A Bold Proclamation As USF Spring Practice Begins

Well, I missed the boat on putting together a thorough primer for the football team as they kick off spring practice today. (That's what I get for wasting all that time on the ESPNU College Town game on Facebook. It's so freakin' addictive.) But that's OK, because everyone else has you covered:

• Adam Adkins has a pair of stories -- one about Skip Holtz relishing the chance to move some pieces around his chess board during the spring, and another about B.J. Daniels heading into spring with the starting job, but facing some healthy competition at quarterback.
• Greg Auman also has two stories for spring. First, he has his list of the Bulls' goals over the next five weeks. Then he has a look at some of the big positional battles shaping up for the 2011 team.
• ESPN's Brian Bennett weighed in on everyone's spring situations last week -- here's a look back at his assessment of USF and everyone else in the Big East.
• At USF's Scout site, Larry Weisbaum has 10 questions of his own for spring.
• Phil Neary at USF's Rivals site has a spring preview as well, behind the pay wall.

Now that you're caught up, this blog has a declaration to make.

After the jump.

This needs some inspirational, over-the-top background music. Here, listen to this as you read the rest of the post.

Everyone ready?

USF is going to the 2012 Orange Bowl as Big East champions.

All four of us believe this. It is blog policy. And it's going to happen.

I mean, look around the league. Sure, things are going to be different when TCU joins the Big East, and when Dana Holgorsen gains control of West Virginia, and when Charlie Strong finishes cleaning up the Krag1N1 virus in Louisville. This is going to be a much more difficult league a couple of years from now. But just focus on this year.

Who in the Big East is definitely better than this USF team? No one.

What game on the schedule do you look at and say, there is no way they can win there? There isn't one. Notre Dame and Syracuse are going to be the toughest tests, and Pittsburgh on a short week is another challenge, but they're hardly impossible. (We're not going to go crazy and say 12-0 is a possibility, but we can't see USF being a major underdog in any game they play in 2011.)

Where are the games against your two most likely competitors for the conference title going to be held? In Tampa, late in the season and at night, in front of what figure to be large, rowdy, and heavily inebriated crowds. Oh, and those two teams are a combined 1-6 all time in that stadium.

Is there a coach in this league that you would trust more to put this team in a position to win, let's say 10 games? Maybe someone we would trust equally as much, but no one we would trust more than Skip Holtz after watching him and his staff (who all come back this year) use duct tape and bailing wire to go 8-5 last year.

This may be a small window for USF to fit through, but they're going to do it. Your 2011 Big East football champions will be... THESOUTHFLORIDABULLS.

(The rest of you may begin your snickering and naysaying in the comments. But you know we're right.)