Ten years ago there was no football team at USF. In a couple of weeks, the Bulls will be in a bowl game.
Granted, it’s the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte, N.C., and not the BCS Sugar Bowl in Atlanta that had loomed a fortnight ago. And, yeah, Head Coach Jim Leavitt didn’t look ready for prime time with his poorly-timed brain cramps that cost the Bulls that embarrassing loss to Connecticut and a national TV show-down game with West Virginia.
But it is what it is. No football program in the country has ever come this far, this fast. And to be disappointed about a consolation prize – because you’re not going to a BCS Bowl in your fifth year of Division 1-A play — is itself a testimonial to ambition, lofty goals and the big time.