Tampa won't pursue ACC title game

The City of Tampa will not pursue hosting the ACC Championship Game beyond the next two years in order to give USF the right to play at home in the first week of December, according to an agreement informally reached at a meeting called by Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio on Friday.

"The two are in the long term incompatible,'' Iorio said after meeting for nearly two hours with representatives from USF and the Tampa Sports Authority, among other local leaders.

USF has committed to negotiate a more long-term lease of Raymond James Stadium in return for having secondary priority for scheduling, behind the Bucs. The current agreement is a five-year contract with a five-year extension and a clause that allows USF to opt out at any point with two years' notice.

A longer lease with Raymond James Stadium would push back any effort from USF to build an on-campus stadium, though such a move would require significant fund-raising efforts. Asked if Friday's agreement pushed an on-campus stadium to the back burner, USF athletic director Doug Woolard said: "I don't know what burner it's ever been on, quite honestly. ... It was there, but I don' think (this) changes what burner it was going to be on."

Woolard declined to specify how much longer a new lease at Raymond James Stadium would be. USF president Judy Genshaft declined to comment, saying that Iorio was designated as the spokesperson from the meeting. Rob Higgins, executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, who helped bring the ACC game to Tampa, also declined to comment, deferring to Iorio's statements.

Tampa will host the ACC title game on Dec. 6 and again in 2009, and those dates preclude USF from playing home football games in the final week of the regular season. USF lost an opportunity to play a Thursday night ESPN game against Rutgers that week as a result of the contract signed by the ACC.

"We'll be very fortunate that that week will be preserved for future football nights, Thursday night ESPN nationally televised events," Iorio said. "We are accepting of the '08 and '09 schedule with the ACC football (game) and recognize that is something we will go with because that is the arrangement. Our emphasis today has been on long-term and how the (USF) football program fits into the priorities of this community. It is a large priority of this community, and I think that was accepted by everyone in this room."

-- GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Bulls pick up Glades Central lineman

The Bulls picked up a late addition when Jatavious Jackson, who played both offensive and defensive line at Belle Glade Glades Central, signed. Jackson (6 feet 4, 280 pounds) signed with Florida State last year but did not enroll.

It's over! Cincy 38, USF 33

After a strange call by Cincinnati on a fake field goal gave the Bulls a shot, the Bearcats held on.

Ford injury

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

Bulls edge BC for No. 2 spot

The BCS standings are out and USF is in line to play for the national title. The Bulls are No. 2 behind only Ohio State. USF is narrowly ahead of Boston College, which came in at No. 3. Even if the Bulls win the rest of their games, Boston College or another team could pass them depending on the human polls and computer rankings that make up the BCS formula.

Ford, Taylor updates

In the postgame interviews, coach Jim Leavitt announced that Mike Ford missed the game because he was suspended for missing classes. It was a one-game suspension, so he should be back next week against UCF.

Leavitt also expects Jamar Taylor, who left the game with a sprained left ankle, to be back next week.

Final: USF 35, FAU 23

USF survives with a 35-23 win. Ben Williams finishes with 185 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

Greenlight for green and gold

TAMPA -- On a week where local support for the University of South Florida' s nationally-ranked football team has reached a fever pitch, even some downtown Tampa architecture is getting in on the action.

The pyramid-shaped cap of the SunTrust Tower, shown here glowing in radiant green and gold, was illuminated overnight.

A sellout

The USF-West Virginia game Friday is a sellout, according to the USF ticket office.

It's the first sellout in USF's 11-year football history with 65,857 fans expected at Raymond James Stadium.

"There are no tickets remaining for that game," assistant athletic director Jim Louk said in a message on USF's ticket line. "Individual game tickets are sold out, as are Tampa campus student tickets and mini plans."

USF is now selling three-game mini-plan packages for the the Bulls remaining three home games against Central Florida, Cincinnati and Louisville.

Bulls earn first ranking in school history

Apparently the ranking committees in college football do care about USF football.
Immediately following the Bulls 26-23 overtime victory at then-ranked No. 17 Auburn, quarterback Matt Grothe said: "I don't think the coaches' poll gives a rat's (expletive) about us, and I don't think we will be ranked."

During the Bulls bye week, the team has been recognized as a top 25 team in the nation by both the Associated Press (No. 23) and USA Today coaches poll (No. 24).

With USF's next two home games slated to be on national television, the Bulls have garnered more recognition across the country in 2007 than any of their previous 11 seasons.

North Carolina visits Raymond James Stadium Saturday at noon on ESPN 2 and the Bulls Big East opener against West Virginia is showcased on ESPN Sept. 28.

Including USF, there are four teams in the Big East included in the week 4 rankings: No. 5 West Virginia, No. 11 Rutgers and No. 18 Louisville.

Coach Jim Leavitt is expected to send out a press release later this afternoon.

Plancher, Genus nurse injuries

Running back Moise Plancher and center Sampson Genus both have protective ankle braces on at practice. Plancher is back this season after a knee injury and Genus is one of the top freshmen.

Taylor can play right away

Freshman running back Jamar Taylor has been granted a hardship waiver by the NCAA that will allow him to play this season. Taylor, who transferred after one semester at Alabama, will see immediate action and compete for carries in a deep backfield. "We're awfully excited about that,'' coach Jim Leavitt said. Check back for more later.

Carlton Hill back at QB

In an indication of how seriously USF is taking quarterback Matt Grothe's hip injury, the Bulls have moved former quarterback Carlton Hill back to his old position, giving them another option at quarterback with 10 days before the season starts.

Grothe, who injured his hip Monday, attended practice this morning but did not participate for the second day in a row. Hill, who played quarterback at USF during the 2005 season, had been working at safety and receiver this fall.

Hill, a junior who played mostly quarterback at Pearl River Community College last season, shared repetitions at quarterback with junior Grant Gregory, who would step in as starter if Grothe can't recover by the Bulls' Sept. 1 season opener against Elon, and senior Anthony Severino.

Coach Jim Leavitt said Tuesday that Grothe's injury was a hip pointer, which is a bruise of the pelvic bone, but he told a teammate during practice "that's not what I have." We'll update this story after the morning practice ends.

Ponton, Verpaele depart

Running back Ricky Ponton and safety Danny Verpaele have been suspended for the 2007 season. Reasons for the suspensions are not available. Ponton has decided to transfer, as will redshirt freshman linebacker LeBrandon Glover. Kicker Mike Benzer is leaving the team to focus on academics.

Scrimmage report

Correspondent Mike Camunas reports from Saturday's scrimmage:

With just a week left until USF’s spring game, new offensive coordinator Greg Gregory has been satisfied with the work done during practice, but knows his offense is still far from ready.

“We’re nowhere where we have to be to win the Big East,” said Gregory, who was promoted after former offensive coordinator Rod Smith left for West Virginia. “This is the time where we shake a little bit of the rust off you gathered in the winter.

“I’m not displeased with what we’ve done, but I’m not totally pleased either.”
Gregory saw his first team offense sputter out on the opening drive during Saturday’s scrimmage. Quarterback Matt Grothe went 2-for-4 passing for 18 yards and running back Ben Williams had three rushes for 13 yards during the series. The drive ended with a 57-yard field goal by kicker Delbert Alvarado.
On a later drive, Grothe was picked off by senior cornerback Mike Jenkins, who returned it for a touchdown. Gregory said facing a defense such as the Bulls’ will be beneficial.

Timeout for T.O.: Toward the end of practice, backup quarterback Grant Gregory threw a 5-yard touchdown to receiver Amp Hill. Hill, in celebration, pulled a Sharpie out of his sock and reenacted receiver Terrell Owens’ famous autographing a football after a touchdown.

Though coach Jim Leavitt declined to comment, Hill’s punishment was to sit out the rest of the session.

Bull bits: Receiver Amarri Jackson missed the scrimmage with a bruised shoulder, and Leavitt said he would return to practice this week.

On campus, the morning after

TAMPA — Coach Jim Leavitt announced this morning that the team’s annual banquet Saturday has been canceled in the wake of the death of freshman running back Keeley Dorsey. Additionally, USF has canceled all on-campus recruiting visits this weekend.

Leavitt flew to Tallahassee Thursday morning with team chaplain David Lane to meet with Dorsey’s family.

There will be a news conference at 4 p.m. today in front of the John and Grace Allen Administration Building, where Leavitt and USF Vice President of Student Affairs Jennifer Meningall will give updates.

Freshman receiver Carlton Mitchell, who was present inside the weight room at the time of Dorsey’s collapse, said he heard Dorsey fall.

Mitchell added that trainers and strength and conditioning coaches said Dorsey wasn’t breathing following his collapse and that all players present had to leave the weight room once the ambulance arrived.

A memorial service has yet to be planned.

By Mike Camunas, Times correspondent

Kravitz settling in at N.C. State

The keen eyes over on the message boards at thebullspen.com picked up a story in today's News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. -- first newspaper I ever wrote for -- about former USF defensive coordinator Rick Kravitz, who's now the special teams coach at N.C. State.

Story re-affirms something we wrote about here on the blog this spring, that Kravitz' decision to leave USF wasn't a money issue. Again, Kravitz made $104,000 at USF, plus an $8,000 bowl bonus, and is making $115,000 at N.C. State, arguably with less job security. Given that all of USF's assistants got at least a $19,000 bump from last year, it's safe to say he even took a pay cut to moev to the Research Triangle, where his new wife had a job offer in pharmaceuticals.

Couple of quick notes. First, the biggest position change this week in football is quarterback Nate Allen shifting to safety. On Monday, coach Jim Leavitt said Allen was staying at quarterback and redshirting, and by Wednesday, Allen apparently decided he wanted to be on the field this fall. Now he's a free safety, and by Friday morning, Leavitt was calling him "as good a safety as I've seen in a long time." Sounds like USF wasn't fighting the move too much ...

One of the highlights of practice -- that we're allowed to see, anyway -- are the "board drills," which put two players against each other straight ahead, just raw strength and technique, one pushing the other back. Few things seem to get the players more fired up -- things spilled over a bit when a pair of walk-ons, defensive end Treco Bellamy and guard Morgan Mathis, went at it, with a few punches even being thrown. Bellamy's giving up 55 pounds in that one, but the converted linebacker showed himself to be a physical guy.

Bulls added another walk-on lineman Thursday in former Indian Rocks Christian player Warren Garrison. Interesting addition, what Leavitt said is basically another big body for the scout-team offensive line. Garrison has been at three junior colleges and spent the past two semesters at USF ... Saw a little of new running back Shawn Cannon, from Highland Community College in Kansas, whose arrival came as Walt Smith missed practice with what Leavitt said was academic issues he had to clear up befoer he could return to playing.

Went to basketball practice on Thursday night and watched as the players scrimmaged for an hour and a half against a group of former players and others, including Reggie Kohn and B.B. Waldon. The group going to Italy, with a little help from transfers Jesus Verdejo and Kentrell Gransberry, who aren't allowed to make the trip, led almost the entire way, but Kohn hit some big shots in the last minute to pull out a one-point win. In a 112-111 game, I"m guessing Kohn scored at least 40. Seeing a little more offense from guard Chris Capko and forward McHugh Mattis -- those two were rarely given respect from opposing defenses last season as threats to hit or even take a jump shot, so that's a good development for USF's scoring balance.

On a sad note, send some kind thoughts and prayers to redshirt freshman guard Chris Howard, whose father passed away this week. Howard flew back home to suburban Washington, D.C., to be with his family. He'll return to the team tonight, in time to fly out to New York and Italy on Saturday. Howard's endured two ACL tears in the past year, and now this -- a lot of adversity for a guy who just turned 20 on Tuesday. He still has things to keep his head up, like hopes of returning healthy for the Big East season in January, and his 2-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, whose name is tattooed on his right calf.

I'll throw a plug in for men's soccer's exhibition Saturday night at USF against the University of Tampa, a first chance to see what might be the best team on campus this season. The Bulls, picked to repeat as Big East Red Division champs, beat UT 7-0 last year to keep the Rowdies Cup on the north side of town ...

Media day: Get on the bus!

I didn't fully appreciate how quickly Bulls coach Jim Leavitt wanted Tuesday's annual Media Hour -- sorry, Media Day -- event to end until the Offense bus started leaving Raymond James Stadium with me still on it.

Hours earlier, the usual formal team photo in the stands at Ray-Jay had been called off, with too many freshmen tied up with summer classes. Rather than take an incomplete team photo, the Bulls will wait and do it at full strength at a later date. Media day, as the name would suggest, is the year's best access to interview players, a free-for-all that's the journalistic equivalent of speed-dating (I've been married too long to have actually speed-dated) -- reporters going from one athlete to the next. It wrapped up about a half-hour earlier than expected -- I had walked out of a crowded locker room with receiver Amp Hill, and we came back to find the locker room empty (poof!) and buses loading outside.

I caught Leavitt getting onto one bus, talked to him for about two minutes before he had to run, then stepped onto the Offense bus, hoping to get running backs coach Carl Franks for a sec. Franks was busy on the phone -- I'd catch up to him back at the athletic facility, no real problem -- and as I turned to get off the bus, it started to leave. Oh, well.

For all that complaining, I was able to talk to a lot of players. Yes, that's me, hard at work interviewing the newest Bull -- and perhaps the only real news of the day. He's Fred Marshall, once a good enough quarterback at Largo to earn first-team All-Suncoast honors from the Times in 2003. Thanks to USF's official site, gousfbulls.com, for the photo I've shamelessly lifted.

Marshall is a safety now, though he played quarterback last season at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. He told me he literally got the official call from Leavitt on Sunday at 1 p.m., hours before players were to report. Until that point, he was hopeful of USF but thinking he might wind up at Northern Iowa.

Marshall might be the biggest get of the current walk-on class. When the Times did its Best of the Bay, ranking the top 25 athletes in our readership for the Class of 2004, Marshall was No. 9. Consider the current Bulls on the list -- Ricky Ponton was No. 7, Jake Griffin No. 6, Jarriett Buie No. 2 (and technically, Johnny Peyton was No. 4). Matt Huners checked in at No. 24. Bill Buchalter of the Orlando Sentinel had Marshall among the state's top 100 prospects.

He was recruited by USF, Cincinnati and even West Virginia, but grades kept him from signing. He played outside linebacker at Southwest Mississippi Community College for a year, then to Fort Scott. He got home for the summer and wanted to stay close to home, calling USF and asking if they had a spot for him. It wasn't until Sunday -- presumably that's when former Leto star J.B. Bailey decided he still wanted to be a quarterback somewhere else -- that he was officially on board with the Bulls.

One note from Tuesday's morning practice, as the only writer of any medium there to watch: Leavitt says he'll wait until the end of two-a-days to decide whether to redshirt senior tackle Thed Watson. I'm not suggesting there's such a thing as a doghouse, but if there was, Watson might be there. Early in Tuesday's workouts, Watson -- a preseason All-Big East selection -- was working as part of an offensive line that also included a true freshman and three first-year walk-ons. Nothing against the rest of the line, but it's four guys who had been through exactly one USF practice ... and Thed. So far, I'm seeing Jared Carnes, Danny Tolley and Marc Dile all working as first-team tackles, with Tolley lining up on both sides. Watson has three weeks to move back up the depth chart ...

Lots of other little nuggets, only some of which I remember at this hour. Defensive back Jamaal Jenkins, a walk-on who made an impact on special teams last year, is now on scholarship for the fall. I count six walk-ons that have earned scholarships in the past year, a crazy amount for an established program, and it speaks to both the quality of the walk-ons at USF and the number of scholarship kids that aren't sticking around to keep their rides, whatever the reason may be. Jenkins and his brother, freshman running back Aston Samuels, are both well-spoken kids, and along with the Cox twins, Antwane and Antonio, could be the first pair of brothers to play for USF in the same season. (I've asked all the proper authorities, and none know of a previous set of siblings).

Here's one you probably didn't know: freshman Moise Plancher -- first of all, he pronounces it "Moses" and says if you're going to call him "Moe" spell it just as "Mo," so like Vaughn, not the Stooge -- anyway, you might have known Plancher had a cousin commit to Central Florida for next season. What you probably didn't know is that he has an older brother, Willy, who will play this fall for Bemidji State, a Division II school in Minnesota. Stranger still, he got to Bemidji after playing at Fort Scott. Small world ... Plancher is one of at least five USF players who can speak Haitian Creole, along with both Julmistes, Marc Dile and Richard Clebert. Both of Plancher's parents were born in Haiti, but he was born in Naples after they came to the United States.

One last Mo note, and then I'm off to bed: I'm impressed that in one game as a high school senior at Barron Collier in Naples, Plancher rushed for 362 yards, setting a county record. What's nearly impossible to comprehend is that he did so while scoring only one touchdown in a 35-0 win against Gulf Coast. He rushed for 3,115 yards in his last two seasons ...

OK, feel free to send in rude captions about the photo, but you can do better than bald jokes, really ...

Clouds part, practice begins

I'll get to USF's first football practice of the fall in a paragraph or two, but first, the most impressive thing I saw on campus Monday was the sleek black BMW parked at the Sun Dome. Nice ride for Atlanta Hawks rookie Solomon Jones, who is hanging out with his former teammates, working with Terrence Leather and Marlyn Bryant as part of a practice squad for USF's current team, which leaves for 12 days in Italy on Saturday. It said a lot to me that the former players cared enough about the current team to help them out at practice like that, during a time that could easily be spent resting in the offseason before they return to pro teams overseas.

USF will basically have five players for the trip, along with walk-on guard Eddie Lovett. Those five -- Chris Capko, McHugh Mattis, Melvin Buckley, Aris Williams and Melvyn Richardson -- held their own at times during a full scrimmage against the Bulls alums and friends. Capko was especially surprising, draining a pullup jumper (!) and an international three (!!) in a span of five minutes. Midyear transfers Jesus (called "Zeus" by teammates) Verdejo and Kentrell Gransberry are getting good practice time as well, though they can't travel for the trip. It'll be a thin Bulls roster in November, buoyed a bit by three freshman guards, but depth won't be as much an issue by the new year.

Ah, yes, football. The start of practice was delayed 40 minutes by lightning in the area, an anxious Jim Leavitt watching the skies, then sprinting onto the field. So excited were the Bulls to take the field that the entire offense was out there before folks realized that nobody had told the defense the team was taking the field.

It's a time of year where Leavitt is very careful and calculating with his words, and Monday, he said he was impressed by the leadership of all five quarterbacks, even freshman Nate Allen, who he said would stick at quarterback this fall and redshirt rather than shifting to another position such as safety. Senior Pat Julmiste took the field with the first-team line at first -- for the record, that had Jared Carnes, Nick Capogna, Jake Griffin, Walter Walker and Danny Tolley -- but redshirt freshman Matt Grothe seemed to see as much action behind center.

Asked whether he had an early leader at running back -- likely between sophomore Ricky Ponton and redshirt freshman Moe Plancher -- Leavitt was noncommittal, saying even that walk-on Walt Smith had the best yards-per-carry in the spring. (Never mind that Plancher missed nearly all of spring drills with injuries and Ponton, too). He pointed out that last fall, West Virginia's No. 4 tailback entering fall drills was Steve Slaton, who wound up earning Big East Rookie of the Year honors as a dominating runner.

It's hard to tell when a first unit is together, especially in this first week, where the last week of summer school overlaps, forcing some players to come late and others to leave early. It looked like Danny Verpaele and Jeremy Burnett were working out as starting safeties. (On a side note, redshirt freshman Jerome Murphy has shifted from No. 34 to No. 13.) The next foursome working through drills, though not necessarily the secondary secondary, was cornerbacks Tyller Roberts and Ryan Gilliam and safeties Louis Gachette and Murphy, who could play either position.

The only position change of note is more of a novelty. Freshman walk-on Quincy Okolie of Palm Beach Central has the dubious distinction of changing positions twice before his first practice. Okolie, listed at 6-6 and 220 pounds, was first listed as a tight end, but deemed too light and shifted to receiver. Perhaps USF realized it had 15 other guys listed as receiver, as Okolie was working Monday as a skinny defensive end. A walk-on's first year on campus is always an evaluation period, so nothing unusual there.

One other thing that impressed me Monday was seeing would-be freshman Jeremiah Warren, one of eight non-qualifiers from this year's recruiting class, standing in streetclothes with the offensive linemen, watching coach Greg Frey and learning as much as he can without actually participating in drills. Warren will spend the fall in Tampa, working to improve his test scores so he can enroll in January as the first part of next year's recruiting class. If he takes the time to sit in on practice, even on a semi-regular basis, that's a commitment you don't see from many kids.

One more note: Kosha Irby, who came to USF last summer as the program's first assistant athletic director for marketing and event promotions, is headed back to Saint Louis University. He'll be an associate AD there, a solid jump for someone as young as Irby. He'll be missed, but don't take his departure as any knock on USF -- he has family and a fiancee back in St. Louis.

Tuesday is media day, so I've got to purge lots of old quotes from my digital recorders, leaving enough room for two hours of interviews at Raymond James Stadium ...

Practice here, Big East is hot

USF's first fall football practice is just hours away, and get this -- the Big East is getting positive press from the national media. No, really -- Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com, running through the "What's Hot and Not" for college football this season, has the Big East as his "hot" conference, with the ACC in the not column.

"The conference has more cream at the top than a triple latte," Schlabach writes. "Louisville and West Virginia are loaded. The Cardinals have Brian Brohm and Michael Bush. The Mountaineers have Pat White and Steve Slaton. The league title and corresponding BCS spot might be decided when the teams play at Louisville's Papa John's Cardinal Stadium on Thursday, Nov. 2 (ESPN, 7:30 ET)."

Notice the sneaky way they bolded the type of their own network? I might have casually skimmed right over it had they not done that. If both Louisville and West Virginia can go into that game undefeated -- I'd say Louisville's Sept. 16 date with Miami is the biggest obstacle in the way of that -- that Thursday night showdown should get a large amount of national play.

Another batch of new Bulls

College football teams are allowed to carry a roster of 105 players at the start of practice, with five more spots opened up on the first day of school. A lot of thought goes into those last 10 or so spots, with a "board" kept by coaches that sees daily changes, much like an NFL team going into a draft. With practice starting Monday, USF made a few more decisions on which walk-ons they'll carry this year, with a few new surprises with scholarships as well.

First, another walk-on promotion, by my count the fifth in the past year: junior Jared Carnes, a walk-on for two years who is in the hunt for the starting left tackle job, is now on scholarship. Carnes, at 6-foot-8 and 310 pounds, is the biggest Bull on roster, a St. Petersburg Catholic graduate who started his college career at Concord College in West Virginia before transferring to USF. This promotion matches all the talk we've heard this summer, that Carnes looks like a big-time lineman and has done a lot to put himself in contention for playing time. The other walk-ons to earn scholarships in the past year? Tight end Will Bleakley, receiver Ean Randolph, long snapper Ryan Bordeau and quarterback Anthony Severino.

More surprisingly, coach Jim Leavitt has added another scholarship recruit to his incoming class: 24-year-old Darryl Dudding, a 24-year-old sophomore who hasn't played football since the year 2000, when he was a freshman at the University of Central Arkansas. It's the best how-they-got-here story since Houston Hess last year: Dudding, an Indian Rocks Christian grad, just finished a four-year stint in the Coast Guard, aboard 210-foot cutters off the coast of Maine and Florida. His work involved drug interdiction and alien migration interdiction, and now he's living a dream he's had since he met Leavitt in the sixth grade. "Playing at USF has always been a dream of mine," he said. "To have this opportunity is unreal." He'll have three years of eligibility at USF -- the NCAA allows a player's five-year clock to stop while in military service. So it's more competition on snaps for Bordeau, who was actually a year behind Dudding at Indian Rocks at one point.

More cool walk-on stories? How about a Florida running back coming to USF from a junior college in Kansas? This doesn't sound like an Andre Hall, but there's reason to like Shawn Cannon, a 5-foot-10, 202-pound running back from Cantonment Tate (near Pensacola) who played the last two years at Highland Community College in Kansas. His numbers at Highland weren't anything huge -- about 640 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in two seasons, though he was limited by a sprained ankle last year. Tate coach Keith Leonard raved about him Friday: "I guarantee he will produce for the Bulls." As a senior at Tate in 2003, Cannon rushed for 1,532 yards and 15 touchdowns, averaging 7.7 yards per carry. He told me he was watching the Bulls on TV last year and decided it was the place he wanted to be. He'll have two years of eligibility with the Bulls -- best-case scenario for him this fall, he's good enough as a backup to allow USF to redshirt both true freshmen, Keeley Dorsey and Aston Samuels.

Dudding isn't the only Pinellas player to come to USF football via the military: new offensive lineman Joe Herzhauser, 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, last played in 2001 at Lakewood High. From there, he spent two years in the Air Force in Colorado, then got his associate of arts degree from St. Petersburg College. It's some tricky math to figure eligibility on these guys, but Herzhauser either has two or three years of eligibility. He was an assistant coach at Lakewood High last fall under former Bulls star Otis Dixon.

The only true freshman of the new additions is Brad Chancey, a 6-foot, 200-pound walk-on from Boca Ciega, where he played as a linebacker. His size is better suited for a safety at USF, but they have him listed as a linebacker. (By the way, they've shifted Bradenton Southeast signee A.J. Love back to receiver, but expect him to get a look on both sides of the ball this fall).

I've got the Bulls at 107 players right now, which means at least two kids won't be practicing this week. A few players still haven't been officially accepted into the university -- defensive tackle James Jackson, who signed with USF in February, is one of them, along with walk-on defensive back J.B. Bailey and Dudding. Bailey and Jackson are finishing summer-school classes at junior colleges, and Dudding said he expects no problems getting into school. The roster still does not include Armwood receiver Mat Brevi -- still trying to track him down.

There you have it. Don't know that any of these guys will make an impact this fall, but now you know a little more about them ...

New address, same old blog

Hey, loyal readers. Just making sure all the technological stuff is working well. Make a habit of checking this address and not the old one ...

News? It looks like former Bulls basketball star Marlyn Bryant will be a part of the new ABA pro basketball team, the Tampa Bay Strong Dawgs, who will play at the University of Tampa and practice in Wesley Chapel. The team has tryouts on Aug. 19, but I can't imagine them getting a talent level where Bryant can't make the roster. He played professionally in Mexico this past year and is back in town for the summer ...

I'm trying to track down a photo of Andre Hall in a Bears uniform. The transaction barely registered a blip on the Chicago sports radar -- a single line in the Chicago Tribune, and the Rockford Register Star reported that Hall was "signed for depth purposes," with Tony Hollings recently released and Thomas Jones nursing a sore hammy.

The most love for Hall came from the Courier News Online, a suburban Chicago paper. And for all you folks who got Hall's autograph as "Andre Hall #36" from his Buc days, that rare signing's value should soar skyward -- Hall will wear jersey No. 25 with the Bears, according to the official site's roster.

A few football tidbits ...

-- There's been a lot of talk about senior left tackle Thed Watson, a preseason all-Big East selection, possibly redshirting this fall. Talked with Thed this week, and he said he has been able to do the things he needed to do this summer academically where he will not redshirt this fall. "I want to play this year. This can be a great team," Watson said. Watson wanting to play and being able to play still doesn't mean Leavitt can't redshirt him, but it sounds like some issues have been resolved. I still hear great things about junior Jared Carnes, who is healthy and measured at 6-8, 310 pounds last week.

-- Biggest difference between when players leave USF and when personnel leave? The staff goes to bigger schools. Aside from maybe Pat Carter, I can't remember another football player leaving for even a comparable university, but there's been a steady trickle of staff moving on to big programs this summer. The latest is Robb Duncanson, who had been USF's assistant athletic trainer for football since 2002 and was moved up to associate trainer this summer. He left for that same position at Tennessee. It's the second loss in a month for the training staff, which saw Lisa Osterbrook, who worked with men's basketball, also leave this summer.

-- We've written plenty about former USF receiver Johnny Peyton, who was dismissed from the team this spring and still hasn't landed anywhere. More bad news for him that makes the not-going-to-Akron thing awfully trivial: his younger brother, Jonaey, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of attempted murder, accused by police of being involved in a double shooting that had a 31-year-old woman shot in the chest and her father shot in the face. Just like his brother, Jonaey played receiver at Pasco High the last two seasons.

-- Football is approaching fast, with players reporting Sunday, starting practice Monday and meeting with the media on Tuesday. I'm planning on doing a New Bull of the Day each day during preseason practice, a chance for you to get to know some of the new freshmen and transfers and so on. By the way, USF has announced that Fan Appreciation Day will be Aug. 26 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the football practice fields north of the Sun Dome on campus.

-- In the next day or two, this blog will be changing addresses, moving to a new home at blogs.tampabay.com/usf, and I'm told that all the old posts can migrate over, and the old site should be able to redirect you over there. Don't want to lose anybody in the changeover ...

Andre Hall to sign with Bears

Andre Hall has a second chance at making it in the NFL.

The former USF running back, an undrafted rookie cut by the Bucs on July 21, has agreed to a three-year contract with the Chicago Bears on Wednesday. He'll sign his deal and report to preseason camp this morning, eager to prove he's worthy of a pro contract.

"As a kid, Walter Payton was someone I always liked to watch," said the Dixie Hollins graduate, who led the Big East in rushing last season. "The Bears are my style. Blue-collar, tough guys. I can't wait to get started."

The Bears have three established running backs on roster in Cedric Benson, Thomas Jones and Adrian Peterson, but Jones recently injured his hamstring and, according to an ESPN.com report, could be traded to the Broncos.

"I felt I did all I could in Tampa, but it was a good thing that they let me go early, so I could sign with another team," said Hall, who spoke with Chicago general manager Jerry Angelo on Wednesday. "I'm definitely going to spend a little more time with the playbook and show them what I can do."

If Hall can make the Bears' roster, he'll have a chance to go up against the Bucs when they come to Chicago on Dec. 17.

Bulls now 3-for-3 with NCAA waivers

Good news for Bulls fans from the Fortuitous Bounces Dept.: For the third time this summer, USF has been able to get a football player eligible for the 2006 season thanks to a waiver granted by the NCAA.

Linebacker Marvin Peoples, who transferred from Maryland after one season, has been granted a hardship waiver, allowing him to skip the usual year off that transfers must take. Peoples came to USF to be closer to his home in Apopka due to an undisclosed family illness, much like former Florida defensive tackle Julian Riley, who joined the Bulls in January to be closer to his mother, who has lupus, in St. Petersburg. Riley, too, was granted an NCAA waiver.

Strangely enough, I got to break the news to Peoples, an hour after USF had sent out a release about his immediate eligibility. The coaches hadn't told him yet, but he's all the more excited about reporting with his teammates on Sunday.

"I'm elated to have the chance to play this fall," said Peoples, who will likely work at the Sam and Will linebacker spots on the outside, groomed as a potential starter next season after seniors Stephen Nicholas and Patrick St. Louis graduate.

Add in long-snapper Ryan Bordeau, who was granted a sixth year of eligibility, a major boost to USF's special teams, and it's an impressive 3-for-3 for USF's compliance department and associate athletic director Steve Horton. All three have valid claims behind their requests, but that doesn't always translate to landing a hardship waiver.

As if that trifecta weren't enough, the Bulls have filed a fourth waiver petition, for center Ryan Schmidt, who transferred to USF after two seasons at Kansas State. Schmidt isn't on scholarship this fall, but if eligible, could compete or at least provide valuable depth behind likely starter Nick Capogna.

One more nugget to tide football fans over until practice starts Monday: A.J. Love, a late addition to USF's recruiting class from Bradenton Southeast, has been accepted into the university and will start classes this month with the rest of the freshman class. Love will start his Bulls career as a defensive back, a position he hasn't played since his junior varsity days at Southeast.

More thoughts on Stirrups

The news reported in Tuesday's Times that former Hillsborough High lineman Leslie Stirrups had been arrested and charged with six felonies brought a range of responses from fans -- frustration, disappointment, disbelief.

I caught the arrest late enough Monday night that I wasn't able to get a lot of details beyond the basic charges. In short, police say Stirrups stole digital cameras worth about $300 each and other small items from cars parked in the parking lot near Tampa International Airport where he and his mother worked.

When I called Pearl River Community College, where Stirrups was set to play this fall after failing to qualify academically at USF, coach Tim Hatten was blunt: This was not the kind of activity he'd tolerate in his program, not the kind of character he wanted to bring to Mississippi. Unless the charges go away very quickly, Stirrups has no place on his team.

The easy reaction is that it's slightly hypocritical that one day after he takes  Carlton Hill off USF's hands, knowing he's had a recent arrest for possession of marijuana, Hatten says he wants no part of Stirrups and his error in judgment. With Stirrups though, the issue is greater, because it attacks a coach's ability to trust the young man. If he's willing to steal from customers of a business that employs both himself and his own mother, what conscience would stop him from stealing from a teammate's locker?

What's truly mindless in all of this, both funny and sad at the same time, is how Stirrups got caught: With both cameras, police say he took a few pictures of himself and friends before pawning them, never deleting the images. So when police were able to recover the cameras, they saw the post-theft pics and showed them around at the parking lot office. Of course, they could identify him; he worked there. It's the kind of silliness you normally laugh at while reading Carl Hiassen novels.

His six felony counts are remarkably similar to another USF signee who failed to qualify academically and wound up at Pearl River three years ago, a linebacker named Gene Coleman. We chronicled his problems last spring in a story about how college programs rarely do any kind of background checks on recruits; with Coleman, he'd burglarized a neighbor's home, with more than $13,000 in jewelry stolen. Again, not the smartest criminal mind, police said Coleman had stolen a $40 Wal-Mart gift card straight out of a Father's Day card, and was later identified on store surveillance cameras as he bought video games. The neighbor never got her wedding ring back, but still told a judge she didn't think his actions should take a college scholarship away from him.

This might not be the end for Stirrups. Coleman managed to avoid jail time in his case, and would probably be at USF today had he been able to get his academics straight at Pearl River. This is Stirrups' first known arrest, so it's reasonable to think he could get a plea agreement lowering the charges to misdemeanors -- the low end of the range for third-degree grand theft is $300, and he's barely above that on both sets of charges. He'll have to find a junior college willing to take him, then he'll have a year or two to show enough for a Division I program to trust him with a scholarship, all while solving the academic problems that have limited him so far.

On a far brighter note, I want to offer a link to an encouraging update from Times writer Brandon Wright on the rehabilitation of former USF standout J.R. Reed, hoping to return to the Philadelphia Eagles this fall after missing last season with a horrific injury that badly damaged the peroneal nerve in his leg. Reed, like Stirrups, is a Hillsborough High grad, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a former Bulls player more universally liked by fans, teammates and coaches. For all you newspapers-are-always-negative critics, the Reed story dominated the front page of Tuesday's sports section; the Stirrups one was on an inside page.

Hey, technically, could be worse for USF

If you wanted a positive spin on those 10 recruits that signed with USF in February but won't make it to campus this fall, this probably wasn't what you had in mind.

Leslie Stirrups, arguably the most highly touted of the 28 recruits who signed with USF in February, was arrested Monday on six felony charges, all related to auto burglaries. Two counts of burglary of a conveyance, two counts of third-degree grand theft, one for dealing in stolen property and another for giving a false name to a pawn dealer. The 18-year-old from Hillsborough High remains in jail on $17,500 bond.

So for USF, it's probably better today that Stirrups isn't on campus as a freshman. Stirrups didn't qualify academically and is slated to play this fall at Pearl River Community College in Mississippi. (You could argue that if he was in the structure and supervision of a major college football program, he might not be allegedly stealing things from cars, but that's another matter). So instead of a USF freshman getting arrested, it's just a talented local kid who signed with USF but didn't make it and hopes to get back to USF in a few years ... legal issues notwithstanding.

Speaking of Pearl River and arrests more closely linked to USF, that's where Carlton Hill is headed for this fall, as part of his academic/character rehabilitation. He's the fourth USF player/recruit placed at Pearl River since January, but he might not be playing quarterback at Pearl River, either. The school already has a strong quarterback in Mike Greco, an N.C. State transfer, so Hill could wind up at receiver or even safety. Either way, the plan is to get him back to USF in 2007, with two years to play. The guy's fallen a long way since March.

Remind me on Tuesday to write more about USF's first men's basketball practice. If you're yearning for the days of Will McDonald, Terrence Leather and Marlyn Bryant, stop by the Sun Dome this week. They're practicing against the current Bulls -- how appropriate that players playing in Europe help USF prepare for its trip to Italy in two weeks. (And you geography majors, yes, Bryant played pro ball this year in Mexico, which is not in Europe, I know .. )

USF may send Hill to junior college

A long offseason for USF sophomore Carlton Hill has taken another turn for the worse, as coach Jim Leavitt said Sunday that he is "leaning toward" placing Hill at a junior college this fall.

There seems little chance of Hill taking the field for USF in 2006, as Leavitt also said the chances of him taking a redshirt if he stays with the Bulls were "incredibly strong." Leavitt said going to a junior college could allow Hill to continue playing quarterback -- if he stays with the Bulls, they see him as a receiver in the immediate future.

Hill was named USF's starting quarterback entering spring drills, but missed much of those workouts due to academic problems. Making matters worse, he was arrested on campus in June with two former USF players on a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana.

I'll have more later in the day and in Monday's paper ...

Defensive end is USF's first '07 commitment

TAMPA -- USF picked up its first oral commitment for 2007 on Saturday as Lake Gibson defensive end Claude Davis told coach Jim Leavitt he'll sign with the Bulls in February.

"It's a great school with a lot of potential. They're bowl contenders every year now," said Davis, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound recruit who chose USF over offers from Florida, Louisville, Clemson and Iowa State. "It feels great to know where I'm going. It's a lot of weight off my shoulders."

As a junior, Davis had 96 tackles, including 14 sacks and seven forced fumbles. Davis committed Saturday morning as he participated in USF's senior showcase camp, which drew about 100 players, some from as far away as Texas and New Jersey. It's the second time in three years the Bulls have gotten an early commitment from Lake Gibson: two years ago, quarterback Matt Grothe was USF's second.

Surprising intrigue at left tackle

Football coach Jim Leavitt continues to talk about redshirting senior left tackle Thed Watson, a preseason all-Big East selection, saying the year off would be best not only for Watson but for USF in the long term. Leavitt continues to sing the praises of not only redshirt freshman Danny Tolley, who could also wind up at left guard, but also junior walk-on Jared Carnes, USF's biggest lineman at 6-7 and 310 pounds.

"Carnes has overtaken Thed this summer, big time," Leavitt said Thursday. "Carnes looks good. We didn't play him last year because he was hurt. Thed might not even start last year if Carnes could have been healthy."

Carnes, a St. Pete Catholic grad, came to USF in 2004 from Division II Concord College in West Virginia as a 265-pound tight end and has put on 45 pounds in two seasons. He played in two games last season before he was sidelined with an arm injury. I asked Leavitt again if much of this talk was simply to motivate Watson this summer, but he said it's a real option this fall.

"You have to look at the big picture, not the third inning," he said. "(Watson) could be a real good player, but he if he got another year underneath him, he'd have a chance to be that much better."

-- Couple of odd notes from today's paper ... First, the Big East baseball tournament, held in Clearwater two months ago, likely won't be back in Florida in 2007. The league's associate commissioner for Olympic sports, James Siedliski, said the event has been offered to another Big East school -- I thought Louisville, but they say it isn't them either -- but that USF is a contender to host again in 2008-09. And soccer coach George Kiefer, whose team was ranked No. 11 nationally in one preseason poll, has lost a top recruit in Neven Subotic, who has signed a four-year pro contract with a team in Germany's Bundesliga.

-- Gary Parrish, Sportsline.com's new college basketball writer, got a slight dig in at USF basketball this week, talking about the plight of coaches on the less friendly end of the Big East. He writes:

"So while I can, for example, empathize with Robert McCullum's situation at South Florida -- it's never a good sign when you're in the same league with Connecticut while simultaneously begging for walk-ons on the school's official website -- I'm not willing to expand the NCAA Tournament just so one day he can maybe make the Field of 128 and keep his job. I just hope he's invested well."

McCullum has a depth problem for August, far more than he does for January and beyond. The Bulls just need two bodies so they can practice five-on-five before sending part of this year's team to Italy for six games. Don't be surprised if first-year director of basketball operations Reggie Kohn is out there playing some guard. As well-intended as the walk-on posting was, it's made USF a punch line on message boards and now on a prominent website.

-- USF's sports information department took some good-natured grief last summer when its football media guide failed to meet the NCAA's strange new slimmed-down standards. It wasn't the page-count maximum of 208 pages that tripped up the Bulls last year, but rather a page-size mandate -- sports information director John Gerdes joked about "self-reporting" the violation. I can report that this year's guide meets the NCAA specs, and environmental Bulls fans will be pleased to hear that they managed to trim four pages off the guide, down to a svelte 152.

Catching up ...

News should start coming pretty steady -- the state's college football coaches meet in Tampa this weekend to meet with the media, and football practice starts for the Bulls on Aug. 7. For now, it's just tying up loose ends here and there around campus ...

-- After last week's surprising news that running back Andre Hall had been cut by the Bucs, it now looks like he should be in camp with another NFL team next week. Hall's agent, Jonathan Kline, said Wednesday that two teams have shown the most interest in Hall -- Seattle and Chicago -- and while no move is likely before early next week, the Bears and former Bucs executive Jerry Angelo seem eager to get Hall into their camp, even if it means cutting another player to make room for him.

-- I watched a voluntary workout at USF on Tuesday afternoon and left very impressed with the progress by the Bulls receivers since last fall. Jim Leavitt had said after spring drills that receiver was USF's most improved position, and the summer seems to be another step in that direction. Jackie Chambers was out there at full go for the first time I'd seen since he hurt himself during spring drills, and as deep as the Bulls' returning receivers go, I was impressed with the way freshman Jason Sherman looked. The three freshmen will be hardpressed to break out of redshirts this fall, but it'll be interesting to watch. ...

-- Got to see USF's football media guide on Wednesday -- looks sharp, with a player's outstretched hand holding a gold USF helmet on the front. Four key seniors are pictured on the back -- linebackers Stephen Nicholas and Patrick St. Louis, quarterback Pat Julmiste and receiver S.J. Green.

There's some curious updates from the depth chart in there -- redshirt freshman Danny Tolley is listed as the starting left guard, ahead of sophomore Matt Huners (the rest of the line, as expected is LT Thed Watson, C Nick Capogna, RG Walter Walker and RT Marc Dile). Another redshirt freshman, George Selvie, is listed as the starter at right end, ahead of Jarrett Buie, and freshman walk-on Ilia Petrov is the only player listed at punter.

-- Interesting news Wednesday about the new All-American Football League, a spring venture that will have pro teams playing on college campuses across the country. The league's official site invites fans to suggest schools they think are deserving of an AAFL franchise. The bad news for USF fans is that the Bulls aren't even an option: the site lists 68 schools, but four Big East schools (USF, Cincy, UConn, Rutgers) don't make the cut. So USF's alums -- and college degrees are required -- will likely play in Gainesville, it would seem. And no, Central Florida isn't listed either ...

-- From the Where Are They Now Dept., former USF defensive tackle Paul Uhatafe, who did not play in his only year on campus, will play this fall at College of the Canyons in California. His goal, his dad says, is to return to USF to finish his college career. And USF is considering two more Uhatafes -- twin linebackers Navi and Zco, rising seniors at Gibbs, will likely be a package deal wherever they go, according to their father.

-- USF men's basketball coach Robert McCullum has added a new walk-on for the upcoming season in 6-5 guard/forward Jared Rubens from Miami Krop High School. Good player from a great high school team that included three Division I players, his coach, Marcos "Shakey" Rodriguez, said he's a smart, heady player who wouldn't hurt a college coach if he had to play a few minutes here and there to spell someone.

By January, USF's depth problems should be a thing of the past, but this summer is still much like last spring. Because incoming freshmen can't practice with a team before a foreign tour, and because midyear transfers can't travel on them, the Bulls right now have six healthy players for their trip to Italy next month. Redshirt freshman Zaronn Cann has not been cleared to play yet but could before the team leaves on Aug. 12.

Wrapping up late-summer notes ...

Lots of little stuff to catch up on. I'll have more leftovers from Newport later in the week ...

-- We had it first in Wednesday's paper that USF will open its 2009 season against I-AA Wofford, and don't be surprised if the Bulls fill the same I-AA home-game slot with Florida A&M in 2008 and 2011, making that well-attended game a regular event in Tampa. The Bulls still need a I-AA home game and a road game to open a new home-and-home to complete their 2007 schedule -- seems likely that USF-UCF will be renewed for two more years (2007-08) to accommodate the exit agreement USF signed in leaving Conference USA. That would leave one more required game with C-USA, and I'd put my money on a 2009-2010 home-and-home with one of the Texas schools in the conference.

-- Former South Carolina defensive back Rashad Faison has joined USF's strength and conditioning staff as an intern. Faison, who's from Wauchula, played under Wally Burnham at South Carolina and talked to USF about their defensive grad assistant job a year ago before the Bulls chose former Buc Steve White.

-- Preferred walk-on J.B. Bailey, the former Leto quarterback who will be a defensive back for the Bulls this fall, got good news this week -- he's been accepted into the university, pending completion of some summer work at Itawamba Junior College in Mississippi. He's as intriguing as any of the new walk-ons -- the kind folks at Tennessee Tech sent me a pic from one of his five starts as a freshman QB there in 2003. 

    The caption info I got said he was leaping over a would-be tackler; that might be true, but it seems to be a would-be tackler on his own team. Anyway, just another name to keep an eye on this fall.

-- From the Where Are They Now Department: the Lakeland Ledger has an update on erstwhile Bulls receiver Willie Williams, last seen playing basketball at Division II Shaw University in North Carolina. He was to play in Tracy McGrady's all-star celebrity basketball game in Auburndale ...

-- USF women's basketball got good news as senior guard Tristen Webb, who has missed the last two seasons with knee injuries, was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. If healthy, Webb could allow the Bulls to shift talented sophomore Shantia Grace to shooting guard, where she could focus more on being a solid second scoring option to go with senior Jessica Dickson. I finally tracked down USF's second oral commitment for 2007, Columbus (Ga.) guard Sequoyah Griffin, a 5-9 shooter who is the Bulls' second pledge, joining Academy of Holy Names guard Gianna Messina.

-- Volleyball coach Claire Lessinger looked to have finally gotten some depth for the upcoming season, but that takes a hit with Wednesday's news that junior Michelle Stalbaum is gone due to bad grades, and redshirt freshman Stephanie Bradley won't play again due to a career-ending injury. That's five players from last year's team that left the program before their eligibility was up -- the biggest loss is freshman setter Kate Verhoff, who has transferred to Kent State to play basketball. Lessinger does have five new players -- watch for outside hitters Marcela Gurgel and Jarka Havlickova, who have larger roles with Stalbaum out of the mix.

-- Odd slew of athletic-department people leaving USF this week -- biggest name is Jo-Ann Nester, the associate AD for academics for the past year, who took a job at Florida Gulf Coast University, apparently to be closer to family there. That means USF will have three top academic administrators in three years -- with football and men's basketball posting less-than-ideal scores in the NCAA's APR reports, it's an obviously important position. That said, USF's problems with APR have been primarily about retention, not about academic struggles.

On the Rhode again ...

NEWPORT, R.I. -- I'm not saying Rhode Island is a small state, but the license plate of a State Trooper who passed me Sunday night was -- no kidding -- 52.

I'm in Rhode Island for the Big East's annual preseason football media gathering, a chance to talk with all eight head coaches and two or three key players from each team. The interviews are Tuesday morning, but Monday brings a golf scramble and clambake dinner, more opportunities to talk with other writers and coaches.

A year ago, USF was a Big East rookie, picked to finish seventh in the eight-team league. I'm curious to see where the Bulls get picked when the league preseason media poll is released on Tuesday -- my guess is fourth or fifth. It's hard to argue with the general consensus that West Virginia and Louisville are in one tier, with the rest of the league a good bit below them. What's good for USF is the Bulls don't have to face either of them until the last two weeks of the season.

By the way, next time you complain about paying $2.82 for unleaded around Tampa: best price I've seen here is $3.05.

-- I was over at USF's Sling and Shoot 7-on-7 competition for high school teams on Saturday morning -- an impressive collection of future Division I signees among the masses on the intramural fields behind USF's athletic facility.

For what it's worth, Jim Leavitt spent almost the entire time I was there -- only about two hours -- talking with folks from Ocala Trinity Catholic, which has Texas commitment John Brantley at quarterback and at least three more D-I recruits in its senior class. We've told you about receiver Dion LeCorn, who had quietly committed to USF briefly last fall before re-opening his recruiting process -- he still has the Bulls on his short list. Safety Antonio Allen and running back Rudell Small were also at Sling and Shoot ...

-- Got a chance to talk with new USF track coach Warren Bye, named this week as successor to Greg Thiel in charge of the Bulls' men's and women's track and cross-country teams. He's working on completing his staff, having to replace himself of course, as well as throws coach Dayana Octavien, the former Bulls standout who has stepped down to train in England for the 2008 Olympics. He said he's not going to stack his scholarships in one area but keep them spread around, taking a nod from former USF coach Bob Braman, who won a national title at Florida State with a balanced squad that got points from all over its squad.

-- Interesting column from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune about USF not recruiting Sarasota Booker's Eniel Polynice, a 6-foot-5 point guard who wound up signing with Mississippi. With the recent knee injury to redshirt freshman Chris Howard, it'd seem like a mistake that the Bulls didn't go after Polynice. I know coach Robert McCullum initially wanted to sign a junior college point guard to back up Howard, and was hesitant to stack two point guards in the same class by adding a freshman. It's tough for two point guards to co-exist for four years, but he was willing to risk that with Arkansas standout Solomon Bozeman, who now will compete with senior walk-on Chris Capko for the starting nod in at least the first half of the season. As for Polynice, it now comes full circle -- he gets the scholarship at Mississippi made available when Bozeman backed out and decided to USF, so Bulls fans can watch the two and see how their careers compare.

-- Funny as a reporter when your stuff gets completely lifted into other "premium" services. Art Stein, writing a "Big East Roundup" for Rutgers site ScarletNation.com, borrows verbatim from recent Times stories, covering himself by writing that it's been "widely reported" that eight USF recruits didn't qualify academically and another two quit. Tell me, who else has reported that? Then he lifts a Ryan Schmidt quote directly from the Times. He attributes one fact to the Times for good measure, then credits a Matt Simms note from the "Tampa Herald Tribune". Nice work ... (Update: The ScarletNation.com folks pulled the roundup after being notified of Stein's work.)

Nice raises for football assistants

Just as football coach Jim Leavitt has a sizeable raise in his new $1-million-a-year contract, his seven returning assistant coaches all will make at least $19,000 more than they did last season.

The largest bump, understandably, will go to linebackers coach Wally Burnham, who will be in his first season as USF's sole defensive coordinator, after co-coordinator Rick Kravitz left for a job at N.C. State. Burnham will make $144,000 this season, up from $98,000 a year ago, with offensive coordinator Rod Smith and recruiting coordinator Carl Franks as the only other assistants making six figures.

All nine assistants will make at least $75,000 each, an impressive figure when you consider that Leavitt made that much a decade ago in his first year as USF's head coach. Just two years ago, only two assistants were making more than $82,000 -- Leavitt negotiated into his new contract that his pool for assistants go up from $690,000 last year to $850,000 in 2006. That figure will increase by $100,000 in each year of his contract.

-- Former Bulls guard Collin Dennis, who announced in May that he was leaving the program, has transferred to North Texas. The Mean Green went 14-14 last season, losing in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament. Dennis had said he wanted to be closer to home, and the UNT campus is in Denton, about a half-hour north of Dennis' parents in the suburbs of Fort Worth. From his official announcement at Meangreensports.com, I'll share what might be the saddest Internet poll question ever:

What NEW menu item are you most excited about at the North Texas Concession stand this year?

a. Dip n Dots
b. Frito Pie
c. Frozen Root Beer Float
d. Chili Cheese Hot Dog

Surely, what they mean is Dippin' Dots, the Ice Cream of the Future! (Without getting on a tangent on a tangent, you gotta love that cutting-edge Pixar-quality cartoon work on the Dippin' Dots site. Kudos to the fourth-graders who drew the faceless characters who love the "world's most unique frozen treat.")

Man, if that doesn't have you excited about the concession stand at North Texas this fall, you're probably not Mean or Green. Maybe, just maybe, if the Sun Dome had Chili Cheese Hot Dogs, they'd still have Collin Dennis. Perhaps we can get naming rights involved in this -- if USF is playing at the Frito Pie Dome this season, I need a commission on that.

Hurricanes moving in on Bulls' real estate?

I'm not normally a rabblerouser, but I opened my mail this week to find the kind of slight snub that can really bother some Bulls fans. A local Realtor -- I'm always amused at how that profession gets a Very Special Capital Letter -- with Keller Williams Realty was nice enough to send me a fridge magnet, complete with the 2006 schedules of some area football teams ... and her contact information.

The Buccaneers take up most of the space, but the bottom has the schedules for three colleges -- Florida, Florida State and Miami. Those are the state's Big Three programs, sure, but you'd think a Realtor based in Brandon (and advertising to homeowners in Wesley Chapel) might have more luck reaching out to USF alums instead of Miami.

So I called the Realtor, Mary Joy, and it turns out she had noticed the slight as well. Her husband, as it turns out, is a USF alumnus, and in past years local Realtors had been able to choose the schools on the magnets sent out from Keller Williams, which is based in Austin, Texas. Not so this year, she was sorry to find out.

At first, you'd think it would make sense for an out-of-state corporation to simply plug in the Big Three for all mailers in Florida, but then again, if they can cater to Tampa customers by putting the Bucs in, they could probably switch in USF as well.

In another good sign, the Media Contact for Keller Williams has had its phone number and cell number disconnected. But anyway, if you want to pass along a thought about whether USF should have a place on your fridge, you can leave feedback on Keller Williams' official site, KW.com.

-- Now to a few football notes: First, I talked with Gary Garcia, whose son Stephen is one of the area's biggest football recruits and a quarterback at Jefferson. The Garcias made a campus visit to USF last week, and Dad, for one, left very impressed.

He called USF's athletic facility a "well-kept secret," something that surprised and impressed the Garcias, who are naturally very close to former Jefferson coach Mike Simmonds, now a defensive grad assistant with the Bulls. Gary actually went to USF briefly in 1971-72, and said he did a "180-degree turn" about the Bulls after listening to Jim Leavitt talk about the opportunity to build tradition at USF.

That's still a ways from being on Garcia's short list -- Stephen couldn't be reached for comment -- but his father said he wouldn't be surprised if Stephen makes more visits to USF this summer to talk with current players during voluntary workouts.

-- A familiar name in USF recruiting circles could be resurfacing: Terrence Jones, the Sarasota Booker running back who signed with the Bulls in 2004 but failed to qualify academically, is still on USF's radar.

Booker coach Fred Gilmore -- who will have his team at USF's Sling and Shoot camp this weekend -- told me offensive coordinator Rod Smith was at Booker on Wednesday and asked about Jones, who is entering his second season at Eastern Arizona College. Jones is drawing interest from schools out west like UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State, but Gilmore said USF is the only school close to home that's trying to get him. The Bulls have kept in good contact with Jones, the younger brother of former USF safety Johnnie Jones, and Gilmore said that means something to a recruit who could emerge as a major target.

-- Another recruit to watch at Sling and Shoot is Panama City Bay quarterback Bert Reed, a super-fast athlete who has offers as a QB from Florida and West Virginia and as a receiver from FSU. His speed is the draw -- coach Mike Healy clocked him at 4.31 in the 40, and Reed won the county 100 meters with a time of 10.5 seconds. At 6 feet, 162 pounds, he already has an offer from USF, which will also look at 6-3, 246-pound middle linebacker Bryan Gilbert, a four-year starter at Bay.

-- One more name to drop in the recruiting game: Pompano Beach linebacker Eddie Lisanti. He's another senior-to-be who will be at Sling and Shoot, and Pompano coach Vince Stephens gave me the single-most impressive stat I've heard on a recruit this year: Lisanti scored a 1600 on the SAT on his first try.

Given USF's recent troubles in getting all their signees academically qualified, it wouldn't hurt to err on the side of genius here and there. Asanti's 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds with a 5.2 weighted grade-point average, and he and teammate Cameron Burdick, a 6-6, 240-pound tight end, are drawing interest from a bunch of high-level programs, but Stephens said both like USF as a program where they can make an early impact and stay close to home.

Oprah has nothing on these guys

Before we get to fun with roster weights, I want to report a little bit of non-news: former receiver Johnny Peyton won't be at Akron this fall. We'd reported this spring that he'd requested and been granted a release from USF to talk to Akron, but whether it's attitude or academics, the Zips aren't taking him. I checked with their sports information department Tuesday, and nobody at Akron, from the receivers coach to the compliance coordinator, was aware of any concerted effort to bring in Peyton. I've covered him since his sophomore year in high school, and he seems to have dropped off the radar, not in communication with any of the old coaches and teammates I've talked to. He's talented enough that he can play somewhere, but I don't know if it'll ever be at the Division I-A level again.

Now on to the roster silliness. Want to know which Bulls have added the most weight in the past year? Four have bulked up by 20 pounds or more, and leading the effort is defensive tackle Tavarious Robinson -- I think we can stop calling him an end -- who now is listed at 290 pounds, up from 255 last year. That 35-pound bump gives him the trophy over offensive tackle Marc Dile, who has added 30 pounds to reach 305 this fall. Two more offensive linemen are next: 6-7 tackle Jared Carnes is up 25 pounds to 310 and center Nick Capogna put on a crucial 20 pounds to get to 275.

Five Bulls actually lost weight: former quarterback Courtney Denson has dropped 10 pounds, with speed a more pressing need at defensive back, and another crossover, tight end turned defensive end Shane McElwain has dropped 15 to 240. Walk-on fullback Mike Padilla is down 15 to 230 pounds, and center Jake Griffin has slimmed down 10 pounds to 290. Perhaps from all those spring reps he got, walk-on running back Walt Smith dropped five pounds to 175.

I'm all for honesty in media guide measurables, so kudos to USF for taking an inch off the heights of five players: quarterback Matt Grothe, who added 10 pounds his first year on campus, is down to 6 feet even; McElwain and Padilla are down to 6-4 and 6-0, which might explain their weight loss; tight end Ben Busbee is now 6-3 and running back Ricky Ponton is now listed at 5-foot-10. The only Bull who got taller? Safety Carlton Williams, who's now 6-foot-4 and arguably skinny at 205 pounds.

In a continuing effort to ease the oft-difficult transition to new jersey numbers, we offer the following numerical developments, some of which we already detailed in spring:

- Jackie Chambers, once 83, has Andre Hall's No. 2, as he wore at Miami Edison.
- Courtney Denson switched from No. 1 to No. 8. (There's a line there somewhere.)
- Grant Gregory, once No. 12 and then No. 20, is now back up the charts to No. 15.
- Back in spring, Matt Grothe went from No. 13 to No. 8. Yes, the same as Denson.
- Walk-on Jamaal Jenkins goes from 10 to 23, closer to brother Aston Samuels (20).
- Moving from offense to defense, Shane McElwain trades his No. 86 for No. 97.
- Linebacker Sam Miller trades his 15 for Terrence Royal's old 56, a good LB number.

OK. Next time, we do multiplication and division ...

Roster fun: More comings and goings

I'm always excited to get USF's fall roster, because it's like getting four months' worth of transactions in one day, always a surprise addition or subtraction or three. Here's the gist of what's new and gone for Bulls football:

-- USF landed a solid transfer in former Kansas State center Ryan Schmidt. Missed all of last year with a broken ankle, redshirted in 2004, but had been penciled in as the Wildcats' starting center, opting to transfer because he didn't mesh as well with a new head coach and position coach. His Boca Raton High coach told me his athleticism is unparalleled for a 300-pounder -- former basketball player, gifted enough to play any line position. He visited USF's campus Monday and told me the Bulls like him at center or guard. Thing is, he can't help the Bulls this fall ...

-- Which is unfortunate, because Tallahassee's Kevin McCaskill is one of five more signees who won't make it to USF this fall. McCaskill had a chance to compete with Nick Capogna and Jake Griffin for the starter's job, but he -- along with Jeremiah Warren, Joe Jackson and Jerrell Young -- failed to qualify academically. That's eight members of the February class that didn't make it, plus Frank Harry, who didn't make it a week into spring practice.

-- Speaking of not lasting long, Dixie Hollins offensive lineman James Boger quit after just two days of conditioning. Dixie is Jim Leavitt's alma mater, a pipeline for USF with the likes of Marquel Blackwell and Andre Hall. Boger just decided he didn't want to play college football, so he's off to firefighting school, according to Dixie coach Mike Morey. "It's a shame," said Morey, baffled at the decision from a player who never missed a day of practice at Dixie.

-- All these recruits missing the cut only hurt the Bulls so much. Nearly all would have redshirted, and many will spend this fall improving ACT scores so they can enroll in January, an early start on next year's recruiting class. Joe Jackson is heading to Butler Community College in Kansas, but McCaskill, Warren and Young plan on being at USF this spring. Being in the same class could help USF's chances at landing McCaskill's brother, Keith, a strong recruit. I count USF at 23 scholarships, and I wouldn't be surprised if walk-on running back Walt Smith gets one, with another kept in pocket for a midyear addition.

-- Walk-ons! Some great stories in a few new faces on the roster. Most intriguing? That has to be J.B. Bailey, a former Leto standout who last played in 2003 as a freshman at Tennessee Tech, starting five games at quarterback. He redshirted in 2004, was out of football in 2005, taking classes at Hillsborough Community College. So this spring, he enrolls at Itawamba Community College in Mississippi, where they think he might be their starting quarterback. Even Monday, when I called Itawamba, the head coach thought Bailey would be there; the kid hadn't told his coach. He hasn't gotten into USF and needs to finish two summer classes to get his associate's degree, but he'll be a defensive back for the first time since high school, easily the most well-traveled of this year's new walk-ons.

-- More walk-ons! All spring, Leavitt was making reference to a preferred walk-on who would be a contender for long-snapping duties this fall, careful not to leak the name at the risk that another program might offer him a scholarship. That snapper is Luke Birge, who played tight end at Sebring High and is already taking classes and working out with returning starter Ryan Bordeau this summer. It's Bordeau's job to lose, but Birge could be his successor. What got him to USF? His offensive coordinator his junior year was former USF lineman Larry Scott, who's now a graduate assistant and sold him on walking on. He drew interest from Southern Miss and was smart enough to have Columbia sending him letters. Walk-on Eric Setser and tight end Ben Busbee are other potential snappers for the Bulls.

-- Other odd notes: As you first read here, Bradenton Southeast's A.J. Love is on the roster (though he hasn't gotten into USF yet) but he's listed as a defensive back. One two-sport athlete to watch is Miami Palmetto's David Cozzo, who played quarterback and centerfield in high school but will be a speedy receiver for the Bulls. One year after the Bulls took a flyer on former hockey prospect Shane McElwain from Palm Beach Central, they've got a walk-on tight end from the same school: 6-foot-6, 220-pound Quincy Okolie, who played only one year of varsity football and caught only about 10 passes at that. "He's a project guy," the PBC coach tells me, noting that walk-ons are supposed to be just like that.

-- Two more returning scholarship players have left, though neither was expected to play any significant role: offensive tackle Jerome Springfield and defensive tackle Paul Uhatafe. Oh, and cornerback A.J. Brant, who missed last season with a knee injury and said in April he was transferring, has landed back in his hometown at Bethune-Cookman. With Brant, Ronnie McCullough and Josh Balloon, you could have three Bulls starting on the Wildcats' defense this fall, with Ramon McCullough there as well.

-- Five of USF's 10 lost recruits were defensive linemen, so there's some positional adjustments -- McElwain, once a tight end, is now a defensive end, where he'd worked a bit this spring, and so is walk-on linebacker Treco Bellamy, pushed aside by transfer Marvin Peoples and late addition Brandon Peguese. Carlton Hill is officially a wide receiver, Grant Gregory is now back at quarterback.

-- So it's good to be back from vacation. I'll have more roster fun Tuesday -- I'll challenge my loyal posters to guess (without looking at rosters published online) the names of the four Bulls whose listed weights went up by 20 or more pounds from last year's roster. Better still, five USF players managed to shrink, dropping an inch off their heights from last fall. Get those guesses and lingering questions for me in the comments ...