There were all kind of nasty rumors floating around out there.
Some seemingly very intelligent people appeared to actually believe them.
No, I am not talking about some little known golfer named Tiger Woods who apparently shanked his drive and recently had a minor car accident where he allegedly took out a fire hydrant and a tree with his Cadillac Escalade at 2:30 AM near his mansion in the expensive and exclusive enclave of Windermere, Florida. Fortunately for Woods his lovely wife was there to get him out of trouble as the word on the street is that she used a five iron to hit a high fade and free him from the vehicle by breaking out two windows. Phew, that was close, huh?
No that's not it at all. You see it seemed to some relatively well informed people that some how while the good folks in Coral Gables, Gainesville and Tallahassee were not looking, a little upstart University over in Tampa had caught up to the "Big Three": Miami, Florida and Florida State.
Yes, some smart and educated people really thought that there was now a "Big Four"; one that included Big East Conference representative USF.
Clearly this smart and attractive young lady pictured above had fallen head over heels for her Bulls and was seen proudly representing the USF D-Fence early in the game. That was until Miami scored on their first possesion. Then she sat down and got real quiet just like the rest of the USF faithful on hand to witness the slaughter of their home town Bulls.
Others even went so far as to consider a "Big Five" that would include the ever growing University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Well, as Lee Corso from ESPN would say: "Not so fast my friend!"
Corso, who for the record predicted on College Game Day from The Swamp in Gainesville that USF would beat Miami, said he believed it: That USF had finally matched Miami in talent, speed and coaching. But Mr. Corso, who many claim is entertaining but at the same time question if he is playing with a full deck, was eventually exposed by his now obviously misguided prediction.
In some ways Corso fell victim to the hype. It might even be understandable from the outside looking in at the UM program. After all, Miami did get blown out by VT in Blacksburg early this season and more recently dropped two more ACC games to Clemson and UNC.
Add to that the fact that UM QB Jacory Harris was nursing a sore thumb, starting LT Jason Fox was out with an illness and the Hurricane defense was decimated by injury.
Miami seemed ripe for the picking.
The Grand Illusion over in Tampa had even our own Manny Navarro from the Miami Herald predicting a USF victory. Of course he then spent most of Saturday and Sunday apologizing for his embarrassing faux pas. If only the Mandingo would have listened to me and my prediction of UM 27, USF 17, he would have been fine. But nooooo! Well, we forgive you Manny (sort of).
But can you really blame Corso or Navarro for their swoon over the new kid on the block? Not really. Shoot, there were even some hard core Canespacers who openly stated here on the blog that they were "worried" or "concerned" about the USF game. They also were taken in by the hype, the misdirection and the smoke and the mirrors that Jim Leavitt was wielding over there in the 813.
After Saturday's 31-10 whipping of the Bulls by the Hurricanes anyone who might have subscribed to the theory of evolution of the Big Three becoming the Big Four can cancel their subscription.
That bull is over and done with. End of story. Period.
Sure they have a pretty stadium. They have won a few big games. They even were ranked in the top 10 a few times over the last couple of years. But with no Big East Conference titles or National Championship trophies in their case the delusions of grandeur at USF need to be treated with some serious psychiatric medication, not the respect of the college football world or the media.
And while I don't usually condone violence, especially that of the domestic kind, I am confident that next year when the Bulls come on down to the 305 to play the Canes at The Shark you can bet that they are going to get smacked around worse than an Ike Turner girlfriend.
Or a Tiger Woods owned vehicle might look like after an attempted late night run.
Or maybe like Canezilla and his crew might do to a bottle throwing USF fan at The Ship.
Not that any of that would actually happen. I'm just sayin'...