Henry donates $100,000 to USF football

One of USF's most successful NFL players is giving back to the Bulls. Cowboys cornerback Anthony Henry, who played during USF's first four seasons of college football, has made a $100,000 donation to USF football.

Henry's donation -- believed to be the largest ever by a Bulls football player -- will be used to help USF upgrade the locker room, weight room and other areas of the school's athletic facility.

Henry, who just finished his eighth NFL season, is entering the final year of a five-year, $25 million contract he signed with Dallas in 2005. He started all but one game for the Cowboys this season.

Henry is in town for Sunday's Super Bowl, and here is a pic from the Times' Daniel Wallace of Henry competing in Terrell Owens' charity basketball game.

-- Also, here's a feature story in Sunday's Times on defensive end Demi Thompson of Lake Mary, who will be part of USF's recruiting class when he signs with the Bulls on Wednesday. The defensive ends in USF's class are ranked as the nation's second-best at the position, according to Rivals.com. Oh, and after you read the story, here's a link to the blog his father Joseph keeps at The Church at the Wall, where he is senior pastor.

Could 280-pound Bass jump back in USF boat?

Just when you thought USF recruiting had wound down to the point where there were only four or five names left to be decided.

There's a new name -- really an old name -- that has resurfaced on the Bulls' radar. Junior college tackle Jamar Bass, who came down to USF and Illinois, said on Jan. 2 that he was enrolling this spring at Illinois. Thing is, school started there two weeks ago, and he's not enrolled in classes at Illinois, associate sports information director Cassie Arner said Saturday.

Bass, who played at Apopka High and spent this past season at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, couldn't be reached for comment Saturday, but if Illinois isn't his choice, USF makes sense to move to the top of the list. Offensive line has been a priority in this recruiting class -- the Bulls lost four senior starters from the 2008 line --  and another junior college tackle, Carlos Savala, is among the Bulls' top commitments.

USF also should have former Jefferson and FSU tackle Daron Rose, but he still has much academic work to do before he can join the Bulls. Rose said Saturday that he still plans on being at USF this fall, but he'll have a heavy courseload this summer, with 18 credit hours needed to get his associate of arts degree from Hillsborough Community College. It's certainly within reach -- defensive end David Bedford pulled it off last summer -- but is still a major hurdle to be cleared.

Andre Hall, back in St. Pete, pulling for Steelers

Former USF running back Andre Hall was back in his native St. Petersburg on Saturday as one of several NFL players participating in the Celebrity Flag Football Challenge at the Tradewinds Resort on St. Pete Beach.

We caught up for Hall for a few minutes, talking about a coaching change in Denver and upcoming surgery this week to correct a wrist injury that put him on injured reserve last season. Hall was all over the sand in the charity game -- he made a leaping catch for his team's first touchdown and took a mouthful of sand grabbing the flag of an opposing receiver. Thanks to the Times' Chris Zuppa for the photo, left ...

GA: I see you're going to play today, so tell me how you're feeling overall.

AH: I'm taking it real light. I missed the end of the season, and that was a tough time for me. Losing my mom, then to come back and get hurt, that was tough at the time. I'm all right. I'm emotionally kind of disturbed about the Shanahan situation. It's a huge change, and I really liked Shanahan. He was a guy who was really there for me during the hard times, but I still have to live, still have to go.

GA: Have you met the new coach in Denver, Josh McDaniels?

AH: I haven't. I've been here since that happened, but I'm excited about going back, getting to know a new coach. We'll take care of (a new contract) in March. I expect to be back.

GA: When will you be fully healed from your wrist?

AH: I'm probably getting surgery Wednesday. It's just a four-to-six-week rehab. After the Miami game, I broke my hand, and that put me out. The Kansas City game, that injury really had me sitting out. I hurt the ligaments in my right wrists. The surgery will tighten up my ligaments.

GA: How many Super Bowl weeks have you made it to now?

AH: The last three, Miami, Arizona and this one.

GA: Who are you pulling for?

AH: Pittsburgh. I've got a buddy there, Anthony Smith, the safety for Syracuse. I played against him (at USF), and we go out and do stuff, hang out. I'm not going to the game -- better for me just to watch at home.

GA: Do you still keep in touch with the guys from USF?

AH: I talk to everybody. Jenk (Mike Jenkins), Trae (Williams), Snake (Stephen Nicholas). We all had a barbecue together yesterday.

USF women hold on for big upset at Rutgers

USF's women's basketball team saw a 19-point lead disappear in the final seven minutes, then got a huge 3-point play from senior guard Shantia Grace with 7.9 seconds left for a much-needed 59-56 win at Rutgers on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulls (16-6, 3-5 in Big East) led 54-35 with 6:14 to play, then saw Rutgers (12-7, 4-4) go on a 21-2 run to tie the game at 56-56 in the final minute. Grace, who finished with just nine points, came through with the winning basket and foul shot to seal the upset. Here's the boxscore from ESPN.com.

Junior guard Janae Stokes led the Bulls with 20 points, going 6-for-10 on 3-pointers. A loss would have put USF at 2-6 in league play, making it difficult for the Bulls to get the .500 conference record they likely need to make the NCAA Tournament. The Bulls now have a key game Tuesday at home against Marquette (12-9, 3-4) in the Sun Dome.

Report: FIU backing out of '09 USF game

Florida International is backing out of its scheduled game at USF this fall, forcing the Bulls to scramble to find a Division I-A opponent on short notice, the Miami Herald reported Friday. Adding to the drama is the fact that FIU is backing out so they can start a home-and-home series with Rutgers, which recruits heavily in the Miami area.

Under its contact with USF, FIU will have to pay $200,000 to buy out the final game of a three-game series. It's a surprising move, given that USF had agreed to give FIU a BCS conference opponent for its first game in its new stadium last fall. It's also surprising that Rutgers would make such a move, knowing it gives a fellow Big East team a scheduling problem at a time when most teams have filled their 2009 slate.

Rutgers' move to add FIU to its schedule comes as the Scarlet Knights are operating under an interim athletic director, Carl Kirschner, a longtime Rutgers professor and former dean.

Ultimately, USF won't take a hit unless the Bulls aren't able to find another Division I-A opponent. If they had to schedule a second I-AA team, that second win could not be counted toward the six wins required to become bowl-eligible. Having lost a home game, USF also must try to find an opponent willing to come to Tampa to open the series.

-- The same Herald blog post reports that USF freshman linebacker Quavon Taylor, who was suspended from the team most of last season by coach Jim Leavitt, is considering a transfer to Florida International. Taylor is enrolled as a full-time student at USF this spring, but has been in Leavitt's doghouse since before the season started. As we told you earlier this week, USF will need some offseason attrition of scholarship players if the Bulls want to sign a full class of 25 incoming recruits.

Defensive end Pierre-Paul: 'I'm very excited'

Another busy day with Super Bowl stuff, but I got a call back this afternoon from Jason Pierre-Paul, the five-star defensive end from Fort Scott Community College who committed to USF earlier this week. Nobody was able to get Pierre-Paul initially, as everyone had gotten the news from his coach at Fort Scott, so this was the first chance to get the news straight from the commitment himself. A few things ...

-- His weight. He's been listed at 280 pounds a few places, which surprised me, because he was listed around 230 two years ago when he signed with Central Florida out of high school. Pierre-Paul said Friday that he's 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, which puts him at a good weight to be a college defensive end.

-- The competition: Pierre-Paul said the other schools he strongly considered were Nebraska, Kansas State, Arizona and Kansas, in that order. Geography helped the Bulls, as he's from Deerfield Beach and likes the idea of his mother, father, brother and sister being able to drive to his home games. He said he and Fort Scott linebacker Jacquian Williams, another USF commitment, have found a lot in common since the end of the season -- both great athletes who had to leave the state to get the degrees they needed to get a scholarship back in their home state.

-- Pierre-Paul said the chance to play with senior George Selvie was a major plus, and his goal now is to earn the starting job opposite Selvie and learn as much as possible from him this fall. "He's an All-American, and hopefully it'll be me and him coming at people from both sides," he said.

-- Sunday's paper will have a feature on Lake Mary's Demi Thompson, a great story that stands out in a ridiculously talented class of defensive linemen coming to USF. It's interesting that USF is ranked by Rivals.com as having the nation's No. 2 group of defensive ends in the country in this year's class. That ranking, however, includes Leslie Stirrups as a defensive end, but he's been a defensive tackle at East Mississippi and I have no reason to think he'll be anything but a tackle at USF. With Stirrups, Khyri Thornton and Anthony Hill, the Bulls have eight defensive linemen in this class, clearly a strength in what's shaping up as a top-25 class nationally.

Late night: Gramatica brothers guest on Conan

More wild ways USF is getting exposure from the Super Bowl being in town: the Gramatica brothers -- former Bulls kickers Bill and Santiago and ex-Bucs kicker Martin -- taped a segment in Tampa on Thursday with Conan O'Brien.

The kickers taped the bit at Tampa's Jefferson High -- it should be part of NBC's pregame show on Sunday, and should also air on Late Night -- no word on whether it will be part of Thursday or Friday's show. In the photo, left to right, that's Martin, Santiago, Conan and Bill.

"That was amazing," Santiago said Thursday. "We're all fans, but after meeting him, we're even bigger fans. He's just a naturally funny guy."

NBC called USF asking for help for a segment showing O'Brien how to kick a field goal, and the Bulls suggested the Gramaticas. As for O'Brien's kicking ability? "Absolutely, he's a great athlete," Santiago said. "He's more the size of a punter, but he did a great job."

(photo courtesy GoUSFbulls.com)

End rush: Five-star Pierre-Paul commits to USF

USF already had one of the nation's best incoming classes of defensive ends, but the Bulls have added perhaps the biggest coup yet, as junior college standout Jason Pierre-Paul, rated a five-star recruit by Scout.com, committed on Thursday.

"There is no doubt he is the best player in junior college football this year," said Jeff Sims, his coach at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. "He's extremely athletic. You have a 6-foot-6, 270-pound player who can do a backflip wearing a helmet and shoulder pads."

Pierre-Paul, of Deerfield Beach, also had Nebraska and Kansas State among his final choices, and Sims said the proximity to home helped USF and defensive line coach Kevin Patrick seal the deal.

Pierre-Paul is rated as the nation's No. 6 junior college prospect at any position by Rivals.com, which rates him a four-star recruit. He will sign with the Bulls next week as perhaps the most highly touted recruit in USF's 12-year history. He joins a talented class of defensive ends that includes Armwood's Ryne Giddens and Boca Ciega's Julius Forte.

QB Grant Gregory gets sixth year, will transfer

USF senior Grant Gregory, the Bulls' backup quarterback for the past three seasons, has been granted a sixth year of eligiblity by the NCAA but said Thursday he will transfer and spend his final season at a Division I-AA program.

Gregory, who has graduated from USF with a degree in communications, said he is considering Towson and Eastern Kentucky, two schools where he would be able to transfer and play immediately this fall. Both schools have majors -- kinesiology and sports management -- that Gregory said he can't get at USF, and both had senior starters at quarterback in 2008, giving him a good chance to step in as starter this fall.

"I've got one last shot, and I just want to play," said Gregory, who said he has coach Jim Leavitt's blessing to play elsewhere.

Gregory's departure leaves the Bulls without an experienced backup to rising senior Matt Grothe. The Bulls will have redshirt freshmen B.J. Daniels and Evan Landi. Daniels played sparingly in two games last fall and is expected to get a medical redshirt after being sidelined most of the season with a wrist injury. Gregory said he believes the Bulls will be in good shape with Daniels and Landi backing up Grothe.

Gregory has connections to the coaches at both I-AA schools he is considering. Towson recently named former Tampa Bay Storm quarterback John Kaleo as its quarterback coach, and Gregory has previously trained with Kaleo in Tampa. Eastern Kentucky's offensive coordinator, Mike Springston, coached with former USF offensive coordinator Rod Smith at West Virginia Tech in 2000.

'God of sod' oversees USF's field makeover

Helping with the Times' Super Bowl coverage this week has overlapped with my usual USF coverage, as the Steelers are practicing on USF's practice fields and using the Bulls' athletic facility for meetings in preparation for Sunday's big game against Arizona.

It's a zoo around the building, with security everywhere and Steelers fans lining up hoping to get pictures and autographs. Got to see USF's two practice fields just before Pittsburgh's first practice Wednesday, and they've gotten quite a makeover. The NFL put new sod in on 80 percent of the practice area, and the fields are newly painted, marked and lined, with a huge Steelers logo in the entry area to the fields.

Presiding over the makeover is legendary NFL groundskeeper George Toma, known as the "God of sod" or even the "Marquis de Sod" as the caretaker of turf for every Super Bowl since the start. A spot of paint here, a little manicuring there, all to make the practice fields as ideal as possible for the Steelers -- the Cardinals are using the Bucs' new facility, closer to Raymond James Stadium.

Pittsburgh's interviews on Wednesday and Thursday were in the Sun Dome -- and you thought there wouldn't be a day when hundreds of media members gathered for an event there -- with the upper level stands pushed in and players lined up at podiums and tables to talk about the game. Wild to see Troy Polamalu getting escorted from the Dome to the athletic facility via golf cart, or to know that Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger were doing their one-on-one interviews with John Madden and Al Michaels in the meeting room next to Doug Woolard's office.

It's a circus at USF, but a well-timed one for the Bulls' football recruiting -- it's one thing to sell a recruit on the chance to play in an NFL stadium, another to show him he'll be playing on the same field as the biggest game in all of football. We'll get more up on USF's final recruiting push later in the day ...