You’ve got space cleared on your floor for a blow-up mattress, maybe even a neatly folded towel ready if you take pride in being a host.
The plan goes like this: show your Tampa buddies some fun on Friday, putting up with their chatter about the Rays, how USF is a budding college football superpower and how, “Dude, you seriously have to come check out Mons Venus. You can touch them!”
You let them talk all they want because, in your mind, you’re just giving them rope to hang themselves after your Gators make mincemeat out of their Bulls on Saturday.
This has been your idea ever since the game came onto the schedule. USF fans want to act big and bad? OK, Florida will provide the wake-up call.
For students — especially those with friends in Tampa — it’s a big deal.
For players? Well, listen to this slip of the tongue from UF cornerback Janoris Jenkins on Wednesday.
“We’re looking forward to UCF.”
Ouch.
Jenkins didn’t mean it as a slight; it just slipped out. And for what it’s worth, he said “Of course” when asked if the Bulls’ program belongs among UF, Miami and FSU as the state’s elite.
But Jenkins would never accidentally call the Seminoles or Hurricanes by the wrong name, and that shows how much of a “rivalry” this truly is.
UF coaches and players have had nothing but positive comments about USF this week, raving about quarterback B.J. Daniels and how far the program has come in the past few years.
But there’s no underlying fear or disdain in those statements.
It sounds like they’re proudly talking about their little brother, and the sibling down I-75 hasn’t come out with much trash talk either.
A Lane Kiffin-esque leader would kick start a rivalry, but USF coach Skip Holtz and UF’s Urban Meyer are far from that.
Holtz helped land Meyer his first job at Notre Dame, and they’ve gushed about each other in interviews.
And really, who wouldn’t love Skip? Holtz and I have a strained relationship since he bailed on my beloved East Carolina Pirates, but deep down, he’s a hero of mine because he wins and seems like a genuinely good guy while doing it.
But Holtz isn’t driving up to Gainesville to smile at his ol’ pal Urban and take a whooping.
He knows this role, and he plays it well.
At ECU, another program with a Scrappy-Doo attitude, he was always trying to get his school on the map.
Like the Bulls, Pirates fans have long considered themselves on par with the best teams in their state, and they’ve largely been ignored because those other teams’ fans have bigger fish to fry.
Holtz thrived in that position, taking down West Virginia and Virginia Tech to open the 2008 season, then winning back-to-back Conference USA titles.
He’s in the same spot at USF, where the Bulls are trying to earn everyone’s respect.
They don’t have it yet, but things could change in the course of a few hours in The Swamp.
Conquering Florida would give the Bulls road wins against the Gators and ’Noles in two years, and that’s the only way to make this a real rivalry.
If that happens, you can bet UF players would remember the school’s name.
