Strong urges fans to get behind USF: 'Let's have a top-25 fan base'
Charlie Strong had no issues getting Texas fans pumped for the beginning of each season, and the first-year South Florida coach is looking for the same type of mass support at his new stomping grounds.
"We're a top-25 program, let's have a top-25 fan base," Strong told club boosters Wednesday, according to Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times.
The Bulls saw their home attendance rise by nearly 11,000 fans per game to 37,539 per contest last year, and Strong is hoping for another big jump in 2017. He wants the program to attract at least 50,000 spectators each week.
"When they take that camera and they go around and they (pan) the stadium, make sure we have enough people sitting there where they'll say, 'Wow, look at all this support this place has got,'" he said. "Because I've seen it happen, I know it can happen."
Strong, who's coming off a disappointing three-year stint at Texas, enjoyed a successful four-year tenure at Louisville before that, cementing the Cardinals as a top-25 team before taking off for Austin. He's inheriting a Bulls program that finished last year with an 11-2 record, ranked 19th in the AP Poll.
The Bulls will begin the new season on the road against San Jose State, before opening up the home schedule Sept. 2 versus Stony Brook.