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Despite Victory, Leavitt Expects Plenty More


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Published Monday, September 3, 2007

Monday, September 3, 2007

Despite Victory, Leavitt Expects Plenty More

By Rick Brown

The Ledger

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt did not get what he wanted in his team's 28-13 season-opening victory over Elon Saturday and promised changes. Leavitt was not happy with his team's lack of discipline and inability to pull away from the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) Phoenix. With the Bulls traveling to Alabama to play Auburn in a nationally televised game on Saturday, Leavitt knows there's a room for improvement. "We just won a game but we've got to change," Leavitt said. "We were not real good (Saturday). We've got to get disciplined. We've got to take people off the field."

TAMPA

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt did not get what he wanted in his team's 28-13 season-opening victory over Elon Saturday and promised changes. Leavitt was not happy with his team's lack of discipline and inability to pull away from the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA) Phoenix. With the Bulls traveling to Alabama to play Auburn in a nationally televised game on Saturday, Leavitt knows there's a room for improvement.

"We just won a game but we've got to change," Leavitt said. "We were not real good (Saturday). We've got to get disciplined. We've got to take people off the field."

The Bulls had nine penalties in the game, eight of those in the second half.

A personal-foul penalty kept an Elon drive alive in the third quarter, which led to a field goal.

A roughing-the-punter penalty kept a drive alive in the fourth quarter and led to an Elon touchdown.

Also, a fumbled USF punt helped Elon get into field-goal range.

"I don't think we'll beat anybody like this," Leavitt said. "We've got to change. We've got to change.

"We never talked about Auburn once," Leavitt said. "I wanted to play a good clean football game. We didn't do that. We wanted to come out fast, we didn't do that.

"I want to go out and play great football. You get tired of the discipline problems. I want to be good."

There were some positives out of the Elon game:

Sophomore defensive end George Selvie set a team record with six tackles for losses and tied a school record with four sacks.

Freshman running back Mike Ford led all rushers with 83 yards and scored three touchdowns (two rushing).

Sophomore safety Nate Allen recorded his first interception.

Elon had three possessions inside the USF 25-yard line in the first half but managed just three points.

But it was the other plays that stood out in Leavitt's mind.

USF started out slow last year before finishing the season with its first bowl victory.

Leavitt wants his team playing more complete games against every team.

"We had some real good individual efforts but individuals are not a team," Leavitt said. "As a football team, we were not good.

"One way we can change is to take those guys off of the field," he said. "They're either going to get better or they're not going to play. We're not going to stay with this. You'll see some different people on the field."

Starting quarterback Matt Grothe (Lake Gibson), who attempted a career-high 39 passes Saturday (he completed 23), wasn't as critical as his coach of his team's performance.

"We definitely need to get better, but I think we played better than what it shows on the scoreboard," said Grothe, who threw for 238 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 22 yards. "We won and we're moving on. We've got Auburn (Saturday), so we're looking forward to it. It should be fun."

[ Rick Brown can be reached at rick.brown@theledger.com or at 863-802-7569. ]

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