Daily Links
• Paul Myerberg of the New York Times
continues the Quad Countdown, detailing the top teams in college football, with the publication's take on everything fans would want to know about USF this season. Included in the preview are tidbits on coach
Jim Leavitt, key losses for the Bulls, players and positions to keep an eye on, and how Myerberg thinks the season will breakdown for USF.
• Both
Brett McMurphy and
Greg Auman report that USF kicker Maikon Bonani will not need surgery and his cracked vertebra and that he was
released from the hospital and is looking forward to his recovery and getting back with the team at some point down the road.
• Auman also
gives us an update on how former USF baseball players are doing in the minor league.
• McMurphy
updates us on how the voting is going through TBO.com for USF's all-time greatest offensive players, including that Marquel Blackwell moved ahead of Matt Grothe for the best quarterback in the history of USF football.
• Greg Auman's
Blog• Brett McMurphy's
Blog• ESPN.com's Brian Bennett's BIG EAST
Blog• Oracle Sports
Blog
| GoUSFBulls.com Daily News Wire |
July 23 |
Daily Links
• Dave Devereux of the Cape Coral Daily Breeze
interviews USF safety Nate Allen and discusses the upcoming season for the senior and how the experience at USF has been for him. Devereux writes, "In his first three years, Allen (a 6-foot-2, 206-pound safety) has played in some of the most thrilling games in school history. The Bulls have gone to three straight bowl games, and even rose to No. 2 in the AP Poll in 2007. 'I'm glad I made the decision to come here,' Allen said via telephone Wednesday. 'It's been great to be part of the tradition and help make history.'"
• Greg Auman
posts several updates on former USF men's basketball players scattered around the country and the world, including former point guard Brian Swift signing with a team in France.
• Brett McMurphy
tells us that the BIG EAST baseball tournament will be returning to Clearwater in 2010, the third year in a row Bright House Field will host the tournament.
• Both
McMurphy and
Auman report on the USF men's basketball non-conference schedule that was released yesterday.
• McMurphy also
gives us an update on the voting results so far for the best players all-time at each offensive position for the USF football team, with Matt Grothe holding a good lead over Marquel Blackwell at the quarterback position.
• Brian Bennett of ESPN
reports on
J.R. Reed joining USF's staff as a defensive graduate assistant for the upcoming season.
• Greg Auman's
Blog• Brett McMurphy's
Blog• ESPN.com's Brian Bennett's BIG EAST
Blog• Oracle Sports
Blog
| GoUSFBulls.com Daily News Wire |
July 22 |
Daily Links
• Greg Auman
comments on an article by Phil Steele in the Orlando Sentinel that ranks teams based on the total percentage of last year's tackles are by players returning to their team. USF returns only 58 percent of its tacklers from a season ago. Auman writes, "The key to USF offsetting this statistic's importance is how well first-year starters can handle themselves, especially two starting outside linebackers who should be counted for 100 tackles between them. Jerrell Young, Jon Lejiste and Quenton Washington, projected first-year starters in USF's nickel defensive secondary, combined for 39 tackles last season and could easily double that total this fall."
• Brett McMurphy
talked with USF special teams coach
John Hendrick, who believes that USF will still be in good position as far as its kicking game goes with Delbert Alvarado, who has kicked for USF in the past and is the team's full-time punter, if Maikon Bonani is unable to start the season after his accident.
• Both
McMurphy and
Auman both report that former USF and NFL safety
J.R. Reed will return to the Bulls staff as a defensive graduate assistant.
• Auman also
posts several other news and notes, including a link to yesterday's
article by Brian Bennett of ESPN in which the blogger chats with USF offensive coordinator
Mike Canales about the role of receivers in the spread offense.
• Greg Auman's
Blog• Brett McMurphy's
Blog• ESPN.com's Brian Bennett's BIG EAST
Blog• Oracle Sports
Blog
| GoUSFBulls.com Daily News Wire |
July 21 |
Daily Links
• Brian Bennett of ESPN
chatted with USF offensive coordinator
Mike Canales about USF's wide receivers for the upcoming season. He wrote, "Canales is transforming South Florida's offense to a true spread attack this season. As someone who has worked closely with receivers, he can tell you how important that position is in a spread offense."
• Greg Auman posted
highlights from an interview Bright House Sports Network did with USF defensive coordinator
Joe Tresey last week. Among some of the things Tresey talked about, one centered on USF defensive star George Selvie. Tresey said, "George is a heck of a football player. The thing that George brings more than anything, since I've been here, is he's got great leadership on and off the field. He's a Bull through and through. He has no ego. He's a team player the whole way."
• Both
Brian Bennett of ESPN and
Auman report that USF quarterback Matt Grothe was added to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list. Auman writes, "Grothe, who ranks third among active Division I-A quarterbacks with 25 career wins as a starter, is one of three Big East passers on the list, along with Cincinnati's Tony Pike and West Virginia's Jarrett Brown. Grothe is on pace to pass West Virginia's Pat White early in the season to become the Big East's all-time leader in total offense."
Auman also adds several other links and notes in the article, including where you can watch softball coach
Ken Eriksen on TV tonight as he works with the U.S. National Team.
• More good news about Maikon Bonani: Auman
talked with Bonani's high school football coach, who told him that Bonani may be able to avoid surgery on his injury. "Rod Shafer, who coached Bonani at Lake Wales High and visited him in the hospital on Monday, said Bonani is in good spirits – “looked good, just tired of laying down” – and appreciative of an outpouring of support from fans, friends and teammates.
The early prognosis from doctors, Shafer said, is that Bonani can be optimistic of being able to return to college football."
• Auman also
notes that USF was ranked No. 25 by Rivals.com. Among several other links and notes in the story, Auman posted a link to a
story in the Lakeland Ledger in which the publication interviewed Bonani's high school coach, Shafer, who believes Bonani will recover and be back on the field in no time. "If there's any way he can overcome this, he will," Shafer said of Bonani's accident. "He's a tough son of a gun."
• Kimberly Jaick Soden wrote a
story for The Morning Call about USF rising sophomore Casey Wagner getting ready to compete in the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletic Championships at the end of July.
• Greg Auman's
Blog• Brett McMurphy's
Blog• ESPN.com's Brian Bennett's BIG EAST
Blog• Oracle Sports
Blog
| GoUSFBulls.com Daily News Wire |
July 20 |
Daily Links
• Last week McMurphy
listed his top USF football players from No. 1-99, and this week he's offering fans a chance to vote for their all-time players at each position. This weeke he offers
links to each position on the offensive side of the ball.
• Both Brett McMurphy and Greg Auman keep us updated on USF kicker Maikon Bonani after his accident at Busch Gardens and how he is recovering at the hospital.
McMurphy and
Auman offer links to where you can send Bonani get-well messages. McMurphy
reports on his condition at the hospital,
that the accident came 30 minutes before his shift was supposed to end, and
what it could mean for the upcoming season for Bonani.
• Auman also
reports on the kicker's fall and that Busch Gardens will
review its safety procedures after the accident, among a few other links he offers readers. Catch ESPN's
coverage of Bonani's accident as well.
• Phil Neary of The Oracle completes his countdown of the top 10 athletes of the 2008-09 season, with the publication
naming Shantia Grace its top athlete. "One of the best players in the program's history, Grace, a 5-foot-8 guard, ranked first on the team in scoring (14.9) and assists per game (4.7), helping her earn a first-team all-Big East selection."
• Walker-Sports
gives us its take on how things in the BIG EAST could shake out this season. "Thanks to the reorganization of the BCS conferences earlier this decade, the Big East is bigger and more exciting than ever.
Unfortunately for the teams in the Big East, they are the wild west of football with no dominate power and anyone can win on any given Saturday."
• Greg Auman's
Blog• Brett McMurphy's
Blog• ESPN.com's Brian Bennett's BIG EAST
Blog• The Oracle Sports
Blog
