Inexperience at receiver grounds air attack

Posted Sep 26, 2010 by Adam Adkins

Updated Sep 26, 2010 at 04:06 PM

The University of South Florida’s inexperience at receiver was the primary reason the Bulls air attack remained grounded in Saturday night’s 24-12 win against Western Kentucky.

Despite facing a Hilltoppers defense that entered yielding an average of 296 passing yards per game, USF attempted a season-low 11 passes and threw for just 57 yards, the fewest single-game total in program history.

“We just said in this game, the game plan was we didn’t want to throw the ball way down field. We didn’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we were throwing interceptions, turning the ball over and giving them a short field,” Bulls coach Skip Holtz said. “If we had to run the ball and win this thing 10-7, we were ready to do that. I’m not going to let our inexperience at wide receiver and our lack of a productive passing game down the field turn and beat us.”

The Bulls entered fall camp short two expected starting receivers after senior A.J. Love suffered a torn ACL in the spring game and sophomore Sterling Griffin fractured his ankle in offseason workouts. They were down an additional starter Saturday with senior Dontavia Bogan sidelined with an ankle injury suffered against Florida.

That left the likes of sophomore Lindsey Lamar, sophomore Evan Landi, true freshman Stephen Bravo-Brown and sophomore T.J. Knowles as the primary targets for sophomore quarterback B.J. Daniels. Neither Knowles (junior college transfer) nor Bravo-Brown (walk-on) were with the team last year, while Lamar (former running back) and Landi (former quarterback) converted from different positions.

“It’s really like playing a whole bunch of true freshman at wide receiver, and right now we’re really inexperienced there and it’s a concern,” Holtz said. “I was worried about the wide receivers when we lost two, and then when you take Bogan out of it, then it really makes things lopsided.”

Help is on the way, however. Bogan could return Saturday against Florida Atlantic, and Griffin is targeted for a return the following week against Syracuse in the Bulls’ Big East Conference opener. Love, meanwhile, is scheduled to return in early November.