The 2019 Daily Stampede Awards (Part 2)

Let’s resume our look back at the past season in USF athletics with Part 2 of The Daily Stampede Awards. (Here’s Part 1, in case you missed it.) We’ve been doing going all the way back to 2010, and luckily this is a totally unique concept that no one has ever tried to duplicate OH GOD DAMMIT.

BEST GAME

• Nathan: Game 3 of the CBI.
• Collin: Men’s basketball validating that early out-of-conference winning with a nice one over a (slightly depleted) UConn to kick off the AAC slate, because it showed they might be for real and got the hype train moving.
• Bort: MBB vs. DePaul, presented by a boner pill company!
• Carl: Men’s Basketball vs DePaul, full series. That was one game in 3 periods, and the boys held their nerve to cut down some nets.
• Nick: Game 3 of the CBI Championship vs. DePaul.
• Steeg: USF vs UConn men’s basketball to start AAC play.
• Vito: The MBB CBI opener against Stony Brook. Down 20+ at the half and came all the way back to win the whole damn thing.
• Will: CBI Game 1 vs. DePaul. I’ll never forget that game - I’ll never forget running out onto the court and getting pictures of the celebration.
• Jamie: Men’s basketball at SMU, a thrilling game with a thrilling ending that I did not get to cover for TDS because I was at my company’s annual meeting in Orlando. Obviously they wouldn’t put a USF game on in the hotel bar and my wifi signal was trash, so I had to shun people who were buying me drinks downstairs and go watch David Collins sink the game-winner in my room.

WORST GAME

• Nathan: Tulane football.
• Collin: I left Tulane football at halftime, and I never do that.
• Bort: Yeesh, probably UMass, that game was like swallowing sandpaper.
• Carl: Football vs Illinois. Illinois was explosively bad this year, and USF had to pull out a late comeback on them.
• Nick: While getting D’Eriq King’d (again) the week prior was understandable, the football season officially went off the rails with that pathetic showing against Tulane. At least we got a corgi race out of it!
• Steeg: Vs. C in football, not only did we get embarrassed again, but injuring their darling child KZ is something that’s going to forever rustle some feathers.
• Vito: Football vs. Tulane, and this isn’t to take away from the job that Willie Fritz has done; but that was a listless performance at home and a vindication of what we all knew.
• Will: Football vs. Tulane. My buddy Jake Perper was freelancing for the NOLA paper and he had never seen me so distraught at a sporting event.
• Jamie: Any football game after Georgia Tech. The wins were exasperating and the losses were infuriating. Runner-up, women’s basketball losing to C twice. I know half the team was hurt, but losing to #TrashZone just pisses me off.

BIGGEST UPSET

• Nathan: Not having to pay Sterlin Gilbert to not coach here anymore.
• Collin: That win for softball vs. Arizona was huge, but not a ton of huge wins this year.
• Bort: I got nothing.
• Carl: Women’s soccer vs Baylor. Baylor finished the season #9, came into the game top 20, and USF crushed them 3-1.
• Nick: Idk if this constitutes as an upset, but football’s come-from-behind win over Georgia Tech was fun as hell.
• Steeg: Maybe that mid-week upset over UF in baseball at the beginning of the season, nothing notable in the upset realm for USF this year.
• Vito: Knowing what we know now, Baseball vs. UF.
• Will: Softball at #9 Arizona. Beat the ‘Cats in their first game at their new stadium after they beat us at home.
• Jamie: Football at Tulsa. USF didn’t deserve to win and did everything humanly possible to avoid winning, but they came through. I was there and I still don’t know how it happened.

BIGGEST CONTROVERSY

(NOTE: Voters were limited to athletics controversies or else the logo debacle would have been a landslide winner.)

• Nathan: Blue Adams trying to fight Khalid McGee at Houston.
• Collin: Danny White going shots fired on USF’s scheduling philosophy wins at the wire.
• Bort: Maybe, JUST MAYBE, coaches getting into fistfights with players and then making the PLAYER apologize shouldn’t happen.
• Carl: “Were we not 7-0?” Not the mindset I want the head coach to have.
• Nick: The internal turmoil of football down the stretch, from coaches fighting players to players and coaches getting booted right after the season.
• Steeg: Football season from the 3rd quarter at Houston to the end of the season, the fun was gone from that team and it showed.
• Vito: This is the last time I’ll ever say it, but…. *looks around* *takes a deep breath* “NATHAN, WERE WE NOT 7-0!?”
• Will: Blue Adams vs. Khalid McGee. I’ll buy the card for the rematch.
• Jamie: Finding out Mark Harlan poison pilled Charlie Strong’s contract, making him unfireable after he completely lost control of the program in the second half of the season.

FUNNIEST STORY

• Nathan: Again, Blue Adams trying to fight Khalid McGee at Houston.
• Collin: MCNEESE STATE HIRED STERLIN GILBERT AND COULDN’T BE MORE EXCITED ABOUT IT REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD BIH.
• Bort: Repaying McNeese State for 2013 by sending them that smallpox blanket of assy play calling Sterlin Gilbert.
• Carl: C. having an absolute meltdown because USF keeps dropping scheduling bombs on them.
• Nick: Pawning Sterlin Gilbert off on McNeese State is the biggest example of karmic justice being served that I’ve ever seen.
• Steeg: Raising enough money for the IPF and seeing Nate’s rendition of the Thong Song
• Vito: The New logo getting Friday at 4:45’d, much to the vindication of a muppet and Gasparilla Rocky.
• Will: Citrobots going bonkers in my mentions when I ran that story about how McKenzie Milton unified the fan bases for a few minutes during the War on I-4 game.
• Jamie: All fine choices in another great year for USF athletics comedy, but I want to vote for Charlie Strong blaming the Bulls’ disgraceful performance against UConn on the pregame excitement over the black SoFlo uniforms.