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Bulls Beat: Preseason Prognosticator Picked Bulls To Surprise

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By BRETT McMURPHY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2007

TAMPA - Long before the University of South Florida crashed the top 10 this week, long before the No. 6 Bulls won at Auburn and long before the Bulls even began practicing back in August, Phil Steele had this opinion:

'USF is capable of running the table. This is by far Jim Leavitt's best Bulls squad. USF could end up in the national title game.'

Call him crazy - or genius - but that is what Steele wrote in 'Phil Steele's College Football Preview' magazine.

Steele's magazine, judged the most accurate of the preseason magazines the past eight years, listed USF as one of his 'surprise' teams.

'Two of my first sets of power ratings that I had completed were calling for USF to go undefeated,' Steele said Wednesday. 'The things I always look at are talent and the schedule. Only two teams Auburn and Rutgers that had a winning record they had to play on the road.'

Steele said he takes pride in being ahead of the curve on the Bulls, but he only wishes he wouldn't have picked USF to finish third in the Big East.

'I wish I would have pulled the trigger and picked them to win the Big East,' Steele said. 'I'm kicking myself.'

With the season at the quarter mark, Steele projects on his Web site, PhilSteele.com, that USF will finish unbeaten.

'The road games are all winnable, and no one can come in and win in Tampa,' he said. 'South Florida is an amazing story, coming from nowhere to where they're at.'

Steele added there's 'no doubt' USF should receive a berth in the BCS title game if it finishes as one of two unbeaten teams.

'No ifs, ands or buts,' Steele said. 'They should be in the national title game over any one-loss team.'

THEY SAID WHAT? There certainly isn't a shortage of viewpoints about USF's emergence in the national rankings. Here are a few:

Tony Barnhart, Atlanta Journal Constitution, who ranks USF No. 5: 'The Bulls have beaten Auburn on the road and West Virginia at home. In my book that puts them ahead of a team like Wisconsin. They may have the best chance of any top five team to go undefeated. ...Are you telling me that just 11 years after they started the program, South Florida could be playing for a national championship?'

Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel columnist, who has on more than one occasion referred to USF as renegades: 'There's no denying it now: The best college football team in our state is not the Miami Hurricanes. Or the Florida State Seminoles. Or even the defending national champion Florida Gators. It's undeniably and unbelievably the University of South Florida. And that's no Bulloney.'

NO MADNESS: USF will not hold Midnight Madness ceremonies on the first day of men's and women's basketball practice on Oct. 12-13.

Listen to reporter Brett McMurphy discuss the USF-West Virginia game on 'Hot Lunch with J.P. Peterson' on WHBO, 1470 AM, today between noon and 2 p.m.

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