USF softball may call Clearwater home in 2010

USF softball is prepared to play all of its 2010 home games in Clearwater if it speeds up construction of a new softball stadium and football practice fields next spring.

The Bulls are already booked to play 19 games at Clearwater's E.C. Moore Complex, where they will host four tournaments in February and March, bringing 75 college teams to Pinellas County. The Bulls played 10 games at the Moore Complex last season as part of two tournaments they regularly host there.

Mike Lockwood, recreation superintendent for the City of Clearwater, said Wednesday that USF had contacted his office to check on the availability of the softball complex for the remainder of the schedule. The Bulls likely would host 10 or 12 Big East games in Clearwater this spring, in addition to a few midweek games during the season.

USF athletics is in the process of choosing from three design-build groups who have submitted bids to handle the construction of major facility upgrades, which also include a new baseball stadium and new basketball practice facility adjacent to the Sun Dome. If the chosen team can begin the building process this spring, USF would play softball in Clearwater to help start the projects sooner.

WR Williams' return key in Orange resurgence

While Duke guard turned Syracuse quarterback Greg Paulus has earned much of the headlines surrounding the Orange's improved play, the return of top receiver Mike Williams has also been a huge boost.

Williams, a 6-foot-2, 211-pound target who caught touchdowns in nine straight games to finish the 2007 season, had to sit out last year due to academic concerns. He's started back where he left off, with team highs of 28 catches for 437 yards and three touchdowns in Syracuse's first four games.

"He's really good," USF defensive coordinator Joe Tresey said. "He covers ground because of his frame. I wouldn't say he's a blazer, but he runs precise routes, he has great ball skills. He knows how to use his body. We're extremely concerned about him."

USF has the No. 5 passing defense in the country, allowing just 130.5 yards per game, and the Bulls are one of three teams in Division I-A that have not given up a passing touchdown this season.

BEEN THERE: Defensive line coach Kevin Patrick knows the feeling of going into the Carrier Dome with an undefeated record and won't be taking Syracuse lightly. As a junior defensive end at Miami in 1992, Patrick saw the Hurricanes nearly lose to Syracuse in the regular-season finale, escaping 16-10 when the Orange was stopped at the 3-yard line as time expired.

"We won," Patrick said. "Going into halftime, we had held them to (minus-1 yard) of total offense. Then they gashed us for 200 (actually 295) after halftime. I know it's going to be a big crowd. When they pack them in there, it's a loud place to play, and our guys respect that."

How many will show for Cincinnati game?

I don't mean to turn the focus away from Syracuse at all, but in the excitement of USF's 4-0 start and the possibility of the Bulls being 5-0 and hosting Cincinnati two weeks from Thursday, I've heard a lot of references to the prospect of a sold-out Raymond James Stadium for the Big East showdown.

That's probably not going to happen, if only because of the logistical limitations of a Thursday night kickoff. The weeknight slot is great for national exposure, but means less families will turn out on a school night, and fewer out-of-towners who have to take work off on Friday to make the trip. Not to say some fans won't do just that, but less than would for a traditional Saturday game, or even a Friday night kickoff.

Take last season -- the Bulls were at their season peak of No. 10 in the national rankings when Pittsburgh came to town for a Thursday night game. Do you remember the crowd? It was announced at 50,307 -- well under the 65,000-plus needed for sellouts like the Bulls had against West Virginia and Central Florida in 2006. Two weeks after Pittsburgh last year, there were more fans (51,384) to see a lower-ranked Bulls teams face a lesser Syracuse team ... on a Saturday.

With that in mind, and with season-ticket sales about 15 percent down from last season, a crowd in the low 50s is probably what the Bulls and Bearcats will get, which is two full levels and fans on one side of the top tier at Raymond James. It's also much more than USF was able to draw for two early home games against Wofford (40,360) and Charleston Southern (38,798).

USF has sold more than 1,000 "miniplans" -- which allow fans to pick three of the remaining four home games -- since the last home game on Sept. 19. Single-game tickets are now on sale, but the Bulls' biggest crowd will almost certainly be an Oct. 30 game against West Virginia or a Nov. 28 date against Miami, USF's first home game against one of the state's traditional powers.

We now return to the Syracuse coverage already in progress ...

LB Barrington leaped to help goal-line stand

Freshman linebacker Sam Barrington, on the field for a key goal-line stand Saturday when senior Kion Wilson left with a hand injury, remembered something linebackers coach David Blackwell had told him weeks earlier.

USF had a five-man defensive line as FSU lined up on fourth and goal from the 2-yard line, and all five linemen went left on the play, giving running back Ty Jones a window to the end zone. Safety Nate Allen was blocked outside, leaving the crucial play up to USF's three linebackers.

Senior Chris Robinson went low at the goal line to stop a blocking back, and junior Sabbath Joseph made the initial contact to slow Jones. Barrington, with an FSU lineman laying between him and the play, jumped over him and quickly got to Jones to finish the tackle and keep FSU off the scoreboard. Five plays later, the Bulls had gone 99 yards for a touchdown and a lead they wouldn't give up.

"About two weeks prior to the game, (Blackwell) told me a real linebacker will jump over and make it from the back side," Barrington said. "That's what I was thinking about. As soon as I saw that guard go down, I just jumped over him and went to get him. That was it."

Barrington has seen his playing time increase in what has largely been a four-linebacker rotation, and he ranks fourth among the linebackers with 13 tackles in four games. Asked if the Bulls will be prepared to face an athletic quarterback in Syracuse's Greg Paulus on Saturday, Barrington said USF's defense gets prepared for that every day in practice.

"In my opinion, you don't get too much more mobile than B.J. Daniels," Barrington said. "(Paulus) is a good player, and I'm not taking anything from him, but I feel like if we play South Florida football, we'll come out victorious."

Big East, Big 12 make Yankee Bowl official

The newest addition to the Big East bowl lineup was officially announced Wednesday morning, as starting next season, the league will send its third or fourth team to a new postseason bowl at Yankee Stadium in New York, against the No. 7 team from the Big 12. The game will be played between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg called his city "the biggest college town in the country" in announcing the game, which he said will have a projected economic impact of $47-million from 40,000 visitors.

You can watch the news conference at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday live from the Big East's website.

"No one does big events like New York City and there is no better place to be during the holidays than in New York," said Yankees president Randy Levine in announcing the game, which is still officially pending NCAA bowl certification.

Levine said the bowl has not been officially named and will seek a title sponsor -- it's been informally coined the Yankee Bowl in the interim. It's actually not the first college football bowl game to be hosted in Yankee Stadium -- the Gotham Bowl was played there in 1961 and 1962.

The Big East now sends its champion to the BCS and its No. 2 team to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. The Yankee Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte will take the third and fourth picks, with the St. Petersburg Bowl and the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham expected to share the fifth and sixth teams over the four-year cycle that runs from 2010 to 2013.

This means of the Big East's five non-BCS bowl contracts, all but one should feature contracted opponents from BCS conferences, if the St. Petersburg Bowl maintains its relationship with Conference USA.

JPP-mania: 'A definite 1st-round guy,' FSU says

The biggest buzz from Saturday's USF win at Florida State sure looks to be defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who we featured front and center in Wednesday's Sports section with a feature story and a great photo from the Times' Willie J. Allen Jr.

We wrote in that story that FSU quarterback Christian Ponder said both ends -- Pierre-Paul and George Selvie -- would be playing in the NFL someday. There was more Tuesday from Tallahassee, as offensive line coach Rick Trickett told the Tallahassee Democrat that Pierre-Paul, who has played just four major-college football games, is "a definite first-round guy."

Selvie is often projected as a first-rounder, but it's the highest praise we've heard for Pierre-Paul, who is tied for the team lead with 4.5 tackles for loss despite starting just two of USF's four games. He said he played 49 snaps Saturday, showing he's quickly building his stamina after coming into preseason camp two weeks late and behind on conditioning.

More JPP -- the Lakeland Ledger also wrote on him and how he can complement Selvie by drawing away some of the double-teams the All-American is used to getting. And ESPN's Brian Bennett has more on Pierre-Paul's background -- his father, Jean, has been blind since Jason was an infant and has never been to one of his son's games. We'll come back to that one when his father is able to hear the crowd at a game at Raymond James Stadium down the road ...

-- News on the NFL front, as the Detroit Lions, buoyed by their first win in more than a year, have signed former USF receiver Taurus Johnson to their practice squad. Johnson had been with the Chiefs until being cut at the end of the preseason.

-- More links: ESPN's Dick Vitale checks in on USF's big win and how it can help Stan Heath and USF basketball.

-- If you're like me, you watch a whole lot of Jane Krakowski Breyer's Ice Cream commercials. Not really that obsessed with the "30 Rock" actress (best show on tv, btw) but you have to sit through the commercial before you can watch "The Bullhorn," the daily video at GoUSFbulls.com. (I came to unwillingly memorize the "Crank 2" trailer in August by the same pre-Bullhorn looping.)

It's ably hosted by USF's Joel Godett, who does the Home Shopping Network deal today, pitching commemorative photos from the USF-FSU game. Me, I had my own Bullhorn cameo last week -- wandering in the distant background about 90 seconds into this clip about basketball ticket renewals.

USF's Simmonds says Hermann block was legal

USF co-offensive line coach Mike Simmonds responded to accusations from a Florida State defensive lineman that Bulls right guard Zach Hermann was trying to take him out with a low block in Saturday's game, saying Hermann's play was was "absolutely" a legal block.

FSU freshman Jacobbi McDaniel injured his right knee late in the first half Saturday when Hermann rolled into his right knee after quarterback B.J. Daniels had run upfield for a 7-yard gain. McDaniel, who later returned to play against USF, may not be able to play against Boston College this week because of the injury.

"I was looking downfield, and he like faked like he was going to go off and then came back down (into my knee)," McDaniel told Warchant.com. "For him to do that - and the play is way downfield - I feel like he was trying to take me out. And that ain't the way you play the game. If you're going to take me out, take me out fair."

The report called the play a "cheap shot," but Simmonds defended Hermann's actions, saying the block was executed the way the Bulls are coached.

"Hermann did exactly what we teach him to do," Simmonds said. "We're taught to not let him retrace back to the play. We teach the cutoff. It's a totally legal play. ... It's a one-on-one cut block. Totally legal. What (McDaniel) did was, once we punched to clear him, he just kind of quit playing. We're not going to quit playing. We've got to play to the whistle. We cut him. He was just kind of getting lazy, and we cut him.

"We don't teach anything illegal. Anybody can look at the tape, can send it to the Big East office. Any official is going to tell you that's a legal block."

A cut block, or block below the waist, is considered an illegal "chop block" if the block comes from the side or behind a player, or if the player is engaged with another player and thus defenseless. USF's offense was flagged for two illegal chop blocks and FSU was penalized for one during the game. McDaniel told Warchant.com that Hermann later taunted him about the injury.

"The thing that made me really mad," McDaniel told the site, "was when I came back in the game, he started talking, like, 'How was your break, honey?' And I was like, 'Are you serious, man?' I guess some players play that way. But down the road, they're going to get what they deserve."

Simmonds himself was injured in the fourth quarter when FSU's Kevin McNeil hit Daniels late out of bounds, sending both players hard into Simmonds on the sidelines. McNeil was flagged 15 yards for a personal foul, and Simmonds said he separated his AC joint in his left shoulder and may face surgery.

NOTES: Leavitt said running back Jamar Taylor, out six weeks with a sprained knee, is scheduled to resume running next week, a first step toward practicing again. Leavitt said that if Taylor can't return soon, he can redshirt and return in 2010 with two years of eligibility. ... Leavitt said it's more likely that sophomore safety Jerrell Young, who has missed three games with a broken right forearm, will return for USF's Oct. 15 game against Cincinnati and not Saturday at Syracuse.

A cut above: Wilson proved toughness at FSU

TAMPA -- USF defensive coordinator Joe Tresey thought pretty highly of senior linebacker Kion Wilson before Saturday's win at Florida State, but Wilson's toughness in returning to the field after injuring his hand took the coach's admiration to another level.

"If you ever want to go to battle, you want that guy in your foxhole," Tresey said. "He is a coach's dream. He comes to work every day. ... He's 100 mph, every rep, every second."

Tresey held up his hand Tuesday and spread the fingers uncomfortably apart, showing how Wilson got his fingers separated during Saturday's game, tearing soft tissue on both sides of his hand and needing 25 stitches to repair the laceration.

"He goes out early in the second, and third quarter, I'm standing on the sidelines, and he comes up and says 'Coach, I'm ready,'" Tresey said. "I'm like 'They told me you're done.' We had a change of possession, and I'm yelling for Kion, and everybody's looking at me, going like 'You're nuts. He's out.' Here he comes, right out on the field, taped up, ready to roll. There aren't many people in America in this game that would come back out after getting 25 stitches in the locker room at halftime. ... He's impressive."

Wilson, who was not available for comment Tuesday, now leads the team with 22 tackles, and he had a forced fumble and fumble recovery in Saturday's win.

Tresey told his defensive players they needed to force three turnovers and tackle at an 85 percent success rate in order to beat Florida State. They surpassed those goals, forcing four fumbles and scoring an 88 percent when Tresey graded the defense. If USF seemed more physical against the Seminoles on Saturday, Tresey said it simply better execution of something coaches have focused on all along.

"We stress it every week, every day, since Day 1, since I've been here," Tresey said. "It's one thing we've tried to stress is being more physical."

Yankees to announce new bowl Wednesday

The New York Yankees have announced a press conference on Wednesday to announce a "major college football bowl game at Yankee Stadium," widely reported to be part of the Big East's new bowl lineup starting next season.

The Big East already has the St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field, and has had the International Bowl in Toronto, so the league is slowly working its way through the entire American League East. We'll have more on the details on the new Yankee Bowl as they come in ...

Notes: Bulls overcame field position at FSU

Went back over the USF-FSU game Monday night, and what struck me most was how much USF overcame an overwhelming field position disadvantage throughout the game.

There's no place louder on the road then when a team is pinned deep in its own territory, and USF spent much of Saturday there at Doak Campbell. The Bulls ran 10 offensive plays inside their 10-yard line, including eight plays inside the 5 -- in all, there were 17 plays, more than a quarter of the Bulls' 63 total offensive plays, that came inside their 20.

FSU, by comparison, run only two of its 64 plays pinned inside its 20-yard line, and none deeper than its own 14.

B.J. Daniels' touchdown to Ben Busbee was the only red-zone snap USF until there were six minutes left in the game. FSU, of course, was the opposite, with 11 plays inside the USF 30 before the Seminoles got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.