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The 14 who stuck it out will remember meeting challenges and making memories.

By Sharon Ginn
St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 17, 2000

TAMPA - It was Sept. 25, 1996, and South Florida's ragtag bunch of football players were having a great day. There would be no real games that first year, but family and friends were on hand at the USF soccer stadium to watch the first scrimmage in school history.
Diminutive receiver Charlie Jackson (he's under 5 feet 7) got things rolling, catching a 70-yard touchdown pass from Lance Hoeltke on the first play. The crowd of nearly 5,000 went wild. But the joy and the accolades didn't last long.

One or two Saturdays later (no one can remember exactly when) following a scrimmage that was much lower key, coach Jim Leavitt made the defense run 11 "gassers" - which is still, defensive end Shawn Hay said, a school record. One gasser equals the width of the football field times four. It was about 90 degrees that day.

"There were people vomiting, cramping," Hay said. "There were parents wondering, 'What's going on here?' Three or more people quit after that."

More would follow. Academic troubles, disputes with the coaching staff, frustration with the workload - the reasons the original Bulls left varied, but within a few years, most of them were gone. For many players, the fleeting moments of glory, like that first scrimmage or the first game, weren't enough.

Today, 14 remain. Fourteen players who were there for USF's first practice; pounded Kentucky Wesleyan and Cumberland; lost heartbreakers to Drake (Drake?), Elon, Western Kentucky; nearly upset Division I-AA No. 8 Georgia Southern in the inaugural season; beat No. 1 Troy State this year; helped establish the Bulls as a formidable I-AA team; then got them ready for the move into I-A. These "OGs," or Original Gangstas, as they jokingly call themselves, never will play I-A. But they can say they helped do what no one else in modern college football has: Take a cobbled-together team from nothing to the I-AA top 25 after 14 games and then to I-A after four seasons.

Saturday, they will play their final game for the Bulls. There will be other seniors joining in the celebration; four-year players like defensive tackle Therrimann Edwards, cornerback Glenn Davis and offensive tackle Kenyatta Jones. But these 14 can say they're the ones who started it all.

"When you look back at that first class, what they've been able to accomplish, it's quite remarkable, really," coach Jim Leavitt said. "I don't know if anyone will really, truly appreciate what they've done until years from now… (Saturday) there's not going to be enough words."

What a difference from four years ago. Leavitt always had enough words, and usually they weren't things these players wanted to hear. Young and leaderless, the Bulls needed guidance every step of the way - and they got plenty.
"He isn't going to hug you, he isn't going to baby you," Jackson said of Leavitt. "He's going to give it to you raw. Raw and uncut."
Practices were uncut, too. That first spring, 1997, set the tone. The Bulls weren't under NCAA rules, so they had extra practices. There was winter conditioning, summer conditioning … a full year of practice and workouts before taking the field for the first time. No wonder, players say, they beat defenseless Kentucky Wesleyan 80-3 in their first game in 1997. They couldn't wait to beat up on somebody else.

"(That year) was really hard mentally," receiver Cory Porter said. "We were practicing for something - but (also for) nothing."
And most were doing it for peanuts. I-AA rules allowed 63 scholarships; Leavitt was doing out maybe half that many. Few had full scholarships. Some had half-scholarships, others got $500 a semester - book money, Hay called it - and the rest were walk-ons.
One of Leavitt's rules is that players have to jog off the practice field, all the way to the gate. There were times most of them wanted to not jog but bolt. And then keep going.

"Sometimes you'd look at that front gate and think, 'Is this for me?' You had to dig deep," Jackson said. "(My grandmother) told me that I couldn't quit. That's one thing she instilled in me, don't quit."

This season, most of them say, was the payoff.

Yes, the Bulls have had the two worst losses in their short history, to Southern Miss last month and to Middle Tennessee State last week. Of five I-A teams on the schedule they beat only one, Connecticut, which won't be bowl eligible until next season.
But that victory was on the road, another milestone. At home they have been flawless, going 5-0 including victories over I-AA heavyweights Troy State, James Madison and Western Kentucky. After Saturday they'll almost certainly be able to say they were the first USF team to go unbeaten at home.

And it's gotten easier. Not physically - the Bulls ran six gassers Monday Night after giving up that many touchdowns Saturday - but mentally. Leavitt has dialed back, and now expects the seniors to teach the freshmen. It's not just Leavitt giving orders.
"(Last week) Shawn and I made a joke: 'We think you're getting soft,'" defensive end Steve Hatley said. "He kind of looked at us like we were both crazy." Maybe that's' true.

"We did something that nobody in their right mind would even think about," Hatley said. But along the way, "I feel like we've established some traditions. … I feel like in four years we've done some things and kind of made a name for ourselves, especially on defense. Being attacking and relentless - that's something we as players take pride in.

That, and a bond forged during a year of practices that seemed almost meaningless then, but now mean everything.
"After the season's over with, everybody will go their separate ways," line backer Vassay Marc said. "But I know for a fact that for us 14, and the other seniors in our group, we'll probably stay in touch until the cows come home." Or until they quit running those gassers.

Re-printed with permission.