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If you’re able to get past the role that tradition plays in ranking college football teams, the big BCS debate right now with USF, OSU, and BC should end with USF being #1.

Certainly they are not the best team in the nation, I don’t think many would argue they are, but no one hands out championships in October and USF deserves to be #1 as much as OSU does right now.

Every year we have this debate about the BCS and the polls and how everything in mid-season is upside down. More so this season, but the argument is still the same. Things have a way of working themselves out as the season goes along. No, it’s not a good system, but evaluating it mid-season isn’t really fair either.

USF will get a chance to prove if it belongs in the national title picture. All they have to do is keep winning. Their schedule isn’t SEC tough, but it’s certainly as strong as what anyone in the ACC or Big Ten is playing. Their non-conference schedule this year reads: vs Elon, at Auburn, vs UNC, at FAU, vs UCF. And don’t discount how hard it is to play two in-state rivals, in back to back weeks no less.

Right now, among all the unbeaten teams, the Bulls have the best resume. But, personally and as a fan, I don’t mind that they aren’t in the top spot. For a program this young, voters are doing them a favor right now. Keep underestimating them, please. Keep the chip strong on the players’ shoulders.

No they are not a deep team. No they do not have the offensive firepower others have. But they do have a championship-level defense to go with an occasional big play offense that is led by a born winner, in quarterback Matt Grothe. And that’s enough to beat anyone at any time.

In my USF history segment from yesterday, I mentioned that USF has only been recruiting as a D-1 school since 2001. They were an independent before joining Conference USA in 2003. So as they were on the recruiting trail that year promoting their new C-USA affiliation, that freshman class of ‘03 they turned out are mostly be seniors now.

After two years in C-USA, they joined the Big East in 2005. So, in turn, that freshman class of ‘05 would be sophomores now.

And it’s seniors and sophomores that make up the starting roster of the 2007 USF Bulls.

Most of the players they’ve landed up until this season, have come from in-state. On their current roster, only 12 of the 117 names listed came from a state other than Florida. USF’s rocket rise to the top speaks a lot to the depth of the football talent in Florida.

As the coaches were able to move their offices literally out of trailers and into facilities more fitting to major conference D-1 football, they were also able to land better recruiting classes. But make no mistake, this current roster is filled with 2 and 3 star talents at best. Their starting running back is even a former walk-on.

So naturally, with their success, criticism has followed - notably from Alabama head coach Nick Saban who said:

“The distribution of players is not the same for everybody,” he told the News. “There’s a significant amount of players who don’t qualify (at some schools) and they end up being pretty good players at some other schools. I think there are six guys starting on South Florida’s defense who probably could have gone to Florida or Florida State but Florida and Florida State couldn’t take them. And if you do a good job of recruiting that way …”

But as senior cornerback and future NFL first round pick Mike Jenkins rebutted:

“I was a SuperPrep All-American (recruit) coming out of high school. I picked USF because I wanted to pick USF,” Jenkins said. “I could have gone to the Floridas, the Florida States, the Alabamas, the LSUs. (Saban) offered me a scholarship (at LSU). I didn’t go there. He offered me a full scholarship and I picked USF. So I disagree with that.”

Jenkins - who when coming out of high school rivals.com ranked 45th among cornerbacks in a class that included current NFLers Donte Whitner, Antonio Cromartie, Michael Griffin, Chris Houston and Leon Hall - is literally a cornerstone member of this top ranked defense along with fellow cornerback and fellow future 2008 NFL Draft day one pick Trae Williams.

So while there’s good talent on this team, it’s not the kind of talent that sets recruiting records. Not yet at least. These Bulls are built around a very fast but somewhat undersized defense.

To compensate for lack of size, head coach Jim Leavitt, defensive coordinator Wally Burnham, defensive line coach Dan McCarney, and the rest of the staff have taught these kids to be one of the best tackling units in the nation. Put on the game tape from the last two West Virginia games to see proof of that.

Indeed, Leavitt and his staff’s ability to find talent among these mid-rated Florida prospects is the key to USF’s success. No better example of that is the story of how USF ended up with one of the top defensive ends in the nation.

George Selvie was a skinny 6′4 230lbs center who no other division one school wanted to offer a scholarship to. USF took a chance on Selvie because they recognized his raw athletic talent. And let’s face it, with few three and four star athletes willing to go to USF, they could not only afford to take this kind of a chance, they needed to.

USF redshirted Selvie and stuck him in the weight room for his first year. At the time, the Bulls needed defensive linemen more than they needed another center, so Selvie found himself on the defensive side of the ball in his first season on the field. And although coach Leavitt claims Selvie would be a great center, it turns out that he could be dominant defensive end.

The Bulls 2006 game at West Virginia was Selvie’s coming out show. He had already made a name for himself early that season by accumulating a number of tackles for loss, but the way he was able to crash the end and still defend the spread option against Pat White and Steve Slaton changed everything for USF’s defense. Selvie collected 8 tackles (3.5 for a loss) and returned a fumble for a TD against the then 7th ranked Mountaineers. He’s now part of a unit that includes DE Jarriett Buie (#90) and DT Richard Clebert (#76) as one of the most disruptive in the nation.

Quarterback Matt Grothe came from nearby Lake Gibson Senior High School as an undersized QB with a reputation for being a winner. He’s another guy that no other division one school seemed to want, so he committed to USF.

As a redshirt freshman last season, Grothe hardly went into the preseason as a strong candidate to be the Bulls starting QB. But he worked his way up to #2 and an injury to Pat Julmiste in their season opener opened the door for Grothe to show what he can do.

Matt is the kind of QB that throws better on the run than inside the pocket. He can escape pressure like few others can and has shown an incredible ability to keep plays alive even when he has defenders draped all over him. Matt also has that Vince Young-like ability to make defenders fall off at his feet. And this season Grothe leads an offense that so far has been greater than the sum of its parts - perhaps the ultimate compliment for a quarterback.

There are stories like Grothe’s and Selvie’s all over this roster - like how the Bulls best receiver, Taurus Johnson, wanted to go to UF but didn’t get a scholarship so he chose South Florida.

So it’s hard to hear comments such as Saban’s or Jimmy Johnson’s and not think these critics are indeed just the blowhards they portray themselves to be on television. It’d be hard for anyone who’s seen this defense play think they can’t compete with the best. They haven’t given up a 100 yard rusher in 14 straight games, and that includes two contests against WVU and last week’s game against what used to be the nation’s leading rusher, UCF’s Kevin Smith.

Saban’s sour comments likely stem from his experience with freshman running back Mike Ford, a five star recruit out of Sarasota, Florida who signed a letter of intent to go to Alabama but couldn’t qualify academically. He worked to get his grades up and is now a Bull.

And really Nick, you can have Mike Ford back if you want. He fumbles all the time and can’t catch for damn. He really has the worst hands I’ve seen in a long time. Sure he’s a load to bring down, but fellow freshman Jamar Taylor might end up being the better college back of the two anyhow. Oh, wait… look at that, Taylor transfered out of Alabama to be closer to home too. Maybe there’s more to why these guys are coming back than you realize.

And that transitions nicely into another unique point about USF that has attributed to their fast rise. For the sake of Saban, let’s call it, “Tuscaloosa or Tampa… Tuscaloosa or Tampa?”

How many big college football programs are housed in the middle of a big city? USC, Texas, BC, Vandy, Georgia Tech. Those are five off the top of my head, but only two are known as national title contenders.

There’s a lot to like about playing college football in a small town like Gainesville or Blacksburg, but some kids might like to live in more of a metropolitan area and while there are countless Gainesville’s available, there are few college football programs that can offer a chance to win it all and a big city. With that, and how Tampa is uniquely situated near enough to the high school football hotbeds of central, south, and north Florida to pull locally from each, it’s further proof that what they’ve done so quickly is no fluke.

And finally there’s Jim Leavitt himself, the coach who learned how to build a football program under the master football program builder: Bill Snyder of Kansas State. Leavitt has long been in the running for big program head coaching jobs like Alabama’s but he’s stuck with this tiny little program he helped start back in 1996 - back when they forgot to bring a kicking tee to their first game.

Leavitt is all class; a motivator and a great teacher of the fundamentals of the game. He’s also the kind of coach who works to keep his kids focused on each game at hand. Amidst the whirlwind of fame like what they’re dealing with now he’s being tested. The entire team is being tested while the bullseye of the entire nation is focused on the South Florida Bulls.

This team deserves respect for what they’ve done to get to #2, and win or lose this week or next, they deserve to keep that respect. They are for real, and they will get better.

All of this is because I’m worried about Thursday. I’m worried a loss is imminent and I’m worried others will think this program will fade away. So tomorrow’s final segment, previewing the Thursday night game at Rutgers, we’ll see just how hard it will be for USF to maintain their focus against the Scarlet Knights.