Leavitt Expects A Stronger Team, Program in 2005

[Brad]

Leavitt Expects A Stronger Team, Program in 2005

By Patrick Zier

Ledger Correspondent

TAMPA -- There will be a team getting ready for a bowl game at South Florida in a couple weeks, but it won't be the USF Bulls.

After closing out the year with three straight losses to finish 4-7, the Bulls took themselves out of contention for a post-season bid.

So Outback Bowl bound Wisconsin will use the USF facilities to prepare for its game against Georgia on Jan. 1.

Meanwhile, USF coach Jim Leavitt is looking to the future, which has South Florida entering the Big East Conference in 2005.

And based on the Bulls' play this year, Leavitt knows his team must get bigger, faster and stronger to become competitive with high-caliber Division 1-A programs.

Despite what he termed "a real physical spring," Leavitt admitted that USF "didn't have a real strong team this year" and that "the teams that beat us were better football teams."

Although he didn't say it, Leavitt would probably not include Army, which beat USF 4235, in that group.

A lack of strength up front compounded USF's problems on defense by putting increased pressure on a green secondary.

The extreme youthfulness of the Bulls lineup -- at one time or another 10 freshmen and/or sophomores were starters -- added to the problem.

Of 117 Division 1-A teams, USF ranked 115th in penalty yardage and 107th in turnover margin, which Leavitt attributes to inexperience.

Offensively, the Bulls were inconsistent which means, among other things, that sophomore quarterback Pat Julmiste must make marked improvement to hold his job in 2005.

"Last year he was inconsistent and this year he was a little bit better," Leavitt said. "But it wasn't good enough. We have to get a lot better."

Leavitt said he would look at four guys at quarterback, the most interesting of whom could be Auburn transfer Courtney Dawson.

Originally recruited out of Miami Central H.S. by USF, Dawson signed with Auburn and was switched to defensive back. The switch led him to transfer to South Florida.

A scrambler, the USF coaches believe he has potential.

"They all have different skills," Leavitt said of his quarterbacks. "It all depends on who can move the offense, not make mistakes."

In USF's most recent game, against Pitt, the first series demonstated USF's offensive woes. On their first play, the Bulls were penalized for a false start. Next, they were penalized for holding.

On their third play, Julmiste threw an interception which was returned for a touchdown.

Defensively, the Bulls simply did not stop the opposition enough, which led to prolonged time on the field and increased scoring opportunities for their opponents, who averaged 30.8 points per game, putting USF 88th in Division 1-A.

As with offense, the Pitt game was a microcosm of the Bulls' defensive problems.

On Pitt's first series, USF had the Panthers second-and-11 at the 20, then jumped offside to make it second-and-six.

Moments later, Pitt was thirdand-12 at the Bulls' 43 and completed a 14-yard pass which eventually led to a touchdown.

USF's inability to stop teams on third down hurt it all year.

"We've obviously got to play better in third-down situations," Leavitt said. "The good thing is we got them to third down, the bad thing is we didn't stop them."

A major part of the problem was that USF wasn't strong enough up front to compete with more physical offensive lines like Pitt, which had four interior linemen well over 300 pounds and one at 295.

In contrast, USF's biggest defensive lineman was Lee Roy Selmon Jr. at 280.

Another problem was the secondary, where USF had to replace three of the four starters and then was victimized by injuries.

"We lost eight starters on defense two years ago and eight starters last year and it finally caught up with us," Leavitt said.

At strong safety, for example, the Bulls had Kenny Robinson set to replace graduated Kevin Verpaele, but Robinson decided not to play football.

Johnnie Jones then got the spot, suffered a shoulder injury in the second game and was redshirted.

The Bulls then tried Drametrice Smith, who also got hurt, forcing freshman Danny Verpaele into the lineup.

"We had some young guys back there who did some things that weren't real smart," Leavitt said.

"We kept telling them you don't have to push a guy in the back but sometimes it didn't take. As they get older they'll get better, smarter," Leavitt said.

"We were very young and we made a lot of young mistakes," Leavitt added. "But the only way to learn is by playing. I'm excited about next year.

"It will be different," the USF coach vowed.

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[Cubanbull]

Well too bad that they spelled his name wrong, is Denson NOT Dawson.

[Brad]

Yeah, I noticed that...it's kind of funny.  Fan's support is questioned, and local journalists often don't report things correctly...frightening.  Is anyone paying atttention?

[USFMikeB]

What are you guys talking about?  

[smazza]

buliever-how true

[BullDoug]

I'd forgot about Kenny R. quitting.  Wonder how well his contribution would of helped.  We'd probably have the Army game back and maybe the USM too.  Cincinnatti may have been a competitive game too.

[mutt]

What's the story on Danny Muy? is he comin to U S F ?

[NAM37]

Anyone know why we seem to get more press outta Lakeland than from Tampa or St Pete??

NAM37

[Guest guest]

Not sure why you'd think that. Times and Tribune did season wrapup stories just like this Ledger story. Has Ledger written anything since?

[Bullpride08]

What's the story on Danny Muy? is he comin to U S F ?

yes, and they are expecting his hardship waiver to be approved by the NCAA which would make him immediately eligible for the 2005 season.  The #9 ranked center in the entire nation, and #1 in FL.

At first Kenny Robinson's loss didn't seem as devestating, particularly since the words from coaches were other players had stepped up.  IF, we have Robinson, and Johnny Jones on last year's squad it isn't a stretch to say Army, and USM would have been victories, and the moral of the team might have been better heading into the home stretch, particularly with a bowl game in the bag.

Thankfully next year we will have Johnny Jones back.  He's a leader, and the coaches have told him they NEED him to be a positive role model this off-season, and heading into next year.  They expect it of him to be a big person and have a monster senior year.