Voodoo Five column: "Dear USF Fans: It's Time To Give A **** And Show Up"

[hm101]

Fans are burned. It's that simple. We're here but it is exhausting going through the past 3 years.

Yes it's a new day with new leadership, but that doesn't change the exhaustion.

Your core of 20-30k are still there. That extra 20-30k will come back when they feel like they won't be fooled again.

[hbryan]

This is my post to their blog post:

 

 

Winning isn't Everything

It’s the ONLY THING! You know what they say…….“Build it and they will comeâ€, well Jim Leavitt did and they came. Then “they†decided to tear it down, and there’s been a continual atrophy of USF football since. At some point, someone…….anyone…….within USF Athletics is going to have to take the reigns snatched from Jim Leavitt’s hands and actually build something. Genshaft, Woolard, Holtz couldn’t or wouldn’t and Taggart’s reign is eerily similar to Kragholtz’s final years. Who is the builder at USF? We aren’t going to get there without winning, that much is clear. WINNING is the salve that will heal us and everyone in the LRS Athletic Building knows that. Winning Isn’t Everything……IT’S THE ONLY THING!!!!

[SpeedyBull]

I like the emotion and direction of the article. I get that fans are burned, I get that they spoke with their wallet but they were heard. It is time to come back and support until it becomes necessary again. They(we) protested holtz, it was heard. They(we) protested DW, it was heard. Changes have been made lets watch it happen. I get that the product itself is still bad but it is improving. You can feel it when you are there that this team is a different team then last year. The record may not show it (yet) but  we are on the uptick. We should be able to get 30-40k butts in seats on game day because we are playing football! I get there are a lot of factors and a lot of options but if you like football, and if you went to USF you should find a way to be there, at least for some of these games as we only get 6-7 of them a year. I can tell you that personally aside from the event itself I go for the friendship, the food, and the fun beforehand. 

[USFbulls24]

You take any team in the country, have them win 4 games in their last 24 and the attendance is not going to look pretty. If you're talking Alabama or Notre Dame it probably doesn't look as bad, but their attendance would drop significantly as well. Especially any other program on USF's level would see the same exact results, so anyone acting like it's ridiculous just doesn't get it. Again, I agree with the gripe with the lack of showing by the students, but overall don't go on a rant (voodoo writer) about people not showing up when USF can't win enough games to even be ranked in the top 90 of college football. 

 

I'm a season ticket holder at every game. I just get why people would rather watch from home.

[Lmshaffe]

Although, he has some good points, it's hard to overlook the hypocritical ********:

 

Sometimes you need to vote with your wallet to effect change, and not buying tickets or making your annual gift is a good way to show you're unsatisfied with the direction of the program. I don't encourage this after one or two bad seasons, but when things are systemically wrong (as they certainly were here in the recent past) it can be ok to check out in support of a larger cause.

....

 

I stopped giving money to USF Athletics (except volleyball) as a protest. I didn't buy season tickets either. 

 

 

If he didn't do it after one or two bad seasons, when did he do it?? Reality is, if you truly care about the USF football program, you don't withhold its' lifeblood unless things reach a disaster level of Biblical proportions and it hadn't ..... unless you're one of the spoiled teenagers our fanbase has been compared to. 

I interpreted that in his opinion things were systematically wrong which is when you should protest in this manner. I get where he's coming from on that statement. Doug Woulard gives a contract extension after a 5-7 season, gives himself a new contract and just rides it out. Woulard  was so hidden behind the curtain it was kind of getting ridiculous. Just look at what Harlan has done. He's been more active and visible than Woulard probably was his entire tenure. When you have an AD who seems to not care, things look systematically wrong so this was his way of protesting. I'm not saying it's right, but I don't see it as hypocritical as you do since things did look bad.

 

What I think he's referring to is when you have a program that seems to have the enthusiasm similar to what USF has this year, that you don't give up on it because they suck for a couple years. Athletics is really trying hard now and they actually seem to care. They're in panic mode because sales are so low. It's good to have this new enthusiasm, it just sucks that it took people to stop contributing to get their attention.

[Sellular1]

You take any team in the country, have them win 4 games in their last 24 and the attendance is not going to look pretty. If you're talking Alabama or Notre Dame it probably doesn't look as bad, but their attendance would drop significantly as well. Especially any other program on USF's level would see the same exact results, so anyone acting like it's ridiculous just doesn't get it. Again, I agree with the gripe with the lack of showing by the students, but overall don't go on a rant (voodoo writer) about people not showing up when USF can't win enough games to even be ranked in the top 90 of college football. 

 

I'm a season ticket holder at every game. I just get why people would rather watch from home.

Arkansas was 11-2 in 2011 then went 4-8 in 2012 and 3-9 last season. Their "announced" attendance fell by almost 30,000 fans. People want to watch a winner and in S Florida there are lots of other things to occupy peoples time and money if the team sucks. In Arky there's nothing else to do and they still bail out.

[Brad]

That's a lot of hot air to say "if you want to compete at the highest levels of football, go to the **** game".

 

I'm not sure that gets us to the highest levels of football. 

 

One thing he has right is that this administration is reaching out.

 

Other than that, it's a lot of Collin telling us about Collin.

 

I think the ones that care do show up.  But there are several that were driven away 4.5 years when those in power (really in power), Woolard and Genshaft, botched the Leavitt situation (purposely or in their own incompetence) and forever altered the course of the program.  And both are still there, Woolard unbelievably.

 

Now it's up to someone else to build it.  Hopefully Collin's pleas, as well as those from many other sources, helps them do that.  The program itself had the greatest opportunity yet this season and that was to beat a pretty lousy Maryland team.  Didn't do it.

 

Taggart seems like a great guy, but he may not a program builder on the level of Leavitt.  Paul Griffin found the guy.  Harlan may end up having to as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[USF_Grouper]

That's a lot of hot air to say "if you want to compete at the highest levels of football, go to the **** game".

 

I'm not sure that gets us to the highest levels of football. 

 

One thing he has right is that this administration is reaching out.

 

Other than that, it's a lot of Collin telling us about Collin.

 

I think the ones that care do show up.  But there are several that were driven away 4.5 years when those in power (really in power), Woolard and Genshaft, botched the Leavitt situation (purposely or in their own incompetence) and forever altered the course of the program.  And both are still there, Woolard unbelievably.

 

Now it's up to someone else to build it.  Hopefully Collin's pleas, as well as those from many other sources, helps them do that.  The program itself had the greatest opportunity yet this season and that was to beat a pretty lousy Maryland team.  Didn't do it.

 

Taggart seems like a great guy, but he may not a program builder on the level of Leavitt.  Paul Griffin found the guy.  Harlan may end up having to as well. 

 

If Leavitt was such a program builder then he would have landed somewhere by now to build programs. The departure of CJL had little to do with the fall of our program. Some of it is just the natural swings of college football. I think a big part of it was USF Athletics tried to grow much faster than they could sustain - drastically raised season ticket contributions levels, put posters up about big 4, etc. You see it happen with a lot of small to mid-size businesses who aren't in anyway prepared for the new pond the find themselves in.

USF Athletics will be fine. Like every other school and every other sport fans will attend when the event is entertaining. For the last few years USF football has not been - unless you like comedies.

[Triple B]

 

You take any team in the country, have them win 4 games in their last 24 and the attendance is not going to look pretty. If you're talking Alabama or Notre Dame it probably doesn't look as bad, but their attendance would drop significantly as well. Especially any other program on USF's level would see the same exact results, so anyone acting like it's ridiculous just doesn't get it. Again, I agree with the gripe with the lack of showing by the students, but overall don't go on a rant (voodoo writer) about people not showing up when USF can't win enough games to even be ranked in the top 90 of college football. 

 

I'm a season ticket holder at every game. I just get why people would rather watch from home.

Arkansas was 11-2 in 2011 then went 4-8 in 2012 and 3-9 last season. Their "announced" attendance fell by almost 30,000 fans. People want to watch a winner and in S Florida there are lots of other things to occupy peoples time and money if the team sucks. In Arky there's nothing else to do and they still bail out.

 

 

Come on, man, what are you making **** up for?

 

Arkansas attendance:

 

2011 - 66,990

2012 - 68,046

2013 - 61,596

2014 - 63,108 (1 game against Nicholls State)

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/week-2-sec-attendance-figures/

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2013.pdf

 

 

[Triple B]

Although, he has some good points, it's hard to overlook the hypocritical ********:

 

Sometimes you need to vote with your wallet to effect change, and not buying tickets or making your annual gift is a good way to show you're unsatisfied with the direction of the program. I don't encourage this after one or two bad seasons, but when things are systemically wrong (as they certainly were here in the recent past) it can be ok to check out in support of a larger cause.

....

 

I stopped giving money to USF Athletics (except volleyball) as a protest. I didn't buy season tickets either. 

 

 

If he didn't do it after one or two bad seasons, when did he do it?? Reality is, if you truly care about the USF football program, you don't withhold its' lifeblood unless things reach a disaster level of Biblical proportions and it hadn't ..... unless you're one of the spoiled teenagers our fanbase has been compared to.

I interpreted that in his opinion things were systematically wrong which is when you should protest in this manner. I get where he's coming from on that statement. Doug Woulard gives a contract extension after a 5-7 season, gives himself a new contract and just rides it out. Woulard  was so hidden behind the curtain it was kind of getting ridiculous. Just look at what Harlan has done. He's been more active and visible than Woulard probably was his entire tenure. When you have an AD who seems to not care, things look systematically wrong so this was his way of protesting. I'm not saying it's right, but I don't see it as hypocritical as you do since things did look bad.

What I think he's referring to is when you have a program that seems to have the enthusiasm similar to what USF has this year, that you don't give up on it because they suck for a couple years. Athletics is really trying hard now and they actually seem to care. They're in panic mode because sales are so low. It's good to have this new enthusiasm, it just sucks that it took people to stop contributing to get their attention.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. To me, it's hypocritical because it's okay for HIM to withhold money from the program for what HE considers valid reasons but apparently others aren't allowed to do the same thing.