BullsVision Press Conference: Coach Leavitt
BullsVision Press Conference: B.J. Daniels
BullsVision Press Conference: Mike Canales
BullsVision Press Conference: Joe Tresey
BullsVision Exclusive: Carlton Mitchell
BullsVision Exclusive: George Selvie
TAMPA -- Several USF football players came through the weekly news conference on Monday afternoon to rehash the disappointing loss to Pitt and discuss the upcoming showdown with No. 20 West Virginia.
Below are some of the storylines from Monday afternoon:
Fort Myers Showdown
USF defensive backs Quenton Washington and Tyson Butler will face an old friend on Friday night in West Virginia star running back Noel Devine.
Washington and Devine played together in high school at North Fort Myers and talk regularly.
"We talked on the phone last night," said Washington. "We were just catching up, nothing serious. I did tell him that this game was going to be different."
BullsVision has more with Washington at the following link:
BullsVision Exclusive: Quenton Washington
Speaking of West Virginia Connections
• West Virginia has 24 players on its online roster that hail from the state of Florida.
• WVU wide receiver Alric Arnett and Jessie Hester both attended Glades Central High School and were teammates in 2004.
• WVU quarterback Jarrett Brown and USF defensive end David Bedford played together at Palm Beach Lakes High School.
• WVU defensive back Eddie Davis is a product of Tampa's Freedom High School. USF offensive program assistant Marquel Blackwell was the head coach at Freedom after Davis graduated.
• WVU star running back Noel Devine and freshman Broderick Jenkins are from the same hometown as USF defensive backs Quenton Washington and Tyson Butler. Washington and Devine attended North Fort Myers High School.
• USF tight ends coach Steve Bird was the pass game coordinator at WVU from 2001-04 and worked alongside current WVU staffers Bill Stewart, Jeff Casteel and Bill Kirelawich.
• USF offensive coordinator Mike Canales worked with Doc Holliday at NC State in 2001 and 2002.
$10 Tickets are Back
After the wild success of the $10 upper bowl tickets for the USF-Cincinnati game, the Bulls Ticket Office has brought them back for West Virginia.
Purchase the Tickets through GoUSFBulls.com Right Now.
Press Conference Quotes
Joe Tresey
On where the defense needs to improve the most
"We have given up too many big plays in the last two weeks. An explosive play to us is a run over 15 yards or a pass over 20 yards. Penalties have also been an issue. We address penalties and the team needs to get more disciplined. Those are the two biggest things that have hurt us the past two weeks."
On third down problems the past two weeks
"Last week we let them into too many third and shorts. I think the reason we have been successful on third and long is because your chances increase the father they have to go to get a first down. You have to get them in the third and longs to get your percentage of efficiency up."
On what causes the penalty problems
"It's a lack of focus. You shouldn't jump offsides, especially if you're on the football, which we did twice. That is a mine boggling thing as a coach. Coach Patrick works on this every day in practice and every D-line coach in America works on this very hard. It's just having the focus and not guessing. You have to have the discipline to watch the ball and when that ball moves, you move."
Mike Canales
On how they go about preparing for Friday after another tough loss
"The first thing you do is you go back and see what you can do different. Pitt was very good defensively and you have to give them credit. They were very good up front and they played solid defense. They got us pinned back there a couple of times in minus territory. On the first two drives we had two penalties that were very costly and it cost us our rhythm. Then on the third drive we hit a big play and took it right down the field. I thought that helped us get our rhythm back and we were back in synch again. Then when we got down a little bit it helped us lose our rhythm, which made things tough. We are a rhythm team and you have to stay in rhythm if you want to stay effective, and we didn't. The biggest thing for us is to not get down on ourselves and to stay positive. There are some things we can build on and we need to get back to playing the way we can play."
On the running game
"We ran the ball but they just got us in the third and medium situations. We didn't execute when we had to execute. They did a good job defensively of strategizing against us. They are a heavy blitz team and we prepared for blitz so much, and then they didn't blitz. The third and mediums have killed us the last game and a half. We have to be able to make the reads and throw the ball when we are supposed to."
On why it seems like B.J. is struggling right now
"You have to realize he is a freshman and there is no excuse for it. He will continue to work through it and it is just a growing process. He will continue to go through it and get better."
Jim Leavitt
Opening Statement
"I went back and looked at our game against Pittsburgh because I wanted to see if every guy was laying their heart and soul out on the field. That is really important to me because if you have any guy who isn't laying his heart and soul out on that field, then you really want to have a talk with them about whether this is really for them or not. I looked through the film very closely and that I didn't find. Nobody likes to lose, but that was really encouraging to me that the guys were really battling. I came away feeling a lot better about that part of it. Defensively we had some coverage breakdowns. You can't let the receivers get over the top of you. As far as offensively, the guys played hard. We had some penalties but were moving the ball pretty well. We threw a couple of interceptions in the second half and we have to live with those things. I am extremely proud of B.J. Daniels and how hard he is going. He has started four games now and he has won a couple and lost a couple. We have played against some really good teams and he works so hard. Pittsburgh is a really good football team, and they are a better football team then us right now. They have a lot of talented guys. Now we are going up against West Virginia which is another good football team. We are going to have to play really well. We are going to have to be sound on what we do, and I believe our guys will play hard. We are going to have to do some really good things to win the football game. Do I think it will be a heck of a football game? Yeah I do. We have played West Virginia four times and they have always been good football games. West Virginia has some great playmakers on offense and their defense presents a number of challenges, but our team is aware of that."
On penalties killing momentum
"We had a defensive lineman go offsides in the last game and that hurt us. After something like that we take the player off the field and just talk to him. Penalties do kill you. Offensively we had the penalty where we high-lowed a guy and that really hurt us on the one play. There is no excuse and the penalties really show up when you play really good football teams. When you start playing teams like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, those things show up and you don't want them."
On if penalties are because of a lack of concentration or because of aggressiveness
"I say over aggressiveness. The one was on Jake Sims on offense and he just over scooped. He was trying to cut into a guy and he was too good. He over did what he does on that one play. Then we had two offsides and that is over aggressiveness. Lining up offsides is worse to me than jumping offsides. If you line up offsides then there is really no excuse for that."
B.J. Daniels
On what he saw that the team needs to correct
"Everything is there. We have the talent and we have the ability. We are great team and we just need to do what we are supposed to do to win. We haven't been doing those things the past two weeks."
On if he was surprised that after falling behind early he only attempted eight passes
"I was a little surprised. As a quarterback I would love to throw more but I stay with what the coaches call. I wasn't really thinking about that during the game though, because the thing that was heavy on mind was the fact that we needed to put up points and we needed to do it fast."
On what he's doing to prepare for West Virginia and forget about the past two games
"Well what we can't do is point the finger. Yesterday we watched film on West Virginia because if we sit back and dwell on these two losses, then it is not going to help us the rest of the season."
