Scott, Bulls Excited To Get Spring Ball Started Next Week
By Joey Johnston, Special to USF Athletics
USF football coach Jeff Scott is excited — for a number of reasons. The biggest thrill? Beginning next week, the Bulls are back on the practice field.
Spring practices begin on Tuesday and the 15 practice dates culminate with the spring game set for March 27. Last season, the Bulls had just one spring practice in Scott's first season before COVID-19 forced the abandonment of college athletics across the board.
"We're so excited to get a true offseason,'' Scott said Tuesday. "Spring practice is so valuable because it's about learning why you're doing what you're doing, not just how to do it and what to do, but understanding the why will help you take it to the next level.
"Coaches know the most improvement you make is from January through July. Once you get into the season, it's really about game-planning and getting guys ready to play. In the spring, we work on improvement, fundamentals, techniques and understanding the big picture of what you're doing. We're very, very excited about that.''
But there's more to be excited about.
• The Bulls have gotten bigger and, Scott believes, a whole lot better. There are 14 early enrollees participating in spring drills, including six transfers and nine freshmen. Scott is particularly enthused about the influx of secondary talent, including new transfer additions Matthew Hill (6-foot-1, 190 pounds, Auburn), Will Jones II (5-9, 162, Kansas State) and Christian Williams (6-1, 195, Miami) as well as TJ Robinson (6-3, 185, Rutgers) who joined the team last year but sat out the season due to NCAA transfer rules.
• The Bulls have added transfer quarterback Jarren Williams (6-3, 209), who was Miami's opening-night starter and leading passer in 2019, and freshman Timmy McClain (6-1, 190), who led Seminole High School to the 8A state championship, to what will be a very competitive quarterback room. They will join quarterback holdovers such as Cade Fortin, Katravis Marsh and Jordan Smith, and Scott said his main focus is a lengthy evaluation period, where everyone gets a fair shot at earning the starting job.
• Scott has retooled the coaching staff, including the promotion of Ernie Sims to linebackers coach, the shift of Xavier Dye to recruiting coordinator/tight ends coach and the hiring of four new faces — Cam Aiken (running backs/run game coordinator), George Barlow (cornerbacks), B.J. Daniels (offensive analyst) and Ruben Wright (defensive analyst).
Scott also has a verbal agreement with a new wide receivers coach, but the hiring can't take place contractually until July 1. Until then, Scott is excited about the opportunity to coach the receivers himself this spring, returning to one of his specialties while at Clemson.
• USF continued its aggressive non-conference scheduling philosophy by announcing the extension of its series against Brigham Young. BYU comes to Tampa in 2022, and the Bulls will travel to Provo, Utah in 2023. The Bulls already have a date at BYU this season (Sept. 24), when the non-conference slate features home games against the Florida Gators (Sept. 11) and Florida A&M Rattlers (Sept. 18), along with a Thursday night prime-time season-opener at North Carolina State (Sept. 2).
USF's non-conference scheduling has been completed through the 2027 season and that time period includes road and home games against Alabama, Boise State, BYU, Florida, Louisville, Miami and N.C. State.
Scott said he was pleased with the approach of Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly and the support of USF's administration in pursuing an aggressive non-conference schedule.
"To be the best, you've got to play the best,'' Scott said.
That philosophy of constant improvement also applies to the coaching staff and the roster. Scott said he expects attrition in the coaching ranks. If you have good coaches, he said, they will be pursued for other jobs. The key is to maintain as much continuity as possible, while developing young coaches to take more responsibility.
Roster upgrades must also be constantly pursued. Scott said multiple transfers might have been frowned upon a decade ago — "You probably thought a guy looking to transfer, something must be wrong or they had gotten in trouble,'' he said — but the NCAA's transfer portal has changed the landscape.
"When you have attrition and you're losing guys who should be juniors or seniors, if all you do is replace them with freshmen, you're going to have a very, very young team,'' Scott said. "We needed more experience and, as a team, we needed to get bigger.
"Looking at our roster last year, we were smaller than the majority of the teams we played. We needed to get bigger and longer, also thicker and stronger. We certainly felt we needed more size and length in the secondary and we have gotten that.''
Scott said he's gauging physical improvement through "Bull Pounds,'' which started being measured on Jan. 15. For players who need to gain weight or lose weight, those positive improvements are measured and scored in aggregate. So far, USF's roster has gained a total of 200 positive "Bull Pound." Scott said the goal is a total of 500 positive "Bull Pounds" by the August weigh-in.
That's a long-range goal.
In the short term, Scott said he's eager to begin spring practice on Tuesday and witness the day-by-day improvements. Generally, USF will hold spring practices on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for five consecutive weeks, culminating in the annual spring game on Sat., March 27 targeted for Raymond James Stadium.
By holding it at the big stadium, instead of an on-campus site as has been the case the last several years, USF can allow parents, friends and fans to space out and observe proper social distancing.
"I'm a big believer in making the spring game a big deal, separating the teams and having a game,'' Scott said. "If COVID allows, we'd like to get a bunch of our former players back and do some things with them as well.
"We have a great venue. Not many programs can say they're going to have their spring game in a stadium where they just played the Super Bowl, so we're going to take advantage of that.''
