TAMPA, Fla. — USF has created an incredible community for Rafael Bosch.

“We’ve met independently at away games when we weren’t living here, so it’s been fantastic,” Bosch, a graduate of the university, said.

He met his good buddy, Harvey Heck, at USF when they were students in the late 90s and have been coming to games ever since with their families.

“We literally tailgated right over there,” Heck said, “walked into that stadium and we were just laughing like, ‘Now we’re back with our own kids doing it.’”

Bosch’s daughter is now a current student here and the excitement for Bulls athletics is palpable among his and Heck’s families, along with the rest of the tailgaters at Raymond James Stadium.

“To get to the point where you actually have a campus life,” Bosch said, “you’ve got to have a stadium on campus for the students to go to.”

And soon that will be a reality.

The university says by the 2026 season they plan to have completed an on-campus stadium.

Something Bosch has been waiting over 20 years for.

“Yeah, no, no that would be so cool,” Bosch said.

Because for him and Heck, it means more than just having a new place to play football.

“To get that actual stadium on the university, at that point, you’ve kind of built that irreversible momentum for full on campus life for the students,” Bosch said.

“It’s going to make it easier for all the student body to just not have to go as far,” said Heck.

It’s just another major investment the university has been putting into its athletics.

Millions have been raised and put into athletic facilities on campus and this will soon be another addition to enhance the university’s status in multiple sports.

“That hopefully starts planting the seeds in what USF will become,” Bosch said.

In the meantime, alumni like Bosch are just excited that traditions like tailgating at Raymond James Stadium continue to happen on these Saturdays in the fall, but said he’ll be even more pumped when they happen a little closer to home.

The stadium is expected to be completed by the start of the 2026 season.

The university has already completed its first phase of its project to renovate football facilities, including refurbished locker rooms, offices and team meeting spaces.