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Phil Steele, whose 2007 College Football Preview Magazine predicted last year’s meteoric rise by the University of South Florida, is even more bullish on the Bulls’ chances this season.
Steele ranks USF No. 8 in his magazine’s 2008 preseason Top 25, the Bulls’ highest ever preseason ranking. Steele also lists USF as the nation’s “No. 1 surprise team” and a “surprise darkhorse national title contender.”
Two of Steele’s eight sets of power ratings call for USF to go undefeated and six of his eight power ratings predict USF will enter the regular season finale at West Virginia 11-0.
Steele writes about this year’s USF team: “I think there is a good chance they could win [at WVU] as they won their last trip there (2006) in a game that kept #7 WV from the National Title game. Also all THREE losses during the regular season last year were close and they were either done in by the weather or turnovers. USF will know how to handle the pressure this year as they rise in the polls.”
Steele’s magazine, rated the most accurate preseason magazine over the past nine years combined by Strassen.com, is available at philsteele.com or on newsstands beginning June 10.
Also, Steele’s All-Big East teams have been released on his website. Here are the USF representatives (16 of USF’s 25 starters were listed).
First team: OG Ryan Schmidt, DE George Selvie, LB Tyrone McKenzie. Second team: RB Mike Ford, SS Carlton Williams, FS Nate Allen. Third team: QB Matt Grothe, WR Carlton Mitchell, WR Jessie Hester, DT Aaron Harris, LB Kion Wilson. Fourth team: TE Cedric Hill, C Jake Griffin, OG Zach Hermann, DE Jarriett Buie, CB Jerome Murphy.
Inaugural Bullioneers golf tournament The Bullioneers is a non-profit organization of Bulls and Buccaneers fans and they’re holding their inaugural charity golf tournament June 13 at the Eagles Golf Club in Odessa. Proceeds will benefit St. Josephs Hospital Foundation.
Cost is $125 per player or $500 per team, which includes golf, “goody” bag, lunch and BBQ chicken and rib dinner. Prizes will be awarded to top two teams along with a putting contest, hole-in-one contest, long drive and closest to the hole contests and several raffle items to win as well.
Jay Mize and Marshall Smith, who both starred on USF’s inaugural football team, are part of the Bullioneers’ 10 founding members. For more information, go to www.bullioneers.com
Around the Big East: In his Monday Morning QB column, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King suggested Joe Paterno should step down as Penn State’s coach. Wrote King: “would Penn State be a better football program right now with Paterno as coach or, say, [Rutgers’] Greg Schiano?” King’s column was followed up by “The Phanatic Magazine (Your Source For Philadelphia Sports) reporting: “A source told The Phanatic Magazine Thursday that a succession plan to replace Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno is being ironed out.” And this will be Paterno’s final season with Schiano taking over next season. … Now we may know why Notre Dame’s men’s basketball team was not ranked among the nation’s top 80 recruiting classes earlier this week by CSTV’s Van Coleman. Notre Dame picked up its second impact transfer as Purdue freshman Scott Martin told FoxSports.com’s Jeff Goodman he’s headed to Notre Dame. Previously, the Irish also added Mississippi State transfer Ben Hansbrough (yes, that’s North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough’s little brother). … Rutgers’ Fred Hill is only 6-28 in Big East play in his two seasons, but it was good enough to receive a two-year extension Friday through the 2012-13 season. Perhaps signing a McDonald’s All-American had something to do with it. … If you’re still reading this far, thanks Mom. For the rest of you, I’ll be on vacation next week so I’ll check back with you then. Just curious, though - and I’ll do the Goldilocks test - is Steele’s No. 8 ranking too high, too low or just right?
Posted by Brian R, Venice on 06/04 at 09:58 AM
USF played with no emotion and Oregon came out sky high. In addition, that game was tight into the third quarter and became a blowout on turnovers. UF was absolutely demolished statiscally by a mediocre Michigan (that was destroyed by Oregon). The game was only close due to Michigan’s turnovers inside UF’s five yard line. Michigan had almost 600 yards in total offense in UF’s backyard (Orlando). WVU destroyed OU. It’s OK to rank UF and OU in the top 5 or top 10 after bad bowl performances but USF is discounted?
Posted by Bill Milner, Whitefish, Montana on 06/03 at 05:53 PM
A lot to be learned from the Oregon game. We got our heads handed to us. Coach, talk to us. What happened? Steele, how can you watch that game and rank us that high? It’s fun to read but......... We lost some GREAT defensive players. Replacements? I can see us cracking the top 25 but eight is more than enough. I hope we do go undefeated into WVA. It’s there but what happened in last year’s last game? Too many questions. Even so, GO BULLS!! This is so much fun! Stay with us Jim, all the way to the top.
Posted by Doug Currier II, Columbia, SC on 06/02 at 12:01 PM
Too high. If I were any of this upcoming season’s USF opponents, I’d study that Oregon bowl tape. The Ducks ran away from the vaunted Bull’s defense and embarrassed us. I can’t be the only one to have that idea. And is the linebacking corps equal to last year’s - the secondary?
Posted by Hector Jimenez, Forsyth, GA on 06/01 at 09:45 AM
A ranking of 8 is a bit bloated to me. Can we win the BE yes, can we be undefeated yes but unlikely (I say we finish with 1 loss), can we play in the NC game...no way! But we will be in the radar much like last year however, realistically I don’t think we can do it.
I think our only loss will be at Cinci.
Posted by jon mckee, Sarasota on 05/31 at 10:16 PM
I say too high. I would have put the Bulls somewhere between 17-23. They’re my boys but lets keep it real.
Posted by Brian Smith, Raleigh, NC on 05/31 at 08:46 PM
8 is right. We will probably be favored in Vegas in every one of our first 11 games this year.
Posted by Brian R, Venice on 05/31 at 11:33 AM
Number 8 is a little high but so is UF’s number 1 rating that Rich’s blog mentions. A team that played pass defense last year like the WAC shouldn’t be number 1. UF’s secondary was absolutely awful last year. It’s all subjective. I know USF’s number 8 rating is no more crazy than UF’s number 1 rating.
Posted by USFMikeB, New Orleans on 05/31 at 08:59 AM
I love the enthusiasm coming from a guy that’s consistently done the best job in creating preseason rankings, but I think it is a bit too high.
I believe there are still a lot of question marks on this squad that weren’t answered during spring drills, and I am concerned with matching last season’s win total.
Posted by Rich, Tampa on 05/31 at 08:29 AM
I think he’s just right.
His top 6 are his 6 BCS conference champs ranked by strength of schedule(toughest schedule #1UF - easiest schedule #6 WVU). Then he starts to rank BCS conference runner-ups starting with easiest schedules as they are more likely to have a better record(i.e. USF rated ahead of Georgia).
It’s a refreshing change of pace from all the polls who try and rank teams based on their subjective opinions of a teams talent. Is Georgia a better team than us? Probably but we have a good shot at being ranked higher than them at the end of the season due to the difference in strengths of schedules. His is more accurate because he bases it on how he sees the season playing out.
Posted by greg budzban, carbondale, il on 05/31 at 08:21 AM
Number eight is a little too high, but not by much.
Top 15 for sure.
Posted by CB, lw on 05/30 at 11:38 PM
like our chances and am very proud of the BULLIONEERS...great guys...better cause! Thats what it’s all about.
Posted by Jim Johnson, Tampa, FL on 05/30 at 10:36 PM
According to Steele…
Chances of going…
12-0—25% chance
11-1—50% chance (loss coming to WVU)
10-2+—25% chance
You have to like those odds for a team playing season number 12…
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Posted by CaliBull, CA on 06/06 at 06:35 PM
Why does everyone look at the Oregon game and use that as a reflection of last season? Honestly,if you have any football IQ you don’t judge a team by one poor quarter of play or one game. Just because WVU didn’t beat Pitt does that mean they are horrible. The Bulls have been inconsistent and that’s their biggest knock. They have the talent to play with any team. The articles correct, they have a favorable schedule and if they cut down on the errors (Grothe INT’s for TD’s) they’ll walk away with the conference and possibly into the NC! I will give outsiders looking in one thing, Bulls must be consistent and win the games they are supposed to win and in this case, that’s all of them save WVU!