Mistakes Piling Up For Bulls

[bullwark]

From the Ledger:

By Patrick Zier

For USF, the problem, or one of them, is penalties, and what to do about them.

Going into its bye week, USF has been penalized 48 times, the most in Conference USA, for 392 yards.

Only TCU has more penalty yardage, 402, and TCU has played five games to four for the Bulls.

This was a sore spot for USF a year ago, something the Bulls were going to try and clean up, but so far, they haven't.

And while they are not the only reason USF is 2-2 instead of 3-1, penalties have played a big part.

Louisville, by far the most impressive team in Conference USA, has a 4-0 record. And in their four games, the Cardinals have been penalized just 20 times for 193 yards.

"There could be a lot of different reasons why people do what they do. I don't know," USF coach Jim Leavitt, who doesn't really like commenting specifically on penalties, remarked.

"Our guys don't want to make penalties. If we didn't have officials, we wouldn't have any penalties, but we have to play with officials.

"If they wouldn't make any calls,we'd be fine, but they will call a game," Leavitt said.

"We've got to figure out a way not to do the things we're not supposed to do. I can't imagine any player wanting to make a penalty, wanting to do the wrong thing. They work too hard," the USF coach declared.

"I tell them don't do it, work your tail off and I don't tell them anymore than that," Leavitt said.

Leavitt does not like to look back or look ahead, his focus is always on now, which in this case means the Army game coming up in Tampa on Oct. 16.

But once can reasonably assume the Bulls will beat winless Army; if they don't, they could be in a world of trouble.

With the loss to Southern Miss, the pivotal game on USF's schedule is now the week after Army, when the Bulls travel to Louisville.

Still trying to make a national impact, hopefully the opposite kind than rival Central Florida, which is now getting a lot of attention because it can't beat anybody, USF would improve its stature immensely with a win over Louisville.

Although Leavitt would never say so publicly, the coaches and players have to be aware of this.

But to have any shot against the Cardinals, the Bulls are going to have to play a mistake-free game. No drive-killing holding penalties. No critical interceptions or misplays which prevent them from taking advantage of opportunities.

This team still believes in itself. The Bulls don't think Southern Miss won Saturday's game, they think they lost it. And one can make a strong argument they are correct.

Pointing to the many mistakes, USF center Alex Herron shook his head. "We can't do those things," he said. "That's not on the coaches. That's on us. You've got to know when to do stuff and when not to."

"It's frustrating, and it's got to stop, and it'll stop when each player looks at himself and takes responsibility for it."

[Sitting_BULL]

From the Ledger:

By Patrick Zier

For USF, the problem, or one of them, is penalties, and what to do about them.

Going into its bye week, USF has been penalized 48 times, the most in Conference USA, for 392 yards.

"Our guys don't want to make penalties. If we didn't have officials, we wouldn't have any penalties, but we have to play with officials.

"If they wouldn't make any calls,we'd be fine, but they will call a game," Leavitt said.

Huh?  I'm starting to really dislike coach's nonchalant attitude towards penalties.

[smazza]

it is not comforting

[WoolyBully]

When you have the talent and skill, you can overcome penalties. We, unfortunately, do not have that luxury.

[Guest wildrover]

Not a very re-asuring article, If we didn't play with refs, we'd be fine?  huh?  what does that mean, if we didn't have cops I'd never get a ticket either but guess what, we do and they do.  I think what's most disturbing is that he seems absolutley clueless as to what to do about it.  This kind of attitude just says that we are in for more of the yellow flag shower on gameday.

[No_Willie_Jokes_Yet]

Maybe HE has a sense of humor. Sure its been a problem. Other than the holding calls, I felt the last game was a pretty good game penalty wise. We only had ONE personal foul and that was a dumb thing to do but throwing your helmet is better than a bunch of the other stupid penalties we have committed.

The ones that bother me are the blocking in the back and holding. Those come down to technique, not disipline.

[bulls96go]

pleazzzzz fix this JL