- Sep 8, 2014
- 25,449
- 59,476
Assessing the hierarchy of college football in the state of Florida
https://theathletic.com/125920/2017...lege-football-ucf-usf-miami-fau/?source=email
In 1978, the newly minted president of a school then known as Florida Technological University did what university presidents have been doing since the 19th century: He declared that his school would need a football team in order to succeed.
That team was born soon after, and the legend goes that they practiced on a driving range and played for a volunteer coach against a series of Division III opponents. They wore golden helmets that looked a little bit like Notre Dame’s, because what better model was there for an aspirant college football program than a once-obscure Catholic school in Indiana that had rode the legacy of the forward pass and the myth of the Gipper to international adulation?
Hence the football program at the school soon to be re-christened as the University of Central Florida was born in the booming Disneyified metropolis known as Orlando. And nearly four decades later, here we are, with UCF — now the largest school in the country, in terms of on-campus undergraduate enrollment — on the verge of playing in a major bowl game for the second time in five years.
There are seven FBS teams in the state of Florida, which may seem like a lot, until you remember that it’s Florida, a state where fleet-of-foot high-school recruits proliferate like citrus fruit and Carl Hiaasen novels. (The other recruiting Holy Grail of the southwest region, Texas, has 12 FBS teams). This is also a state with its own, ehrm, inescapably unique identity, and what makes Florida unique in this case is that four of those schools have moved up to FBS over the past two decades — including UCF, which leapt to the Division Formerly Known as I-A in 1996. A year later, in 1997, the University of South Florida, chasing its own dreams of expanded enrollment, started its own football team, which leapt to the FBS level in 2001.
And all that’s led us to now, to an odd juncture when the traditional hierarchy has been upended, a moment when it is very possible that the two best teams in the state are programs that didn’t exist when Bobby Bowden took over a moribund Florida State team in 1976.
UCF and USF are a combined 9-0 heading into this weekend, while the state’s two marquee programs, Florida State and Florida, are a combined 4-5. Even Miami, at 4-0 after a win against FSU, remains a huge question mark. If I had to wager (legally, in the state of Nevada), I would throw down far more of my bitcoin on Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic Owls winning the Sun Belt than I would on the Hurricanes winning the ACC.
Programs like UCF and USF were born of the idea that Florida is such an embarrassment of rich football talent that all you had to do was comb through the leftover two- and three-star talent that the Big 3 of FSU, Florida and Miami couldn’t or wouldn’t take, hire a smart coach, and you could win some games. That’s what Willie Taggart did (and Charlie Strong appears to be continuing to do) at USF; that’s what Scott Frost has done at UCF. Those jobs are seen as springboards for coaches like Frost rather than destination points, not places that will ever be coveted landing spots for the four- and five-star recruits who land at Florida State and Florida and Miami and a myriad of other Power Five programs.
But this topsy-turvy instant in time also led me to wonder (as I have in the past): It is possible that, in a state like Florida, the order of things could ever be completely and permanently upended? Is it possible that in 20 or 30 years, UCF or USF will be the most powerful program in Florida?
“I just don’t see it,” says Steve Wiltfong, director of recruiting for 247Sports. “Getting on the ultimate stage and playing on Sundays are two of the biggest reasons why these kids are picking schools. UCF is having a great start, but they’re still not exactly mainstream. It’s more about catching fire in a bottle at a place like that.”
Wiltfong’s studied both UCF and USF’s recruiting efforts, and so I know that he’s probably right. It’s rare that any school is able to complete the Gatsby-esque task of elevating itself from a mid-major (or even a subpar major) into a major. Bowden elevated FSU at a time when conference affiliation was less crucial, particularly in terms of the television money trail.
Even now, the Big 12 keeps hinting at expansion and holding expansion-related beauty pageants but doesn’t seem in any hurry to actually do it; the one school that actually seemed to have earned its way into the big-time with its on-field performance, Boise State, remains marooned in the Mountain West Conference. Until the next tectonic conference shift occurs, no one can really move up.
This is the predicament of the entire American Athletic Conference, the current home of both UCF and USF: They are a Group of Five conference with lofty aspirations that just can’t seem to get taken seriously by the Power Five conferences, no matter how hard they try. Until then, Wiltfong says, all they can do is try to lock up the Florida recruits who have slipped through the cracks and steal them away from second-tier Power Five schools that delve into Florida in order to recruit the speed they’re seeking.
“It’s (more) about not missing (with recruits) than it is about hitting,” Wiltfong says. “You find kids that fit your culture and scheme and develop them.”
Maybe then it doesn’t matter what Scott Frost does at UCF, or what Charlie Strong does at USF — maybe one of those coaches will go 11-1, win a major bowl game against a quality opponent, change nothing about the overarching hierarchy, and then leave for a higher-profile job (if there’s anyone who doesn’t think this is Kiffin’s plan, then I salute your naivete and would like to offer you an opportunity to purchase these completely legitimate photos of Bigfoot I’ve acquired).
Maybe UCF or USF will never wind up like Notre Dame or Florida State, but this is a part of the country where the topsy-turvy is the norm, and so I refuse to believe it’s impossible.
https://theathletic.com/125920/2017...lege-football-ucf-usf-miami-fau/?source=email
In 1978, the newly minted president of a school then known as Florida Technological University did what university presidents have been doing since the 19th century: He declared that his school would need a football team in order to succeed.
That team was born soon after, and the legend goes that they practiced on a driving range and played for a volunteer coach against a series of Division III opponents. They wore golden helmets that looked a little bit like Notre Dame’s, because what better model was there for an aspirant college football program than a once-obscure Catholic school in Indiana that had rode the legacy of the forward pass and the myth of the Gipper to international adulation?
Hence the football program at the school soon to be re-christened as the University of Central Florida was born in the booming Disneyified metropolis known as Orlando. And nearly four decades later, here we are, with UCF — now the largest school in the country, in terms of on-campus undergraduate enrollment — on the verge of playing in a major bowl game for the second time in five years.
There are seven FBS teams in the state of Florida, which may seem like a lot, until you remember that it’s Florida, a state where fleet-of-foot high-school recruits proliferate like citrus fruit and Carl Hiaasen novels. (The other recruiting Holy Grail of the southwest region, Texas, has 12 FBS teams). This is also a state with its own, ehrm, inescapably unique identity, and what makes Florida unique in this case is that four of those schools have moved up to FBS over the past two decades — including UCF, which leapt to the Division Formerly Known as I-A in 1996. A year later, in 1997, the University of South Florida, chasing its own dreams of expanded enrollment, started its own football team, which leapt to the FBS level in 2001.
And all that’s led us to now, to an odd juncture when the traditional hierarchy has been upended, a moment when it is very possible that the two best teams in the state are programs that didn’t exist when Bobby Bowden took over a moribund Florida State team in 1976.
UCF and USF are a combined 9-0 heading into this weekend, while the state’s two marquee programs, Florida State and Florida, are a combined 4-5. Even Miami, at 4-0 after a win against FSU, remains a huge question mark. If I had to wager (legally, in the state of Nevada), I would throw down far more of my bitcoin on Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic Owls winning the Sun Belt than I would on the Hurricanes winning the ACC.
Programs like UCF and USF were born of the idea that Florida is such an embarrassment of rich football talent that all you had to do was comb through the leftover two- and three-star talent that the Big 3 of FSU, Florida and Miami couldn’t or wouldn’t take, hire a smart coach, and you could win some games. That’s what Willie Taggart did (and Charlie Strong appears to be continuing to do) at USF; that’s what Scott Frost has done at UCF. Those jobs are seen as springboards for coaches like Frost rather than destination points, not places that will ever be coveted landing spots for the four- and five-star recruits who land at Florida State and Florida and Miami and a myriad of other Power Five programs.
But this topsy-turvy instant in time also led me to wonder (as I have in the past): It is possible that, in a state like Florida, the order of things could ever be completely and permanently upended? Is it possible that in 20 or 30 years, UCF or USF will be the most powerful program in Florida?
“I just don’t see it,” says Steve Wiltfong, director of recruiting for 247Sports. “Getting on the ultimate stage and playing on Sundays are two of the biggest reasons why these kids are picking schools. UCF is having a great start, but they’re still not exactly mainstream. It’s more about catching fire in a bottle at a place like that.”
Wiltfong’s studied both UCF and USF’s recruiting efforts, and so I know that he’s probably right. It’s rare that any school is able to complete the Gatsby-esque task of elevating itself from a mid-major (or even a subpar major) into a major. Bowden elevated FSU at a time when conference affiliation was less crucial, particularly in terms of the television money trail.
Even now, the Big 12 keeps hinting at expansion and holding expansion-related beauty pageants but doesn’t seem in any hurry to actually do it; the one school that actually seemed to have earned its way into the big-time with its on-field performance, Boise State, remains marooned in the Mountain West Conference. Until the next tectonic conference shift occurs, no one can really move up.
This is the predicament of the entire American Athletic Conference, the current home of both UCF and USF: They are a Group of Five conference with lofty aspirations that just can’t seem to get taken seriously by the Power Five conferences, no matter how hard they try. Until then, Wiltfong says, all they can do is try to lock up the Florida recruits who have slipped through the cracks and steal them away from second-tier Power Five schools that delve into Florida in order to recruit the speed they’re seeking.
“It’s (more) about not missing (with recruits) than it is about hitting,” Wiltfong says. “You find kids that fit your culture and scheme and develop them.”
Maybe then it doesn’t matter what Scott Frost does at UCF, or what Charlie Strong does at USF — maybe one of those coaches will go 11-1, win a major bowl game against a quality opponent, change nothing about the overarching hierarchy, and then leave for a higher-profile job (if there’s anyone who doesn’t think this is Kiffin’s plan, then I salute your naivete and would like to offer you an opportunity to purchase these completely legitimate photos of Bigfoot I’ve acquired).
Maybe UCF or USF will never wind up like Notre Dame or Florida State, but this is a part of the country where the topsy-turvy is the norm, and so I refuse to believe it’s impossible.
