USF Bulls Football Plays Miami and Florida St. In 2009

Are the days of Florida's "Big Three" over? Jim Leavitt's South Florida Bulls will have a chance, in fact two chances in 2009, to prove they belong.

The "Big Three" have all won multiple National Championships making it hard to imagine  USF being considered as part of this trio, but the Bulls can make a statement when they travel to FSU on Sept. 26th and host Miami on Oct 17th.  

These two games are just seven in 2009 where a Florida team will be pitted against another Florida team.  It would have been a total of eight games but FIU pulled out of its meeting with USF at the last minute to play a home and home series with Rutgers.

FSU and Miami will open their 2009 season up in Tallahassee on Sept. 7th and FSU will end its regular season with tradition rival Florida on Nov. 28th, in Gainesville.

Nov 28th is going to be a big day in the state of Florida because  while the Seminoles and Gators are playing, Miami will make a trip to Tampa and meet USF.

Miami will play three in-state schools this coming year and along with FSU and USF, they will also make a trip to Orlando to play Central Florida.

On Oct 21st FIU plays UF on the road and they will play their traditional rival, FAU, but the date is uncertain at the present.

With so many intro-state games, one can imagine what all of this will mean to recruiting, in and out of the state.  All of these games except Mia/FSU and FIU/FAU will be non-conference games but they could have just as much or more importance.

The USF Bulls, who didn't meet expectations  in 2008, started out the season climbing as high as 12 in the rankings before they encountered a bad losing streak. They straightened out and won their bowl game to finish 8-5.

Matt Grothe, their senior quarterback, returns and they are considered by some of the experts to be a good candidate to finish in the top 25 in 2009.

FSU had a real good season in 2008.  They finished with a 9-4 record and won their bowl game. They are in everyone's early top 25 rankings for 2009.

Miami struggled after a good start and lost there last three games of the season.  They ended up with a 7-6 record.

The Hurricanes are still a very young team and are expected to be better than last year, but are not expected to finish as high as FSU and USF.

The Miami/FSU game has been such a big game over the last twenty-five years that it's impossible to compare USF's games with these teams as being on the same level.

But, rivalries have been forming and when Miami quarterback Robert Marve decided to transfer after his freshman year, Miami's coach Randy Shannon tried to block him from transferring to another Florida School.

Shannon was very aware of USF's program and the fact that they were on his schedule in 2009.