Florida's college football now more than the Big Three

ATLANTA — When Jason Venson signed with Central Florida in 2005, his high school buddies in Marietta, Ga., wondered if he was settling for something less than big-time college football.

They got their answer on Sept. 15 when mighty Texas came to Orlando to help christen UCF's new stadium. A full house of 45,000-plus watched UCF take the 2005 national champions to the wire before falling 35-32.

"It doesn't get more big-time than that," said Venson, who has 21 career starts at safety for George O'Leary's Knights. "It was everything I've ever dreamed of."

Cedric Hill, from Valdosta, Ga., originally signed with Miami and dreamed of playing in big bowls for national championships. But when things didn't work out with the Hurricanes, he joined his cousin Carlton Williams at South Florida.

"People wondered why I was going there but Carlton said that we had everything we needed to play at the highest level of college football," Hill said. "He was right."

In a state long known for its "Big Three," Saturday's South Florida-Central Florida showdown has suddenly become as widely anticipated a college football showdown as Miami-Florida State.

Want to catch a glimpse of the Sunshine State's top running back? It's not Miami's Javarris James or FSU's Antone Smith, but UCF junior Kevin Smith, who leads all of Division I-A in rushing yards per game (172.0).

Want to see the Florida team with the best hopes of playing in a BCS bowl? It's not Florida, FSU or Miami, but 5-0 USF, the state's highest-ranked team at No. 5.

"They are our state rival," Venson said of USF. "Right now they are on top of the world. They are where we want to be."

Just 11 years ago, South Florida's football program consisted of one mobile home, one football helmet and one big dream. But on Sept. 14, the largest home crowd in school history (67,108) turned out at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, which the Bulls share with the NFL's Buccaneers, to watch the hometown college team knock off then-No. 5 West Virginia 21-13.

Today USF has college football's third-longest winning streak and is favored to win the Big East championship.

"I know a lot of people didn't think we could do it," USF coach Jim Leavitt said.

It's been an interesting journey to this point for both schools, which have student bodies in excess of 45,000 and have committed millions of dollars to play football at the Top 25 level. They are convinced the payoff — national exposure and increased alumni support — will be worth it.

"You really can't put a price tag on the exposure the university received from the Texas game," said Keith Tribble, the athletics director at UCF. "Alumni who may have never returned to the campus before wanted to be a part of that day and show their support. Winning football does that for a university."

That's exactly what Paul Griffin believed in 1997. Griffin, now the senior associate athletics director at Georgia Tech, was the AD at USF when the decision was made to launch a football program. He had a vision that not everyone on the campus shared.

"I think it's one of the great stories in college athletics in the past 20 years," Griffin said. "From where we started to where the program is now is nothing short of remarkable."

Griffin hired Leavitt, a native of St. Petersburg, Fla., when Leavitt was the co-defensive coordinator at Kansas State with Bob Stoops, now the head coach at Oklahoma. There was only one driving idea behind the building of the program.

"The goal was to get to Division I-A as quickly as the resources became available," Griffin said.

USF played its first game as a Division I-AA team in 1997. By 2000, the Bulls had their first I-A win, over Connecticut. By 2003, they were in Conference USA and then fate stepped in. The Atlantic Coast Conference raided the Big East, luring away Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech and leaving the Big East looking for a way to stay in the talent-rich Florida market. USF's football program had played only seven seasons when it received an invitation to join a BCS league.

"You can't measure how big that was," Leavitt said. "There are only four BCS schools in our state and we are one of them."

Central Florida was a member of the Mid-America Conference and wanted to join the Big East itself in 2003, but the total athletic program was not quite ready for prime time. So in 2004 UCF hired O'Leary as its coach and committed to spending $60 million for an on-campus stadium and another $10 million upgrading the football practice and office complex.

Just about everything O'Leary has asked for, he has gotten. And the former Georgia Tech coach has asked for a lot. UCF is now a member of Conference USA.

"The stadium was the last piece of the puzzle. Now everything is in place," O'Leary said. "Now we have to go out and get the players who will share our vision and want to be a part of getting us where we want to be."

He's found many of them in Georgia, including running back Brandon Davis and defensive end Robert Pritchard, who've both already committed for 2008.

Given the history of the two programs, it comes as no surprise that this has become a rivalry game. The current four-year contract between the schools ends with next season's game in Orlando. O'Leary wants to renew the contract and play every season. Publicly, Leavitt has been less than enthusiastic about the idea.

The reason is simple: USF's program has arrived and it can now afford to pick and choose non-conference opponents. Playing UCF would only help UCF, which is in hot pursuit.

"I don't know why they don't want to play us," O'Leary said. "The game just makes sense to me."

Tony Barnhart writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.