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.

Football/basketball doubleheader?

Here's a true test for the hardcore USF fan: would you drive across the state to take in USF's men's basketball and football teams on the same day?

The schedule for the Glenn Wilkes Classic basketball tournament in Daytona Beach in November was released on Thursday, and USF's games would seemingly allow dedicated fans to catch all three hoops contests without missing the football team's huge showdown with Louisville on Saturday, Nov. 17. We're going to assume for now that the USF-Louisville game will be a prime-time kickoff, as the Bulls prefer for home dates, though there's certainly the possibility of an afternoon kick if it's picked up as Big East game of the week.

USF's game against Rhode Island on Friday, Nov. 16, is at 2:15 p.m., and the Saturday game against Florida Atlantic is set for noon -- early enough that fans could take it in, then make the three-hour drive back to Tampa for a night football game. Of course, they'd then have to drive back to Daytona again on Sunday, Nov. 18, for an 8:15 p.m. finale against Florida State.

Since our college basketball writers don't cover most road games because of budget constraints, I'm tempted to try to make all four games, providing that Louisville game is a night kickoff. It'd be just a week into USF's basketball season, an important time to see games and get a better feel for Stan Heath's first team. Recognizing that most sane fans will stay in Tampa on Friday and Saturday, I'm curious what the attendance will be like in Daytona for the first two games there. ...

Cornerback Williams on Thorpe watch list

USF senior cornerback Trae Williams, who led the Big East with seven interceptions and earned first-team all-conference honors last season, has been named to the watch list for the Jim Thorpe Award, given to college football's top defensive back.

I'm close to just making a Watch List Watch List, but what's most interesting about the 35 names on this list is that teammate Mike Jenkins, typically mentioned in the same breath as Williams, isn't included. The list will be pared to 10 semifinalists in November, then three finalists in December.

Williams is one of four Big East defensive backs on the list, along with Rutgers' Courtney Greene, Cincinnati's Mike Mickens and West Virginia's Eric Wicks. As far as others from Florida schools, there's Florida State's Tony Carter and Myron Rolle and Miami's Kenny Phillips.

So, to recap the USF watched list: linebacker Ben Moffitt is on the Nagurski list (one of 49) and quarterback Matt Grothe is 65 on the Maxwell list. Sixty-five seems a bit bloated to me -- I've been telling people it's easier to issue a Don't Watch List of players not being considered. But what's July without preseason college football accolades? ...

California juco infielder will play for Bulls

A month before fall classes start, USF still hasn't sent out an official list of coach Lelo Prado's incoming recruiting class, so news has come in bits and pieces, here and there. We knew a priority was upgrading the Bulls' hitting, and we've uncovered another solid bat coming to Tampa this fall: Jeremy Malmendier, an infielder from Sacramento City College.

Malmendier (pronounced, simply enough, as MAL-men-deer) hit .351 for Sac City as a sophomore, playing primarily second base, but he said his strength is at the plate, where he bats lefty and has shown a penchant for opposite-field hitting. He did not hit a home run last season, but drove in 25 runs and scored 36 with 10 steals for a team that went 35-15 and sent much of its starting lineup to major Division I programs and the draft.

Malmendier is the third junior college hitter known to be joining the Bulls, along with Chipola College's Trey Manz and Brian Hobbs. A native Californian from nearby Folsom, he also considered Oral Roberts and had hoped to get an offer from powerhouse Long Beach State. He hasn't been to Florida since he was 9, but is excited about reporting for fall classes next month. He moonlighted as a catcher his freshman year at Sac City, but said USF told him he'd be playing second, that is, unless its shortstop didn't return. Which brings us to ...

-- Former USF shortstop Walter Diaz said he'll sign Monday with the Cleveland Indians, who drafted him in the 48th round. Diaz could have returned for his senior year but said Cleveland has offered him a signing bonus that is "top-10-round money." It's tough for college seniors to command as high a signing bonus because they don't have the leverage of returning to school, as a junior does. "I made my decision based on what I thought was best for me and my family," Diaz said from Miami.

-- We'd reported back in May that USF and FSU would play in a tournament in Daytona Beach. That tournament has an official name: the Glenn Wilkes Classic, honoring the longtime Stetson coach. The first round will be on teams' campuses, with USF hosting Cleveland State. The Bulls then get three games at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach (I stayed across the street from the arena last weekend), with Rhode Island Nov. 16, Florida Atlantic Nov. 17 and Florida State on Nov. 18. It's the same weekend as the Louisville football game, so I'll probably only be able to get over for the FSU game.

-- Football walk-on update: Countryside kicker Josh Martinez, hoping to join the Bulls this fall, was not accepted into school and has accepted an offer as a preferred walk-on at Memphis. "I couldn't be more unhappy with the (admissions) administration there (at USF)," coach John Davis said. "My disappointment is not with the decision they made, but that it took so long to let him know." Davis said Martinez, the son of former major-leaguer Dave Martinez, lost a scholarship offer to play soccer at FIU while waiting to hear from USF. Another former Countryside kicker who'd been interested in USF, former Delaware kicker Zach Hobby, is likely walking on at Florida State, Davis said.

ESPN football ranking puts USF 58th

No, no, not any kind of preseason 2007 snub to get fans in a late-summer tizzy.

Just an update on those ESPN.com 1-119 rankings we told you about the other day: USF checks in at No. 58 over the past decade. It's completely subjective, of course, but that's about where I thought the Bulls would fall, right in the middle of the pack, graduating in the top 50 percent of the class, if you will. The writeup calls USF "one of those surging programs" and adds that if they did the list again in two years, the Bulls might be 20 spots higher.

Ranking 58th puts them fourth among Big East schools, just behind Pittsburgh but ahead of Syracuse (63), Cincinnati (69), Rutgers (70) and Connecticut (77). And UCF (78), for that matter -- looks like Southern Miss and Marshall will both be in the top 50, though as the only Conference USA schools ranked in the top 70.

-- One recruiting update: As expected, defensive back Charlton "Cha-Cha" Sinclair of Jacksonville Mandarin has been academically cleared by the NCAA and will report with the rest of USF's football team on August 4. Sinclair, one of the most highly touted members of USF's incoming class, is a candidate to play this fall as a true freshman, much like safety Nate Allen did last year.

Bulls get two commitments from Lake Gibson

USF's 2008 recruiting class has doubled to six verbal commitments in the last week, with Lake Gibson teammates Josh Garvin and James Jones accepting scholarship offers Friday to play for the Bulls.

Lake Gibson has been a reliable source of early commitments for the Bulls, starting with quarterback Matt Grothe three years ago, then defensive end Claude Davis, who committed last summer but failed to qualify. The latest are Garvin, a 6-foot-4, 275-pound offensive lineman who could play guard or tackle, and Jones, a 6-2, 232-pound defensive end who had 93 tackles and 12 sacks last season.

"I liked the way the coaches treated me and the way the players acted around each other," said Jones, who said he had offers from West Virginia and Indiana and also was recruited by Virginia Tech and Iowa.

Garvin, who moved to Lakeland from Akron, Ohio, his freshman year, said he had offers from Baylor, Ball State and Florida International and drew interest from Florida, Florida State, North Carolina and Alabama. Tide coaches called his line coach at Lake Gibson on Monday, encouraging him to keep his options open, but he says if he takes any official visits this fall, it'll only be so he can "enjoy the recruiting process."

"I don't plan on changing my mind. I'm definitely committed to USF," said Garvin, who said the Bulls didn't start recruiting him until this spring.

The Bulls are after another Lake Gibson senior, lineman Ricky Barnum (who has 20-plus offers and will take visits this fall), and are in strong position to land former Lake Gibson receiver Roger Frazier, now at Pearl River (with Claude Davis) in Mississippi. So in two years, you could have easily have five or more Lake Gibson graduates on USF's roster.

From the Where Are They Now Dept., Jones is a stepbrother of former South Sumter and Florida star Earl Everett, now a rookie with the Cincinnati Bengals, and South Sumter's Carlos Everett, who strongly considered USF before signing with N.C. State in 2006. He failed to qualify and spent last season at Hinds Community College in Mississippi, where he's now one of the top juco receivers for next year's class. South Sumter coach Inman Sherman said Carlos is talking to Florida and Florida State about next year, as well as Mississippi, but wants very much to return to his home state. And loyal blog readers will remember former South Sumter quarterback Jarrod Fleming, who had sought to walk on at USF in January but was not accepted into school. He'll play quarterback at Hinds this fall.

So much stuff, I'm splitting things up

I'll have some recruiting news up within the hour, but wanted to get some other notes out on a post of their own, just so things don't get lost in the shuffle. I'll try to get a minor-league baseball update out in the next day or two as well. Got the official preseason practice schedule from USF today -- only six days of two-a-days in 20 days of drills leading up to the first game week. To confirm an official time, Fan Appreciation Day is set for Aug. 25 at 11 a.m. ...

-- I'm tempted to do a list of the top 10 lists I've read this week. You can't swing a dead cat online without hitting a list of some kind. ESPN.com actually has one I'm intrigued by, ranking the 119 Division I football programs from 119 to 1 in terms of the past decade. They rolled out the bottom 19 schools on Monday, with fledgling programs FAU (105th) and FIU (117th) checking in. Curious to see where USF fits in the rankings, considering the Bulls were a I-AA program for four of the last 10 years. Since I'm a cheap shill for blog comments ... guesses, anyone?

-- NFL training camps are opening now, so we have links on several USF alums trying to land jobs. The Denver Broncos' official site updates Andre Hall trying to stick there, and the Kansas City Star writes about how young players such as Ean Randolph could be a big part of the Chiefs' roster this fall. And that spring optimism that Stephen Nicholas could be starting in Atlanta has leveled off; the AJC's Steve Wyche reports that with the signing of veteran Orlando Huff last month, Nicholas is now battling him for the backup weakside job there. Again, the only knock against Nicholas is his relative inexperience.

-- Really interesting story in the Orlando Sentinel today, comparing the announced attendance for Orlando teams with the actual turnstile count. Check out the UCF data in the chart the Sentinel ran -- the difference between actual and announced was never more than 15 percent from 2002 to 2004, then went to 19.6 percent in 2005 and an impressive 43.2 percent last season.

-- A few links I don't want to forget: Here's a longer story from the Times' Joe Smith that ran in Pinellas on John Gerdes taking the St. Pete Catholic job, complete with a Doug Woolard quote. And from my colleague Brian Landman, a good story on former USF stars Andre Hall and Thed Watson giving back to their community in St. Petersburg. And because Brian deserves more traffic, we're throwing some linkage to his FSU blog. Being fair, we'll throw Antonya English's Gators blog a link since she hasn't had a national championship in months. We're just trying to boost our college numbers in the ever-competitive Times blog traffic rankings. Solidarity, people!

Football season tickets selling strong

With big-draw opponents such as West Virginia and Louisville on the upcoming home football schedule, USF has already sold 17,800 season tickets for the 2007 season, about 650 higher than the Bulls finished with last season.

Assistant athletic director Jim Louk said Monday that August is traditionally USF's best month for selling season tickets, and by Louk's recollection, the Bulls are already at their highest season-ticket total since their inaugural season in 1997.

Ticket packages are selling well -- a recent promotion that included a USF helmet autographed by Jim Leavitt sold out, simply because the Bulls ran out of their allotment of helmets. The latest offering is a family plan with two adult and two child season tickets in the lower bowl of Raymond James Stadium for $300.

With this in mind, I'll ask two questions: what home game do you think will have the largest crowd for USF this season, and what do you think the announced attendance will be? To guard against sweltering levels of summer optimism, We'll play this by "The Price is Right" rules, so if you're wrong on the high side, you're out of contention for the invaluable bragging rights that go with the closest guess. "ONE DOLLAR!" ...

Gerdes leaving USF to return to alma mater

A busy summer of comings and goings in USF's athletic department continued Thursday with news that sports information director John Gerdes, approaching his 20-year anniversary with the Bulls, is stepping down to become athletic director at St. Petersburg Catholic.

Gerdes, a 1980 SPC graduate, said he was excited about the opportunity to return to his roots -- his parents still live in St. Petersburg. Check out Joe Smith's work on our Preps blog for more information on the SPC side of things.

You won't find many athletics staffers who have been at USF longer than Gerdes, whose last day will be August 3, coincidentally the 20th anniversary of his first day. It's the second departure in a month for USF's sports information department, following men's basketball SID Scott Kuykendall leaving to run the sports information department at Marquette. New associate athletic director Bill McGillis now has two hires to make in a short amount of time -- football media day is August 7.

John has certainly helped make the occasional difficult situation easier in my three years on the beat and kept the easy ones from getting too difficult. We wish him well in his new job.

Links, billboards and more links ...

I have to throw some inter-Times cross-promotional traffic love to columnist Howard Troxler, whose column in Thursday's Times has some fun contemplating other possible Sun Dome sponsors that Action Sports Media can contact in the wake of the past week's Academic Financial Services mess. I just like that his blog has a whole subtopic on "Privatization Follies." The USF sports relevance of AFS seems to be at 14:58 and counting, but I'm still getting e-mails from people, so I'll remind folks I can be reached at auman@sptimes.com.

-- Since March, the Big East has had preliminary discussions with the Devil Rays about the possibility of a new bowl there starting in 2010. Important to note that the conference hasn't talked to any other new bowl suitors, and because they'd like to have six bowl affiliations, such a deal wouldn't have to come at the expense of any of the existing five bowl contracts. That said, talks are in the embryonic stages, enough so that the Devil Rays declined to even comment on the matter until more substantive talks come about. My question for you loyal blog readers: do you think a bowl in St. Petersburg would have enough of a following to draw the required attendance threshold of 25,000 fans?

-- Florida Citrus Sports announced Thursday that Notre Dame will play games at a newly renovated Citrus Bowl during the 2011 and 2014 seasons. No opponents have been announced, and it's unrelated to FSU's commitment to play there in 2012 or 2013, so I'm sure USF will be mentioned as a potential opponent for the Fighting Irish.

-- Anybody else notice the USF billboard on the west side of 275 north, up between Busch and Fowler? Has big pics of Stan Heath and Jim Leavitt, saying "Go Bulls, From Your Team Doctors."

-- Just so you guys don't think we only harp on USF's recruits who fail to qualify, we offer a link to the Ocala Star-Banner, which has an update on former Ocala Trinity Catholic safety Antonio Allen. He didn't qualify at South Carolina, so -- tell me if you've heard this before -- he's headed to a junior college in Mississippi. Receiver Dion LeCorn, also once sought by the Bulls, is already enrolled with the Gamecocks.

-- Another recruit USF didn't get has failed to qualify: basketball star Jenirro Bush, who had committed to Heath at Arkansas and was touted as a possibility for the Bulls, won't play at Jackson State, where he signed. Instead, he'll play at Arkansas-Fort Smith. Wouldn't be surprised if USF came back after him in two seasons.

-- Florida Today has a story on softball phenom Kristen Gordon and how coach Ken Eriksen is giving her the summer off from pitching, hoping to energize her for her upcoming sophomore season.

Lake Mary linebacker commits to Bulls

Lake Mary middle linebacker Mike Lanaris said his father Mark had told him that once he had made up his mind about where he wanted to play college football, he should let the coach know right away. So on Tuesday, when everything about USF felt right for Lanaris, he called USF coach Jim Leavitt and committed.

At 7 a.m.

I guess that's what they call committing early.

USF's fourth commitment for its 2008 class is a solid one, a 6-foot-2, 230-pounder who also had Louisville, Arkansas, Georgia Tech and Central Florida in his top five. He put up strong numbers last fall as a second-year starter, piling up a team-high 122 tackles -- third-highest in Seminole County -- along with eight tackles for losses, two fumble recoveries and an interception returned for a touchdown.

"USF was where I felt most comfortable," said Lanaris, also the starting catcher on the Lake Mary baseball team. "Coach Leavitt and Coach (Wally) Burnham were huge as I made my decision. I'm thankful to be able to be coached by someone so respected in college football."

Lake Mary coach Scott Perry said Lanaris is a sideline-to-sideline linebacker, capable of covering a lot of ground and running through traffic to get to the ball. He was recruited to USF by offensive line coach Mike Simmonds, and has high respect for senior linebacker Ben Moffitt. Linebacker is a key position for the Bulls in recruiting this year, with Moffitt and Sam Miller set to graduate after this season, freshman LeBrandon Glover transferring out and signee Calvin Sutton failing to qualify academically.

The Bulls might not be done at Lake Mary, as Lanaris visited USF last month with teammate Jon Tenorio, a 6-foot-4, 305-pound offensive guard who has not yet been offered a scholarship by the Bulls. Tenorio is on a campus-visit road trip this week, taking in Colorado State, New Mexico and Idaho, but Perry said he'd consider staying close to home if he got an offer from the Bulls.

-- One more note: I watched a few minutes of open gym at the Academic, sorry, the Sun Dome on Wednesday afternoon, where 6-foot-11 walk-on Mo Esseghir continues to fit right in with the returning basketball players. The most obvious sight? Guard Jesus Verdejo watched from a chair with a boot on his right foot. He sprained his ankle Monday, but coach Stan Heath, reached Wednesday night, said the boot is just to keep his weight off the ankle and he should be back healthy next week. Practice starts in less than three months ...

Still more notes from Big East media day ...

Landed safely in Tampa, having sat directly behind a well-behaved Ben Moffitt and Nick Capogna for three hours, on the same flight with Mr. and Mrs. Jim Leavitt. Lots of leftover notes from Rhode Island, so here's the first batch ...   

Purely random, indeed: Remember last week, when Big East associate commissioner Nick Carparelli told a West Virginia newspaper that Notre Dame was talking to USF? Not to rain on any parades, but he addressed that quote Tuesday: "Any comment I made that mentioned specific schools was purely random. It's safe to say that every Big East school is talking to Notre Dame and would like to play them, but the likelihood of them playing one or another, I can't assess that."

Gee, who could that be: Leavitt, quoted in Sportingnews.com, tries to be a tease: "We may soon get a new, exciting weapon at running back who could transfer in from an SEC school at any time. He would be a real weapon." Leavitt went ahead and identified former Lakeland star Jamar Taylor by name Tuesday, expressing optimism about the freshman from Alabama being on USF's team this fall and potentially getting a waiver to play in 2007.

Fear the I-AA Superpowers: Leavitt, overdramatizing last year's 41-14 win against McNeese State, twice said his team trailed in the fourth quarter. They got the lead for good late in the third quarter. Leavitt, on this year's I-AA opener, Elon, which I'll point out returns 32 -- thirty-two -- letterwinners from last season: "We will probably get picked to beat Elon. Let me tell you something: that games worries me more more than the other three. If we don't play well, they'll beat us."

Favorite quote: Rutgers running back Ray Rice, asked if it's hard after this week's excitement to wait until football season starts (Aug. 30): "You're talking about seven or eight weeks. That's a month."

High Praise From the New Guy: New Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe, showing he's been reading up on his new conference rivals, said this of USF: "I think all three of the new programs that came in and did a tremendous job. South Florida, Jim's done a tremendous job there, taking the program from truly its infancy and starting a program from scratch. They obviously had an excellent year last year too, beating West Virginia the way they did. That was a very impressive win at the conclusion of the season on the road."

Unrelated Note That I Feel a Need to Share: My lovable, adorable 17-month-old daughter Hailey, wanting to play on the computer like her big brother Riley, has destroyed my left shift key on this laptop. I'm a left-hand shifter, and I'd estimate it's slowing my typing by at least 10 percent. I can't bring myself to drive clear to St. Pete just to get a shift key fixed. I could easily go ALL CAPS AND SHOUT THE WHOLE BLOG, or go e.e. cummings on you guys, so every time you're reading a capital letter, know there's a little extra going into that.

OK. Expect more notes Wednesday, and check back for a link to Jeff Testerman's full story on Academic Financial Services. "Sun Dome" doesn't have a bad ring to it after the past week, does it?

Depth chart tweaks!

Got my first look Tuesday at USF's 2007 media guide -- front shows a USF helmet, with a photo of Jim Leavitt hoisting the trophy at the Papajohns.com Bowl. Four seniors are pictured on the back -- linebacker Ben Moffitt, center Nick Capogna and cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Trae Williams.

The preseason depth chart has a few curious changes from the spring depth chart.

-- There are four starting receivers listed (there's 12 offensive starters listed, so that's a 5-yard penalty) but senior Amarri Jackson isn't one of them. He was in the spring, but now he's listed as a backup to Marcus Edwards. Sophomores Jessie Hester Jr. and Colby Erskin are starters, however. Most surprising name among the top eight receivers listed? Speedy walk-on Antwon Hanks.

-- Redshirt freshman Zach Hermann is listed as the starting right guard, replacing junior Ryan Schmidt, who is now the backup left guard, though that's behind Matt Huners, who's recovering from knee surgery. And where redshirt freshman Aston Samuels was the lone backup listed under running back Ben Williams this spring, he's joined now by freshman Mike Ford. Sophomore Ben Busbee has replaced redshirt freshman Andrew Ketchel as the top backup under Cedric Hill at tight end.

-- Senior Allen Cray has replaced sophomore Aaron Harris as the starting defensive tackle, and senior Woody George has replaced redshirt freshman Brandon Peguese as the top backup at left end. Peguese, I believe, will work inside at tackle this fall. Redshirt freshman Alonzo McQueen has supplanted (just can't write replace every time) sophomore Marvin Peoples as Ben Moffitt's top backup at middle linebacker.

-- With safety Danny Verpaele ineligible for the 2007 season, sophomore Nate Allen is now the starter at free safety, with cornerback Jerome Murphy now listed as Allen's top backup and senior Ryan Gilliam now the top backup to Mike Jenkins at cornerback.

-- In all, there are only two seniors listed as offensive starters (Capogna and Walter Walker) but six on defense, including three defensive linemen.

Loan company backs off Sun Dome deal

From colleague Jeff Testerman, Times staff writer

TAMPA -- Student loan company Academic Financial Services says it is withdrawing its efforts to buy naming rights to the University of South Florida Sun Dome, a company spokeswoman announced Tuesday evening.

USF had balked at the deal, which was brokered by a sports marketing company it had hired, because of ongoing government investigations into the student loan industry. The deal could have been worth nearly $3-million over five years to the school.

“In light of the controversy and the animosity that has come up, we regretfully have decided not to pursue the naming rights with the Sun Dome any longer,’’ said Academic Financial’s director of public relations Christina Barry. “We love USF and we will continue scholarships and other programs there, but we don’t want to cause any problems in he community.”

As the sports marketing company insisted USF had given it the right to make the deal, revelations came to light about the past of Academic Financial Services president and CEO Wayne Morgan.

Morgan had several felony convictions, including safe cracking and larceny. On Tuesday, the Times questioned him about allegations contained in a lawsuit by former AFS executives. They said Morgan had misappropriated millions in company funds for personal use. That lawsuit was later settled.

Meanwhile Tuesday, the Times also obtained records that showed the U.S. Department of Labor opened an investigation into reports of irregularities involving 401-K payroll deductions at Academic Financial Services in 2006. 

From colleague Jeff Testerman, Times staff writer

TAMPA -- Student loan company Academic Financial Services says it is withdrawing its efforts to buy naming rights to the University of South Florida Sun Dome, a company spokeswoman announced Tuesday evening.

USF had balked at the deal, which was brokered by a sports marketing company it had hired, because of ongoing government investigations into the student loan industry. The deal could have been worth nearly $3-million over five years to the school.

“In light of the controversy and the animosity that has come up, we regretfully have decided not to pursue the naming rights with the Sun Dome any longer,’’ said Academic Financial’s director of public relations Christina Barry. “We love USF and we will continue scholarships and other programs there, but we don’t want to cause any problems in he community.”

As the sports marketing company insisted USF had given it the right to make the deal, revelations came to light about the past of Academic Financial Services president and CEO Wayne Morgan.

Morgan had several felony convictions, including safe cracking and larceny. On Tuesday, the Times questioned him about allegations contained in a lawsuit by former AFS executives. They said Morgan had misappropriated millions in company funds for personal use. That lawsuit was later settled.

Meanwhile Tuesday, the Times also obtained records that showed the U.S. Department of Labor opened an investigation into reports of irregularities involving 401-K payroll deductions at Academic Financial Services in 2006. 

Bulls picked fourth in Big East preseason poll

USF has been picked to finish fourth in a preseason poll of Big East media members.

West Virginia was a nearly unanimous pick as the league's preseason champ, picked first on 20 of 24 ballots. Second-place Louisville received three first-place votes and third-place Rutgers got one.

The rest of the league, after the Bulls: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Connecticut and Syracuse. Check back for plenty more this morning ...

See-food diet adds bulk to Bull

To advance Tuesday's Big East preseason football media gathering here in Rhode Island, I wanted to do a feature on senior center Nick Capogna, who stepped in as the Bulls' starting center last year and was chosen by Jim Leavitt as one of two players to represent USF here. Capogna's a fun story, considering how hard he's worked to put on weight in the past two years, even though his family owns an Italian restaurant in Clearwater. We'll have a bunch more from here in Newport in the morning ...

Greetings from Newport ...

I'm here in historic Newport, R.I., where the Big East holds its annual preseason football media gathering. For me, it's the official start of another year. Two-a-days are three weeks away, but we're already starting to prepare our preseason football section. USF has linebacker Ben Moffitt and center Nick Capogna here, and being chosen to represent the team is an honor that means a lot to both.

On Tuesday, the league will unveil its preseason poll, taken from 24 media members, and we've addressed that in the past month. I'd expect USF to be ranked fourth in the preseason poll, with West Virginia ahead of Louisville at the top and Rutgers still ahead of the Bulls after last year's breakout season. We should also get a first look at USF's football media guide on Tuesday as well.

For now, the Big East site has links up for each team, with previews and updated rosters. If you look close enough, you'll notice some slight changes. I count three players changing weights, with junior running back Shawn Cannon adding 20 pounds to 220 from the spring, and redshirt freshman tight end Quincy Okolie, who could help out at a thin position, adding 25 to 245 pounds. Defensive lineman Woody George, who has moved from defensive tackle to defensive end, has dropped 25 pounds to 250. The only position changes are ones we knew about, with linebacker Houston Hess now at receiver and tight end Matt Aycox shifting to defensive end.

Not sure how much to read into this, but five signees aren't listed on the roster: Josh Bellamy, Claude Davis, Keith McCaskill, Lawrence McCoy and Kavenski McGee. My understanding was that McCaskill was cleared right before the summer B semester started, so it could be the roster was set before that update. Linebacker Calvin Sutton, who told us he hadn't qualified and was hoping to join the team in January, is listed on the roster, but again, I don't expect him to be part of the team this fall.

We'll have plenty more from here tomorrow. What are your unanswered questions?

Who has Sun Dome naming rights?

That's the question left after Thursday brought to light the contentious back-and-forth bickering between USF and Action Sports Media. Read the story from Saturday's Times, as well as an opinion from our editorial page.

One more note: another departure from USF's athletic facility, as Chris Lahey, general manager for the ESPN Regional office (now ISP Sports) at USF, has taken a job as senior director of corporate affairs for the Devil Rays. Lahey, who has worked with USF since 1999, will head up a new Rays office in the Park Tower high-rise in downtown Tampa. His new job will have him selling advertising for the Rays as well as corporate ticket packages and luxury suites.

Big East hoops schedule encouraging for Bulls

With the Big East moving to an 18-game league schedule this season, USF learned the details of its conference schedule on Friday, with an attractive run of home games and overall a favorable draw that could help the Bulls make their first trip to the Big East tournament.

The nine home games include four of the top five teams in last year's standings -- Louisville, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Syracuse -- as well as high-profile opponents like Connecticut and West Virginia, with St. John's, Seton Hall and Rutgers rounding out the home schedule.

Under the new format, each team has three "mirror" opponents it plays twice, and for USF, those three are Rutgers, Seton Hall and Syracuse. Using last year's standings as a model, it's the second-easiest schedule, with extra games against teams that finished 13th (Rutgers) and 15th (Seton Hall). Only Seton Hall has an easier three mirror games (USF, Rutgers, Marquette) -- and you could argue that Marquette is in better position to improve its conference standing as anyone in the league.

In all, USF has five games against other teams that missed the Big East tournament last season. If it took six wins to make it to New York in a 16-game schedule last season, it likely would take seven to get there this time around. Thoughts? Comments?

Alabama confirms RB Taylor is transferring

Alabama has confirmed that running back Jamar Taylor of Lakeland has left its football program and is transferring.

The Times has confirmed that USF received a release from Alabama to speak with Taylor, who was on USF's campus Tuesday. Taylor enrolled at Alabama in January after helping Lakeland to another state championship last fall, but is said to be transferring to be closer to his family in Lakeland. USF would seek a hardship waiver that would allow him to play this fall rather than sit out the year as most transfers must do. Taylor was ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 25 running back recruit in the nation last year.

Again, USF has a short window of time in which to get Taylor accepted into school, but if his academics were in good enough standing to graduate from Lakeland a semester early, that's an encouraging sign. Check back here for more on this story as it develops.

USF has objections to potential Dome sponsor

In a story that took several twists and turns Thursday, a Tampa company's hopes of landing naming rights to USF's Sun Dome are facing all kinds of problems, from concerns from USF about government scrutiny of the student-loan industry to the newly discovered criminal background of the company's CEO. Read the complete article from Friday's Times.

CEO's arrests could jeopardize USF deal

A Tampa educational loan company proposing a multimillion-dollar deal to put its name on the Sun Dome may have its hopes dashed because of a long history of personal arrests of the chief executive officer.

"Absolutely," said Wayne Morgan, the 36-year-old CEO of Academic Financial Services, asked if his arrests being made public could threaten his relationship with USF. "People will look at that and say 'He must be a bad guy.' It's human nature. I always say it's not who you were, it's who you are."

Who Morgan is? He heads a company that specializes in student-loan financing and has about 275 employees. It was in negotiations with Action Sports Media, a company hired by USF to land a title sponsor for the Sun Dome, at a cost of $500,000 a year or more.

What Action Sports Media didn't know until Thursday was that Morgan has a long list of arrests and guilty pleas, most from 1993-96 but some as recent as 2002, according to public records. Records show guilty pleas on charges ranging from breaking and entering and safecracking to larceny and petit theft. He has twice been charged with writing worthless checks, most recently a felony charge in 2002 to which he pleaded no contest and agreed to probation and payment of more than $19,000 in restitution. Other charges, including kidnapping and carrying a concealed weapon in 1994, were later dismissed.

"I was a bad person. I did things I should not have done. ... I was young and dumb. Will I ever do anything like that again? Absolutely not," said Morgan, whose most recent probation ended in April 2005. "I will never be able to put it in my past. It's 2007 and people are asking me about it. I'll always have to talk about it."

Tom Veit, general manager of Action Sports Media in Tampa, said his company's policy is not to run personal background checks, even in high-profile contracts such as a naming-rights agreement. Veit said he investigated Academic Financial Services as a business, got letters of recommendation the Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which AFS has been a sponsor for the past two seasons, and was aware of public honors, such as his being honored by the Tampa Bay Sports Commission with its Distinguished Community Service Award this year.

"Everyone's comments to us in dealing with Wayne Morgan and AFS have been nothing but positive," Veit said.

USF athletic director Doug Woolard, who would have the final say on any contract to award naming rights for USF's basketball arena, is out of town on vacation and could not be reached for comment. Both sides had stressed earlier Thursday that while they were negotiating exclusively, terms had not been finalized and a formal contract could still be months away.

Sun Dome close to getting title sponsor

The Sun Dome, USF's on-campus basketball arena for the past 27 years, is moving closer to a major makeover, starting with its name.

Action Sports Media, brought in last year to help secure naming rights for the arena, is deep in negotiations with Academic Financial Services, a Tampa-based education financial lender, on a sponsorship agreement expected to exceed $500,000 annually for at least five years.

"It's something I've wanted to do," said Wayne Morgan, the 36-year-old CEO of AFS, which employs about 275 people and has its headquarters on Waters Avenue. "It's still a maybe, because we're still in negotiations, but I want to brand us in the community, and this is a different angle for us to get to our students."

Morgan said he hasn't decided on a name for the Sun Dome, but it would involved his company's full name, so by the start of basketball season in November, the Bulls could be playing home games in Academic Financial Services Arena, or something along those lines.

AFS has been a sponsor of the Lightning and Devil Rays for the past two seasons and signed a deal last week with the Tampa Bay Sports Commission for marketing in all of their events. Action Sports Media provided USF with $2-million in video scoreboards last year in exchange for the rights to broker sponsorships in the arena. A majority of the money from a title sponsorship agreement would go to USF, which can then use the new revenues to finance proposed upgrades to the arena.

Tom Veit, general manager for Action Sports Media in Tampa, said the USF agreement's annual value will exceed the 12-year, $5.5-million agreement Action Sports negotiated five years ago for the Colonial Center, the basketball arena at the University of South Carolina. Action Sports has a relationship with USF for another nine years, and naming rights could be extended longer with university approval, but it's unlikely the Bulls would want to lock themselves in for a long term, knowing success in the Big East would elevate the value of the arena's name.

USF athletic director Doug Woolard identified the Sun Dome as part of a massive upgrade to USF's athletic facilities, which could include the addition of a practice facility on one side, a new facade and additional seating and new luxury suites. Once an agreement is reached, USF athletics could set up bonding for the entire amount to help set the construction process in motion.

All kinds of loose ends to update ...

I'd told you guys that Alabama coach Nick Saban would address the possibility of running back Jamar Taylor transferring to USF after one semester with the Tide. It's almost as if I knew he'd be in Montgomery on Wednesday and talking with the Advertiser's Tim Gayle, who got Saban to say everything short of "we wish him well."

"We'll make an announcement relative to that," Saban told the Advertiser on Wednesday. "Jamar is a guy that has personal things where we thought and he thought it would be better for him if he could go closer to home. I think we all agreed with his family on that, so we were all very supportive in helping him to get some place where it was going to be closer to home for him. When that occurs, we'll let everyone know."

Again, there is legwork to be done to get Taylor into USF in a short amount of time, and another challenge to try to get yet another hardship waiver that would allow him to play immediately this fall. But USF certainly seems committed to doing that legwork to help get a prospect who was ranked by Rivals.com as the fourth-best running back in Florida and the 25th-best nationally in this year's class.

-- The Sarasota Herald-Tribune had a solid story Wednesday on freshman running back Mike Ford, his turning himself into police last week on an outstanding warrant, and his relationship with his father, Robert Ford Jr., whose funeral will be Saturday in Sarasota. It's hard to think about the adversity endured by USF's running backs in the past year -- Mo Plancher suffering a season-ending injury in his first college game; the tragic death of freshman Keeley Dorsey; more tragedy as Aston Samuels lost his uncle, Andre Waters, to suicide; and now Ford's father dying at age 46. Jim Leavitt has 40-plus schools in for USF's Sling and Shoot 7-on-7 passing camp this weekend, but he'll be with Ford at the funeral services on Saturday.

-- Is incoming freshman guard Dominique Jones in any kind of academic trouble? In a word, no. USF coach Stan Heath took great exception to any suggestion that Jones hasn't posted qualifying test scores. True, Jones has yet to be cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse, but Heath said that is totally a procedural formality. He called Jones an "obvious qualifier" who has already been accepted into USF, is taking classes in the summer B session and holding his own in open-gym workouts with teammates.

-- All three of the Times' college writers -- myself, FSU writer Brian Landman and Antonya English -- had our preseason national top 10 rankings run on page 2c on Wednesday's section. After two picks of USC (not Southern Cal, as Brian will remind you), I'm the contrarian of the group, picking Michigan as a surprise champ. My top 10, if only to shamelessly stoke more comments from you guys: Michigan, USC, West Virginia, LSU, Texas, Florida, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Ohio State and Hawaii. Speaking of predictions, here's a fun preview from SundayMorningQuarterback.com, impressive at least for the sheer amount of copy devoted to USF. Some good Youtube linkage in there, too ...

NCAA violation will cost Gransberry 1 game

USF senior center Kentrell Gransberry has been suspended from USF's season opener against Cleveland State after participating in a non-sanctioned basketball tournament hosted by Tracy McGrady in Auburndale last month.

USF associate athletic director Steve Horton said Wednesday that Gransberry committed an NCAA violation by taking part in an "outside competition." Because he was not paid for his play, no further violations are believed to have taken place. Incoming freshman Dominique Jones also played in the tournament, but because he had not yet started classes at USF, he did not commit any violation.

Horton said USF will self-report the violation to the NCAA, and precedent has been a suspension of one game for each non-sanctioned game played. Gransberry played in only one game, so USF expects the NCAA to follow its sanctioning of a one-game penalty.

Alabama RB Taylor seeking transfer to USF

For the second time this year, USF is in position to land a coveted local running back who was supposed to play at Alabama. Back in January, it was Sarasota's Mike Ford, who enrolled and will compete for carries for the Bulls this fall. And now it's Jamar Taylor, a standout from Lakeland's state championship teams who enrolled early at Alabama this spring but is seeking a transfer closer to home.

That possibility has been all over message boards all summer, but here's the key update: Jamar Taylor was on USF's campus on Tuesday at the athletic facility to discuss the possibility of his transferring in this fall. His mother said Tuesday night said she wasn't aware of any decision being made, as Lakeland coach Bill Castle said Monday, but it appears the only hurdle is whether USF can get his transcripts and get him accepted into the university in the six weeks before fall classes start.

A little more about Taylor, who paired with Florida signee Chris Rainey as a dominant running tandem for Lakeland. He's 5-foot-10, 200 pounds and rushed for 1,113 yards as a junior and totaled 40 touchdowns in his final two seasons. USF already has solid depth at running back, with Ben Williams back and Mike Ford and Aston Samuels ready to splash as freshmen, with true freshmen Richard Kelly and Tyson Butler already on campus as well.

I expect Alabama coach Nick Saban to address this issue from his end today -- last month, he'd downplayed the rumors, saying Taylor was still on campus and the team would do whatever it could to help him. If there is a family illness involved, Taylor would be in position to seek a hardship waiver that could allow him to avoid sitting out the transfer year that's normally required. If he didn't get that, this would still just count as a traditional redshirt year most freshmen take.

Again, this is still just something in the works, something that has hurdles to clear, but I wanted to address that there's more to this than idle gossip and speculation. It'd be a solid late addition to USF's recruiting class and would help build more of a relationship with one of the state's true prep powers.

More Notre Dame football talk ...

It's still just talk, but it's fresh talk: the possibility of USF playing Notre Dame in football down the road has been brought up in another newspaper report.

The Charleston Daily Mail of West Virginia, in a story on upgraded nonconference football scheduling in the Big East, quotes the conference's associate commissioner Nick Carparelli as naming USF as one of four league schools in ongoing discussions with Notre Dame, in addition to scheduled games with Pittsburgh and Syracuse.

Again, there are two possibilities for this: as part of Notre Dame's commitment to playing three Big East opponents a year, starting in 2011, and as part of Notre Dame's "off-site" games, which include dates in Tampa, Orlando or Jacksonville, also still years off. Notre Dame associate athletic director John Heisler has said that the thrust of the Big East games is to better reach large markets in the Northeast, making the off-site games a more likely option for USF.

The story also has a handy PDF graphic showing the upcoming nonconference schedules for all eight Big East teams. No surprises on the USF schedule, but you can compare the number of games each school has scheduled, and how many of those are against BCS conference opponents.

The toughest schedules belong to Pittsburgh (18 of 23 games are BCS) and Syracuse (19 of 24). Louisville has the least games booked with 13, but nine of those are against BCS teams. USF and Connecticut are next, each with 13 BCS opponents in 20 scheduled games. West Virginia's next, with 10 out of 18, and then it drops off, with Cincinnati getting 12 BCS games out of a league-high 29 scheduled. Rutgers has 16 games scheduled, but only four of them are against BCS opponents, with the other 12 split between Army and Navy.

Bulls get two sluggers from juco champs

After scoring four runs in four games at the Big East tournament, USF needed to upgrade its hitting to be more competitive in seeking an NCAA Tournament berth in 2008. The Bulls have landed two bats to help that cause in catcher Trey Manz and outfielder Brian Hobbs, who helped Chipola College to a national junior college championship and will play for USF next spring.

"The program has nothing but good things in its future, and I like that we have a chance to step in and make those things happen ourselves," said Manz, a left-handed hitter from Columbus, Ga., who batted .315 and ranked second on Chipola's roster with nine home runs and 50 RBIs as a sophomore.

Hobbs, from Preston, Md., hit .320 with four home runs and 21 RBIs, and had eight home runs as a freshman, with he and Manz flip-flopping between the No. 5 and 6 positions in Chipola's lineup. Chipola coach Jeff Johnson said Manz is just beginning to find himself as a catcher -- he threw out 19 of 44 would-be base-stealers last season. He said Hobbs has "as much tools as any kid I've ever coached," a guy with 6-2, 225-pound size but 6.8 speed in the 60 meters (football measures 40 times, baseball does 60s, and a 6.8 is solid).

We'd known that Prado had two junior college catchers coming in when he let both of his catchers from this spring go, and now we know Manz is one of them. He's turned to Chipola for catchers before, getting Fernando Isa from there when he was at Louisville. Read Isa's bio from Louisville and his first season under Prado, and he sounds a lot like Manz: "Hit .310 with 12 doubles and 26 RBI, while starting 59 games behind the dish. Nailed a C-USA high 25 of the 76 baserunners attempting to steal, including 10 of 26 in conference games."

-- One more baseball update: sophomore pitcher Shaun Sanford nearly earned a spot on the U.S. national team, which leaves today for international play in Brazil. Sanford made two appearances for the U.S. team in New England exhibitions last month, earning a win and compiling a 3.86 ERA in 4.2 innings. He didn't make the cut from 30 players to 22, but just pitching with that team is a promising indication.

Bulls shortstop Diaz won't be back

Junior shortstop Walter Diaz, the Miami transfer who led USF with a .339 batting average this season, won't be back for his senior year with the Bulls.

Diaz, drafted in the 48th round by the Cleveland Indians, has gotten a higher offer than anticipated for his draft position and is expected to sign a pro contract later this month, pitching coach Lazer Collazo said Tuesday.

"He's finishing up negotiations with Cleveland and will sign in the next few weeks," Collazo said. "They're not giving him the money that goes with the (48th) round. They're giving him top-10, top-15-round money." (That would suggest a six-figure signing bonus.)

Diaz was a catalyst atop the Bulls' lineup, leading Lelo Prado's first USF team in hitting, runs (56) and stolen bases (15). He committed a team-high 25 errors at shortstop, but would have been one of USF's top returning players for 2008.

Collazo also had news on two more USF recruits who were drafted last month: Miami Springs' Yoanny Barroso, taken in the 46th round by Texas, is going to sign with the Rangers, he said, becoming the fourth USF signee to opt for a pro contract. The good news is that Riverview's Juan "Junior" Carlin, taken in the 29th round by Boston, is in summer school, along with fellow draft picks Derrick Stultz and Stephen Hunt. Check back later for more baseball news on two big bats set to join the Bulls this fall ...

Soccer: UCF top scorer transfers to USF

Forward Zak Boggs, the top scorer at Central Florida last season, has transferred to USF and will play his final two seasons of college soccer with the Bulls.

Boggs, who scored five goals with one assist last season, left UCF this summer after a coaching change and was granted his release by the Knights. He's been accepted at USF and is registered as a full-time student for fall classes. The only catch is whether he'll be able to play this fall: he spent his freshman year at West Virginia, and while soccer players can transfer once without sitting out a year, they need a waiver to do so a second time. USF is in the process of filing that waiver with the NCAA, and Boggs would have two seasons of eligibility with the Bulls, even if he had to redshirt this fall. The kicker in all of this? UCF opens its season at USF on August 31.

The 6-foot-1 Boggs played at the prestigious IMG Academy in Bradenton and was the West Virginia Coaches Player of the Year in 2003 before going to IMG. He earned second-team All-Conference USA honors as a sophomore last fall. He also scored five goals and an assist as a freshman at West Virginia, and joins a promising recruiting class for coach George Kiefer that also includes newcomers from Trinidad, Jamaica and Venezuela.

-- Speaking of juicy transfers and season openers: Linebacker LeBrandon Glover still wants to transfer to Division I-AA Elon and is now willing to go over coach Jim Leavitt's head to get there. Glover, who redshirted his only season at USF, has not been granted a release to the North Carolina school because of Leavitt's policy of not releasing players to schools on USF's schedule -- USF opens this season at home against Elon). Glover is in the process of filing a rare waiver request that would be considered by a panel selected by USF's faculty representative and could grant him his release without Leavitt's approval. A lot of fuss for a freshman linebacker and a I-AA school USF should beat by 40 points, but Leavitt doesn't want to set a precedent for allowing kids who have had USF's playbook for a year to transfer to an opponent.

USF freshman Ford loses father

Freshman running back Mike Ford has overcome much to earn a football scholarship to USF, and the 20-year-old endured a personal tragedy during a difficult time last week as his father, Robert Ford Jr., died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 46.

Robert Ford Jr. was at a social event with friends Friday night when he died, and there still are no answers as to a cause, said Mike Ford's mother, Dondra Walker. Friday had been a tough day for Mike Ford, who had turned himself to Sarasota police early that morning on an outstanding warrant for missing a court appearance relating to traffic citations.

A couple of things to clarify: Ford was released at 6:06 p.m. Friday, about 18 hours after he turned himself in to Sarasota police. He was not required to pay any kind of bond and was released by a county judge on time served. Ford, who had been cited three times since March 2006 for driving without a registration or valid license, had missed a court date on June 12, which caused the warrant to be issued. According to the arrest report, he approached Sarasota police and notified them of the outstanding warrant. The report goes so far as to say that Ford was "very respectful and polite to the officers."

Ford's mother said he had a class at USF the day of his court hearing and "completely forgot," saying that his license had been suspended because he had gotten a ticket and not paid the fine. "He did something stupid, but he wants to put it in the past," she said. His off-field problems are unlikely to result in any significant disciplinary action from USF coach Jim Leavitt.

Services for Robert Ford Jr. will be held Saturday morning in Sarasota. For a better glimpse into his life and how much his son's success meant to him, please read this great story from Chris Anderson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. I can't find the story itself on the paper's website, so I've linked to a posting on a message board from two years ago. Our thoughts and prayers go to his family and friends.

Signing off: Amp Hill gone

Receiver Amp Hill, who caught 19 passes last year but found himself entrenched in coach Jim Leavitt's doghouse, is no longer part of USF's football team.

Hill had been on thin ice since spring practice, when Leavitt suspended him from the team after he pulled out a Sharpie as if to sign the football in celebration after catching a touchdown in an intrasquad scrimmage. Leavitt said at the time that other issues with Hill had led to his decision.

"It was inappropriate, and I want to be very clear how inappropriate it was. ... It's uncharacteristic of our program," Leavitt said back in April.

We'd addressed the strong possibility of Hill's departure here last month, and Hill, who was taken off USF's online roster Monday, did not return a message Monday seeking comment, nor did Leavitt. Hill is perhaps best known for a catch he didn't make, dropping what would have been the tying two-point conversion with 15 seconds left in last year's 22-20 loss to Rutgers. The Bulls still have solid depth at receiver, with senior Amarri Jackson and juniors Marcus Edwards and Taurus Johnson leading a talented group that also includes redshirt freshman Carlton Mitchell and former walk-on Colby Erskin.

Baseball update: Draft picks opt for USF

Two key signees from USF's incoming freshman class who were drafted last month have opted to stick with their commitment to the Bulls, starting summer classes rather than signing a pro contract.

Jesuit's Stephen Hunt, a first baseman and left-handed pitcher who was drafted by Oakland ahead of all of USF's players in the 17th round, said Monday he's chosen the college route and started summer classes last week. Hunt didn't say what Oakland had offered him in negotiations, but according to Baseball America, 17th-round draft picks in last year's draft drew bonuses between $140,000 and $200,000. His decision is also notable in that 21 of the 30 picks in his round have already signed, according to BA.

Another signee, Wharton right-handed Derrick Stultz, also started classes and will play for the Bulls instead of signing with the Red Sox, who drafted him in the 38th round. Stultz will have a good opportunity to pitch for the Bulls next spring with a limited number of arms returning for Lazer Collazo's staff.

We've previously reported that three signees who were drafted in the first seven rounds won't be playing for the Bulls, and signee Chris Jones of Gaither will attend St. Petersburg College if he doesn't sign with the Cleveland Indians, who drafted him in the 15th round.

-- Two returning Bulls are busy this summer playing in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. Rising sophomore Shawn Sanford, who had USF's lowest ERA this spring at 3.10, has pitched well for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, with a 0.00 ERA and two saves in three appearances. He's allowed only two hits in 5.2 innings, striking out eight while walking two. Rising junior infielder Addison Maruszak is playing for the Bourne Braves, and while he's fourth on the team with 11 RBIs, his .224 batting average is the team's lowest among players with 30 or more at-bats. You can check out their Cape Cod stats here on the league's official site.

-- Speaking of 0.00 ERAs, former Bulls ace Danny Otero still has one, untouched in his first seven pro appearances with the Salem-Kaizer Volcanoes. He's seven-for-seven in save opportunities -- we're officially jinxing the daylights out of him by writing this -- with only two hits against him and zero walks. If there's a Bulls rookie with a cooler team name, it'd have to be Davis Bilardello, playing for the Batavia Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League. Bilardello has a 6.14 ERA in his first six appearances, but he's still managed two relief wins in his first three weeks as a pro.

Bulls recruit Sinclair: 'I'll be there'

Defensive back Charlton Sinclair of Jacksonville, one of the most highly touted members of USF's recruiting class, did not report with the Bulls' incoming freshmen last week due to academic issues but said he fully expects to be part of the team this fall.

"I'll be there," said Sinclair, a standout safety at Mandarin High who is finishing a summer class there this week.

Sinclair said he learned in April that he h