The Ledger: USF Can't Enjoy Its Opener For Long

[USFishin]

USF Can't Enjoy Its Opener For Long

By Tom Zebold

THE LEDGER

Published: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 11:59 p.m.

TAMPA | Young players usually have to sit on the bench and wait for a chance to produce for college football teams.

For Skip Holtz's South Florida Bulls, the future is now at a lot of positions and inexperienced talent stepped up big Saturday night in a season opening 59-14 victory over Stony Brook.

"Great to see some of these young kids come to the party," Holtz said after the win.

True freshman Marcus Shaw led the Bulls with 86 rushing yards and a touchdown. True freshman walk-on Stephen Bravo-Brown had four catches for 48 yards - second-best among USF receivers. Sophomore receiver Evan Landi made the most of his first-career start by posting a game-high six catches for 104 yards.

"He made me look good, so I'm proud of him," said quarterback B.J. Daniels of Landi.

Quarterback Bobby Eveld, a freshman walk-on, joined in the fun by completing 9 of 12 passes for 119 yards and a touchdown to help show Holtz that he's capable of backing up Daniels.

"Not for a second I doubted what we had," Daniels said. "I'm very confident in the teammates we have."

Young defensive players also shined under the lights at Raymond James Stadium.

Freshman safety Mark Joyce returned an interception 33 yards for a score, while redshirt sophomore linebacker Mike Lanaris picked off a pass in his first-career start. Sophomore linebacker DeDe Lattimore also had an interception to go along with four tackles in his first start.

USF doesn't have tons of time to look back on its solid showing, however.

The Bulls face No. 4 Florida in Gainesville on Saturday and Holtz said the season opener was a much-needed opportunity to get some of his young players some experience in a hurry.

"I would much rather Bobby Eveld, Bravo-Brown, Marcus Shaw, Mark Joyce and those guys have an opportunity to get their feet wet here at home than to get baptized into college football in Gainesville, Florida Field next weekend," Holtz said.

Landi looks forward to playing in USF's first meeting with the Gators.

"I think it's a great opportunity for us to go into a place like that," he said.

The task certainly won't be a walk in the park.

Florida is packed with talent, and the Gators will be looking to bounce back from a lackluster offensive performance in their season-opening victory against Miami (Ohio).

"Florida is a great team. They are athletic. They are fast," Daniels said. "It's a team everybody talks about in the state."

Florida definitely has confidence on its side from an in-state standpoint. The Gators are 9-0 against Florida-based opponents during coach Urban Meyer's tenure, but don't expect South Florida to use its abundance of youth as an excuse regardless of Saturday's outcome.

"We're all here for a reason. We all can play ball," Landi said. "We just have to go out there and execute."

[ Tom Zebold can be reached at tom.zebold@theledger.com or at 863-802-7553. ]

Link

[Griggsy]

What Landi said: "We're all here for a reason. We all can play ball. We just have to go out there and execute."

What Landi was thinking: "We're all here for a reason. We all can play ball. We just have to go out there and execute them"  >

[ajusf16]

"The task certainly won't be a walk in the park.

Florida is packed with talent, and the Gators will be looking to bounce back from a lackluster offensive performance in their season-opening victory against Miami (Ohio)."

I like this sentence, the standpoint is that we will win but it will have some effort involved

[swamprat]

Brad, we need a Captain Obvious smiley.

[2000bull]

Brad, we need a Captain Obvious smiley.

It's not a smiley, but kind of funny

[E.T.]

Gotsta love the youth we have on this team.