Football notes from second scrimmage ...

I'm busy with the women's Final Four in town, but correspondent Joe Rienzi was able to watch USF's second scrimmage of the spring in its entirety Saturday afternoon and offers this report:

Tyrone McKenzie was the starting middle linebacker, with Brouce Mompremier and Chris Robinson playing on the outside. Defensive coordinator Wally Burnham liked what he saw out of both McKenzie today and Mompremier last Saturday, but knows that the defense needs to improve in certain areas.

“We are really young at the tackle position,” Burnham said. “Whoever steps up in there will have to be a really good reader and adjuster, and do things to help the younger guys in case they make mistakes — which younger guys do. Whoever it is (at MLB) will have to do that. Both (McKenzie and Mompremier) can play it, I just need to figure out who can do it more effectively.”

After being held out of the first scrimmage entirely, senior defensive end Jarriett Buie was on the field, working with the first team defense.

Junior middle linebacker Kion Wilson was in uniform, but had a noticeable limp while participating in position drills. Burnham does not believe he will be healthy enough to participate in the Spring game next week.

“We won’t know about Kion until next fall now, and that’s a shame,” Burnham said. “He really needed this work so I could find out (if he could start at middle linebacker). I don’t know much more about him now than I did when he got here.”

Delbert Alvarado had another bad outing, going 3-for-6 on field goal attempts, with junior cornerback Jerome Murphy blocking his second attempt of the spring. All of the field goals were kicked into a stiff wind, but head coach Jim Leavitt doesn’t think that is an excuse.

“Our kicking is not very good right now,” Leavitt said. “That part has been disappointing, and we really don’t have any excuses. We’ve had a bunch of reps, just not a lot of success. It’s something we struggled a lot with last year. Alvarado will get his shot first, then (Justin) Teachey.

In two scrimmages, Alvarado is 4-for-11 on field goals and 2-for-4 on extra points. Teachey is 3-for-4 after missing his only attempt today.

Sophomore tackle Joe Herzhauser suffered a sprained right ankle on the first series of the day. Senior safety Danny Verpaele is no longer wearing a boot on his sprained foot, but he was not in pads for the scrimmage.

The offense’s only touchdown came on a 17-yard touchdown run by freshman walk-on running back Joel Miller.

Comments

[JoeB]

Our kicking game is terrible. That is going to lose us a game or two this year.

[AT]

We have two well-respected kickers coming in the fall. Hopefully they are ready to go, and Alvarado can just focus on punting, which he is MUCH better at than field goals.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Thats your boy Greg..

Delbert is your boy.

4-11 huh? Greg was touting alverado's late season form.

And talked up his "Special Teams Player of the Year Award."

As for Hinkelberger's insight on this guy......

"This dog don't hunt, pull this turkey."

Guy is terrible with a capital "T"

[john]

Incoming freshman Maikon Bonani will probably win the kicking job.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

For what its worth, I was up at the USF basketball courts today and the wind was blowing pretty hard.

Still, Hinkelberger found a way to punch the register and knock down the 15 footer.

"just filling it up."

[Ray Finkel]

"LACES OUT, DAN!!"

(this stolen Ari Hinkelberger joke brought to you by Preparation H)

[Sebastian Janikowski]

I don't care how much Jimmy Beam I drink, I ain't missing 2 extra points.

Laces in or laces doesnt mean poop if you can't boot.

4-11 thats pretty solid if you are batting against Josh Beckett.

[Miles Lamoureux]

Greg, this walk-on RB Joel Miller. What number is he wearing? I saw a player wearing #18, who is that?

[Our New Insect Overlords]

We still have a soccer team at USF, right?

Go get someone from there and have him kick. He can't do worse than poor Delbert, who's going to be in therapy for a decade if this keeps up.

[G.A.]

Miller wears No. 37; No. 18 is walk-on defensive back Brandon Moore.

[ClwtrBull]

I agree...that is terrible! That'll certainly cost us some games...It's amazing that, even with a new kicker coming in, that we couldn't recruit someone....I mean anyone in the country that can kick a ball through the yellow sticks who wants a free college education! Geezzz

[G.A.]

Guys, USF has a scholarship kicker and a scholarship punter coming in this fall. That means three kickers and a punter on scholarship -- how much more do you want invested in the kicking game? If Bonani is the better kicker in August, he'll earn the job. Leavitt's made it clear after the last two scrimmages he's not happy with the kickers.

[AGW]

GA,

Grothe isnt hurt is he? I read somewhere that he hurt is knee playing in a pickup basketball game. Please tell me this isnt true..

[jarred]

No, Grothe is not hurt. That was just an April fools joke by Josh Newberg over at usfnation.com. Im assuming it was a joke about Greg Oden who played a pick up game while he was supposed to be recooperatingn from his injury.

[Dave W]

I really like Delbert at P. If Maikon is as good as advertised, the kicking game could be a positive. Actually, if Leavitt had given Bronson the scholarship so many years ago, we wouldn't have a problem. Blame really does rest on Jim's shoulders here.

That LB lineup sounds pretty darn fast to me, if not undersized. Shady McCoy could be a problem, but Noel Devine won't get anything against that trio. It is too bad that Kion now is basically coming in without any real head-start.

Another thought: could Marshall or Bedford play OLB? I know Bedford is so highly touted at DE, but do we need 4 guys at that spot? The only problem is that it sounds like Marshall will have to play DT.

[Funk Master P]

Yeah...Bonani may be a better kicker, but can he rap like Delbert.

I mean, that's what really matters, right?

Word to yo' mutha.

[Tom]

We can't the new kicker on campus soon enough. . .

I think Bonani will be our new placekicker this year. Hopefully Teachey can still do the kickoffs.

[Keysbull]

Undersized? this might be our biggest lb core ever.

TMac - 6'2 235

Brouce 6' 230

CRob- 6'3 235

[Keysbull]

Undersized? this might be our biggest lb core ever.

TMac - 6'2 235

Brouce 6' 230

CRob- 6'3 235

[Adam]

Greg-

Any update on Ecks?

Sounds like Teachey isn't doing to bad kicking, there was a lot of wind and he missed one, how far was it? He's got a decent leg (Delbert probably has more strength).

CJL will do what is right, I think that he felt that Delbert was the best we had last season. If he makes some more kicks, it takes a lot of pressure off of Grothe, and I think makes him better. (Yeah, everyone who questions his decisions, think about how many bad ones he made thinking about missed FG's if he can't get the ball in the endzone)

[Steve Stacy]

Greg,

What happened to the All-World kicker we signed? Is he still in high school?

[G.A.]

Steve, I think you're talking about Maikon Bonani, from Lake Wales. He'll be at USF in the fall ...