Post by cviller on Sept 25, 2007 22:33:26 GMT -5
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
September 24, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The biggest game in Florida this week? Auburn at Florida in Gainesville? Alabama facing Florida State in Jacksonville? Duke playing at Miami? No, the biggest game in the Sunshine State is unquestionably No. 5 West Virginia playing No. 18 South Florida in Tampa on Friday night.
It’s an early-season Big East showdown matching two nationally ranked teams.
Ten years ago who would have ever thought that South Florida would be the site of the most appealing college football game in the state of Florida? That speaks volumes for the job Bulls coach Jim Leavitt has done building the South Florida program, and also for the job Rich Rodriguez has done making his West Virginia program one of college football’s marquee attractions.
The Mountaineers have played before two sellouts already at Milan Puskar Stadium, the largest crowd in the history of Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards Stadium, and the fifth-largest crowd in the history of Maryland’s Chevy Chase Bank Stadium, formerly Byrd Stadium.
Electric environments are becoming a common feature of West Virginia football games.
“We’ve gotten tested at times,” was Rich Rodriguez’s reply to one reporter questioning his team’s early season schedule on Monday morning’s Big East coaches’ conference call. “Every time we play somebody we feel like we’re going to take their best shot. We played a very talented Maryland team on the road and that was a hostile environment.”
According to Monday’s Tampa Tribune, the Bulls are expecting to officially sell out the game by Wednesday or Thursday, topping the previous school record for attendance at 65,000-seat Raymond James Stadium by more than 20,000. The school has also issued 12,501 student tickets for the game, exceeding by one ticket the amount allotted for West Virginia home football games.
“I don’t know what to expect," said South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe. “I know it is going to be loud after last week when North Carolina’s quarterback looked spastic trying to get the play off. That was with only 38,000. I can’t imagine how loud it will be with 65,000.”
A pre-game concert is scheduled in the parking lot between 5:45 and 7:15 pm before Friday night’s 8 pm kickoff.
“Our guys know what they’re up against,” Rodriguez said. “They know what kind of talent South Florida has and the environment … from what we understand it may be sold out and there is going to be a tremendous amount of excitement on Friday night so it should be a fun atmosphere.”
USF’s Leavitt is simply taking it all in stride.
“Am I surprised that we’re getting a sellout crowd? No, I thought the day would come some day,” Leavitt said Monday afternoon. “That doesn’t surprise me, when, what, how, where. I’m not concerned with all of that.”
Leavitt believes some of the excitement can be attributed to the fact that South Florida has finally found a permanent home in a BCS conference.
“It is the longest we’ve ever been in a conference,” he explained. “Think about it, it’s the first time we’ve ever been in a conference for three years … third year. That’s never happened. Some teams have been in a conference for, I don’t know, maybe 80 years.”
Leavitt recalls what it was like getting a Division I program started only 11 years ago.
“I was real concerned with making sure we had a washer and dryer, and getting that drain big enough,” Leavitt said. “I worried about using our coaches’ cars to keep the lights on our players. I want our players to realize that every day is really important. It is special to be and live here and to go to school and interact with people.”
The last nine months have produced a lot of firsts for the South Florida program. A win on the road against a Top 10 team at West Virginia, a bowl victory against East Carolina in the PapaJohn’s.com Bowl, the school’s first-ever Top 25 appearance two weeks ago, and now possibly the first sellout home football game in school history.
“Sometimes I reflect in the summer and I sit back and walk where the trailers were and I say, ‘Hey, we got a facility now.’ We’ve taken steps,” Leavitt said. “We now have a locker room. We have a weight room. We have offices and we have meeting rooms. We didn’t always have those things when we were a few years old.”
South Florida also has the respect of Rich Rodriguez. The Bulls derailed West Virginia’s chances of making a second straight BCS bowl appearance last year. The loss still sticks in the craw of many of the WVU players.
“(Last year’s loss) may be mentioned a little bit but I’m not a big guy harping on the so-called revenge factor,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t think that plays much of an issue in the game as far as those kinds of emotions go.
“If it helps your guys get focused during the week that’s fine,” Rodriguez said. “Once the ball is kicked off what has happened in the past is certainly in the past. It’s what’s going on right now that’s important.”
‘What’s going on right now’ is the most important college football game in the Sunshine State this weekend. And South Florida is where it’s being played.