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Where's The Beef?

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By STEVE KORNACKI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2007

Photo Slideshow by Jay Nolan

TAMPA They stand for the entire game. They stand for their school.

The Beef Studs and Beef Babes help fill the north end-zone seats at Raymond James Stadium for University of South Florida football games. They'll do just about anything to show support for their school.

They are They make up a body-painting, hula skirt- and horn-wearing student organization that screams for its team from before the opening kickoff to a good while after the final gun — provided their beloved Bulls win.

Which they are doing quite regularly these days, what with USF rising to No. 6 in last week's Associated Press poll.

There are nearly 100 Studs and Babes now, but it started with just four crazy guys five years ago. Back when rooting for the Bulls wasn't all that cool.

"It was my freshman year. I lived on campus and loved being at USF," says Brandon Faza , who founded the group with some buddies. "I saw the UF [University of Florida] games with the students painting their faces and going nuts for the Gators. And I watched the Cameron Crazies at Duke painting their bodies.

"And I asked myself, 'Why doesn't anybody do that here?'"

The painful answer: Nobody cared.

But Faza did, and so did Ryan Capahi and Alex Velazquez.

"We hashed out the idea in science lab," Faza says, "and we approached the dean of the Honors College, Stuart Silverman, to start the organization. He gave us $50 for body paint."

And they were off.

They've grown to such a loud, ostentatious presence, they merited an ESPN interview before the much-anticipated Sept. 28 game against then-No. 5 West Virginia.

Mike "Ugi" Uglialoro , 25, an accounting major and president of the Studs and Babes, says there are those on the outside who think they do it for attention.

"They say we just do it to be on the JumboTron," Uglialoro says. "But a true school spirit exists in this group. It was nice for a lot of us, knowing we were doing this before the team got hot. We were the trailblazers for school spirit. People even like us to stop by the luxury boxes. It's a hoot.

"We've been there the whole way, and if they stop winning — and God forbid that happens — we'll still be there."

Painted and accounted for.

Painted, But Not Naked

They arrive late in the morning for night games, barbecueing a tailgate lunch, and, at mid-afternoon, beginning the body painting.

Remember that scene from "Rudy," where the Notre Dame students paint the football helmets gold the night before a game? These students paint themselves gold and green, with white trim, on game days.

"My dad frowns on the painting, though," says pre-med major Ashleigh Johnson, 21, of Fort Myers. "He says we look like we're naked."

They're not, of course. The Babes are clad in sports bras and shorts. The Studs wear shorts.

"We found that water-based acrylic paint stays on well for the games and then showers off," says Faza, now a University of Miami medical school student who still makes nearly every game.

They paint each other assembly-line fashion using foam brushes. The Bulls logo is screened through a stencil.

"You just need a little finesse to paint," says Bennett "Bull" Smith, a 27-year-old secondary education major.

His brother, Alec "Red" Smith (get it? Red Bull. A sponsor.), notes that Bull delayed his education to spend seven years in the Marine Corps.

"This is a blast, and I'm getting a chance to relive my younger years," says Bull, a former sergeant and communications repairman who did a tour in Iraq.

He wears his dog tags on a chain with a bullet commemorating fallen unit comrade Andy Aviles of Tampa.

Red, 23, a past president of the group who joined Faza, Capahi and Velazquez that first season, studies architecture in graduate school at USF.

"We wanted to build this and went from four to 100," he says. "I'm still living it and loving every minute of it."

Adds Faza, "I want to come back here 30 or 40 years from now as an alumnus with season tickets, and I still want to see this group riling up the crowd. I'll look down and say, 'I had a hand in that.'"

Bull Nation

They come to this spirit fraternity-sorority (fratority?) from a variety of backgrounds and from across the country. Many first heard of the group during freshman orientation presentations made by Uglialoro and others.

Nilla "The Mouth" Bergoch , 22, a senior from Mentor, Ohio, was one of several Studs to get on a billboard promoting USF games last year.

"I was an Ohio State guy from the day I was born," he says. "But now look at me. I am the loudest one in our group, always in the first row."

They line up at the stadium entrance 90 minutes before the gates open to assure getting into the front rows of the student section. They bake together on hot concrete. To amuse themselves and those in the area, they give impromptu pep talks and chant, "USF! USF! USF!"

When the gates open, they march in together chanting the refrain of the wicked witch's castle guards from "The Wizard of Oz": "Oh-WEE-oh! Oh-WEE-oh …"

Then they break ranks and sprint for the front rows, where they must entertain themselves for another 90 minutes before kickoff.

The Tossing Of The Drinks

When Bulls linebacker Ben Moffitt returns an interception for the first touchdown of the West Virginia game, the Studs and Babes toss drinks skyward. Their cheering is deafening. It is green and gold euphoria.

In all the hugging and high-fiving, Jeremy "Juice Box" TerenziÖ 19, loses the Mott's juice box and Welch's Grape carton stuck on his horns. He beckons for the guy wearing a West Virginia Football T-shirt near the end zone to help retrieve them, and the rival fan does, smiling has he hands them up.

''He told me they like our spirit," says Juice Box.

What would USF's psych professors say about the group's behavior?

Senior psychology major Shawn Thorp, 25, from Pittsburgh, speculates.

"First, they would say, 'This is what you get for drinking alcohol.'"

He looks down and chuckles before adding, "No, what they would say is, 'This is human behavior at its finest.'"

Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170 or skornacki@tampatrib.com.

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