Football Completes First Scrimmage

[Brad]

Courtesy USF

Football Completes First Scrimmage

TAMPA, Fla. – The South Florida football team held a 100-play scrimmage on Saturday morning at the practice fields on campus.

“The guys came out ready and played hard but we are not ready to play a game yet,” said USF head coach Jim Leavitt.  “We aren’t where we need to be, but then again we have some time.  I would be concerned if we were playing tomorrow, but we have two weeks.”

2006 BIG EAST Rookie of the Year Matt Grothe continued to have a strong camp.

“I thought Matt Grothe did some really good things,” said Leavitt. “He handled the offense well and made good decisions.”

For the second consecutive day, K Delbert Alvarado impressed with another long field goal. On Saturday morning he nailed a 52-yard field goal, one day after converting from 62 yards.

“I thought that Alvarado had a good scrimmage too,” said Leavitt. “He had one bad kick, but he hit the ball well”

Alvarado also worked at punter, where he is an option along with two others.

WR Amari Jackson and Dontavia Bogan reeled in short TD catches.  Both were on fade routes within the red zone offense and over tight coverage.

“That Bogan kid scored an impressive touchdown over an experienced corner,” said Leavitt. “He might have earned himself some more time but we need to watch film and see what else he did.”

Transfer Jamar Taylor and freshman Mike Ford both scored on short TD runs.

Taylor’s came while the team was working in short yardage situations and was from six yards out.  Ford’s was earlier in the scrimmage during an extended drive by the offense.

The Bulls are scheduled to scrimmage on Wednesday evening and could possibly hold one more before their Sept. 1 opener against Elon.

Single game and season tickets remain for the fast approaching 2007 season.  Tickets can be purchased by calling 1-800-GoBulls.

[JoeB]

Is Taylor officially on the Fall Roster?  I thought we were waiting on the NCAA's decision on his situation.

[Matt]

i hadnt heard anything official yet.

sounds like amarri is having a tough time earning his spot.  i hope the coaches are just trying to motivate him to get his butt in gear.  however, best players get the playing time, regardless of class.

[Greg Auman]

Taylor's on the roster, like any other freshman. The only decision is whether he can play this fall, or whether he has to sit out a transfer year. He has the year to redshirt. His hardship waiver was supposed to be submitted late this week, and the NCAA has up to three weeks to respond, so it could be the Auburn week before USF knows ...

[Matt]

if its after the auburn game before we know anything, we might of already established enough at RB that we wont need him this season and he might want to take a redshirt anyways.

but who knows.  i believe that if you have a freshman who is ready to play at this level then you play him.  even if it is a backup role.  at this stage of our developement replacing these running backs in 2-3 years shouldnt be a problem.

redshirts should really only be used for freshman who need the extra time to get their strength up (down lineman positions)  or require a lot of mental ability in the system (QBs, DBs, LBs)

the RB and WR positions dont change too much from high school to college, with the exception of blocking assignments. 

[E.T.]

What excites me ... about this team  ;D

Offensively we are moving the ball against our D ! And we seem to be passing and catching well against 2 (potential)NFL corners !

[usfgrad84]

This is the first time I can remember that a coach is addressing the issue of destructive penalties publicly in the pre season.  We have been killed by some stupid penalties the last couple of years. (Amp Kill vs. KU last year, at least 2 penalties on O vs UCONN in '05 immediately come to mind).  I hope they are working on eliminating some of the needless destructive personal fouls on defense as well.  Especially the STUPID ones!!!

I agree with ET.  Despite Gregory's public comments, it's nice to hear that we moved the ball and scored.