USF at Miami 2005

Jer and I went down to Miami to witness history in the making. The first time that USF faced one of the big Florida schools and we were there to witness it at the Orange Bowl in Miami. We had a great time. Even though USF gave the game away, we really did enjoy ourselves. Just to see the Bulls in a major venue playing a major powerhouse like Miami was fantastic!

We rented a nice Lincoln LS on Hertz points and headed down on Saturday afternoon. We got down there at about 4 and checked into the free hotel that Jer got (once again, on points). We then headed over to the stadium at around 5 just to walk around and check stuff out. It turns out that we happened upon a big USF Alumni gathering. They had a huge tent, awesome food, kegs and kegs of beer and live entertainment. Leroy Selmon was there, Betty Castor, Judy Genshaft, Tom Veit, the band, the cheerleaders, and about 600 of our closest friends. What a nice surprise...

We went into the decrepit old stadium and found our amazing seats (provided by my wonderful boss - Thanks Ed !). It turns out we had unbelievable seats on the 40 yrd line smack dab in the middle of the Miami fans. I thought I had been to some loud venues before, but damn, my hears are still ringing. C - A - N - E - S - CANES ! Ugggggh. How many times did we have to hear that ?!?!? 3 or 4 too many times, thats how many.

It rained, in fact, we had to move up into the cover of the upper deck to stay dry one time. We then were able to move down for kickoff and enjoy the fun.

USF just gave it away - we turned the ball over on STUPID mistakes. We basically included the Miami D in our routes. Ah, look, there is an open Canes safety, and wow, he's open ! Well, we were happy just to be there. The Bulls got an idea of what it is like to play a top team in their house, which was 58K strong with fans by the way. All in all, we had a FANSTASTIC time and wouldn't have traded it for the world. It is was a great father-son weekend, of which we will have to repeat again next year.

GO BULLS !!

Here are the pics