Miami is an avenue for USF's success

If you're looking for a poster boy to illustrate the growing rivalry between Miami and USF, his name is Kayvon Webster.

Webster is from metro Miami and played high school ball at Monsignor Pace. He grew up wearing Canes hats and sweatshirts. He says he went to "most of their home games" as a kid, loving the school kids in Miami simply refer to as "The U."

"Twenty-four hours before Signing Day, I was a Cane," Webster said Tuesday.

"Everybody just expects that you're going to Miami when you are down there," said teammate Sterling Griffin, another Miami product who urged Webster to choose USF over Miami.

When the 19th-ranked Hurricanes make their first visit to Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, Webster will be in USF's secondary trying to shut down Miami's receivers and maybe pick off a pass from quarterback Jacory Harris.

He hasn't lost a moment's sleep over his last-minute decision to drop his commitment to Miami and sign with USF, despite all that pacing up and down the hallway at his house in the hours before his decision.

"I feel at home at USF," Webster said.

When Miami was winning four national titles in nine seasons from 1983-1991, Beano Cook called the Hurricanes "the greatest dynasty since Caesar." When they won their last national championship, in 2001, USF senior linebacker Kion Wilson still envisioned playing for Miami someday.

"I did," Wilson said. Then a dose of reality hit. "The No. 1 thing older guys would always say, 'If you're not No. 1 at what you do, you're not going to go Miami.'"

The chance to play right away and the desire to leave Miami prompted Wilson to look elsewhere. Freshman linebacker Sam Barrington, considered a near-lock for the Hurricanes prior to National Signing Day, also chose USF because of a greater chance to play right away, and that has been a strong selling point for USF to Miami-area recruits

While the USF-Miami rivalry on the field is only one-game old - the Bulls lost 27-7 at Miami in 2005 - the programs are clearly starting to clash more off the field.

"We've come a long ways since then," said senior defensive end George Selvie.

A victory against the Hurricanes on Saturday, coupled with USF's victory at Florida State earlier this season, could provide the kind of boost in recruiting efforts that 1,000 text messages might not equal.

"I'd be a fool to say that it wouldn't have a tremendous impact," said USF defensive line coach Kevin Patrick, a Miami graduate who played for the Hurricanes from 1989 to 1993. "It's a great opportunity for us."

A victory could help persuade more players from Miami such as Webster, whom Patrick called "a great get," to come to USF.

Part of Bulls coach Jim Levitt's master plan included building a rivalry with Miami. A win Saturday could help him in more ways than adding his eighth win of the season.

"Recruiting against Miami is difficult," Leavitt said. "They have won all these national championships. Any time you go into homes and you try to get anybody away from them, that's a tall order."

But unlike the generation of players Leavitt recruited when USF first started play in 1997, the current generation has no memory of a college football landscape without USF.

Barrington, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound athlete, could have gone to any of the Big 3, although he termed Florida State's interest as "shaky." Still, as he went through the process, his view of USF illustrates why a player like Webster has no regrets about a last-minute decision that caused ripples in the recruiting world.

"I really can't see any difference," Barrington said. "It never was, 'OK, USF is down here and Miami is up there.' When I thought about Coach Leavitt as opposed to Urban Meyer and opposed to Randy Shannon, I guess I wasn't blindsided by those facts.