Green & Gold takes hold
Bulls Country printed 60 large signs and 40 banners for area businesses last week and placed an emergency order for 10,000 posters and 8,000 bumper stickers to keep up with the increasing demand. A shipment of 500 foam fingers, received just two weeks ago, is not going to last nearly as long as expected.
By GREG AUMAN
Published October 2, 2007
Just how significant is USF's No. 6 national ranking? How far do the ripple effects of the Bulls' win against then-No. 5 West Virginia extend from USF's campus? Let us show you the ways.
Consider the overstuffed inbox of Bob Fiallo, director of Bulls Country, the network of businesses that are proud to fly banners showing support for USF.
Fiallo's daily e-mails and phone calls have tripled from a month ago, such that he's bumping up against his e-mail storage limit on a daily basis. Tech support is no match for the influx of fans jumping on USF's bandwagon.
Bulls Country printed 60 large signs and 40 banners for area businesses last week and placed an emergency order for 10,000 posters and 8,000 bumper stickers to keep up with the increasing demand. A shipment of 500 foam fingers, received just two weeks ago, is not going to last nearly as long as expected.
Attendance
Tickets are selling at such a pace that even road games are doing well. USF's game Saturday at Florida Atlantic in Fort Lauderdale could give the Owls their first sellout in Lockhart Stadium, which seats 20,500.
"We'd be getting a big jump from the faithful fans in Tampa, but that's the way it goes," FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger said Monday. "It's within the realm of possibility."
Tickets for USF's remaining home games (Oct. 13 against Central Florida, Nov. 3 against Cincinnati and Nov. 17 against Louisville) are selling well enough that USF has opened the upper deck at Raymond James Stadium for all three.
The Bulls Roast tailgate event, an annual part of USF's homecoming, had about 125 reservations this time last year. That number for the Nov. 3 event is now around 500, with a turnout of as much as 2,500 expected.
Recruiting
Wins such as Friday's can help the Bulls years down the road. USF picked up its ninth oral commitment of the season Friday night from Cory Grissom, a 6-foot-2, 275-pound defensive tackle from LaGrange, Ga., who drove down for the game.
"The game made me want to do it," said Grissom, who had an offer from Arkansas. "I like how their defense moves, how they were all flying around."
The Bulls picked up another commitment Monday in Anthony Jones, a 6-foot-2 receiver from Northeast Community College in Mississippi.
Friday's game could lay the groundwork for recruits who aren't even high school seniors, such as Plant quarterback Aaron Murray, a junior who has passed for 1,301 yards and 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Murray was one of seven Plant players invited for unofficial visits Friday night.
Merchandise
At Bucs & Bulls Heaven on Florida Avenue, executive director Gerry D'Angelo was trying to restock the shelves that emptied last week, after Mayor Pam Iorio made Friday "Green and Gold Day."
"Everything was hot," D'Angelo said. "T-shirts, ladies shirts, jerseys, hats, polo shirts." The store sold out of car flags and $220 tailgating canopies, D'Angelo said.
At lunchtime Monday, she was dealing with bigger-than-usual crowds and waiting for shipments of shirts freshly minted with Member of Leavittown and We Got the A-Game.
"The demand for USF product was just unprecedented," said D'Angelo, USF class of '75. "I've never seen anything like it."
In west Tampa, Wayne Curtiss was cranking out the Leavittown shirts and a few others, including one proclaiming Beat WVU ... And The Couch Burnin' Hillbillies They Brought With 'Em!
"That doesn't mean they're all couch burning hillbillies ... half of 1 percent," hedged Curtiss, the owner of Smack Apparel, which makes nonlicensed merchandise for teams across the country. "But it's all fun."
The 21-13 WVU game marks the first time he's created a scoreboard shirt for USF. Curtiss is a Florida State grad and isn't above making shirts mocking his alma mater.
"There is no sacred cow over here at Smack Apparel," he said. "We make fun both ways."
Title chances
Before the season, a Bulls fan could get 100-to-1 odds in Las Vegas on USF winning a national championship. Not anymore.
On Monday, the line was 25-to-1,better odds than defending national champion Florida, which started the year at 8-to-1 but dropped to 35-to-1 after losing to Auburn on Saturday.
Only eight teams nationally get better odds than USF: USC is 3-2, LSU is 2-1, Ohio State 7-1, Cal 10-1, Wisconsin 15-1 and Oklahoma, Arizona State and Boston College are 20-1.
Fact or fiction
Back in West Virginia, coach Rich Rodriguez said Sunday that he didn't mean to offend USF when he suggested West Virginia was responsible for the Bulls' first sellout, saying, "It's like the Yankees."
"It's a fact," he told the Charleston Gazette in Monday's editions. "Any time we go somewhere, we help sell the place out."
Friday's game had a strong yellow-and-blue presence in the stands, but West Virginia didn't sell out its last road game, at Maryland, or its last Big East game on the road, at Pittsburgh. Friday's crowd of 67,018 is the largest road attendance for West Virginia since 2002, a span of 28 games.
Law and order
With a record number of people at Raymond James, it only makes sense that Friday night set a high for bad behavior, with 57 ejections and 17 misdemeanor arrests, along with a rare felony arrest for possession of cocaine, according to the Tampa Sports Authority.
That's twice as many ejections as at any other USF game at Raymond James. The previous highs came in a 2005 Bulls game against Central Florida, when 26 fans were ejected and 13 were arrested. The Tampa Sports Authority normally staffs games with 16 Florida Highway Patrol officers. They used 22 on Friday.
National media
USF coach Jim Leavitt made an appearance on ESPN2's First Take morning show, and he is scheduled to pick some "Jungle Karma" by being a call-in guest today on Jim Rome's nationally syndicated talk show, heard locally on WDAE-620 AM.
Leavitt is due to be on Rome's show at 12:35 p.m., and we'll give you a sneak preview: He's trying to focus on preparing for Florida Atlantic.