Hear this: Web audio and live radio!

Web audio is back! Click here and you can hear me ramble on with the Times' Tom Jones about USF's game Saturday against Cincinnati, the Bulls' two losses and the start of basketball season. Tom got in a good shot at Jim Leavitt in his sports-related Halloween costumes feature this morning.

And if the sound of my pre-recorded voice just doesn't do it for you, there's more of me -- live! I'm a guest of Mike Pepper tonight at 6:25 p.m. or so on his "USF Magazine" radio show on WQYK 1010-AM, which is online here. Is there a higher-scoring call sign, in terms of Scrabble scoring, then WQYK? I know the Q is pretty much an anchor without an accompanying U, but still, just saying. ...

Latest numbers I'm getting on USF-Cincy are upwards of 50,000 tickets sold and distributed, though this is a week where the actual fannies-in-seats count should be more of a disparity than in past weeks. Plenty of folks bought three-game mini-packs that included this game, which might explain why there were 26 upper-level tickets available on Stubhub.com for $10 each or less earlier today. As I write this, that number is down to just eight that cheap. Companion tickets for students -- more than 8,000 of their tickets have been distributed -- go on sale Thursday at the Sun Dome.

And for what it's worth, Cincinnati did not sell out its allotment, returning 1,200 tickets back to USF. And, just as a Halloween tease, check back around midnight or so and I'll have some real, actual recruiting news. I know, it's cruel, but you've got tons of candy, so stop complaining.

Women's hoops: Five Big East teams ranked

The first ESPN/USA Today coaches poll is out for women's basketball, with five Big East teams ranked, matching the ACC for the most of any conference.

The league has No. 2 Connecticut, No. 3 Rutgers, plus a run of Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Louisville from 21st to 23rd. Other leagues? The SEC and Big 12 have four, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 have three each, with George Washington the lone mid-major in the top 25.

USF has seven opponents in the top 25, with No. 9 Duke and No. 17 Vanderbilt joining the Big East five. Of those seven games, four are in Tampa -- Duke, Rutgers, West Virginia and Pittsburgh. I'm going to go ahead and say that Pitt game -- USF's final home game on March 1 -- will have major implications.

The Bulls' preseason ranking of ninth by Big East coaches holds up in the poll, as eight other conference teams are getting votes, with DePaul and Notre Dame as two of the top three teams in Also Receiving Votes and Marquette not too far behind. By the way, the 31 coaches who vote in this poll include just one from each of the major conferences; Pitt's Agnus Berenato is the Big East balloter.

Yes, finally, here's your basketball fix ...

To your credit, you guys have been asking for basketball updates since before the football team dropped two straight, so finally, I can hook you up with some hoop insights as the Stan Heath era opens tonight with a Halloween exhibition against Saint Leo.

First, I've gotten a tentative starting lineup for the Bulls tonight, though Heath was quick to point out Monday that this starting five isn't necessarily his best five or next week's starting five. We knew USF would have center Kentrell Gransberry at center and Chris Howard at point guard. The other three? Freshman Orane Chin gets the nod ahead of junior B.J. Ajayi at power forward, with junior Jesus Verdejo and freshman Dominique Jones starting at shooting guard and small forward. Or small forward and shooting guard. The two spots are really interchangeable, so take your pick.

Again, sophomore Solomon Bozeman, who can play both guard spots, might end up with more minutes tonight than Verdejo or Jones; Ajayi could log more minutes than Chin because he's also a backup center to Gransberry. Sophomore Amu Saaka, who has a minor wrist injury, can contribute at both forward positions, and USF fans will get their first look at redshirt freshman Dante Curry in that 2/3 position. Power forward Aris Williams, recovering from knee surgery that sidelined him much of last season, has practiced with full contact, but I'm not sure how much you'll see of him tonight. Remember, too, that Gransberry has been suspended from the opener against Cleveland State next weekend, so the Bulls will have to go with Ajayi and 6-foot-11 walk-on Mohamed Esseghir inside for that one game. And don't forget that FSU transfer Aaron Holmes will join the fray in mid-December when he's eligible.

I'm always interested in the numbers that mean the most to a coach -- Heath said he tends to look at differentials more than totals, which is to say it's okay if his team has 17 turnovers if it's forcing 25; they can have only 35 rebounds if the opponent has 25. So he said he'll go into any given game wanting five fewer turnovers than his opponent, and six more rebounds.

Free throws? Heath wants 75 percent from his team. I asked him if he knew what last year's number was, and he flatly said "I don't know. I wasn't here." That number was 66.2 percent last year; only one returning player (Bozeman, at 88 percent) hit 75 percent or better. The other four regulars who are back? Howard hit 60.5 percent, Verdejo 58.3, Saaka 57.6 and Gransberry 55.7, so there's work to do there.

"Seventy-two is a percentage I'd like," Heath said a bit more realistically a moment later, saying his Arkansas team was at 70 or 69 last year. Sure enough, Arkansas was at 70.3 last season, though it may take time for him to get the Bulls there. His first Arkansas team in 2002-03 shot 60.9 percent at the line, jumping to 67.9 in his second year, then 66.3 the next year, then 69.2 before hitting 70.3 last year. Only 20 teams in Division I basketball hit 75 percent last season, and just two in the Big East: Villanova, which led the nation at 78.1 percent, and Seton Hall.

Heath wants to see consistency right now, especially from the two freshmen he's starting tonight. "One minute, they can pressure the hell out of the ball, and the next minute, you don't even know they're there," Heath said. "You want to get where the abilities they have, they can sustain the same abilities whether they get fatigued mentally or not."

-- More basketball: Card Chronicle, a Louisville blog, lists USF as having three of the Big East's top 10 transfers this season. Never mind that No. 10, Montana Heirman, is a walk-on who was at USF last season and isn't even on the team right now. Power forward/backup center B.J. Ajayi is No. 9, and brief-FSU guard Aaron Holmes, eligible in December, is No. 3. What, no love for Mo Esseghir?

-- I want to hear your basketball questions and thoughts, especially those of you who can make the exhibition tonight: What do you like? What don't you like? Which of the new players impresses you most? What changes do you see in familiar players like Howard and Gransberry? And those of you posting before the game, I want your best guess on tonight's attendance, remembering that lots of parents will be trick-or-treating ...

Atlanta wooing Bulls for future game

This week's USF notebook starts with Atlanta officials trying to bring the Bulls to the Georgia Dome for a neutral-site football game, as soon as 2009. The Atlanta Sports Council has had talks with Doug Woolard, starting before this season's football success and again as recently as a month ago.

There's a note on why senior Jarriett Buie should be back in a Bulls uniform next season, plus a short preview of Wednesday night's men's basketball exhibition against Saint Leo.

Injured receivers still not at practice

Junior Taurus Johnson and senior Amarri Jackson, recovering from ankle and knee injuries, respectively, were not with the Bulls during Tuesday's practice, putting their status for Saturday's home game against Cincinnati further in doubt.

Jackson, who had his right leg bent badly beneath him on a play in Saturday's loss to Connecticut, was still on crutches on Monday afternoon. Coach Jim Leavitt on Tuesday addressed the possibility that redshirt freshman Carlton Mitchell, who leads the Bulls with 280 receiving yards, would start in Jackson's place against the Bearcats. Leavitt said Jackson underwent a magnetic resonance imaging exam on Tuesday morning, but the team had not gotten results from that test yet. Johnson missed the Connecticut game after injuring his ankle in the loss to Rutgers and was initially diagnosed as missing 2-3 weeks.

Running back Mike Ford, who was taken to a local hospital after Saturday's game due to a rib injury, continues to show marked improvement, working with the running backs in passing drills early in Tuesday's practice. Offensive tackle Walt Walker, who injured his knee in the Rutgers game and did not play Saturday, watched practice in a jersey and shorts but did not participate.

I think the BCS computers have Rocky No. 3 ...

The Times' free daily, tbt*, is great for blog fodder. Today, they remind me that USF is still showing up in some national top 10 rankings, if only SI.com's latest Mascot Power Rankings, where USF's ever-photogenic Rocky is No. 9 -- that was before the UConn loss. I'll admit I'm only doing this so I can link to Youtube.com highlights of Donald the Duck beating up "Shasta" Houston's cougar mascot. More linkage ...

-- I want to link to a story in our news section about Lee Roy Selmon acquiring a larger financial stake in the chain of restaurants that bear his name. There are plans to add two Selmon's restaurants next year and six in 2009, with as many as 30 in place by 2012, including the first outside Florida, likely in Dallas or Atlanta. Selmon, who is president of the USF Foundation Partnership for Athletics, a key fundraising position for the Bulls, said he'll be spending more time in his restaurants as a result of his acquisition.

-- We'd mentioned last week how the newspaper in Terre Haute, Ind., had dropped USF offensive line Mike Simmonds' name as an option for the head coaching job at his alma mater, Indiana State. I'd asked Simmonds about that last week and forgot to get it up on the blog; he said he's focused on getting the offensive line ready for its next game and nothing else.

"That takes a lot of experience," he said of the Indiana State job. "That's a whole different spectrum, and I'm very happy where I'm at."

-- So many good stories out there about USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham, and there's another one from his hometown paper, the Decatur Daily in Alabama, which reminisces about his days at Decatur High School from 1968-71.

-- I've mentioned it here on the blog, but you haven't seen much elsewhere about USF assistant coaches and players telling reporters after Saturday's loss that they were "not allowed" to speak to the media. Word of that got to the Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchi, who wrote this about it on his blog:

Can you say "poor loser." Leavitt finally agreed to let some players speak, but only after media members vociferously complained. Leavitt has big-time aspirations with a small-time mentality. What a pathetic move.

Defending Moise and other football notes

Running backs coach Carl Franks defended having sophomore Moise Plancher in the game for a crucial second-and-goal play from the 1-yard line late in the fourth quarter Saturday. Plancher was stopped for no gain, but Franks said he was confident with Plancher in the game in place of an injured Mike Ford.

"Mo's practiced there. It's his spot as a backup," Franks said Monday night. "If we had blocked it right, he would have scored. If I had not been comfortable with him, I would have not put him in, or we would have not run that formation."

Leavitt, clarifying an ambiguous statement he made after the game, said Monday that he knew Plancher was in the game, but didn't realize he'd be the ballcarrier on the play, thinking he was a lead blocker for another running back.

Ford, by the way, had injured his rib cage as he tried to throw a block on the previous drive. He was at practice Monday night, running with his teammates while carrying a ball in post-practice conditioning runs, and Franks said it's possible he could play Saturday. Again, Ford was hospitalized for a short time Saturday night because he was having trouble breathing and there was concern he might have collapsed or damaged a lung; tests there showed no lung damage and no broken ribs.

Receiver Amarri Jackson was not at practice Monday night, but I saw him Monday afternoon, and he was still walking on crutches, with a heavy brace on his injured knee. Jim Leavitt and receivers coach Mike Canales said they don't know yet how long he'll be sidelined; this Saturday certainly seems questionable at best. Freshman Carlton Mitchell, leading USF with 280 receiving yards, would step up for his first start if Jackson can't go.

-- Noticed something interesting watching Saturday's game on DVR: On USF's opening drive, after Jamar Taylor's 54-yard run, on third-and-goal from the 3, it looks to me like USF was running the same ill-fated naked bootleg the Bulls tried on third-and-goal from the 1 at the end of the game. In heavy rain, Grothe loses the ball after the snap and recovers it for a short loss, but all three running backs took off in the opposite direction, leaving Grothe alone on the back side for the bootleg. It didn't fool UConn then, so I don't get why the Bulls would go back to that play with the game on the line. Similar situation, similar call, similar result.

-- As much as we wrote that USF had a terrible first half, the first quarter wasn't that bad. Two missed field goals, but otherwise, the Bulls weren't really outplayed, down 3-0. Total offense was within 6 yards of being dead even. UConn outscored USF 13-0 in the first seven minutes of the second quarter, and that made the Huskies' victory possible.

-- I'm impressed by the number of players battling through injuries. Defensive tackle Allen Cray, who saw significant action with Richard Clebert slowed by an ankle injury, made two tackles easily 20 yards downfield, even though he was slow to walk off the field with trainers between the two plays. Safety Carlton Williams literally collapsed coming off the field after taking a blow to the head, and was back out shortly after; Matt Grothe had his right ankle wrapped after the play where his interception was run back for a score, and he was scrambling for yards two plays later.

-- Watched the 1-yard Mike Ford touchdown run, where Cedric Hill was called for holding. After reviewing it a couple of times, it seems like a legitimate call, relevant to the play. Hill is pulling on a Connecticut player's jersey as he's trying to tackle Ford. ESPN's analysts never picked up on the flag being on Hill, making a comment about a lineman unrelated to the play or the flag. I think the flag came a second late, but the call itself shouldn't be questioned. And if you watch Hill's pivotal drop, a UConn defender did have a hand in the air right in front of his face. Rough sequence of plays, to be sure. Again, I admire the guy for coming off the team bus to address his play in the game.

-- Officials stopped the game in the fourth quarter to review whether a 1-yard UConn pass play on second down was a completed pass or not. I don't know how long a play would have to be to seem worth stopping play for a few minutes, but I have to think that distance is longer than 1 yard. Is the difference between third and 6 or third and 5 worth the hit in credibility you take for reviewing an irrelevant play?

-- Check out these stats: In USF's first five games, Grothe had 246 rushing yards and two touchdowns; USF's three running backs (Williams, Ford, Taylor) had 609 yards and 11 touchdowns; in the last three, Grothe has 304 yards and four touchdowns, the three RBs have 203 yards and two scores.

-- USF's receivers are so depleted. You had Taurus Johnson out, then Jackson, and Jessie Hester was the only Bulls player to catch a pass in the first half. Found out Monday that freshman Eddie Alcin didn't make the trip because of a groin injury, so on that last drive, the Bulls are using freshman A.J. Love, who doesn't have a catch yet this season.

Okay. Off to bed. I'll have some basketball on Tuesday -- finally got USF's newest commitment, Eladio Espinosa, on the phone tonight. So check back for your hoops fix in the morning ...

USF-Syracuse game switched to Ch. 28

USF's Nov. 10 game at Syracuse, set for a noon kickoff, will be broadcast locally on WFTS Ch. 28, the ABC affiliate in Tampa.

The Big East had previously announced the game would be broadcast on Bright House Networks' Catch 47, but later sent a release saying the game would instead be on Ch. 28. The regional broadcasts include four of the nation's seven largest TV markets: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston.

TV ratings: Gator viewers nearly double USF's

Saturday afternoon's college football programming offered a rare chance to directly compare the local ratings for two state football programs, as close to apples-to-apples as possible: both Florida and USF played at 3:30 p.m. on network TV, with the Gators playing Georgia on Ch. 10 and USF facing Connecticut on Ch. 28.

Sorry, Bulls fans, but the Florida-Georgia game had nearly double the local viewers as USF-UConn, with the Gators drawing a 13.2 overnight rating, as opposed to a 7.0 rating for the Bulls. The Florida-Georgia game had a 31.9 share -- meaning 31.9 percent of the TVs turned on were tuned in -- while USF-UConn had a 17.2 share. The USF audience represents a local viewership of about 123,000 households in the Tampa market.

For what it's worth, both local teams drew significantly higher ratings than No. 1 Ohio State, which played Penn State in an 8 p.m. kickoff on Ch. 28 and drew a 4.6 rating, with a 9.9 share.

Early again: USF-Syracuse at noon

(Update: The Big East has moved the broadcast of the USF-Syracuse game on Nov. 10 to WFTS Ch. 28, the ABC affiliate in Tampa. The game will not be on Bright House Networks' Catch 47. No other regional broadcasts are affected by this change.)

Seriously, something bad is going to happen to me, just to offset the run of daytime kickoffs USF is having. The Bulls' Nov. 10 game at Syracuse has been announced as a noon kickoff, with regional broadcast on WFTS Ch. 28 in the Tampa area.

Just so you don't think this is all good for my coverage of USF athletics, a noon kick means I can't fly out that Saturday morning, which means I won't be able to cover the first men's basketball game of the Stan Heath era, as his opener is the night before against Cleveland State. This was a rare instance where I was hoping for a prime-time kickoff, just so I'd be able to cover the basketball opener.

Fans in other parts of Florida won't be able to see the game regionally, though it will be available as part of ESPN's pay-per-view package. Tampa is the only Florida market carrying the game locally, but 10 of the nation's top 25 markets will have a local broadcast of the game.

If you're out of the Tampa area and want to know if a local channel is picking up the broadcast, shoot me an e-mail at auman@sptimes.com or put in a comment and I'll get you an answer. There are too many markets to list them all individually. ...

Monday analysis: Same problems for USF

One of the trickier things in our college coverage is writing a follow-up story for Monday's paper: it has to take Saturday's game and either provide analysis or spin it forward, and with little Sunday access at USF (Jim Leavitt did take a call for a brief interview Sunday night), that usually means taking a closer look at the game and figuring out what went wrong/right.

So this week's Monday follow focuses on how so many of the problems that cost USF against Connecticut were the same problems that doomed the Bulls against Rutgers. Poor tackling on defense, an inability to force turnovers the way USF did in its 6-0 start, and on offense, a consistent lack of playmaking in pressure situations, like third downs or in the red zone. Add that up, and it's not hard to see how USF lost to Connecticut. The question is how quickly the Bulls can collect themselves and respond.

Remember how last week our game preview said that eight teams ranked in the top 10 had lost two games in a row this season? If there's a consolation to USF joining that group, it's that after losing two straight, those eight teams went 7-1 in the next game, the only loss being Cal's loss to undefeated Arizona State on Saturday night. So there's precedent for this being the point where a ranked team stops tumbling and catches itself. USF being at home helps with that, though Cincinnati is still a dangerous team, with talent on both sides of the ball.

If there's one team (besides Connecticut) that can dictate the final Big East standings, I think that team is Louisville. The Cardinals, among the bigger disappointments in college football this season, are 5-4, so they need one more win to be bowl-eligible. Their last three aren't easy though -- off this week, then a Thursday showdown Nov. 8 at West Virginia, then a big game at USF, then finishing at home against Rutgers. Crazy as it seems, winning out would put them in the thick of the Big East title hunt, with Connecticut still as the main problem. More likely, the Cardinals will be a November spoiler, getting one or two wins in those last three games to put themselves in a bowl and knock another league team down.

AP poll analysis: Where they're ranking USF

Posts like this, you could argue, suggest I have too much time on my hands. I prefer to think of it as being thorough ... diligent ... detail-oriented. In all, the research took a mere 15 minutes.

I went through all 65 ballots in the Associated Press Top 25, and as I expected, found a wide spectrum of opinions as to where USF should be ranked after losing back-to-back games. You find the Bulls ranked in every position from 11th to 25th, with at least two votes in every position from 14th down. There are seven voters who did not have the Bulls in their top 25; I won't name them, but will point out they're from Alabama, Arizona, Michigan, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming, suggesting no perceptible geographic bias.

Most common ranking? Eighteenth, with nine ballots. The highest three ballots are from consistent USF believers -- Joe Giglio of the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer has USF 11th, Rich Kaipust of the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald has the Bulls 12th, and SI.com's Stewart Mandel has USF ranked 13th.

Famous-people ballots? The Times' Brian Landman has USF 18th, and there's a poetry in the head-to-head, A-greater-than-B accuracy of this run: 17. Connecticut; 18. USF; 19. Auburn; 20. Florida. Mandel has the same run on his ballot, only from 12th to 15th. ESPN folks? Chris Fowler is one of five voters who have USF 25th; Kirk Herbstreit and Craig James are among six who have the Bulls 22nd.

Ah, if only the coaches' ballots were public during the season. Or even the Harris voters -- with 120 of them, I'd never get sleep.

Bulls fall to No. 18 in BCS, ahead of Gators

USF continues to get its highest national rankings in the standings that matter most, falling to 18th in the new Bowl Championship Standings released Sunday night. USF is No. 20 in the AP and Harris polls and 21st in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, but the Bulls are ranked higher in the BCS because its computer ratings have USF ranked 12th, despite two losses in the last two weeks.

So even with Saturday's loss at Connecticut, the Bulls can still say they're the highest ranked team in the state of Florida; the Gators' loss to Georgia knocked them farther, falling nine spots to No. 20. Connecticut moved up 10 spots in the BCS standings to 13th, while West Virginia leads all Big East teams at No. 7.

USF women's soccer makes Big East tourney

USF's women's soccer team earned a 0-0 tie at Pittsburgh on Sunday, gaining a much-needed point that gives the Bulls the fifth and final playoff berth from the American division in this week's Big East tournament.

USF (4-9-3 overall, 3-6-2 in Big East) had to wait and watch the scoreboard to see if Syracuse could earn a point with a tie against Connecticut. The Huskies lost 2-0, so the two teams finished with 11 points in league play, and the Bulls get the tiebreaker because they beat the Orange head to head. The Bulls, under first-year coach Denise Schilte-Brown, will likely open the conference tournament Thursday at Villanova, which is the No. 4 seed in the National division. The two teams played to a scoreless tie in Tampa this season.

The USF men's team has already clinched a spot in its Big East tournament and should learn its seed and first-round matchup later today.

AP poll has USF at No. 20

Another week, another nine-spot drop. USF fell from 11th to 20th in the Associated Press poll after losing it second game in a row Saturday, 22-15 at Connecticut. The Huskies made their AP Top 25 debut at No. 16.

So Auburn has a worse record than the Bulls at 6-3, and lost to the Bulls head-to-head, but the Tigers are ranked ahead of the Bulls in both polls. Same with a three-loss Florida team, whose loss this week came against a Georgia team that jumped back into the top 10. There are four three-loss SEC teams in the poll, with South Carolina and Tennessee in the bottom three. None of USF's remaining four opponents are getting so much as one vote in the AP poll.

USF is ranked No. 20 in the new Harris Poll, dropping eight spots from No. 12 last week.

The BCS standings, by the way, are embargoed until 8 p.m. -- didn't know that last week when I posted a link to the updated standings last week. So expect a BCS update around 8, even if you smart hackers can figure out the new standings earlier than that. My guess is USF in the high teens ...

Bulls fall to No. 21 in coaches poll

After a second loss in a row, USF dropped nine spots for the second straight week, falling from No. 12 to No. 21 in the new ESPN/USA Today coaches poll released Sunday. Connecticut, which beat the Bulls on Saturday, made its debut in the poll, one spot ahead of USF at No. 20. The Big East has three ranked teams, with West Virginia dropping one spot to No. 7.

The Bulls avoided falling out of the top 25 in part because they were one of 10 teams ranked in last week's AP top 25 to lose this weekend. USF is one of 10 teams now to lose back-to-back games this season after being ranked in the top 10.

Warrior! Warrior! Couple of quick thoughts ...

Again, if you read our game preview story Saturday, you'd know that it's not surprising USF would lose a second game in a row. If you count South Carolina's last two losses, there have been eight teams now that were in the top 10, lost, then lost their next game as well. It's just hard to right the ship this year.

-- USF is still going to be ranked, I think, just because lots of other teams lost as well. USC and Florida, who were ahead in the AP but behind in the BCS, lost to ranked teams, so USF will be below them. But No. 14 Kentucky, No. 15 South Carolina, No. 21 Virginia, No. 24 Penn State and No. 25 Rutgers all lost; I'm not going to stay up to see if Cal loses again, albeit against undefeated Arizona State. You'll see the Bulls somewhere between 20-25, and I think that's probably an accurate ranking.

-- Crazy as it seems, you can't really count USF out of the Big East race yet. The Bulls are technically tied for last with a 1-2 record, but they're only two games out of first. Connecticut still has Rutgers and games at Cincinnati and West Virginia, so there could be two losses there. The Bulls would need a third team they've beaten to finish with two losses for a three-way tie, but that means West Virginia would have to lose again; they still have Louisville (W. Va. scores at least 40 there), Cincinnati and UConn. Of course, these scenarios also require USF to stop losing.

-- Just in case you missed the line from the game story: Offense had five trips that got inside the Connecticut 5-yard line, and came away with 10 points from that. You can't do that and have any expectations of beating a good team. You could say that marching down the field, only to come to a screeching halt at the end zone, is kinda like blocking a punt in the end zone, but letting the other team fall on the loose ball. Either way, you're averaging about two points each time you're inside the 5.

-- We'll probably be hind-sighting the goal-line play calls all week, but I'm still amazed, even with an injury, USF brings in Mo Plancher -- with one carry all season -- for a crucial play on second-and-goal at the 1. Nothing against Plancher, but it'd be like needing a third out with the bases loaded in the ninth and turning to the kid you just called up from Triple-A. He may be great, but he's coming in completely cold. If you're going to go to the bench, heck, give freshman Richard Kelly a shot. He's never carried the ball, but he's 55 pounds heavier than Plancher, which is worth something on the 1-yard line. Or maybe, just maybe, let Grothe -- the guy with 146 rushing yards -- dive forward over your best linemen. He can get 1 yard in two shots, right?

-- Obviously, there are a lot of more important criteria to judge a coach by than how they conduct themselves in the media. UConn coach Randy Edsall's postgame comments Saturday night included an apology: "ABC had me on to talk. I used some language, one word that I shouldn't have used on TV, but you get caught up in the excitement. I apologized." The objectionable word? Hell.

I've got a 7 a.m. flight and have to drop off a correspondent at a bus station before I drop off my rental, so I'm going to sleep. Behave with the comments ...

Post-loss special: Leavitt Verbatim!

Oh, what a mess the postgame interviews were after Saturday's 22-15 loss at Connecticut. Coach Jim Leavitt's initial dealings with the media were less than two minutes -- we'll have that in a sec -- but things got bad enough with nearly all players and coaches saying they weren't allowed to talk to the media that we had to complain to USF officials, who convinced Leavitt to make a few players available; he came back out for a more professional four minutes of questions and answers later. From what I'm gathering from blog commenters, Leavitt was even shorter with his own radio folks after the game.

I'm not sure exactly how close I came to being arrested a few minutes later -- overzealous police/security folks took exception to media members "bothering" players in the only area designated for interviews. At one point the phrase "You're compromising my ramp" was uttered at me. It's probably not something I should blog about, but if you run into me sometime, it's a fun one to ask about.

Anyway, here's Leavitt's initial two minutes -- and this is more than offensive coordinator Greg Gregory gave for the media -- he spoke with the Tribune as he left the locker room, but when Leavitt asked us who he could bring off off the team bus for interviews, he said Gregory wasn't going to address the media. Just to be clear: tight end Cedric Hill -- who killed one tying touchdown with a penalty, then had another score bounce off his chest for a bad, bad drop -- walked off the bus as requested and was big enough to talk not just about the game, but take ownership for the catch he said he should have made. Gregory, who has been a college head coach for two seasons, a coordinator for 14 seasons, wouldn't do that. Defensive coordinator Wally Burnham was the only coach or player to talk before we had to complain.

So here's Leavitt, who to his credit prefaced his comments by saying he didn't feel like staying long: "I hope you understand." Enjoy.

BRETT MCMURPHY, Tampa Tribune: Talk about that last possession there at the end for you guys.

LEAVITT: We didn't score.

MCMURPHY: I know. When you got down to the goal line ...

LEAVITT (interrupting): We didn't score.

MCMURPHY: Was that a naked bootleg?

LEAVITT: Yes.

MCMURPHY: Was is supposed to be a pass or a run?

LEAVITT: It was a run.

ME: On the previous down, having (Mo) Plancher in the game, what was the thinking there?

LEAVITT: I'm not even sure. I didn't (unintelligible) Moise was in the game. Mike Ford got hurt. He was out of the game. We couldn't use him anymore. We tried to use him as much as we could. He hurt his shoulder.

MCMURPHY: Do you feel you guys wasted too many opportunities?

LEAVITT: Sure. Yeah. Anything else? What else? Anybody else. I answered you. We wasted too many opportunities. Yes, I agree. You're welcome.

ME: The first half, digging a 16-point hole there, having to work to come back from that ...

LEAVITT: Proud of our guys. We battled our tail. You didn't see any quit in this football team, I promise you. Didn't play good enough for 60 minutes of football, that's for sure.

REPORTER: Jim, can you talk about the game in the trenches? It seemed like that's where it was won, up front.

LEAVITT: Well, they moved the ball on us in the first half extremely well. We didn't play very good defense, that I promise you. We didn't play very good offense. We didn't not play very good in the first half. That was really. We can came in and really talked about 'Let's play some football and do the things we need to do to win a football game.' Real bad on the kickoff. I was really disappointed on that. Gave them great field position. You can't do that. I told them we had to kick really well here, and we had a bad kick. And poor tackling a lot in the game. Really, really poor. We've done that two weeks in a row now.

REPORTER: What about conditions, the field conditions?

LEAVITT: It was fine. It was fine.

DENIS GORMAN, Times correspondent: How troubling were the dropped passes and the penalties in the second half?

LEAVITT: Troubling.

JOEY JOHNSTON, Tampa Tribune: The way Grothe played in the second half ...

LEAVITT (interrupting): Warrior! Warrior! Warrior! Love him!

REPORTER: Did UConn maybe show you something that you didn't know about them before?

LEAVITT: No.

REPORTER: You expected they would have this kind of (unintelligible)?

LEAVITT: Yes. Anything else? Thank you.

So close, so far away: Bulls fall 22-15

First look at Sunday's game story. A quick update: Mike Ford was scheduled to return home with the Bulls on their flight to Tampa late Saturday night.

      EAST HARTFORD, Conn. – One yard away.

      As close as that seems, the Bulls are now miles from where they were two weeks ago, and so many things once within a reasonable grasp are now all but out of reach.

      For all the big runs USF gave up to Connecticut on Saturday, for as bad as the Bulls played in the first half, they had three shots from the 1-yard line for a game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter.

      They missed on all three, typifying a nightmarish day anytime they were near the end zone, and the Huskies got a 22-15 victory, handing a reeling USF squad its second straight loss.

      “We didn’t score,” coach Jim Leavitt said, summing up his offense neatly. “We wasted too many opportunities. … We’re making too many mistakes. … We couldn’t have played worse in the first half. That was probably as bad as you could play.”

      Two weeks ago, the Bulls were ranked No. 2 in the country, discussed as a possibility for the national championship game. Now they’re realistically out of contention for even a conference title, leaving their fans to ponder the relative merits of non-BCS bowls.

      “It really, really hurts,” defensive tackle Richard Clebert said. “We know we’re the better team, but we’re not playing like it. We got so upset about people talking bad about us on ESPN, about how we’re overrated. We’re playing as if we are overrated. It’s up to us and the coaches to bounce back.”

      USF had a 1-yard touchdown run brought back by penalty, then had a sure touchdown catch dropped by that penalized player, tight end Cedric Hill.

      The Bulls got the ball back with 5:11 to play and again drove to the 1, but couldn’t get closer. With Mike Ford out with a rib injury, reserve Moise Plancher, with one carry this season, was stopped for no gain. USF ran a naked bootleg for Grothe, but UConn saw it coming and dropped him for an 11-yard loss. Grothe’s final pass sailed high and incomplete. Game over.

      “We ran a boot. We figured it’d be there, but they played it right,” Grothe said. “We struggled. We’ve got to fix some stuff. We can bounce back.”

      Connecticut (7-1, 3-0) should today parlay its first-ever win against a ranked opponent into its first-ever poll rankings; if the Bulls stay ranked, it will be largely because of other ranked teams losing.

     The Huskies got out to a 16-0 halftime lead, getting a huge game from running back Andre Dixon (167 yards) and an interception returned by Scott Lutrus for a touchdown.

      Want lost points for USF? How about two missed field goals by Delbert Alvarado? And when Jerome Murphy blocked a Huskies punt, freshman Dylan Douglas couldn’t fall on the loose ball in the end zone, allowing Connecticut to fall on it for a safety, a loss of five points.

      The offense was barely better near the end zone, getting inside the Connecticut 5-yard line five times, but getting only 10 points to show for it. A 54-yard run by Jamar Taylor was spoiled by a missed field goal; Grothe, who rushed for a career-best 146 yards, threw an interception in the end zone to end another drive.

      It was Grothe, however, that rallied USF, breaking loose on a career-long 53-yard run, then scoring from 10 yards on the next play to cut the lead to 16-9.

      The defense woke up, holding the Huskies to 102 yards in the second half, but the Bulls dug too deep a hole to escape from.

      “It was a half too late,” defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said. “First half, we didn’t come close to stopping them. … I don’t know how you explain it, not wrapping up, not doing all the things it takes to be a great tackler. We didn’t do it last week, second week in a row. It’s a major problem … We’ve just gone backwards.”

      “It’s hard to understand why you could not go out there and turn it on, having the opportunities we had to be 7-1 and back in the conference race. For a whole entire half and not get the job done.”

      The Bulls return home but face another stout defense in Cincinnati, hoping to avoid losing three Big East games in a row for the first time.

      “It’s going to really show our character,” Clebert said. “It can either go downhill from here, or we could go 10-2. 10-2 would be a great season.”

Ford taken to hospital with rib injury

Freshman running back Mike Ford was taken to a local hospital after Saturday's 22-15 loss to Connecticut with an unspecified rib injury. Ford, who was not able to play on the Bulls' final drive, was taken by stretcher to the ambulance with an oxygen mask over his mouth.

USF officials did not know the severity of his injury or whether he would be able to return home with the team on its flight out of Hartford on Saturday night. Ford had 27 yards on seven carries and had a touchdown called back by a holding penalty in the fourth quarter.

Ford's cousin, senior receiver Amarri Jackson, was on crutches after the game after injuring his right knee during the game. Again, the severity of his injury is unknown.

Ford injury

Freshman running back Mike Ford was taken to the hospital in an ambulance with an undisclosed injury.

Bulls can't get TD, lose 22-15

USF's inability to score in the red zone has kept them from overtime, allowing Connecticut to pull off a 22-15 win at Rentschler Field.

USF had two shots from the 1-yard line for a game-tying touchdown in the final minutes, but Moise Plancher was stopped for no gain and Matt Grothe was dropped for an 11-yard loss on a bootleg. Grothe's fourth-down pass sailed high and incomplete, and Connecticut has its first-ever win against a ranked team.

USF (6-2, 1-2) is now two games behind the Huskies (7-1, 3-0), and the loss could drop the Bulls out of the top 25. They're the seventh top-10 team this season to lose two straight after being in the top 10.

Field-goal mania: Huskies now up 22-15

USF's defense gave up a 38-yard pass play on first down, then stiffened in the red zone, forcing Connecticut to settle for a field goal, keeping the Bulls within a touchdown, down 22-15 with 5:19 to play.

Given first and goal at the USF 5, the Huskies could only get two 1-yard runs from Andre Dixon, then a false start and 5-yard scramble by Tyler Lorenzen.

It's much like last week against Rutgers -- USF's defense is giving the offense a chance to score and at least force overtime. We'll see if the Bulls can get that done this time ...

One TD flagged, one dropped; 19-15 UConn

USF's red-zone troubles continue -- six plays from the UConn 12, and the Bulls had to settle for another Delbert Alvarado field goal, cutting Connecticut's lead to 19-15 with 7:37 to play.

USF looked to have scored on a Mike Ford 1-yard touchdown run, but a holding penalty negated that score. Then on third-and-goal, Matt Grothe had tight end Cedric Hill open in the end zone, but the pass hit Hill in the chest and bounced to the ground, taking away what would have been a tying score.

It's up to USF's defense to stop the Huskies again, but they've done that well in the second half, holding Connecticut to 51 total yards since halftime.

Alvarado good from 47, cuts lead to 19-12

USF is back within a touchdown again, as Delbert Alvarado, who missed two shorter kicks in the first quarter, made good on a 47-yard field goal, matching his season long, to cut Connecticut's lead to 19-12 with 12:48 to play.

Huskies, Dixon answer for 19-9 lead

Connecticut continues to lean heavily on running back Andre Dixon, who got five more carries and two catches on a drive that led to a 27-yard field goal and a 19-9 lead on USF late in the third quarter.

Huskies quarterback Tyler Lorenzen continues to be at his best on third down, completing passes of 15 and 12 yards to keep the drive alive. Dixon now has 154 yards on 28 carries.

Just like that, Grothe has Bulls within a TD

Matt Grothe's scrambling has USF back within a touchdown, scampering for a career-long 53-yard run, then going 10 yards on the next play to cut Connecticut's lead to 16-9 with 5:38 left in the third quarter. Grothe is over 100 yards for the third time this season, with 118 yards on 13 carries and 20 minutes of football still to be played. USF's defense has held the Huskies to minus-2 yards on their two second-half possessions, with three tackles for loss in eight plays. Momentum has shifted to USF, with lots of football left to be played.

There goes the shutout: Safety makes it 16-2

Even the big plays are coming up as disappointments: USF's defense backed Connecticut up and Jerome Murphy blocks a punt, but Dylan Douglas couldn't fall on the loose ball in the end zone, allowing the Huskies to recover for a Bulls safety, cutting Connecticut's lead to 16-2 midway through the third quarter.

That end zone hasn't been kind to the Bulls, with two missed field goals there in the first half. Just when the offense had shown signs of life before the punt block, Matt Grothe had a pass intercepted in the end zone by Connecticut's Robert McClain III, yet another trip to the red zone with no points to show for it.

Struggling Bulls down 16-0 at halftime

One team is looking like a squad that deserves to be atop the Big East standings, and it's not USF.

The Bulls trail Connecticut 16-0 at halftime, having missed two field goals, thrown an interception returned for a touchdown and watched the Huskies' Andre Dixon rush for 115 yards in the first half.

USF was outscored 13-0 in the second quarter and outgained 150-46. It's the first time the Bulls have been shut out in the first half since a 31-8 loss at Louisville last season.

The Bulls get the ball to open the second half, and it's imperative USF's offense get in rhythm and get points on the board to start chipping away at the Huskies' lead. The Bulls have outscored their opponents by 16 points or more in the second half just once in the last 14 games, that being the 64-12 win against Central Florida.

Receiver Jackson likely done for game

For the second week in a row, it appears USF has lost a key receiver to injury. Senior Amarri Jackson, after a half-hour of trainers examining his right kneee on the Bulls sidelin, has been taken off the field on a cart.

Last week, the Bulls lost junior Taurus Johnson to an ankle injury, so if the Bulls are to rally from a 16-point deficit, they'll do it largely with reserve receivers stepping up into significant roles.

Interception for TD puts UConn up 16-0

Things are getting out of hand at Rentschler Field, as a Matt Grothe pass, tipped at the line by Julius Williams, was intercepted by the Huskies' Scott Lutrus and returned 23 yards for a touchdown, giving Connecticut a 16-0 lead on USF in the second quarter.

Receiver Amarri Jackson and Grothe were injured on the play. Grothe had his right ankle taped on the sidelines, while Jackson had trainers attending to his right knee for several minutes after taking a hit after the interception. We'll have updates on their condition shortly.

Third-down passes have UConn up 9-0

USF has had one of the nation's toughest defenses on third downs, but Connecticut is beating the Bulls with consistency on third down. The Huskies are 6-for-8 on third downs, including 4-for-4 on this touchdown drive -- a 3-yard scoring pass to Steve Brouse has Connecticut up 9-0 early in the second quarter.

The Huskies didn't get off the extra point, and the holder's pass attempt went incomplete, so USF is only down nine instead of 10.

Nobody takes first-quarter TOs like USF

I swear, I say this every game in the press box: If I had time to calculate it, I bet USF leads the nation in first-quarter time outs. At least one in every game, it seems.

Facing a fourth-and-2 on the Connecticut 39, USF took a time out, but apparently only to reinforce their decision to punt. Even then, Delbert Alvarado didn't exactly pooch it, with a kick that landed in the end zone, setting Connecticut up on the USF 20.

Another drive, another missed field goal

How long before Jim Leavitt makes a change at kicker? Delbert Alvarado has missed his second field goal of the opening quarter, missing a 45-yard attempt wide left that keeps Connecticut ahead 3-0.

The Bulls were prepared to go for it on fourth and inches from the Connecticut 23, but tackle Marc Dile was flagged for a false start, forcing the Bulls to attempt the field goal.

Penalties ... special-teams mistakes ... tell me if this sounds familiar to anyone.

More special-teams woes: Alvarado wide right

A 54-yard run by Jamar Taylor went all for naught, as USF's offense stalled inside the 10-yard line, then a high snap led to a missed 26-yard field goal by Delbert Alvarado, keeping UConn ahead 3-0 midway through the first quarter.

Taylor bounced off two Connecticut players and ran all the way to the Huskies' 7, matching a Ben Williams touchdown against Florida Atlantic for the longest run this season.

Long drive gives Huskies early 3-0 lead

Strong running by Connecticut's Andre Dixon -- 53 yards on eight carries -- led the Huskies on a 76-yard drive, ultimately held on a goal-line stand to a 22-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead early in the opening quarter.

Connecticut converted two third-and-7 or longer plays along the way, getting runs of 19 and 11 yards and a 21-yard pass from Tyler Lorenzen to D.J. Hernandez.

-- USF isn't rotating captains anymore, so it's not even worth updating, but today's are Ben Moffitt, Carlton Williams, Marcus Edwards and Jake Griffin.

Bulls control their Big East destiny

Greetings from Rentschler Field, where USF takes the field today against Connecticut with a late addition to their pregame motivation: the Bulls now control their own destiny as it relates to winning a Big East championship and BCS berth.

West Virginia's humbling 31-3 win at Rutgers puts the ball back in USF's hands -- if the Bulls win their remaining five games, they'll have the tiebreaker on West Virginia and will get a BCS berth. Of course, UConn can say the same thing ...

UConn, ho! Yes, this is big

Boston, just to the northeast, is perhaps the hottest sports town in the country, with the Sox up 2-0, the Celtics on the cover of Sports Illustrated and picked to win the East and, of course, those rallying, vomiting Boston College Eagles, fresh off a wild comeback win Thursday night.

But here in Connecticut, today's USF-UConn game is being hailed as the biggest in the Huskies' short history as a I-A program. "Today, college football is played for real in Connecticut," the Hartford Courant's Jeff Jacobs writes. "Today, Connecticut has a legitimate prizefight to promote."

Much as the case was against Florida Atlantic, against Central Florida, the high-ranked Bulls bring a chance for perhaps the biggest win in a program's history. The difference is that Connecticut is a more legitimate threat -- a Big East program at home with much to prove and much to gain. There are many parallels between the two programs, for their short I-A histories, for a single coach that has brought them through that, for stifling defenses and mobile quarterbacks. On the field, the main difference between UConn and USF is that the Huskies' don't have a true validating win; the Bulls can give them that today. UConn has never been ranked and is 0-10 all-time against ranked teams; again, a win today would conquer both of those problems.

The Bulls got a break on the weather -- by Monday, lows here will be in the 30s, but today, it's just going to be wet, with gametime temperatures in the 60s. It's completely overcast here; the Bulls may have greenouts and Penn State whiteouts; Connecticut is coordinating a gray-out at Rentschler Field. I'll be back with key matchups and an update once I get to Rentschler in a few hours ...

USF-Cincy gets ABC, 3:30 kickoff

USF-Cincinnati next week is a 3:30 p.m. kickoff, televised regionally on ABC, much like this week's game at Connecticut. We love daytime kickoffs. We tell you this every time, but we do.

An 8 p.m. kick? If it's a great game, it's like getting a steak and having five minutes to eat it. I'm not saying my stories are like steak for you, not at all; I'm saying writing them is like hurrying through a nice steak. You just wish you had more time to write, so you go in pulling for a lopsided game that's easier to write, and that's no fun for anyone else involved.

But a 3:30 kick? It can be an amazing game. It can go four overtimes. It can have multiple replays and reviews. Commercial breaks? Go crazy with them. Band wants an extended halftime for its medley of TV show theme songs from the 1980s? No problem! "Riptide" was practically made for a drumline!

As a blog, we're a little worried about the number of daytime kicks we've been able to get this season. From a karma standpoint, it's going to come back to us in some other obscure way. The batteries will die on our recorder during a postgame presser, or maybe the wireless will go out in the stadium. I'm definitely not checking any bags for a while. Karma. Dangerous.

I'm in Connecticut. So nice to feel temperatures under 70 degrees. Seasons! I'll be back later ...

Terminal illness: Airport blogging, again

Free wireless is a great thing, and free wireless in an airport is even better. The truly coveted positions waiting for a flight are those near an electrical outlet, so travelers can juice up their laptops before a flight. First four outlets I saw were spoken for -- there should be some kind of 21st-century courtesy that says you shouldn't be able to take up both plugs in an outlet, no?

Seemingly Trivial Travel Note That Only My Readers Might Find Even Marginally Interesting: While checking in at a Delta kiosk and typing in the first three letters of my destination city, the first option that comes up is ... Harlingen, Texas, which is the birthplace of USF coach Jim Leavitt. You still see it written a lot that he was born in St. Petersburg, but his family bounced all around in the military before he got to Florida, living in South Dakota, Massachusetts, Germany and Taiwan.

Here's a link to the Dontavia Bogan story that ran in today's paper, and strangely enough, I can already link to our game preview story that will run Saturday. One of those things that violates the time-space continuum and all that kind of stuff.

Have I mentioned that Connecticut's linebackers coach is named Lyndon Johnson? He was born in Jamaica in 1968, right at the end of LBJ's term as president. USF has a Johnson, a Ford, a Jackson, a Taylor, a Washington, a Tyller ... presidential names, sure, but not exactly Fillmores and Coolidges ...

Might as well start throwing your predictions on here now. I'll post once I'm in Hartford. Have an interview with Geno Auriemma lined up for the morning, part of our continuing coverage leading up to the Women's Final Four in April. Was able to talk with Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer last week, so I'm getting some of the big ones out of the way before the season even starts ... 

Put it behind you, or it happens again

      Rebounding isn't easy. College football teams taking their first loss while ranked in the Top 10 this season have been a combined 6-8 in their next games, more likely to lose again than to right their ship immediately after a loss.

       Of those eight teams that lost back-to-back, five went from the top 10 to being unranked in a span of two weeks. In all eight instances, the first loss was to an unranked opponent; only Florida and Rutgers have the consolation that their second loss came against a ranked opponent.

      Here are the big-name programs that have lost and lost again already this season, with their rankings before and after the back-to-back losses. USF tries to avoid joining this group Saturday against unranked Connecticut.

Team        Rank  Losses                        New rank

California  2     Oregon State, UCLA            18

Florida     4     Auburn, LSU                   13

Michigan    5     Appalachian St., Oregon       NR

Wisconsin   5     Illinois, Penn State          NR

Texas       7     Kansas State, Oklahoma        23

Louisville  9     Kentucky, Syracuse            NR

Penn State  10    Michigan, Illinois            NR

Rutgers     10    Maryland, Cincinnati          NR

Really, at this point, you can stop recruiting

Hadn't meant to go so long without a post. Working up a story for Friday's paper on freshman receiver Dontavia Bogan, who steps up as a starter this weekend with Taurus Johnson sidelined by an ankle injury.

Bogan told me the only significant offer he had besides USF was UAB, and that Georgia had wanted him, but only as a defensive back (he had five INTs and 70 tackles last fall). His mother told me he got letters from South Carolina and Arkansas. In fact, she was still getting recruiting letters from Arkansas this fall; she had to call them up and let them know her son was not only committed and signed at USF, but playing on Saturdays. Here's a graphic that will run with the story on Friday:

Spreading too thin?
   USF's passing offense spreads the ball around to many targets -- as many as 10 in a game this season. As a result, it's rare to see one Bulls receiver have a big day: in the last 10 games, USF has had one 100-yard receiving game, and just one other game with so much as 70 yards from one player; both came in the 64-12 romp against Central Florida two weeks ago.
   On the plus side, if a team's going to lose its leading receiver, that probably hurts least at USF, where Taurus Johnson has the lowest catches, yards and touchdowns among the leading receivers (by yards) for each team in the Big East. Louisville, for instance, has five players with more receiving yards than Johnson.

Big East teams' top receivers
(receptions-yards-touchdowns)
Harry Douglas, LOU    49-816-5
Tiquan Underwood, RUT 39-789-6
Mike Williams, SYR    29-473-6
Dominick Goodman, CIN 37-449-4
Darius Reynaud, WVA   36-442-8
Oderick Turner, PIT   23-336-4
Terence Jeffers, CON  28-322-3
Taurus Johnson, USF   22-260-2

Gransberry on preseason Wooden Award list

USF senior center Kentrell Gransberry is one of 50 players named to the preseason candidates list for the John R. Wooden Award, perhaps the most coveted honor in college basketball.

Gransberry, the nation's leading returning rebounder, is one of eight Big East players on the list, joining Georgetown's Roy Hibbert and Johnathan Wallace, Louisville's Terrence Williams, Villanova's Scottie Reynolds, Marquette's Dominic James, Connecticut's Jeff Adrien and Syracuse's Eric Devendorf. The eight players is the most of any conference on the Wooden list.

The list will be pared to 30 in January, with ballots going out to voters in March. The Bulls open their season at home against Cleveland State on Nov. 9.

Big East hoops: USF has it easy, sorta

Using the Big East's new preseason poll as a guide for valuing strength of schedule, USF has a favorable schedule on its side as the Bulls try to make their first trip to the Big East tournament.

As part of the new 18-game schedule, each Big East team now has three "mirror" opponents that it plays both home and away. For USF, those three are Syracuse (picked fifth), Seton Hall (13th) and Rutgers (15th). That means the Bulls have five games against teams picked to miss the Big East tournament. Rutgers and Seton Hall can boast the same, but they have a tougher third mirror opponent -- the Knights have to play Louisville twice, while the Pirates get a double-dose of Marquette.

If you add up the preseason ranking of the mirror opponents, only Seton Hall (34) has an easier score than USF (33), with no other team higher than 30. Toughest? Louisville scores a 19, with two games against Georgetown and Marquette; Georgetown is close behind at 20, doubling up with the Cardinals and Syracuse. Notre Dame has the rawest deal, picked ninth but with the second-toughest mirrors, scoring a 20 with two games against fast-rising Connecticut and Marquette.

The men's preseason poll naturally bears close resemblance to last year's final standings -- 11 of the 16 teams were picked to finish within two spots of their finish last season. Which teams were picked to improve most? Definitely Connecticut, which finished 12th last spring but is now sixth; Marquette, which finished sixth last year, was picked third; Cincinnati, which finished last, has been picked to make the Big East tournament at 12th. Falling? Notre Dame finished fourth but is now picked ninth; St. John's finished 11th but was picked 14th.

Big East: Men picked last, women ninth

USF's men have been picked to finish last in the Big East in the coaches' preseason poll released at the conference's media gathering at Madison Square Garden. USF's women's team, which loses all-time leading scorer Jessica Dickson and three other seniors from last year, has been picked to finish ninth, putting them squarely on the bubble for NCAA tournament contention.

Georgetown and Louisville shared first place in the men's poll, with each team getting eight first-place from the league's coaches. USF senior center Kentrell Gransberry was one of 11 players named to the league's preseason All-Conference team, and the only player representing a team picked to finish in the bottom half of the league standings. Georgetown's Roy Hibbert is the conference preseason Player of the Year.

Connecticut was essentially a unanimous pick to win the women's title ahead of Rutgers, getting 15 of 16 first-place votes; coaches can't vote their own team first. USF junior guard Shantia Grace was not among the 11 players on the womens' preseason All-Conference team and wasn't even one of three honorable mentions.

TBT: Sterger likes USF, but heart with FSU

I'm going to try something crazy here, something perhaps unprecedented: an Internet post on Jenn Sterger without an accompanying picture.

The Times' free daily, TBT*, has a Q&A today with the famed FSU Cowgirl, who spent two years at USF and has been a regular at USF football games since last season. On any given Saturday, you'll find her in the front row of the Bulls student section, and naturally, on the nearest Jumbotron.

Give credit to Jay Cridlin for asking the tough question: Who would she pull for if USF played FSU?

Um ... (laughs) I've been asked this question: "FSU-USF in the Orange Bowl - what do you wear?" Honestly, it'd either have to be a split jersey, and I'd just look like a giant Christmas ornament, or I'd probably have to go with Florida State. Because that's where my allegiances were when I first got discovered. So probably, my heart would lie there.

Should Bulls still be in the hunt?

Should USF still have national title hopes? The Bulls were generally written off after Thursday’s 30-27 loss to then-unranked Rutgers. Even if USF wins its remaining five games, it would certainly take more chaos atop the polls to get the Bulls, ranked 10th in the BCS standings, back into the top two. But you don’t have to go far to find a precedent: In the Week 8 Associated Press Top 25 last year, Florida was ranked ninth before winning the title; in 2003, LSU was ranked 10th in Week 8 and won the BCS.

Are upsets more likely in the second half of a season? You’d think rankings would be more likely to hold true as elite teams establish themselves, but last year, the opposite was true. In 2006, there were nine losses by Top 10 teams in the first eight weeks; there were twice as many (18) in the final five weeks and conference championship games and bowls. The Top 5 was even more volatile in the second half; only four Top 5 teams lost in the first eight weeks of ’06; after that came 10 such losses.

Losses by Top 10 teams (by weeks)

           1-4  5-8 9-12  13-

2006    5    4    10    8

2007    4   15    ?    ?

Losses by Top 5 teams (by weeks)

           1-4   5-8   9-12  13-

2006    2    2    6    4

2007    1    8    ?    ?

Short QB jokes: Et tu, Grothe?

USF quarterback Matt Grothe had a surprise treat before Thursday's game, getting a chance to meet and speak with former NFL quarterback Doug Flutie, who was part of ESPN's broadcast team. Grothe is often compared to Flutie because of his height, but the sophomore said he was surprised how short Flutie was in person.

"The first thing that went through my head was, if he got listed at 5-11, how come I'm not listed at 6-3?" said Grothe, who is listed at 6 feet in USF's media guide. "He's a cool guy, came up to talk to me. I was surprised how short he was. To do what he's done, all the criticism people still say to this day about shorter quarterbacks, what he's done and how long he played in the NFL, to do what he did at his height is amazing. To have him come up to me, it was the last thing I was expecting warming up on the field. It was a good experience."

Flutie, we'll point out, was actually listed at 5-foot-10 in his final year in the NFL in 2005, and has joked that he is an eighth of an inch shorter than that in real life. Grothe, for the record, was listed at 6-foot-1 his first year at USF, but has been listed at 6 feet even each of the last two seasons.

Amarri: Leavitt 'looks like Freddy Krueger'

Football fans in Tampa are used to a scowling, face-contorting display of emotion on the sidelines, but Bucs coach Jon Gruden would be hard-pressed to keep up the facial frustration shown by USF coach Jim Leavitt through much of Thursday's loss to Rutgers.

"I don't know whose face is more crazy," receiver Amarri Jackson said. "Coach Gruden looks like Chucky, but I think Coach Leavitt looks like Freddy Krueger. At least Coach Leavitt will talk. I've seen Coach Gruden ball his face up and then he doesn't say anything."

Leavitt, questioned about criticism that his behavior on the sidelines went too far, was asked how he would describe his conduct during the game.

"Probably calm, with what I was really feeling inside," Leavitt said. "I'm a little bit surprised I was able to handle myself as well as I did. I'm an emotional guy. I'm not a guy that's going to be there and not react. ... I know sometimes it might not look real charming, but I'm going to battle for our players, and when I see things that I think are clearly ... I'm going to react, usually not as much, but it had built through three calls. I was at a point where I had had enough. ... There was more in me than that."

Leavitt said he's gotten some e-mails saying "watch your behavior" but also had many that liked the way he fought for his players.

"I wanted to make clear I wasn't real happy. ... You always want to be appropriate, I understand that about the national audience, all those types of things," Leavitt said. "I can't change who I am. I don't think you'll see that very often. There will be some people in the country that will be disappointed, but in 11 years, believe me, I've had people that are disappointed. I've made other mistakes. ... You just move forward and doing the things you think are right."

Injury report = jail: 'I know it sounds crazy'

More leftover notes from last night's football practice, starting with the nickel defensive back job, which had belonged to sophomore Jerome Murphy all season. On Monday, junior Tyller Roberts was out there with the first-team defense at nickel, while Murphy, who was suspended from the first half of Thursday's game for missing a team meeting, had to stay late to do up-downs up and down the field with cornerbacks coach Rich Rachel.

"We're not happy with Murph right now, and it has nothing to do with missing a team meeting," Leavitt said after practice.

-- Leavitt also said Monday that the reason offensive guard Matt Huners has been held out of practice is a "wrenched back" and not the knee he's been rehabilitating since surgery in April. Huners hasn't played seven weeks into the season, and as far as his availability for Saturday's game, Leavitt said "not today, he isn't." But Leavitt said the team isn't looking into a medical redshirt, which would allow Huners to petition for a sixth year of eligibility.

-- I get a lot of e-mails asking about Chris Robinson, who has yet to see significant action after injuring his ankle in the preseason. He's seen occasional special-teams work and a handful of snaps at defensive end, and Leavitt isn't sure when he'll be ready to go. "He's hasn't practiced full yet this year," Leavitt said, and said he won't return to a prominent role on defense "until he really gets back."

-- Leavitt's also is getting a little edgy about injury news coming out, even when it comes from USF. Told that USF's sports information department had sent out a release Monday stating that tackle Walt Walker would be out 2-4 weeks with a sprained MCL, he stopped and questioned USF's assistant athletic director for communications, Chris Freet, standing nearby.

"Why are you releasing anything on injuries?" Leavitt asked, repeating the question.

Told that the information came with approval from assistant athletic director Steve Walz, as credible a source as you could find on a USF injury, Leavitt said: "It shouldn't come from him. He could get thrown in jail. I know it sounds crazy, but he could. I think so."

Leavitt's worried about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, which guards the privacy of an individual's personal health information. But HIPAA is intended for health-care providers in relation to disclosing medical records of customers, not anything relating to college athletes and their ability to play football, and any violation relating to releasing a football injury would likely result in a civil vulnerability more than anything criminal. Yes, people have gone to jail for HIPAA; they've also typically stolen medical records for use in identity theft. I think the legal term for such an interpretation here is "nonsense."

Never mind that USF fan message boards had days of discussion of Walker being out for the season with a torn ACL, and that USF's release corrected bad information festering online. Maybe that can get Walz out with just probation and community service. ...

Volleyball tonight: Dig for the Cure

I don't care if Monday's blue/

Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too/

Oh, wait. Not "Dig for The Cure." Makes more sense now.

Seriously now, USF's volleyball team, off to a 13-6 start and 5-3 record in Big East play, takes on a bigger, more inspiring challenge Tuesday night: helping raise money to support breast cancer research, as part of the nationwide "Dig for the Cure" campaign.

The Bulls' home match against North Florida -- at 7 p.m. in The Corral in USF's Sun Dome -- will collect pledges and donations to Susan G. Komen Florida Suncoast Breast Cancer Foundation. The Bulls have raised more than $8,500 in the past three years, and coach Claire Lessinger has been active in the media, talking on 620 AM on Monday night, and some of her players will be on "Good Day Tampa Bay" on WTVT Fox 13 between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. to draw more attention to their annual cause.

If you can't make it in person, you can sign an online pledge sheet, available at USF's official site, gousfbulls.com. Lessinger's even giving out her office number, inviting fans seeking to make donations to call her directly at (813) 974-5740 or send her an e-mail.

At 13-6, USF has the third-best winning percentage in the Big East, though their 5-3 record has them in a three-way tie for fifth place; only the top eight teams make the conference tournament, so the Bulls must continue their solid play to lock up a spot in the tournament. They're on the road for their next four Big East matches before finishing the regular season at home Nov. 9 and 11 against Connecticut and St. John's.

Another reason to stop by campus on T