As we look forward to the 2014 USF Football season, we'll spend part of the summer looking back with the Voice of the Bulls Jim Louk. Louk has compiled his list of the 10 most influential Bulls in program history. As the radio voice for Bulls football since its inception in 1997, Louk has personally witnessed every game in the program's history and worked closely with coaches and players. Yet, his list may not line up perfectly with yours. Discussion and debate is welcome. Join the discussion by sending your list or feedback to @USFJimLouk and use the hashtag #USF10. 

We'll list these 10 players in no particular order in the coming weeks leading up to 2014 USF training camp. Selected players may or may not have huge statistics or have been a part of the big plays we all remember.  But, because of their talent, their effort or even their timing, they influenced the USF program greatly during our first 17 years of football.

First installment: Hugh Smith

Second Installment: Chad Barnhardt

Third Installment: Bill Gramatica

 Fourth Installment: Matt Grothe

Fifth Installment: Jason Pierre-Paul

Sixth Installment: Andre Hall

Seventh Installment: George Selvie

By JIM LOUK

Voice of the Bulls

TAMPA, AUG. 1, 2014 - He's another Bull that never played in a conference game for USF.   He really only shows up in one spot on the USF all-time lists, but I suspect it's the exact spot he'd like to be in.

Earlier in the series, we talked about Chad Barnhardt taking a leap of faith to transfer from South Carolina to USF.  Soon after, Kawika Mitchell left Georgia to come to the Bulls, and by the time he left, he had helped the USF defense become very ready for conference play.

If you look closely at most of the successful USF Football teams to date, they are almost all built on defense.  And that defensive superiority has always seemed to start from the linebacker position.

Even in the early FCS days, USF had punishing linebackers.  As the old saying goes, “Guys that would hit you and make sure you stayed hit.”  The Bulls had some good ones right at the start; Marshall Smith, Demetrious Woods and Jason Butler come to mind as guys who set the tone early.

But we really hadn't seen anyone in Green and Gold like Kawika Mitchell.

He was a star at Lake Howell High School, and like with Barnhardt, the Bulls probably benefited from being located in Florida, and being able to offer Mitchell a chance to play right away.  He came home after one year in Athens.

He came to the Bulls with four years left to play, and as the USF program progressed between 1999 and 2002, Mitchell's leadership and fierce play helped the Bulls get ready for their Conference USA debut.

His career spanned three levels of USF Football; FCS Independent in 1999, FBS Transition in 2000, and FBS Independent in 2001 and 2002.

Twelve years after his last game as a Bull, he remains atop the USF record books with 367 tackles.

That's a great accomplishment, but really, there's only one statistic that matters.

How many times did you win?

In Kawika Mitchell's tenure, the Bulls won 31 times.  And those 31 wins were against an escalating quality of opponents as the Bulls moved up.

This time in USF Football history is sometimes overlooked.  There were no bowl games, no conference games, and the Bulls didn't show up on national television very often.  But it was one of the great eras of the program.  And it probably wouldn't have happened without Kawika Mitchell.

So that's our list. 

Through 17 seasons, more than 500 men have appeared in a USF Football game. 

We chose 10. 

Certainly each of these Bulls put up big-time stats, but as we mentioned at the outset that was only part of the criteria.  We also looked for attitude, whether it was from vocal leadership or quiet contributions.  We looked for timing; guys that created things beyond the numbers, or helped the program move forward.  We looked for guys that changed things in a positive manner, no matter how they did it.

We couldn't have left anyone out, could we?

I hope you've enjoyed reading the series.  Your “How in the world could you forget….?” Tweets are welcomed at @USFjimlouk.

GO BULLS!