LOL: Its always flag day when Bulls take the field

[Guest GREG_UMAN]

It's always flag day when Bulls take the field

Terrence Royal's personal foul on the heels of another USF penalty set up a key Southern Miss TD in the fourth quarter Saturday.

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published October 4, 2004

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TAMPA - The question made coach Jim Leavitt pause Saturday night during his postgame comments: Could the fact that his team leads the nation in penalties be related to its leaving Conference USA?

"Well, I would never believe that," Leavitt said. "I thought the officials did some really good things throughout the game. At the end, there were some things that were interesting. I haven't seen the film, so I have to wait. ... Obviously, I'm battling to win, so you look at it from a biased viewpoint. When I look at it, I'll be pretty objective - if I think it's wrong, I'll go through the proper procedures. Even then, it doesn't mean we would have won or lost."

Leavitt was incensed about a pair of penalties on one fourth-quarter play in which Javan Camon appeared to intercept a deflected Southern Miss pass deep in USF territory. Cornerback Bruce Gipson was flagged for pass interference, and defensive end Terrence Royal took his helmet off as he protested a call, drawing a personal foul for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"That's a lack of discipline, absolutely. He was wrong. I don't care what you think of a call or not, there's no excuse for that," Leavitt said.

Instead of giving USF the ball with a chance to tie, Southern Miss had it on the USF 11, and the Golden Eagles' Anthony Harris scored on the next play.

"There's no excuse that our defense didn't shore up and stop them," he said. "That shows we have a ways to go right there. ... They got the ball at the (11), but we have to stop them, get a turnover. (On the helmet play) we lost all composure. I did. I was upset. My eyes were right on the play."

Leavitt stopped short of questioning the interference call.

"You hope the call is correct, because it was a huge call," he said. "I'm assuming it was correct, but that was a tough one. We were battling, we got the interception, and you lose the momentum. It was a huge part of the game, but you can't go right to that. You have to look at all the turnovers, the discipline, the penalties."

Reached Sunday morning after he had a chance to review game tape, Leavitt had a better read on the interference play: "I have my opinion, but I can't give it."

OH, O: Despite giving up only three sacks, it was a rough night for the offensive line, which had right guard Chris Carothers out with an ankle injury. Sophomore John Miller, who took his place, was the only starter not assessed a penalty. Center Alex Herron , tackle Derrick Sarosi and guard Frank Davis were flagged for holding, and tackle Levi Newton was called for a false start. A fourth holding call against USF was declined. "The four holding calls, I think, is huge," Leavitt said.

BYE WEEK: (Thankfully-Personal Opinion) USF has no game this week and returns for a homecoming game Oct.16 against Army, which has dropped 19 straight but had a 17-0 lead against TCU Saturday before falling 21-17. Leavitt said he hadn't set a specific practice schedule for the bye week, other than his team would practice Tuesday and Wednesday. His coaching staff will make recruiting trips Thursday and Friday.

The extra week will help a few injured Bulls. Herron was sidelined briefly in the fourth quarter but returned and should be fine, Leavitt said. Defensive back Sidney Simpson played despite a groin injury, and safety Danny Verpaele severely bruised his hand.

THIS AND THAT: Saturday's 10 flags for 83 yards lowered the Bulls' average, but USF still leads the nation in penalties (12 per game) and penalty yards (98). The Bulls ranked in the bottom 10 in other key categories: 112th out of 117 teams in total offense with 270.3 yards per game, and 110th in turnover margin, giving up 1.75 more turnovers than they force. The total offense makes USF the worst in C-USA by 40.8 yards per game. ... USF is sixth in the nation in net punting, averaging 40.96 yards, and junior Brandon Baker's average of 44.0 yards ranks him 12th in the nation. ... After getting five sacks in the season-opening win against I-AA Tennessee Tech, USF has one in each of its past three games. Saturday's came from defensive end Craig Kobel, who has three and batted down a Southern Miss pass.

http://www.thebullspen.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=news;action=post;title=Start+new+topic

[bulls96go]

not funny!

[USFPDiddy]

Offense has been horrific except vs one of the worst D's in the country.

[Bull Matrix]

Oh, how will we get throught that biased calls in C-USA this season?? I knew it was going to be like this, so we will have to hope for the best.

[Guest Conspiracy_Dumb_Arse]

Oh, how will we get throught that biased calls in C-USA this season?? I knew it was going to be like this, so we will have to hope for the best.

Now thats funny.

What about 2001, 2002 and 2003 where we averaged almost exactly the number of penalties and yards per game.

I guess the C-USA refs - the ones not interested in the outcome of the games - saw the conference shake-up coming down the road. They should have peddled that information to that windbag BE commissioner if they wanted to make some real dough.

Please take off the blinders before you embarrass yourself any more.

[Guest Conspiracy_Dumb_Arse]

Posted by someone on another thread.

2001 USF Avg 10.00 penalties for 83.00 yards  

2001 Opp Avg 9.82 penalties for 82.09 yards  

 

2002 USF Avg 11.64 penalties for 98.73 yards  

2002 Opp Avg 7.27 penalties for 60.36 yards  

 

2003 USF Avg 9.36 penalties for 83.00 yards  

2003 Opp Avg 6.27 penalties for 47.91 yards  

So far...  

2004 USF 12.00 penalties for 101.25 yards  

2004 Opp 7.00 penalties for 63.00 yards

Its only getting better to be a Bull. Lawlessness lives  . . . .  unless your Devon Davis getting arrested on campus Sat. night. Ooops.

Davis " . . . but coach never . . . can't I just run some laps?"

[TripleB]

Posted by someone on another thread.

Its only getting better to be a Bull. Lawlessness lives  . . . .  unless your Devon Davis getting arrested on campus Sat. night. Ooops.

Davis " . . . but coach never . . . can't I just run some laps?"

Time to re-visit the "Guest" banning again. Looks like the little girls are getting restless after that thrashing by Buffalo .................

[smazza]

bad  news

[RHBullsFan]

Cannot blame this problem on the refs, we need to take cae of business on the practice field before this lack of discipline makes it way onto the field Saturday nights.

[bulls87]

The CUSA officials are very USF friendly at this point but if you don't commit the penalties then they won't call them.  Now if UL, UC, and USF had a huge number

of call against us then I would say hmmmm, but I don't thin UL is having that problem based on them winning big.  But it would be interesting to research the calls against.