The Long Snapper (8/5/10)
Get your Big East on today…
• More than a few notes from USF this week. Head coach Skip Holtz has said that the Bulls believe they’ll be without wide receivers Sterling Griffin and A.J. Love for at least the first four or five games. With Love, they can get a good idea of a return date as he progresses through rehabilitation. With Griffin, it’s not so clear cut. Once Griffin’s fractured fibula is fully healed, it’s hard to know right away how much he can do. Putting weight on it could take some time.
Without two of the receivers that would normally be near the top of the depth chart, the Bulls may focus on the running game a little more than desired during the first month of the season. Quarterback B.J. Daniels still has options to throw to, but not the full stable of receivers. Expect both Griffin and Love to be inserted back into the lineup the second they can go full speed.
• Five players expected to be with USF this fall won’t be. Holtz announced that incoming running back Mike Hayes and wide receiver Jamaal Montague didn’t qualify and veterans Aston Samuels (RB), Patrick Richardson (WR), and Jason Sherman (WR) won’t be with the team this fall.
Losing five, the Bulls also gained five. The transfers are in and are exactly who we expected all along – running backs Dontae Aycock and Darrell Scott, fullback Kevin Gidrey, and wide receivers Spencer Boyd and T.J. Knowles. Scott was a man-crush of mine back when Florida was recruiting him so I’m very interested to see how he ends his career at USF.
• The Bulls have announced who their five graduate assistants will be and a very familiar name is among them. Former USF quarterback (and perhaps the first true “star” Bull) Marquell Blackwell will focus on recruiting with USF. Blackwell was a volunteer with the team last year.
Steve Bird – who worked with tight ends last season – will work with the running backs this time around. Former Bull Glenn Davis and former ECU player Joe Sloan will be off-the-field assistants. And former Kansas State defensive back Marcus Patton will be a defensive assistant. Those of you familiar with the Tampa area may recognize Patton’s name. He was the defensive back at Lakeland the past three years. Those of you not familiar with the Tampa area, Lakeland is…uh…kinda, sorta, really good.
• The Big East is still together. For now. Rumors of the conference being pulled apart were one of the hot topics of the expansion saga this summer. And most recently, a new rumor about the Big East inviting Memphis to join has been present.
The conference will remain as is for the time being and is happy to have all of its members still around for the time being. As for Memphis or any other possible addition? Not just yet, but you never know. The powers in the conference have seen what can happen once before and with all that occurred this summer, they may be on the offense in the future.
• Okay I had to mix in at least one SEC item. I felt withdrawals coming on. Former Ole Miss signee and Florida defensive back Jamar Hornsby has plead guilty to an assault which occurred in 2009. Hornsby was sentenced to six months in jail, fine, and ordered to pay a portion of the victim’s medical bills.