Two top freshmen chose Bulls over Miami

There's a feature in Wednesday's Times on true freshmen Sam Barrington and Kayvon Webster, who have shined in limited roles for the Bulls and are in line to be major players on USF's defense next season.

Both are rare in that they had scholarship offers from Miami and instead chose USF -- in Webster's case, he spurned the hometown Hurricanes by backing out of a commitment on national signing day. Miami has tradition, Barrington says, but in everything else, the two programs are close to even ...

Miami AD fondly recalls playing for Leavitt

TAMPA -– Jim Leavitt has been coaching football at USF for 13 seasons, but never before has he taken the opportunity to make fun of an opposing athletic director’s height.

"Guy’s about 5-9. He’ll say 5-10," Leavitt said of Miami athletic director Kirby Hocutt. "He weighed about 190, and he beefed up to a strong 206."

Leavitt can speak with affection about Hocutt, who played linebacker under Leavitt for four years at Kansas State, graduating in 1995.

"When we had some of those great defenses at Kansas State, Kirby was real instrumental in those defenses," Leavitt said. "He was such a hard worker, so focused, and really a good football player, a great leader. … He’s one of the most impressive people you’ll ever meet. We’re very close. I think the world of Kirby and couldn’t say enough good things about him."

Hocutt, 38, returns the admiration, saying that Leavitt showed him the ability to get as much as possible out of undersized, often overmatched players.

"You won’t find any coach in the country that has more energy and is more intense than Coach Leavitt," Hocutt said. "I have so many great memories and friendships from those five years that have obviously had a strong impact on me, who I am today as a person, as a leader. I’m not the least bit surprised with the success he’s had at South Florida."

Hocutt was working for the NCAA in 1998 when he came to Tampa for a site visit leading up to the 1999 Final Four in St. Petersburg. He stopped by USF’s campus to see Leavitt, who had just completed his second season with the Bulls.

"He walked me around the campus, and his vision for what that would be someday, where they were going to build a football support facility and locker room, it was so exciting," Hocutt said.

Asked about Leavitt finishing Saturday’s game against Louisville with a bloody gash on his nose from a halftime headbutt, he said he remembers the same wild intensity 15 years ago.

"I don’t remember being on the receiving end, but I remember a few headbutts," he said. "He had the uncanny ability to get the most out of people. Of our starting three linebackers, two were 5-10, under 200 pounds … (the third) was 6-2 and had the smallest biceps in college football. I can still hear Coach Leavitt in the film session one Sunday after we played Oklahoma. We were dominating Oklahoma that day. He said 'I just radioed up to the other assistant coaches and said 'Can you believe this? Look at the three linebackers I have out there and we’re beating the University of Oklahoma.'"

St. Petersburg Bowl not expecting USF back

The Big East's bowl picture still has two weeks to shake out its assorted outcomes, but it's unlikely USF will be making a trip across I-275 again to return to the St. Petersburg Bowl next month.

"It probably will be UConn or Rutgers. USF still has a chance, but the conference doesn't like people to go to the same place twice in a row," said Brett Dulaney, executive director of the St. Petersburg Bowl.  "We'd love to have USF. They brought a bunch of people, but I don't think the conference wants to do that."

Rutgers, which jumped into the top 25 last week before losing to Syracuse, has had a strong recruiting presence in Florida in recent years, and Connecticut, which needs one win in its final two games to become bowl eligible, has lost its five games by a combined 15 points.

It would seem that Central Florida is a strong match for St. Petersburg on the Conference USA side of things, but Dulaney said that side is less clear because the Hawaii and Armed Forces (Fort Worth) bowls pick ahead of St. Pete. He expects one of four teams: East Carolina, UCF, Southern Miss or Marshall.

The C-USA champ plays in the Liberty Bowl -- Houston can clinch a spot in the conference title game by beating Rice (2-9) this week, and the winner of this week's ECU-Southern Miss game will be the opponent.

If USF isn't in St. Petersburg, their most likely match is the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, with the International Bowl in Toronto possible but logistically unlikely.

It's official: USF says Miami game is sold out

For just the third time in its 13-year history, USF is expecting a home sellout, with all available tickets sold for Saturday's home game against Miami.

USF sent out a release Tuesday afternoon saying that Miami could return some of its allotment -- the Hurricanes already returned 3,000 tickets earlier this month -- and there's a chance USF's student body, away from campus for Thanksgiving weekend, won't use up the entire 12,501-seat student section. If either of those things happen, USF said they'll release the new tickets for sale on Thursday.

USF has only sold out Raymond James Stadium twice before this -- against West Virginia and Central Florida in 2007. We'll update the blog if any tickets should come available ...

TE Busbee had inspiration for toughness, catch

We wrote back in September how Bulls tight end Ben Busbee talked after the Florida State win with the parents of his former teammate and friend, Will Bleakley, who died at sea in a boating accident in March.

Busbee was a freshman in 2006 when Bleakley was a senior, and USF coach Jim Leavitt said the memory of Bleakley's toughness as a walk-on turned starter served as a motivation last week as Busbee battled back from a shoulder injury he suffered in the loss at Rutgers.

"It was Bleakley's (26th) birthday on Friday. Ben and I talked about that a little bit during the week," Leavitt said. "Will meant so much to him, certainly to all of us. We talked about how his shoulder was sore, and I said 'What would Will do with that bad elbow?' That might have been kind of over the top a little bit, but Ben looked at me and I said 'Will would have played.' I asked him if he wanted any motivation. I said 'I've got motivation for you.' He made such a great catch. I'm just so proud of Ben for that play."

Busbee was ruled down at the 2-yard line, and he showed his toughness again two plays later, coming back out on the field to block on B.J. Daniels' 1-yard touchdown run, securing the Bulls' win.

"That might be one of the great catches in South Florida history," Leavitt said. "Have you ever seen a catch where you end up staying with the ball getting hit like that? (Receiver Dontavia) Bogan made a catch two years ago that was unbelievable, but I don't know if I've ever seen it like that."

Shelton: Disease doesn't slow down 'Mama C'

Take a minute to read a column in Tuesday's newspaper from the Times' Gary Shelton, who was able to join a group of USF receivers and quarterbacks at the home of Mike Canales and his wife, Carol, who is battling multiple sclerosis. Find out more about "Mama C" and what she means to USF's players ...

A feast for your ears: USF audio slideshow!

We tend to be careful in rationing out exclamation points in headlines on this blog, but we cannot restrain ourselves from the excitement of rolling out another edition of that fan favorite, that technological marvel, that wonder of modern science, the USF audio slideshow.

We'll warn younger blog readers that there are scenes of graphic violence in this week's slideshow -- yes, that grisly photo of USF coach Jim Leavitt's poor nose after his helmetless halftime headbutt during Saturday's Louisville game. You'll see lots of generally less bloody pictures from Times photographers of your favorite Bulls while listening to Times online sports editor Frank Pastor with me about all things USF.

The editing is music-video sharp -- if I say "Auburn," an Auburn pic pops up, and if I say "Connecticut," sure enough, there's a picture of a Huskies player. I'm tempted each time we do this to drop in a random reference -- "the Bulls looked as soft as Theo Huxtable in the second quarter" -- just to see if Pastor will track down a good Malcolm Jamal-Warner pic. Anyway, enjoy our Thanksgiving edition, and we'll keep the steady flow of USF-Miami notes coming.

Home attendance up for Bulls from last season

For all the talk early in the season about season ticket sales being down about 13 percent from last year, USF's home attendance -- both announced and actual -- is up from 2008, and that's before a healthy boost from Saturday's final home game against Miami, which is close to a sellout.

The average announced attendance for USF's five home games so far is 49,770, just barely up from 49,690 last season. Those figures are based on the number of tickets distributed, but when you check the actual attendance -- the turnstile count recorded by the Tampa Sports Authority -- USF's actual average is 38,301, up about 2 percent from 37,598 a year ago.

Saturday's home game against Louisville, a 34-22 Bulls win, saw the biggest disparity this season between the announced crowd and the actual attendance -- 49,388 and 32,905, which means for every two people in the stands, there was a third ticket distributed but not used.

USF coach Jim Leavitt said during Monday's Big East coaches teleconference that he expects the Miami game -- the Bulls' first home game against one of the state's other three BCS-conference programs -- to be sold out, saying that about 1,000 tickets remained available. A check at Ticketmaster.com showed only single seats left for the lower two levels, with pairs remaining in the upper deck at Raymond James Stadium.

Final thoughts on USF-Louisville ...

Went back and watched the USF-Louisville game again on ESPN360.com and have a few more notes before we move on to USF-Miami on Saturday ... Ten thoughts:

-- Unsung hero of the game might be sophomore cornerback Quenton Washington, who saved three points with two big plays. When Louisville took the lead on Trent Guy’s punt return, Washington got in to block the extra point, which allowed USF to have a 17-16 lead at halftime.

And when the Cardinals scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter and trailed 27-22, that lost point prompted Louisville to go for two, and Washington – a 5-foot-10 cornerback covering 6-foot-8 receiver Josh Chichester – made a leaping play to deflect the conversion away from the big target. He's giving up 10 inches on that matchup ...

-- We’ve seen this before, but the Rutgers loss is clearly sticking with USF coach Jim Leavitt, who brought up his frustration with that 31-0 loss several times in his postgame news conference. Take this quote on Rutgers’ defense:

"Certainly we don’t have any idea how to play against it. We haven’t done very well there. This win doesn’t help that situation at all," Leavitt said. "That will burn up my rear forever. It just will."

USF's Daniels earns Big East offensive honors

No real surprise, but USF quarterback B.J. Daniels has been named Big East Offensive Player of the Week after piling up 445 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in the Bulls' 34-22 win against Louisville.

Daniels set career highs with 304 passing yards and 141 rushing yards, becoming the first player in Big East history to throw for 300 and rush for 100 in the same game. He wasn't the only Bulls player honored by the league, as linebacker Kion WIlson made the conference's weekly honor roll after leading USF with 12 tackles, including two for losses.

It's the third time this season a USF player has earned one of the Big East's weekly honors -- defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul got the defensive nod on Sept. 28 after USF's win against Florida State, and Wilson was defensive player of the week after the West Virginia game. Daniels is the second freshman to win the conference's offensive award this season, following Pittsburgh running Dion Lewis on Oct. 19.