & 52 yard FGs. On my last drive my QB threw another interception to end the game. So we lose 23-20 but hung tight with them the entire game except for the last 6 mins.

My rushing game went back to a one man unit as Rice got 93 yards for the game.

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we are no longer getting any votes in either poll, but fellow Big East team Rutgers makes their first appearance in the polls at 24/25. WVU moves to 21/20. These two teams will meet this week so someone is dropping back out.

we get a bye this week to heal up.

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In other football news, #1 Oklahoma plays at home vs #2 Texas this week.
#3 Auburn plays at #10 Tennessee.

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Rutgers wins 34-12 and moves to 16/16 while WVU stays in the top 25 at 23/21.

Oklahoma wins 31-14 and Auburn wins 27-20

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We get back Griffing and Goss from study hall, but could lose starting QB Arnold unless he gets his act together.

Temple (0-5) is up next. We are an 18 point favorite.

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I won't bore you with the details, but we killed Temple 38-16. I actually had 2 100+ yards rushers in this game.

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Two wins away from being bowl eligible Cincinnati comes to town with a 4-2 record. We are 7 point favorites. This is going to be a pretty even matchup on paper and will come down to who makes the plays.

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Well it came down to making plays.

Cincinnati has a bad backup QB and that put the fork in them.

here's a quick summary.
Cin. starting QB Washington plays until the 14 min. mark in the 4th Q going 13/24 for 133 yards and one TD. After getting an injury in comes backup QB Chester who quickly goes 1/4 with an INT returned for a TD. He then comes back in and throws another INT. Follows that up with a 49-yard hook pass then a third INT. Finally, helps get his team to the USF 2 yard line only to throw his 4th INT of the game all in the 4th Q.

We won 21-10 and the INT for a TD put us up 14-10.

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we get a much needed bye week again to hopefully heal up some injuries.