Remember El Paso

Posted Aug 22, 2008 by Gregg Becnel

Updated Aug 22, 2008 at 05:49 PM

First, a quick programming note—with Scoop McMurphy playing hide-and-go-seek with Mickey Mouse and Goofy this weekend (or is he counting water fountains at UCF’s stadium?), your humble correspondent will try his best to fill McMurphy’s typing fingers until he returns. Hopefully after tomorrow’s final camp practice, I’ll be able to post USF’s official depth chart heading into next week’s opener.

Until then, here’s Friday’s practice report:

As USF nears the end of training camp, the consensus among the players is that the lingering sting of last year’s 56-21 Sun Bowl loss against Oregon will be used as incentive this season. 

“We’re definitely going to use that as motivation this year,” C Jake Griffin said. “A lot of people want to know if we’re going to be the team that went 6-0 and was No. 2 in the nation or if we’re the team that laid an egg in the Sun Bowl.

“We have to prove it to everyone still because people don’t know who we are. I mean, they know who South Florida is, but they just think we went 6-0 and then we lost three in a row, so they don’t really know who we are yet.”

The No. 19 Bulls open the season a week from Saturday when they host Division I-AA Tennessee-Martin.

FORD TUNING UP: Sophomore RB Mike Ford, who found himself third on the depth chart earlier in camp, has recently been making an impression on Bulls coach Jim Leavitt.

“I didn’t think Mike had a real good summer, to be honest with you,” Leavitt said. “But lately he’s been coming on.”

Despite Ford’s late push, senior Ben Williams remains the No. 1 running back.

O-LINE SET: The starting five on the offensive line the past couple of days at practice has been Jake Griffin at center, Ryan Schmidt and Marc Dile at the tackle positions and Matt Huners and Zach Hermann at the guard spots. While USF likes to rotate players in and out during games, the five mentioned here will be your starters. 

STILL NO WORD: CBs John Lejiste and George Baker, TE Andreas Shields (who returned to practice after being absent Thursday) and LBs LaDre Watkins and Quavon Taylor still haven’t been cleared by the NCAA, while JuCo transfer CB Theo Wilson remains ineligible while still trying to resolve separate academic issues.

Leavitt believes “it’s just a matter of time” before each player’s situation will be settled, saying some could receive clearance this evening.

ODDS AND ENDS: Friday was USF’s final two-a-day practice and as the players huddled up after stretching, they began repeating the chant of “Laaaast day. Laaaast day.” … The Bulls will practice once this morning and then return to a normal game-week practice schedule beginning Monday. ... USF’s official site gousfbulls.com has been redesigned.