Are They The NEXT GREAT Group of 5 Team? (The Rise of USF Football)

back in 2007 USF found themselves ranked as highest number two in the nation in the AP pool were viewed as the next great football program in the State of Florida they were setting record after record until it all came crashing down in the 2010s finally the program looks to be back on the right trajectory after a strong year one under head coach Alex golish but how do we get here this is the story of The Rebirth of USF football but before we get into this if you enjoy college ball content like this make sure to leave a like And subscribe plan to release a video every day from now until Christmas also let me know who your favorite group of five football team is in the comment section below the USF Bulls football program is only a relatively newer team in the full history of college football they began as a division one AA program in 1997 Under head coach Jim levit and moved up to the 1A level in 2001 throughout the 2000s they would have flashes a success and and even Rose to as high as number two in the AP pole in 2007 they were viewed as the fastest rising program in college football and it seemed like they could become the next darling of college football as a member of the Big East conference they were located in Tampa Florida and their backyard was view as some of the most fertile recruiting grounds in all of college football levit had hopes to make USF the next Florida Powerhouse and raise the program to the same levels as Miami Florida and Florida State levit told the athletic back in 2022 people don't realize we were number two the one year but the next two years we were 10th and 21st we went three years in a row getting ranked pretty high I went through the first 10 years and never took a vacation it was all I thought about trying to build a great program and we were the fastest winningest program in history the last year I was there we averaged 53,000 fans a game behind Florida who was competing for national titles at the time USF made more appearances in the AP poll than both Miami and Florida State from 2007 to 2009 they even beat Florida State in Tallahassee in 2009 they were gearing up to be a special program until levit was fired after a school investigation found that he had grabbed a walk-on player inside the team's locker room during halftime and struck him across the face the investigation also felt that levit had interfered with the investigation a year later levit and USF settled for $2.75 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit and he became the linebacker coach for Jim Harbaugh San Francisco 49ers had a record of 95 and 57 and after that the program would never find the same type of success USF replaced levit with skip Holtz the son of lolz who was unable to find much success after an 8 and5 season in 2010 he went 16 and 21 and was fired after a 3-9 season in 2012 then came Willie tiger who found some success with quarterback Quinton flowers he rebuilt the program but struggled at first with the 2 and 10 and 4-8 season in his first two years but his last two seasons they went 8 and five five and 10 and two winning their division in 2016 before he left to take the Oregon job he was recruiting at a high level and set up a strong foundation for the next head coach Charlie Strong replaced tiger as USS head coach after being fired from Texas and was unable to recruit at the same level as tiger his senior started off strong with a 10-2 record in 2017 but after a s- six and 4-8 record he was fired after the 2019 season Jeff Scott then took over as head coach in 2020 with the team finishing the season 1 and8 and their worst loss in program history when they traveled to South Bend to take on Notre Dame and got walloped 52 to nothing they followed that up with the 2 and10 record in 2021 and watched his rival UCF got an invite to the Big 12 while they were left in the American they had gone from dominating UCF to being the knight's punching bag year in and year out Scott turned to the transfer portal to try to reinvigorate the program even having the number one ranked transfer class at one point but that did not help as they started the season 1 and8 and Scott was fired the 2022 season was deemed as the season from Hell by fans was described as the most miserable football season in school history with a 1 in1 record with their only win coming over FCS opponent Howard they ended the season with two1 score losses to Tulsa 48-42 and UCF 46 to39 with the latter game surprising a lot of people that they could compete in levit spoke on the downfall saying it doesn't surprise me the administration blew it we had everything going everything let UCF pass you and get into the Big 12 shouldn't have happened yet there were some positives to look at with the departure of Cincinnati Houston and UCF The Americans seemed like a wide open conference especially with the new 12 team playoff coming in 2024 they finally built an indoor practice facility and they are expected to have an oncampus Stadium completed by 2026 or 2027 they also brought back Michael Kelly who was the associate athletic director in 2001 working along alongside the late Leroy Salman a Tampa Bay Buccaneers Legend Kelly had since worked as the Chief Operating Officer for the college football playoff among other jobs he got to work quickly raising a program record $25 million during the pandemic USF first spent $3 million to upgrade the existing football locker rooms and meeting rooms and then broke ground on a new practice facility he brought in much needed money for the program which was hoping to catch up with the other schools in the state they announced Alex golish as a school's head coach after he served as the offense coordinator and tight ends coach at Tennessee was a final for the broal award in 2022 he spent times at places like Ohio State as a student assistant Oklahoma State Illinois Iowa State UCF as well as Tennessee in multiple different roles he was viewed as a great recruiter and looked to turn the USF football fortunes around the oral commitments he had helped secure at Tennessee included five-star quarterback Nico imala and top 30 National recruit Jonathan Eckles from Brandon's IMG Academy while he was not the biggest name linked to the job like Deion Sanders and Jamie Chadwell were according to the Tampa Bay Times he was still viewed as a great hire and brought hope back to a program that was 4 and 29 the last three seasons in the past he had coached on both sides of the ball as well as the Special Teams and served as a recruiting coordinator along the way he looked to have an aggressive style of play and created his system around the best players at the end to the 2023 season college football newswriter Pete fatto wrote the program probably isn't as far off as it might seem from being back in the mix for bowl games and other nice things and to turn it all around it's a huge help to be in the American Athletic Conference light easier schedule A Renewed motivation and a fun offense USF football should be a blast under new head coach Alex golish they were going to be replacing seven starters on offense from 2022 but return of Veteran quarterback Gary bohannan who actually never played the season but there were still a lot of question marks around the rest of the offense on defense they returned a lot of starters from the 2022 roster and added more depth they brought in experienced defensive coordinator Tod Orlando as well they were projected to go 4 and8 the season which while it may not seem great would have been an important stepping stone for the program the Bulls would lose their first game of the season to Western Kentucky 41 to 24 but snap their 11 game losing streak when they beat Florida A&M 38 to 24 at home red shirt freshman quarterback Byron Brown scored five touchdowns in the win and notably recorded zero turnovers they then hosted number 10 Alabama in a rain soaked Raymond Jam Stadium Alabama was Heavy favorites entering the game but the two went into halftime tied 33 while Alabama pulled away in the second half to win 17 to3 it showed the Bulls could compete with the big boys and they were no longer the disaster of a program they had been the past few years USF would then go on to beat rice and navy before dropping a game to UAB to move to three and three on the season after a loss to FAU on homecoming they rebounded with a win on the road against Yukon to move to four and four on the season they would lose a close shootout against Memphis on the road 59 to 50 before beating Temple at home they split their final two games of the Season against UTSA and Charlotte become bull eligible for the first time since 2018 they would make the short trip to boa Ron to take on Syracuse and the Boer ronow demolishing the orange 45 to nothing last night it capped off an amazing week for the who also finished with the best recruiting class in the American as well their 48th best recruiting class in the nation was the best class USF has signed in over a decade and the first time a class finished in the top 50 since 2014 they signed two four stars and 16 three stars during the early signing period and finished ahead of 24 power five programs in the rankings goer spoke on the accomplishment saying it was a really cool day for our program in a lot of ways one we are practicing to play in a bowl game tomorrow which I think has been monumental for our program moving forward and then Signing Day I'm super grateful to our staff for how they have attacked recruiting I'm really really proud about what we were able to do today we addressed a bunch of needs they capped off the year with their first winning season since 2017 have a ton of momentum heading into 2024 when the 12 team playoff is set to begin if they keep the momentum going they could find themselves in the playoff before rival UCF through the highest group of five automatic bid will be able to test their program in 2024 when they travel on the road to face Alabama and host Miami at home Alex golish has returned hope to the USF program but can they capitalize on the success only time will tell what do you think who takes the group of five playoff bid in 2024 let me know in the comment section below if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out one of my other videos YouTube thinks you will love right here don't forget to leave a like And subscribe for more college football content thank you so much for watching and as always remember to embrace the grind there