Before Thursday morning's first full-squad USF football practice, the Bulls were shown a video featuring Kara Lawson, the former ESPN analyst and current women's basketball coach at Duke University.

Her message:

Don't wait for it to become easy. Expect hard. Embrace the hard. In fact, do hard better.

In keeping with the football team's new T-Shirts with "Whatever It Takes'' emblazoned on the front and "All In" on the back, the Bulls already have taken that message to heart.

"Life never gets easy,'' senior offensive tackle Donovan Jennings said. "The next step is always just another step, not an easier step. Everything in life is hard. It's just how you handle hard. It's a really great quote and one that stuck with me.''

"We're not going to allow anybody to go easy out here,'' senior linebacker Antonio Grier said. "We're going past easy and we're trying to go past hard. When you keep doing the hard things well — and you never stop — you develop a way of working. I'm not saying it becomes easy, but you can handle whatever is thrown at you and there are never any excuses.''

That attitude is music to the ears of head coach Jeff Scott.

"I want you to understand that today out here it was 84 degrees with a breeze,'' Scott told his players in the end of practice huddle. "It's going to get hotter. It's going to get hotter. Our first three games this season are in Florida — two in Tampa, one in Gainesville — and we have to prepare mentally and physically for that.

"When we say, 'Best is the Standard,' we're not just talking about the two hours we're out here practicing. What about the other 22 hours? Are you getting in the cold tub and giving maintenance to your body? Are you fueling your body properly? Are you hydrating? Are you coming to meetings tonight with your pencil and notebook? This is a lifestyle and winners do whatever it takes. It's uncommon and that's why there's a very small percentage of people who have the will to prepare and do what's necessary on a daily basis — even when it's really hard.''

New Technology

One staple of USF football practice — the video crew filming drills from atop 40-foot scissor lifts around the fields — was gone.

USF has purchased five camera-station towers — called "masteRcam'' — from 8K Solutions, a Titusville-based sports video company. The bottom of each station essentially serves as a control room, much like television personnel working in a broadcasting truck outside a stadium. So, USF's video crew can work much more safely — under cover on the ground floor instead of being lifted 40-feet high with Florida's ever-present thunderstorms looming.

The practice-field angles, the editing and the speed with which the videos are available to coaches have remained at similar or even higher quality.

"It's just an easier setup and obviously not having our guys up high in the air makes it a lot safer,'' assistant video coordinator Cal Leslie said. "Our staff is down here and we can communicate more easily. It's just more efficient. We can make decisions on zooming in or out, but the film pretty much looks the same.

"When we met with the coaches, they said, 'You've got new cameras … anything different?' We said, 'Not really.' And they were like, 'All right,' and they moved on. They just want the film when they need it. On our end, it makes our job better and probably the whole thing better overall.''

He's On Scholarship!

Bulls defensive back Timarcus Simpson was called to the front of the meeting room on Tuesday night and given a surprise — he had earned a scholarship. When Scott announced that, Simpson was swarmed by his celebrating teammates.

"It was a long journey, but I knew the time was coming,'' said Simpson, a product of Sickles High School who began at Eastern Michigan University, then transferred to USF. "I had to keep applying pressure every day and keep putting the work in.

"When I saw the reaction (from teammates), it meant everything to me. That got me more excited than getting a scholarship.''

There's another change for Simpson, who wants to be formally known as "T-Mac'' (instead of Timarcus). Simpson said his uncle assigned him the nickname of "T-Mac'' when he played T-ball.

"I love Big Macs,'' Simpson said. "I guess that's why they gave me my name of T-Mac.''