TAMPA. Fla. — The University of South Florida's spring football season is over, and now it’s campaign season.

“You have fundraising, but this is really fan-raising,” head coach Jeff Scott told Spectrum News. “Really just trying to develop morale and relationships with our fans.”

USF is in the midst of a coaches’ caravan tour around Florida, with the goal being to meet and update alums on current and future plans in athletics. It’s something officials say they haven’t been able to do for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the perfect timing, with a lot of things happening in our department,” USF Athletic Director Michael Kelly said about the project.  “It’s a critical time in college athletics, so for them to be able to hear from me, and more importantly, mix with the coaches, get to know them, and get to see them again because it’s been a long time.

"Things are changing, and we have to be able to adjust with it, and that takes a knowledgeable fan base. It’s our job to hear from them but for them to hear from us on what’s going to be helpful for us to advance ourselves.”

Kelly and his staff have several projects on the horizon: The first is completing the indoor performance facility this summer. It would fulfill a major promise made to Scott when he was hired in December 2019.

“It’s great, and being able to watch it go up every day is awesome,” Scott said, who left the comfort of Clemson University to reshape the football future at USF. “So yeah, that’s just a tangible example of the progress and commitment that is being made right now.”

The other big focus for alums is a future on-campus football stadium. Kelly has been targeting 2027 for the program’s first game to be played there, and the next step is presenting a financial plan to USF’s board of trustees this summer.

“What can we afford,” Kelly said, noting the general belief that the stadium will cost north of $300 million. “We obviously all want to have a great facility and do the best we can do, and we will. We’ll build the best we can with the resources we can put into it.

"We’ve shown that with the IPF and it’ll just be great to see what that is, so that’s the next step that we owe our trustee members.”

Building facilities is one thing, building a winner is another — Scott’s first two years have yielded just three wins for the Bulls. But USF fans have stayed mostly positive about the direction of the program. Scott said their patience hasn’t gone without notice or appreciation.

“Not many coaches get a contract extension after winning three games, but I think, really, the foundation that we’ve been able to lay over the last two years, I think people are recognizing that and seeing a lot of good signs,” he said.

“Everyone is being patient and understanding because we are being very transparent and trying to get more people involved,” Kelly added.

USF’s leaders are promising big things to their alumni and fan base, but officials say they know the quickest way for everyone to buy in to a vision is winning. That’s up to Scott and his team this fall. Until then, he will keep meeting with the Bulls faithful and hope his message will be enough.

“We gotta get everybody kind of connected and behind what we’re doing during such a competitive time,” said Scott.