Spring Football Practice Begins Tuesday with 112 Bulls on the Field
By Joey Johnston
USF coach Jeff Scott has established a theme for the Bulls' 15-practice spring football session, which commences Tuesday morning.
It's all about competition.
Making his point, Scott met with reporters and said he wanted to display USF's pre-spring depth chart.
He held up a blank sheet of paper.
"It sends the message that every year is a new year,'' Scott said. "You've got to start over. Last year's touchdowns aren't going to win this year's games. It's a new team.
"We have players (who started in 2021) who aren't here now. We've got a lot of new players (including 21 who arrived in January). We haven't had one practice with this year's team. How do we know who the best guys are?''
Of course, Scott acknowledged, experience does count for something. The Bulls return their entire offensive line, running back Jaren Mangham (15 touchdowns) and consensus All-American kickoff returner Brian Battie, along with quarterback Timmy McClain and receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., who each showed promise during their true freshman seasons. Defensively, the Bulls have experienced linebackers in Antonio Grier and Dwayne Boyles, along with many mix-and-match possibilities in the secondary.
"You can probably figure out 50 percent (of the starters) and we do have multiple-year starters at some positions,'' Scott said. "But you have to earn it (each season). And from what we know about them, they probably will earn it.
"It's not a message that what you've done in the past doesn't matter. They need to be hungry and keep showing that they are the best person for the job. It works itself out. It always does. We want a lot of competition and have everyone feel that sense of urgency.''
The larger transition will be for the players to work with two new coordinators — defensive coordinator Bob Shoop and offensive coordinator Travis Trickett. The defense will change schematically, going more to a 4-2-5 look with an added defensive lineman, and applying pressure will be a major priority. Offensively, Trickett is expected to keep the core system in place, allowing the offense to build upon its progress from 2021.
USF will hold its spring game on Saturday, April 9 at Raymond James Stadium. The game kicks off at 6 p.m. and will feature a halftime flag football game featuring USF football alumni. With 112 players in spring camp, Scott said the coaches will likely hold a draft to split the squad into equally competitive Green and White teams for the spring game.
Showing Some Grit
Scott said A.J. Artis, USF's director of football strength and conditioning, implemented a system to award "grit points'' during seven weeks of winter workouts. The scale was 0 to 4 (with 4 representing championship-level, above-and-beyond effort, 3 representing winning effort, 2 representing doing exactly what was asked, 1 representing slow starter/low energy and 0 representing quitting or not finishing).
Each day, the players were ranked 1 through 112.
After 33 practices, the points leader was defensive back Will Jones, who is coming off a torn ACL suffered two days before last year's season-opener at NC State.
The rest of the top 10 was linebacker Demaurez Bellmay (second), center Brad Cecil (third), defensive lineman Rashawn Yates (fourth), defensive back Vincent Davis (fifth), defensive lineman Darrien Grant (sixth), guard Demetris Harris (seventh), defensive back Mekhi LaPointe (eighth), tight end Chris Carter (ninth) and linebacker Brian Norris (10th).
Scott pointed out that six of the top eight points leaders were "Super Seniors'' or players who were using their added COVID season. All 12 of USF's Super Seniors ranked among the top 25.
Additionally, three new players who arrived in January were in the top 20 — safety Ray Thornton, linebacker D.J. Gordon and quarterback Byrum Brown.
"The exciting thing for me is to see the leadership of our seniors,'' Scott said. "They are truly leading from the front. I see a sense of purpose and a maturity that I haven't seen since I've been here.''
Boone Promoted
Albert Boone was promoted to Associate Athletic Director of Football Operations. He will continue in most of his operations roles, including travel and logistics, but will assume the Chief of Staff duties. Scott's father, Brad, who has served as USF's Chief of Staff, will retire in June.
Scott said he intended to bring his own director of football operations from Clemson when he got the USF job. But after meeting Boone and witnessing his attention to detail and work ethic, Scott retained him.
Scott said the USF players gave a huge cheer when Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly informed the team of Boone's promotion after a Mat drill session. Scott said Boone's ascension also provided a valuable life lesson. Boone left a corporate job with AAU in 2016 to join as a volunteer on Coach Willie Taggart's staff because he wanted to rejoin college football. Boone worked his way through the ranks, showing great determination and desire.
"He's a guy who does so much behind the scenes, but Albert does a great job and we're so happy to have him,'' Scott said. "He's really invaluable.''
