Recruiting notes, and the skunk is delicious

What's recruiting coverage without a little name-dropping? My Pinellas readers will remember the name from a few years back: Theo Wilson, once a standout dual-threat quarterback at Dunedin. In 2003, he made our All-Suncoast team as a junior, and he totaled 50 touchdowns passing and running in his last two years with the Falcons. Google him and you find words like "electrifying" and "terrific" and so on.

He didn't graduate from Dunedin until 2006, however, spent last year at Southwest Mississippi Community College and is now ready to make a splash at -- where else? -- Pearl River Community College, also in Mississippi. Wilson, 5-11 and 205 pounds, is likely a receiver on the college level, but he's been a USF target for years, and coach Tim Hatten said Tuesday he expects the Bulls to offer Wilson a scholarship.

"Every time I run into Jim Leavitt, he says 'Coach, when Theo gets his AA, we'll take him in a heartbeat,'" Dunedin coach Mark Everett said Tuesday.

-- Just to balance out a steady stream of July optimism: a blogger at MaizenBrew.com, a Michigan site, picks USF to finish sixth in the Big East, going 6-6 overall. He does like "Taurus Jackson" and talks about the defense being the "lynch pin" of the team. But he titles his piece "2007 Misguided and Misinformed Preview of the Big East," so who am I to criticize?

-- Those of you who are actually Times subscribers (of course, all of you are subscribers, no?) should check out Sunday's paper for a chance to win a trip to USF's football game at Auburn. I know this not because I work for the Times, but because I'm mooching off the free wireless at the Panera Bread off Fowler Avenue, and there's a sign there teasing the promotion. For all I know, they might be giving away the opportunity to write a USF-Auburn game story in my place. Times are tough.

-- An actual conversation overheard here at Panera, just because I wanted to share:

Customer, intrigued by a bakery sample: "What is this?"

Panera worker with Southern accent: "A scone."

Customer, looking a bit confused: "A skunk?"

Panera worker, enunciating better: "No, a scone."

Bucs sign former USF defensive end

After a successful summer playing in NFL Europa, former USF defensive end Tim Jones signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Tuesday.

Jones signed with the Bucs last summer but was cut in preseason; as a late free-agent addition, he'll have his work cut out for him trying to stay on roster for the next month. The former Bulls co-captain played for the Amsterdam Admirals overseas this summer, totaling 21 tackles, with two sacks and a forced fumble.

With Jones on board, USF now has nine former players in NFL camps: cornerback Anthony Henry (Cowboys), linebacker Kawika Mitchell (Giants), guard Frank Davis (Lions), running back Andre Hall (Broncos), linebacker Stephen Nicholas (Falcons), linebacker Craig Kobel (Eagles), receiver Ean Randolph (Chiefs) and offensive tackle Thed Watson (Panthers).

USF-Louisville game will honor military

USF's Nov. 17 home football game against Louisville has been designated as Military Appreciation Night. Exact details of the promotion haven't been released, but you can expect some kind of ticket discount for military-employed fans and their families (which should add to an already large crowd) and ceremonies before and during the game -- flyovers, paratroopers delivering gameballs and such. Stay tuned for details. (photo courtesy of USF, showing Luis Visot, a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Reserves, stationed in Kuwait; SFC Russell Boyce, serving in the 1st TSC Command in the Staff Judge Advocate Division; and CPT Aprelle Schilling, secretary of the General Staff for 1st TSC Command. To read more about them, click here)

-- For fans seeking single-game football tickets this fall, those tickets go on sale Wednesday morning. The ticket window at Entry 3 of the Sun Dome will open at 7:30 a.m., and fans can also call 1-800-GoBulls starting at 7:45 a.m. or try Ticketmaster.com.

Position breakdown: Defensive backs

I'll do my best in the next week to run through each position going into preseason practice, outlining starters, position battles and the rest of the players, one area at a time. To keep you guys coming back, I'll start at the defense and save the running backs and quarterbacks for last, though truth be told, cornerback is arguably the best position on the team ...

STARTERS: Cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams combine for 59 starts and could both land first-team all-conference honors. Williams led the Big East with seven interceptions last year, and the speedy Jenkins will likely be the first Bulls player drafted in April. Safety is less established, with promising sophomore Nate Allen stepping into a major role at free safety, with junior Carlton Williams ahead of Louis Gachette for the strong safety job.

POSITION BATTLE: Williams has the edge at strong safety after starting nine games last year, so the real battle is for the nickel defensive back. It looks like sophomore Jerome Murphy, arguably inheriting Jeremy Burnett's title as the unit's hardest hitter, could step in at nickel and even push Allen for the starting free safety job. The next option at nickel would be junior Tyller Roberts, who had 25 tackles in a limited role last season. If Jenkins or Williams should go down, senior Ryan Gilliam, a track standout, is the top backup.

AND THE REST: True freshmen Charlton Sinclair and Quenton Washington are among the most talented players in the incoming class, but the depth of returning players would make it hard for either to play a major role. Redshirt freshman Dylan Douglas will likely help on special teams, where junior Jamaal Jenkins has been a standout for the past two seasons. The new addition is former quarterback Carlton Hill, who will be playing defense for the first time since high school. I'd think of this as a transition year for him, so I'd be surprised if he's on the field much as a safety. He can help on special teams. Just as a reminder, junior Danny Verpaele is ineligible this season but will return as a senior in 2008. With three of the top four corners being seniors, it's easy to see a young secondary in 2008, much like USF had in 2004 when Jenkins and Williams played prominently as redshirt freshmen.

Thoughts? Questions? The floor is yours for d-back discussion ... Oh, two small notes: Mo Esseghir, the 6-foot-11 basketball walk-on we've been writing about, likely won't be eligible to play until the end of the fall semester, meaning he'll miss the first six games or so, same as transfer guard Aaron Holmes. Again, Stan Heath's club will have depth issues in the post early on. ... USF has a new season-ticket offering for alumni (and alumnae) who have never bought a season ticket. You get a base-level season ticket ($129 value), a year's membership with the alumni association and a USF specialty license tag, all for $99. Alums should be receiving information by direct mail. ...

Leavitt at media days: What they're writing ...

As a beat writer, it's fun to see how newspapers across the state handle an event like this weekend's state football media days. I'm always curious to see what other papers that don't write about USF very often find most interesting when they get a half-hour interview with Jim Leavitt that covers a little of everything. Thanks to the wonderful resource that is Google News, I can offer a ton of links ...

-- Florida Today has a piece on Leavitt and USF's progress. My favorite line, both optimistic and technically accurate: "A first sellout crowd is possible." And yes, after some suspense, they sneak in the obligatory "abandoned trailers" reference in the endquote.

-- Leavitt got a lot of questions of UCF, does he want to keep playing the series beyond 2008, etc. There really was nothing new this weekend, but there still are stories in the Herald-Tribune.  Endquote? "I am worried about our first game against Elon." Another good story in the Bradenton Herald, trailer-free with only a token mention of Elon.

-- More UCF: the Orlando Sentinel writes that Leavitt expressed "ambivalence" about extending the series beyond 2008. Leavitt's we're-playing-too-many-state-schools diplomacy is a bit silly. He's ambivalent about playing more games with UCF the way I'm ambivalent about whether I'd like to get West Nile. Again, what we wrote two years ago: The only thing USF gets by playing UCF is the annual risk of allowing a close rival to instantly catch or surpass it. If USF doesn't play UCF, it's hard for UCF to say they're on the same level with the Bulls; even if they were to win C-USA, USF can claim it's an inferior non-BCS league. Leavitt doesn't want to say that and fire 'em up, that's all.

My favorite awkward Leavitt end-around, which didn't make the 2,800-word transcript, came when he was asked how the USF-UCF rivalry makes sense if only for its geographic proximity: "You have the distance. FAU's about four hours. Miami's four hours, 45 minutes. Orlando's about an hour and a half, the closest one of those three. Gainesville's two hours. Florida State took me, don't tell anybody, but I did it in under four hours. They're all pretty close. We're all recruiting against the same people. You play a team in Florida, the emotion is high no matter which one you play." Oh. OK.

-- I'm just being mean now, but the Idaho Statesman mentions USF among its "Teams that could suprise." (sic) Hey, it's a tricky word, don't get me wrong. Next time I get something wrong, remind me about karma. Oh, and Covers.com has Mike Ford among "the nation's dozen most pivotal RBs," going so far as to say that the freshman "oozes talent." I think there's an antibiotic for that.

Leavitt unchanged: 'Same old Jimmy'

I don't think I've heard anyone call Jim Leavitt "Jimmy" since I interviewed his parents back in 2004. Of course, Steve Duemig does that, but he does that with lots of people for some reason. Leavitt's friend Ron Helinger said that Sunday morning as we talked about the coach's new WaveRunner, part of a story that ran on the front page of Monday's Times. It's now six days until players report, with the first practice less than a week away. I'm thinking about breaking down one position each day the rest of the week, just to generate a little conversation. ...

State media days: Leavitt speaks ...

Back home from the state football media days, held in Tampa at the Quorum Hotel on Westshore. USF coach Jim Leavitt was up first this morning, talked for about a half-hour from the podium (I can never bring myself to use the word "dais") and then another half-hour or so with a smaller group out in the hallway. Not much in the way of news (read full transcript here, courtesy of USF's Mike Hogan), but I'll run through a few things ...

-- Leavitt said defensive tackle Terrell McClain is expected to play this fall, battling senior Julian Riley for a backup spot on the interior line. He expects most of the true freshmen to redshirt, but said he'll give a close look to big running back Richard Kelly of South Sumter, as well as Fort Myers' Tyson Butler.

-- Lots of questions about UCF and the end of the series in 2008, but no new answers, just Leavitt saying he doesn't want too many Florida teams on his schedule in any given season.

-- Leavitt, we learned, bought a Wave Runner this summer. Said he's gotten up over 60 mph, looks like a cartoon character with his hair blown back and sunglasses on. I'm glad anytime I hear a story from Leavitt that doesn't directly involve football, so this was a fun highlight to be filed under "Rare Morsels Of Personal Insight." I don't know that I'll see that folder again until January. ...

-- As we reported here Friday, Carlton Hill will be a free safety, where Leavitt hopes his athleticism can help the team. He hasn't hit anyone since high school, but Leavitt wants to give him a look there.

-- Running back Moise Plancher has been cleared this week for full contact in preseason drills, an encouraging step as he returns from knee surgery last year. Leavitt said offensive lineman Matt Huners, recovering from knee surgery this spring, is making as much progress as he could ask, though he won't be involved in any contact in the preseason. Leavitt is very confident Huners will play this year, though he doesn't want to set any kind of timetable for his return.

Other notes: Bethune-Cookman coach Alvin Wyatt said that while they're not in his media guide, he expects former Bulls Antonio and Antwane Cox on his team this fall, as well as defensive end Josh Julmiste. Here's a name I haven't heard in like two years: former Armwood defensive back Mike Williams, who signed with USF in 2004 then left after one redshirt year to a California junior college. Wyatt said Williams will play this fall, though he will not have running back Ricky Ponton.

Not sure what my favorite moment from this morning was: perhaps FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger discussing the one new addition to his coaching staff, a colleague he identified as "Williams," only to be corrected by sports information staffers that his name is actually "Darryl Jackson." A reporter asked Schnellenberger if he had any advice for the next coach scheduled to speak, Jacksonville's Kerwin Bell, a first-year college coach. Perfectly suitable question, and Schnellenberger responded "I might if he asked me," and when the reporter followed by asking "What if asked you?" the 73-year-old turned away and looked for the next question. How hard is it to just pleasantly say "Work hard and surround yourself with smart assistants"? Better still is the media guide from Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, which has no roster. It does have a picture of seven "players to watch" for 2007, though two of the players are identified in the caption as "player no longer with team." I can't make this stuff up. ...

Senior Showcase: A name to remember

It's late, and Jim Leavitt has the podium at 9 a.m. (!) as part of the Florida Sports Writers Association state football media days in Tampa, so I have an early morning, but I wanted to get this up before it got lost in Sunday's updates.

Spent some time over on campus Saturday attending USF's Senior Showcase camp, which brought about 140 recruits in for a closer look at (and from) the Bulls. Most of what I saw were agility drills, broken down position by position, and many of the players in attendance aren't even on USF's radar. I saw three Bulls commitments firsthand -- linebacker Mike Lanaris of Lake Mary attended but didn't work out, while tight ends Andreas Shields (Wharton) and Jeff Hawkins (Ocala Vanguard) looked impressive. When you consider that only a small fraction -- maybe 10 percent -- actually have scholarship offers from USF, the size of this event is more about goodwill and establishing relationships with high school programs. Tons of family members and coaches watching the practice fields.

I don't know of any new commitments to come out of Saturday's event, but there's something notable to take from this: Saturday marked the first time Leavitt personally met Jarvis Giles. Giles is a rising junior running back at Gaither, expected to be one of the state's top prospects at any position in the Class of 2009. He was invited by USF to watch the event and get his first look at the campus and coaches, and he watched teammate Zach Henderson, a defensive back, participate in the camp.

Giles is just starting the recruiting process, but he told me he likes USF and would definitely consider the Bulls as an option -- again, he's likely more than a year away from making a decision. That puts USF in a solid, fast-growing group of schools that include Florida, Florida State, Arkansas and Tennessee. Giles, who rushed for 1,480 yards and 13 touchdowns as a sophomore, said he was impressed with Leavitt, calling him "one of the nicest dudes I've ever met in football." The Bulls haven't made a formal scholarship offer yet, but they're ahead of most schools in getting him on campus and getting started on what will be a major recruiting battle in USF's backyard.

If you haven't seen Giles play -- hey, I hadn't -- you can check out a highlight video on SunshinePreps.net. I'm off to sleep, and should have an update from Leavitt's press conference in the morning. Keep these ridiculous amounts of comments coming. ...

Carlton Hill to play at free safety

We've mentioned the possibility of it here a while back, but now it's official: Carlton Hill, back at USF after a season of junior college football, will play free safety for the Bulls this fall.

For months, coach Jim Leavitt has said two things about Hill: that he'd probably be back at quarterback, and that he'd take advantage of his redshirt season and not play this fall. But defensive coordinator Wally Burnham had talked to Hill about playing defense, and he said Friday that's where he'll line up this fall, saying the plan is for him not to redshirt.

"I'm excited about being a part of this defense," Hill said. "I know how dominating they've always been, and this was my decision. We have a very competitive group of defensive backs."

Hill, who has played receiver and quarterback, both at USF and last fall at Pearl River Community College, said he last played free safety with any regularity as a senior at Jefferson County High in Monticello. He has good size at 6-3, 220 pounds, and has certainly shown his athleticism.

Leavitt, talking on J.P. Peterson's afternoon radio show Friday on 1470 AM, said Hill's move to safety was made possible by his comfort level with his depth at quarterback, with Grant Gregory and Anthony Severino backing up sophomore Matt Grothe.

"It's good enough for us to take Carlton Hill, who went in and played quarterback a few times two years ago and showed he has a lot of athletic talent, we were able to move him to free safety," Leavitt said on 1470.

If you're counting, Hill is the third former quarterback now in USF's defensive secondary, with Louis Gachette and Nate Allen. That doesn't count Gregory and Courtney Denson, who dabbled as defensive backs before moving back to offense.

-- For those of you clamoring for USF's official site to publicize the current season ticket special -- two adult and two children's season tickets for $300 -- it's up as a splash ad when you visit the site now. And who better to advertise such a special than senior linebacker Ben Moffitt, who has two young children with his wife Shauna.

A few more odds and ends ...

Lots of notes today -- I'll start with an update from the Times' Joe Smith on some of Pinellas County's top basketball recruits for next year. That includes Mike Morrison, a 6-foot-9 forward from Lakewood who got a scholarship offer from Stan Heath this summer. The Bulls are the first team from a major conference to offer Morrison, who will play in the AAU nationals this weekend. Other things worth noting ...

-- The LeBrandon Glover saga is over. USF has agreed to release the freshman linebacker, allowing him to transfer to Division I-AA Elon, which is the Bulls' opponent in next month's season opener. He's transferring with the understanding that he won't be allowed to play against the Bulls. "I have to sit that one out, but I'm real excited," he said. "I'm ready to play football again."

-- We've told you about the slew of kids trying to walk on with the Bulls, and how the team is bumping up against the roster limit of 105 players. The newest name to add to the list is J.P. Moriarty, a quarterback and cornerback from Orlando Bishop Moore, who has turned down I-AA scholarship offers to enroll at USF. There's no room for him on the roster this fall, but he's content to have a shot at open tryouts in February, where his 6-foot, 190-pound frame is probably best suited at defensive back. He's working out this summer with Apopka quarterback Andy Summerlin, who also hopes to join the team in spring.

-- USF's Student Government has an official game-day T-shirt drive going, with nearly 2,000 already sold this summer. The "OUR Shirt" campaign hopes to have 10,000 T-shirts sold by the West Virginia home game, with the count Thursday standing at 1,886 shirts sold. The cost is just $6 ($5 for USF students) and shirts are available at the Marshall Center on campus, at Bulls Heaven in Tampa, and at Helinger Advertising on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg. Helinger does the T-shirts for the Times as well, and I've been wearing them for years. You can buy the shirts online at bullsheaven.com, but the shipping costs more than double the cost for a single shirt.