11-25-14

The Oracle TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 I VOL. 52 NO. 52

Inside this Issue

N E W S

Survival tips for Black Friday.

Page 4

Montage

S PORTS Alumnus’ perseverance leads to success in the NFL. BACK

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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

SG senator removed as appropriations chair

By Wesley Higgins

LI F E STYLE

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The Index

News.................................................................1 Lifestyle......................................................4 Opinion.......................................................6

E D I T O R

One of the most important responsibilities of Student Government (SG) is determining appropriate funding for student clubs and organizations. Much of this responsibility falls to the Appropriations and Audits Committee.

SG Senator Chris Johnson was fired as chair of this committee last week after the SG Senate held a vote of confidence.

Senate President Pro Tempore Abdool Aziz initiated the vote to determine whether the Senate remained confident in Johnson’s ability to make budget allocation recommendations for organizations funded by the Activity and Service

fees.

“Being the Appropriations and Audits chair is a big task with lots of moving parts,” Aziz said in an interview with The Oracle. “It has a lot of direct impact on students.”

Aziz said the main issue was Johnson presenting seven budget bills inaccurately.

On Nov. 10, Johnson received a notice of non-compliance for discrepancies in how much organizations should be funded, such as miscalculating funding for the Chocolateers Club and forgetting to penalize the United Nations Student Alliance.

Aziz emailed Johnson a reprimand after catching these mistakes, though Aziz said some discrepancies slipped through the cracks resulting in organizations receiving extra

funding.

In an interview with The Oracle, Johnson said the mistakes were made under a large influx of organizations requesting their budgets.

“What amounted to carelessness of documents I needed to look at and typos of the amounts that shouldn’t have gone in the bill,” Johnson said.

“I still don’t really know if it was worth losing a job over.”

Aziz also said Johnson showed favoritism toward some organizations and promised money before Senate approval.

Earlier in November, Johnson pushed to allow Robobulls, a robotics club, to present to Senate for full funding of around $23,000 for mechanical parts.

“It was the largest, but one

of the more credible requests this semester,” Johnson said.

“I needed to get more information ... they were trying to explain robotics and mechanics.”

Aziz said SG subsidizes organizations, but never fully funds them.

“All the 40 other organizations that submitted budgets didn’t get special treatment,” he said. “We never say, ‘OK, we really like you, so we’re going to forego all of our practices to get you the money.’”

Aziz said Johnson, whose position as chairman demanded an unbiased approach, met with Robobulls several times and demonstrated partiality toward the club.

“Favoritism is an issue with (Johnson) that we’ve had

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A banner reading “Beat UCF” was displayed outside the Marshall Student Center on Monday in advance of the football game against UCF on Friday. Kickoff is at noon at Raymond James Stadium. ORACLE PHOTO/SEBASTIAN CONTENTO

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since the beginning,” he said.

“You’re not supposed to say you like an organization or don’t like it.”

Robobulls also failed to submit their application in the right format. SG requires an excel sheet for budget requests, but received a PDF file.

“It was made a bigger deal than it should have been at the end of the day,” Johnson said. “It could have easily been resubmitted.”

Issues about Johnson working on the clock were also presented before the vote of confidence. Aziz said Johnson, who is paid 20 hours a week, had clocked in when not in the office.

“The Senate President and I are here most of the day,” Aziz said. “We see who is here.”

Johnson denied this, and said it’s not rare for him to work until 1 a.m. off the clock. Johnson also said Aziz approved of him working out of the office several times.

“He accused me of doing something he approved of me doing,” Johnson said.

On Veteran’s Day, Johnson came into the office and talked about setting up a new committee. Aziz said this qualified as a meeting, which senators are advised not to have on national holidays.

“It wasn’t recorded and there was no transcriber,” Aziz said. “The practice we try to instill is transparency.”

Johnson said the incident didn’t qualify as a meeting

and called the accusation a blatant lie.

“He’s lied about several things, which is fine,” Johnson said. “He lies a lot, but he definitely dropped the ball on that.”

Accusations of unprofessional and aggressive behavior were also presented against Johnson. An SG Disciplinary Action Form filed Sept. 8 stated Johnson told an employee to keep quiet in the employee’s own office space.

“Each branch and employee respects each other,” Aziz said.

“No one raises their voice. I’m not going to go into anyone’s office and tell them to be quiet.”

Johnson admitted to having been rude, but said the employee accepted his apology. Furthermore, he said the

Interested in contributing to the everyday stories of USF? The Oracle is now accepting applications for editors and staff writers for the spring semester.

For more information, contact the editor at oracleeditor@gmail.com

employee in question wanted Aziz to drop the complaint.

“Aziz kind of went behind their back,” Johnson said. “He took things out of context.”

Aziz said there have been multiple incidents of Johnson acting in an unruly and loud manner.

“It goes in cycles, he goes up and down,” Aziz said.

“One week, he’s fine. The next week, he’s not.”

This is not the first vote of confidence against Johnson.

Over the summer, Aziz said Johnson didn’t show up for work or sign budget transfers.

However, Aziz said the Senate gave Johnson another chance because he was only a first-year senator.

“If I was in his situation, knowing I was almost removed once. I wouldn’t double down

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on the same behaviors,” Aziz said.

Johnson said he didn’t receive notice or have any forewarning of last week’s vote of confidence. Johnson was made aware of the vote the day before.

“I kind of assumed the way I would overlook their little mistakes when they were stressed out, whether a typo or saying something they didn’t mean,” Johnson said. “I thought they would forgive my little mistakes because we’re all working toward the same goal.”

Aziz said the vote of confidence wasn’t anything personal.

Both Johnson and Aziz expressed optimism about SG Senator Michael Malanga future as the new chairman of the Appropriations and Audits.

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Professor adapts lessons of the Holocaust for today

By McKenna Skope C O R R E S P O N D E N T

The Holocaust is a seminal tragedy of human history and its significance reverberates around the globe.

But as time passes, some individuals fear the echoes of those who lived it will fade in our collective memory – something one USF professor wants to ensure never happens.

Through his work with an online program that uses testimonies from survivors, Michael Berson, a social science education professor, is educating a new generation of teachers and students about the importance of the Holocaust to the story of humanity.

Initiated in 1994 by Steven Spielberg and administered by the University of Southern California’s Shoah Institute, the Visual History Archive is a collection of nearly 110,000 hours of video testimony by Holocaust survivors, each spending about two hours telling their stories from before, during and after the Holocaust.

Berson piloted the iWitness program, which digitizes the Visual History Archive, and uses it as the core of his Teaching the Holocaust course, the first class of its kind at USF. iWitness debuted at the United Nations in January 2012, and is intended for secondary school students and teachers. USF students can access it through the university’s library. “iWitness was created based on this huge archive of testimonies.

One of the things they needed to do was make it more applicable to students,” he said. “If, as a student, you saw 50,000 testimonies, it would be overwhelming.”

Since its inception, Berson has been involved with iWitness. He said this kind of primary source, photographs and videos are the gold standard for learning about the true human impact of the Holocaust. iWitness organizes clips of the testimonies into topics like faith, postwar life, and stereotypes.

Students can then edit the clips into their own videos about modern day issues, many of which are similar to the challenges faced by the survivors.

“You could make your own movie about intolerance around what you see, infused with other images, music and other video,” Berson said. “You could juxtapose video of someone local – a victim of a hate crime – with video of the Holocaust survivor.”

Besides familiarizing students with the survivors’ stories, this individual representation of the events of the Holocaust is one of Berson’s aims for the iWitness program.

“Another goal is to help them understand that the stories of the Holocaust are not just of the past, not just of distinct populations, but of their own lives,” he said. “That is the real power, when a student comes up and says, ‘I know this happened in the past, but I can see this happening in the world today.’”

Student reactions to iWitness have varied, Berson said. Some imagined them-

selves in the positions of survivors, while others were left to wonder how humans could inflict such terror on other humans. Still others came to understand the resilience of the human spirit.

“On one level, it can make you very sad and angry. On another level, you can come out feeling extremely empowered,” he said.

“This is something horrible our human world has gone through, but through the eyes of survivors, we can bear witness to this event.”

Berson pointed out how emotional it is for survivors to share their stories with students who grew up thousands of miles and many years away.

In his Teaching the Holocaust course, Berson presents multiple representations of the Holocaust content. iWitness provides these sources in a way that humanizes what could otherwise be considered just more information to regurgitate on a test, he said.

Though the teachers and students of today could never gain a true understanding of a survivor’s experience, he said the testimonies bring them closer than ever before.

“What makes this more complex is that so much has been written about the Holocaust,” he said. “There is a huge amount of information out there, so making meaning out of it is important.

You’re hearing that individual who experienced the event telling the story. You can ask questions from the video and seek out more information.”

“If you don’t walk away from learning about something like the Holocaust without questions, you haven’t been taught it right,” he said.

Matthew Knight, coordinator of Special Collections for the USF Library, said when he heard about the project he made sure to add iWitness as a resource at the USF Library.

“(The survivors are) not going to be there for very much longer,” he said. “The only way to have access to this kind of material is through the video online. These are stories that resonate because they are so personal.”

Last month, the Shoah Institute recognized Berson as a pioneer in integrating iWitness into the history curriculum.

As the number of survivors dwindles, their stories are preserved in video testimonies for students 10 or 20 years from now, something Berson said excites him.

“How could something like this happen in this world not that long ago? There are lots of lessons that resonate with all my students,” he said. “I don’t want our world to ever forget about this. Now we teach our students and educators to continue telling the stories and lessons from this very dark period of human history.”

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HOW TO SURVIVE BLACK FRIDAY

By Polly Snover C O R R E S P O N D E N T

As Thanksgiving approaches, so does Black Friday. Although most Black Friday sales have already started in one way or another, actually hitting the stores early is very exciting.

Nothing is better than getting $80 shoes for $10, and many shoppers take advantage of this. Yet, this day full of wonder can turn sour in a second and everyone can use a few tips on surviving the best and worst shopping day of the year.

Don’t stand at the door Being closest to the door puts you at the biggest risk of being trampled. It’s no joke; people have been injured simply because they

were in the front and not fast enough. If you know you’re fast enough, there is a good chance of making it through, but otherwise don’t get too close. Stay in the back – it will be worth the delay to feel your limbs the next day.

Wear comfortable clothes Black Friday shopping is hard on the body, so be sure you’re comfortable. Don’t wear those nine-inch heels or fancy dress shoes. Make sure you feel good in what you’re wearing so it won’t hinder your ability to shop.

We’re shopping until we drop, so it’s essential to be comfortable.

Make a shopping list It’s absolutely essential to know what you want to get so you don’t wander

too long. Wandering leads to losses you simply don’t want. Be sure you know what your goal is so you can make a beeline to that part of the store.

Go later Everyone thinks this is a morning sport, but they aren’t always right. Many people do enjoy shopping late Thanksgiving evening or early the following morning, but that doesn’t mean you have to be there then. There may be fewer things, but unless there is something specific that you want, browsing time is best saved for later in the day. Early mornings equal competition.

Ignore the electronics Yes, it’s hard to ignore something big and shiny, but

sometimes it’s not worth it.

Everyone will be trying to get a new iPad on sale and everyone has to have that big-screen TV, but that’s just it: everyone wants it.

Big crowds equal a lot of trouble, so stay low and avoid the electronics. It’s not only to stay out of the crowd, but it’s also because some stores won’t have more than 10 in stock. You’d think, on the busiest day of the year they would have hundreds, but no. Some stores trick you into coming with the desire you have for one only a few big computers.

Pick a partner who will shop at your pace This doesn’t seem important, but if you bring your kid brother or sister, the chances of keeping up as you run through the crowd

are slim. Plus, if you bring someone who doesn’t want to be there, they’ll go slow and you’ll miss the deals. So be sure the person you have with you is ready to keep up.

Check online deals Sometimes in-store sales will be different than their online counterparts, so you may find some amazing deals on your computer or phone. Appreciate this as the less physical form of shopping, where with one click, you can easily find a deal you like. In this case, you might even find better deals than those in stores.

You never know where the best deals are, so it might pay off to stay home Friday and shop on Cyber Monday.

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scheduled for the last game,” Reiter said. “It’s going to be a pretty big show out.”

Reiter said it’s clear how the players feel about the Knights, especially with both teams now playing in the same conference.

“When I think of UCF, I think of the past history with Jim Leavitt,” Reiter said. “When I think of UCF, I think 86 miles is what it is. If you don’t have a hate for a school that’s in the same conference as you that’s 86 miles away, I don’t know what a rivalry is.”

Senior lineman Quinterrius Eatmon said it’s clear how the two schools feel about each other, despite only playing each

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“I cried from Tampa to Jacksonville worrying if he’d be OK and if anyone was going to hurt him,” Johnson said. “I just wasn’t ready to release him.”

Barrington received offers from Miami and Illinois, but decided to come to USF after falling in love with the sunny skies and calm waters of Tampa while driving over the Howard Franklin Bridge on his first official visit.

Though Miami has a similar feel, Barrington knew USF — a young program — was closer to what he was looking for.

“I wanted to go somewhere where I’d be comfortable — somewhere that reminded me of home,” Barrington said. “I didn’t want to go too far, but didn’t want to stay too close. I wanted to be a part of something up and coming and didn’t want to be just another name etched in stone.”

Barrington received his first start in the season finale of his freshman year against UConn. He said the temperature neared the single digits, a good taste of what he would later experience with the Packers.

Barrington started every game from that point on, accounting for 258 total tackles as well as six sacks. Although he has since graduated, the lineman still makes an impact on players coming up through USF. “He gives me a lot of insight into what I need to be doing and taking care of my body and the NFL process that’s coming up for me soon,” senior defensive tackle

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other once in the past five years.

“I think it’s pretty well known how USF feels about UCF and I’m pretty sure it’s vice versa,” Eatmon said. “The fans don’t like them, we don’t like them, they don’t like us and their fans don’t like us.”

No bowl for the seniors With USF’s 31-20 loss against Memphis on Saturday, the Bulls fell out of bowl contention for the fourth straight year, which means the seniors weren’t able to play a postseason game as Bulls.

“That’s the goal: to win championships,” Eatmon said. “To not do that one time, I think there’s a void there, but I wouldn’t change anything.”

Reiter also said he wouldn’t Todd Chandler said. “He was a good teammate when he was here and is good now, even though he’s gone.”

Chandler said Barrington came back to USF during training camp to talk with the team and give them insight into what they needed to do to get better as a team.

Barrington values relationships over anything in his life. He said he still maintains good relationships with everyone in his life, including his Pop Warner coaches, and the managers from his first two jobs.

“You have to really take value in relationships,” Barrington said.

“You never know how much of a role someone will play in your life later on. Five or six years from now, if I’m fortunate enough to still be in the league, I want to be one of those guys to give advice to the young guys. That’s one thing I always made sure to do while I was at USF and want to do now.”

On April 28, 2012, every bit of his work and struggle until that point was made worthwhile when he realized his lifelong dream.

Barrington was selected with the 26th pick of the seventh round by the Green Bay Packers.

“We were about to leave when I got a call from my nephew,” Johnson said. “He said Sam had made it and all I can remember is screaming and yelling, so everyone knew my boy had made it to the NFL.” As it is for most players, Barrington said being selected in the seventh round was the best feeling he had ever felt. He just wanted to make his family proud of him.

The possibility of a 24-game

trade his time at USF for anything, but he wasn’t bothered by the lack of a bowl game.

“I don’t really look at it that way,” Reiter said. “The memories that I’ve made here surpass going to a bowl game in my mind because of the guys I’ve been with for the past five years.”

Because the seniors’ collegiate careers will be over after final snap Friday, the team is treating Friday’s game like a bowl game.

“It’s really special because that’s my last time in Raymond James,” Reiter said. “It’ll be my last game and it’s against a rival.

I don’t think I could picture a better way to end my senior year.”

USF will host UCF on Friday at noon at Raymond James Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2. schedule, including preseason and postseason, as well as constant fear for your job can be hard to handle, but for Barrington, a lifetime of hard work left him prepared for the daunting task.

“There were some growing pains, but I feel that if you’re a ballplayer, then you’re a ballplayer,” Barrington said. “If you took the time to listen to what your coaches in college were telling you and you used them to grow every year, then you should be successful and that’s what I did.”

Although he spent most of his first two seasons as a backup, Barrington has enjoyed every minute as an NFL player, knowing every game could be his last.

Before every game, while the national anthem rings in his ears, Barrington said he just closes his eyes and soaks in the moment, remembering what it took to get to that point.

“Playing here at Lambeau, you really have to be grateful for every game,” he said. “You’re promised at least four years in college, in the NFL you have to take advantage of every game that you get because this league is so competitive and you can be gone very quickly.”

Barrington said the drive for success was embedded in him by his mom before football was even in the picture. He credits his mom for getting him to where he is.

“The strongest person I know is my mom. She’s been through so much,” Barrington said. “I never gave her any problems growing up, but I just want to make her proud because she brags about me and I want to keep her bragging.”

Earlier this week, USF revealed the new uniforms the team will wear for Friday’s game against UCF. PHOTO PROVIDED BY USF ATHLETICS focused on motivating the students to come support the Bulls on Friday, Continued from PAGE 8 the players don’t need a pep-rally or anything of the sort. worn only for Friday’s game.

“I think it would do major posi“Our contract from Under Armour allows for us to have a tives for the team, just to end the special jersey each year,” Siegrist season on a victory and against your said. “We felt like this would be a rival,” senior lineman Quinterrius good game to do this, so Under Eatmon said. “That boosts team Armour presented several designs morale. Guys will say, ‘We ended and coach Taggart picked the best the season on a win, imagine what we could do if we consistently and that’s the one we went with.”

But while USF Athletics has been played like that.’”

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EDITORIAL

SG should not reach into students’ pockets for concerts tives, who should know firsthand the financial situation of most students, shouldn’t ask for students to reach even deeper into their pockets, especially when there is no real need for it.

According to SG’s 20142015 A&S Annual Budget Bill, SG already gives $412,000 to the Homecoming Steering Committee and has put over a million dollars into reserve accounts over the last two years. It is questionable why additional funding, especially just $5 or $10 from students who attend the concert, needs to come directly from students.

The idea that students need to pitch in money to afford “higher-profile artists” is also troubling for a number of reasons.

With big names such as Wiz Khalifa, Pitbull and Ludacris having been contracted by the university to perform free for students, it’s hard to imagine how many “higher-profile” artists there are to get.

All of the artists listed have something else in common:

Student Government (SG) has the ability to charge students again for on-campus concerts already paid for through the Activity and Service (A&S) fee included in tuition.

In a story published in The Oracle on Oct. 30, Senate President Pro Tempore Abdool Aziz said charging students twice for concerts is not the road SG wants to go down, but a recent survey posted on SG’s social media accounts suggests senators may be considering charging up to $10 to host student concerts “at a better venue” or to get “higher-profile artists.”

Students should not be asked to pay twice for concerts and events that have long been seen as free, community-building events.

Students are already being forced to pay even more money in student fees beginning next academic year for things such as student-athlete scholarship differentials, a new gym for USF Health and state-mandated salary increases for university employees.

Elected student representa-

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they are all performers from roughly the same genre.

For years, the After Party show, which is supposed to be the headline event for Homecoming week, has given students who don’t like rap or R&B music limited choices, if any. Similarly, Bullstock only consistently brings Panic! At The Disco and All American Rejects-esque alternative bands.

Before SG or the university ask students to foot the bill for an already A&S-funded concert, they should at least make sure they attempt to appeal to as many segments of the student population as possible.

With tuition and fees on the rise and students increasingly finding themselves buried neck deep in student loan debt, SG should look to other sources of funding in their roughly $14 million dollar budget to eke out an extra couple thousand dollars for the artists they want.

Students’ pockets, like the crevices of a living room couch, should be the last resort when looking for extra cash, not the first.

What you said Assistant multimedia editor Sebastian Contento asked students about stricter gun regulation laws and background checks in order to rule out mentally ill individuals.

“Since guns have the power to kill, we should make sure they are in the right hands.”

— Shrushti Patil, a freshman majoring in biomedical sciences

“I just think it is unfortunate to punish those who know how to handle guns because of those who don’t.” ­—Raj Patel, a medical school student

“If you are found to be mentally unstable, then you should not be holding something dangerous like a gun.”

the University of South Florida’s student newspaper since 1966

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“I’m not in support of gun distribution in general, so I think promoting more background testing should be mandatory.”

— Josh Nebeker, a senior majoring in psychology

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Football

White to start for UCF game

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Football

Hard work breeds success Former Bull Sam Barrington earns starting position in NFL

By Vinnie Portell S P O R T S

Players’ thoughts on UCF Senior center Austin Reiter will have his last opportunity to play UCF on Friday and he’s relishing the opportunity.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun, I’m really glad we have this

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Renewing the UCF rivalry

By Vinnie Portell

E D I T O R

Rather than having another weeklong competition for the quarterback position, coach Willie Taggart announced Monday afternoon in his weekly teleconference that sophomore quarterback Mike White will start for the Bulls this week.

“Last week, Mike White did a good job of coming back and getting his confidence back,” Taggart said.

Taggart said the weekly competition has been good for the players involved, but the coaching staff is still waiting for one quarterback to stand out.

“It gives you some competition and it will give you the guy that really wants the job,” Taggart said. “I think that’s something that we’ve all been waiting for: someone to take the job and run with it.”

White appeared to be injured when he got hit hard and had to be removed from the game in the fourth quarter against Memphis, but the sophomore said he felt ready to go immediately after the game.

With White already penciled in as the starting quarterback, Taggart said it’s possible one of White’s top receivers, sophomore receiver Rodney Adams, may be back in action against UCF. “I’m very hopeful,” Taggart said. “He practiced (Sunday) and that was a great relief having him out there.”

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both sides of the ball and led the team in rushing with 1,200 yards with his brother right in front of him at fullback. “(Playing with my brother) was great,” Barrington said. “That’s what helped me become the player I am today. I was always the finesse guy, but he was tough.

Anybody who knows Kwame knew he was tough, and I knew if I wanted to be good I had to be that tough and I got that from my younger brother.”

Barrington said his two jobs, school and football were tough to juggle at times, but he never let it affect his role in the family.

As a single mom of six children, Paris Johnson, Barrington’s mother, had to work two or three jobs at times to support the family. When she arrived home from work, Johnson said she was relieved but not surprised to find her older son had ironed and laid out the entire household’s clothes and left the house spotless.

She said she relied on Barrington, making his departure to USF that much harder.

With the Bulls now eliminated from bowl contention, USF Athletics is treating Friday’s game against UCF like a bowl game.

In an effort to generate interest and sell more tickets, USF Athletics purchased the domain name BeatUCF.com. The website offers links to buy tickets, a countdown until game time and features a slideshow of pictures from the USF-UCF rivalry. The site also features a hype video to further generate interest.

USF Athletics also bought BeatUSF.com and made it redirect to the site.

“We’ve listened to our students and the students from UCF and it’s a big game for them and we think it’s a good thing to embrace this rivalry,” spokesman Brian Siegrist said. “They’re 90 minutes down the road, they’re in the same conference now and it’s something good for the fans to look forward to.”

The Bulls and the Knights played four times between 200508, but stopped doing so until the two schools switched to the AAC last season.

Because the two schools hadn’t faced off in five years before last season, the players have only experienced one year of the rivalry.

But with the two schools aligned in the same conference for the foreseeable future, both are making a concerted effort to renew the rivalry.

“We’re trying to embrace it more and renew interest in it,” Siegrist said. “You see what happens with the Michigan and Ohio State rivalry or Cal and Stanford.

It’s something that a fan base has to look forward to each year.”

Aside from the website, USF revealed unique jerseys that will be

n See SUCCESS on PAGE 5

n See RIVALRY on PAGE 5

After spending a year and a half as a back up, former USF linebacker Sam Barrington received his first career start for the Green Bay Packers in Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers. PHOTO PROVIDED

BY MATT BECKER/GREEN BAY PACKERS

By Jacob Hoag A S S T .

S P O R T S

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Nothing was ever given to former USF linebacker Sam Barrington. In high school, he would leave football practice and head straight to work.

On Sundays, he went to his job at a car detailer for seven hours and then travel to another job directly after.

“I would work six days a week,” Barrington said. “The only day I wouldn’t work was Friday because we had a game that night. I knew I wanted my own money and I didn’t want to bother my mom by asking her for stuff because I knew she already had a lot to take care of.”

Now, the 24-year-old has worked his way up the Green Bay Packers’ depth chart, getting his first career start in Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers.

In Week 9 against NFC North rival the Chicago Bears, the 6-foot1, 240-pound linebacker broke through the Bears’ offensive line and threw opposing quarterback Jay Cutler to the ground for his first career sack – a feat he had worked

toward since he was 7 years old, playing in the field behind the Boys and Girls Club.

Growing up in Jacksonville, Barrington would spend most of his time after school and in the summer in that field playing pick-up games. With any nearby kids, Barrington began to refine his craft.

“It was big kids and little kids, didn’t matter who was playing,” Barrington said. “I can’t tell you how many T-shirts were ruined just from being out there running around.”

One day after school, the club had a sign advertising football tryouts at Cooker Park in north Jacksonville. Barrington said he and his brother Kwame ran home to ask their mom if they could join.

“I can honestly say my brother was a better ballplayer than I was growing up,” Barrington said.

“Maybe if he was three or four inches taller, who knows where he’d be right now because he was just that talented.”

Kwame would lead the way to his older brother’s success.

In his senior year at Terry Parker High School, Barrington played on

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