Everyone remember this one as well?
USF Is Moving On, And UCF Is On Its Own
By JOE HENDERSON
Published: September 5, 2008
TAMPA - Perhaps we should all wear black arm bands or something to commemorate the impending end of the USF-UCF football series. We could hold a candlelight vigil maybe, or Bulls fans could lower those "Horns" flags that flap out of their car windows to half-staff for the ride Saturday to Orlando.
At least that's what UCF seems to expect. No less than Coach George O'Leary noted this week, "One side gets it. The other side, I don't know what the problem is."
Oh, I know what the problem is. USF isn't about to lower a hand to lift UCF's program to the same level the Bulls currently occupy by giving the Knights any more shots to prove they're equal, which they aren't.
The Knights have a nice little program, and they do well in their nice little league, Conference USA - the same league the Bulls left behind to join the Big East, where they can compete for a BCS berth every year.
These are not equal programs, though, and the Bulls owe Central Florida absolutely nothing. This will be the Knights' fourth and presumably final chance to beat USF, which they haven't been able to do yet.
The Bulls are moving on. Next season they'll start an annual series with Miami. They'll also play the Gators in Gainesville in 2010 and 2015.
UCF can fend for itself.
Come To Tampa
That's the way it works in college football these days. The big dog rules the yard, and in this backyard rivalry USF has been the Doberman while the Knights have been the annoying little poodle that always nips at your heels.
Lots of noise, no real damage.
Maybe if the Knights want to sign a 10-year contract to come to Tampa every year and play at Raymond James Stadium, then USF might consider extending this series. That's what the Bulls had to do to get on Florida's schedule, you know.
They'll make those two trips to Gainesville with no return visits from the Gators because UF Athletic Director Jeremy Foley knows better than to give up the Swamp advantage against a neighborhood program trying to make a name at Florida's expense. So it should be with UCF and the Bulls.
The series has made for some great copy the first three years these two played, none better than this quip from Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe after USF dusted the Knights 64-12 last October.
"I hope they like what happened," Grothe said that day, "because we weren't trying to run the score up on them. We're that much better than them."
Well, it's true.
Grothe just laughs when you mention that now.
"Last year is last year," he said. "If we play well, we have a good chance of winning this year.
"It's all on us to take care of business, you know what I mean?"
I think we do.
He's a junior, so this will be the last time - sniff, sniff - he gets to play the Knights. I asked him if this had been any sort of rivalry for him the last three years, a fun game to play in.
"I guess," he said.
Image Is Everything
It drives UCF crazy that the Bulls are so smug about this series, so willing in these days of high travel costs to dump an opponent that is a 90-minute bus ride away. In the head-to-head battle for recruits right now, though, UCF is much farther away from the Bulls than that.
The Bulls are the team that rose to No. 2 in the national rankings last year. They were a tipped pass at the end of the Cincinnati game from playing in the Fiesta Bowl.
You could argue that the game is a guaranteed big gate, but even that isn't much of a factor now. More than 48,000 fans showed up last week to watch the Bulls toy with Tennessee Martin, and the crowd likely would have been much larger if a monsoon hadn't roared through town shortly before kickoff.
Of course, UCF is talented enough - if the stars align - to beat the Bulls on a given night.
Why give the Knights that chance?
This series was fun for a while, but it has outlived its usefulness.
One side gets that. The other, I don't know.
