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Bulls Beat: Bulls Not Getting Respect

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 6, 2007

TAMPA - Conference USA coaches despise the University of South Florida, and Big Ten coaches aren't that impressed, either. Surprisingly, though, coaches from the Pac-10, located the farthest from Tampa, have the highest regard for the Bulls.

At least that's what the 60 coaches voting in the USA Today/coaches final regular-season poll revealed.

USF, which was ranked No. 25, received votes from 30 of the 60 coaches. Sixty of the 117 Division I-A coaches vote in the poll, which is one of the components in the BCS rankings. Each of the 11 conferences has at least half of their league's coaches voting.

USF received votes from 21 of the 36 BCS conferences coaches, while only getting votes from nine of the 24 non-BCS conferences coaches.

Of the six C-USA coaches that vote, only UCF's George O'Leary put USF in the Top 25. And O'Leary was so impressed by UCF's 64-12 loss to USF, he ranked his 10-3 Knights No. 17, five spots ahead of 9-3 USF.

Tulane's Bob Toledo was the only C-USA coach that didn't rank UCF and USF, while Neil Callaway (UAB), Jeff Bower (Southern Miss), Art Briles (Houston) and Mark Snyder (Marshall) voted UCF in their Top 25, but not USF.

Among the BCS leagues, USF's least support came from the Big Ten with only two of their seven coaches voting for the Bulls. The most support, outside of the Big East, came from the Pac-10 with four of their five coaches voting for USF.

The other BCS leagues: ACC (four of six voted for USF), Big 12 (four of six), Big East (four of four) and SEC (three of seven).

The Big East coaches' votes for USF: Louisville's Steve Kragthorpe (21), Rutgers' Greg Schiano (23), West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez (23), UConn's Randy Edsall (24).

Clemson's Tommy Bowden ranked USF the highest at No. 17. The only others with USF in the Top 20: Wisconsin's Bret Bielema (18), North Carolina's Butch Davis (19), Texas A&M's Dennis Franchione (19), Kent State's Doug Martin (19) and Washington's Ty Willingham (19).

Oregon's Mike Bellotti, whose Ducks face USF in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31, ranked USF No. 22.

Besides C-USA, the breakdown of the other non-BCS conferences: Mid-American (two of six voted for USF), Mountain West (two of four), Sun Belt (two of four) and Western Athletic (two of four).

Fifteen of the 60 coaches with votes have faced USF in their careers as head coaches. Only four didn't vote for USF: Bower, Mark Dantonio (Michigan State), Joe Novak (Northern Illinois) and Tommy Tuberville (Auburn).

Yes, that's right. The same Tuberville, whose team lost at home to USF 26-23 in overtime Sept. 8.

ODDS AND ENDS: Football coach Jim Leavitt, taking a page out of Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl's book of body painting, will "paint up" his body and sit in the student section at Saturday's men's basketball game vs. UAB. The first 3,000 fans will receive "Finish Strong" wrist bands. ... The Bulls' bowl gifts will be Sony Bravia surround sound systems, Sports Business Journal reported.

USF Shorts

HONOR ROLL: Freshman G Dominique Jones was named Big East rookie of the week after averaging 22.5 points in USF's wins against UCF and Florida International last week.

SOUNDBITE CENTRAL: "It's great to see Coach [Jim] Leavitt get painted up for the men's game Saturday, but it would be nice to see [baseball] coach [Lelo] Prado in a Sun Dolls outfit. That would be special." - women's basketball coach Jose Fernandez

LOOK OUT FOR: The men's basketball team hosts UAB on Saturday at 7 p.m. The women's team hosts Florida A&M on Sunday at 2.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Predict the outcome of the Sun Bowl. To vote and monitor results, visit TBO.com, Keyword: Bulls.

BLOG BONUS: Leavitt's $1 million salary ranks fifth among the Big East's eight coaches, according to a USA Today salary survey. To see the salaries of the Big East's other coaches, go to TBO.com, Keyword: Bulls.

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