South Florida hits bull's-eye

TAMPA, Fla. — When Jeffrey Neil Fox attended the University of South Florida, football was something other colleges played. The sleepy commuter school had no team in the 1970s. Or the 1980s. Or most of the 1990s.

But this season, the South Florida Bulls — and a growing green-and-gold legion — are on a heady ride that has landed them in second place to Ohio State in the Bowl Championship Series standings and the Associated Press media poll. Bulls fans are enjoying the opportunity to tweak some of their football elders.

"Move over, Florida Gators," said Fox, a sports-apparel merchant and 1975 South Florida graduate. "Move over, FSU. Move over, University of Miami."

Fueled by victories over Auburn and West Virginia, South Florida is on the inside track for the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

Earlier this month, Bobby Bowden, coach of unranked Florida State, said South Florida deserved to be ranked and added, "I'm glad to see someone in the state of Florida holding the banner up while the rest of us try to get off the floor."

Proclaimed ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit: "The story of the year in college football."

Walt Walker, a third-year starter at offensive tackle for South Florida, didn't have his contact lenses in when the rankings crossed his TV screen a couple of days after the Bulls' 21-13 win over then-No. 5 West Virginia on Sept. 28. South Florida jumped from 18th to sixth in the AP poll.

"I squinted," Walker said. "Then I called my fiancée in — 'What number does that say?' I thought I was seeing stuff ... I almost fell out of my chair."

Big-time football is being infiltrated by a team fans have recently discovered but that plays for what is the nation's ninth-largest public university, with an enrollment of about 45,000. South Florida is in its seventh season as a full member of the NCAA's top echelon, formerly known as Division I-A. When the 2007 season began, the Bulls had not spent so much as a week in the Top 25.

When they first made the AP list on Sept. 16, it set a record for the quickest rise by a I-A newcomer — 104 polls. That beat Boise State's mark by about a season.

Credit begins with Jim Leavitt, the alpha and omega of Bulls coaches. He was hired in December 1995, working out of a trailer until team offices were built. He is still the man orchestrating every step of the climb from when football started there in 1997.

"He had a vision and shared it with me," said Walker, who bought into Leavitt's idea of becoming a pioneer. "Coach Leavitt said you can be part of everyone else's history, or you can come to South Florida where you have the opportunity to make history. ... I wanted to be a guy to help pave the way."

Athletic director Doug Woolard called Leavitt "the quintessential fit" for both the team and the Tampa-St. Petersburg area.

"His family's still here," Woolard said. "He understands and appreciates what the school has done. And he certainly understands football in this state."

Leavitt sometimes has to explain South Florida's geographically challenged name.

"That struck me," Walker said. "When he told me Tampa, I thought to myself, 'That doesn't make any sense. That's north.' But I kind of let it go. And now I'm a South Florida Bull."

This season, 100 players on the 109-man roster are from Florida.

The Tampa Bay area has grown to embrace the Bulls. Banners proclaiming "Bulls Country" proliferate.

Fox is having trouble keeping anything green and gold on the shelves. His store's Web site asks for customers' patience in filling an overload of orders.

"It's a quantum leap, maybe four or five times what it ever was before," Fox said. "We have so many fans out there that don't have much in their closet.

"Now they need to Bull up."

South Florida (6-0 overall, 1-0 Big East Conference) visits Rutgers (4-2, 1-1) on Thursday night and is favored by three points.

"We've only played one game in the Big East," Leavitt said. "You guys see what the Big East is like. It's strong; it's very strong. Anybody can beat anybody."

Leavitt sounds as if he is resisting the temptation to look too far ahead.

"I like the position we're in right now," he said after Saturday's 64-12 romp over Central Florida. "But I'm not thinking about all that other stuff. I'd get distracted like everybody else if I try to keep track of it."