Best of the Bull-ogosphere - June 28-July 4

Before we get to the links, you may have noticed we haven't done a "15 for 15" post this week. Toro has been trying to contact this week's honoree, who is #12 on the list, so he can put together a story involving the two of them. We may just do #12 and #11 (who I think Toro is also trying to get in touch with) together next week, so stay tuned.

If you're trying to guess who they are, here's a hint - they both played the same position.

OK, on to the links:

- Two new recruits for 2011, one who came out of the shortened SuperBull, and one who has two older brothers you've probably heard of. First is Sebring linebacker Zack Bullock, who committed on Sunday. Here's the Rivals profile on Bullock, who hasn't been given a star rating yet by them or Scout. One thing we do know for sure, though, is that Bullock is psyched to become a Bull.

"It is like I can’t even wrap my mind around it," Bullock told USFBullsEye.com. "I am going to get to play Division I football in front of thousands and thousands of people every week and it is very close to my hometown, so my family and friends get to see me play.

"I couldn’t think of a better scenario.’‘

- College football fans in Florida are probably familiar with the Weatherford quarterbacking family. Oldest brother Drew Weatherford went to Florida State, who ended up having a "meh" college career with a huge assist to Jeff Bowden's inept offensive coordinating. The second brother, Joe, ended up transferring from UCF to West Georgia after failing to win the Knights' job the last two seasons. Now the youngest of the three, Stephen, is coming to USF in the class of 2011.

Two reasons I linked to Greg Auman's story on this commitment. One, it does mention Stephen's previous run-in with the law. He was arrested and charged with burglarizing an unoccupied home, but was never charged. Second, the commenters actually had a civil and useful conversation (which doesn't always happen if you read them regularly). Speculation is that Skip Holtz will add another quarterback to the class, and two of the preferred targets may be Jacoby Brissett and Phillip Ely. Let's start with Ely, the quarterback of the defending 5A state champion Plant Panthers. Remember, Holtz's son Trey is enrolled there and might be in line to take over the position when Ely graduates. The Bulls obviously need depth under center, especially one who can be ready to take over when B.J. Daniels moves on. That could be Ely (who already has a boatload of offers), or it could be Brissett, from Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens. Brissett is also a basketball player, and he might be able to contribute to the basketball team while he redshirts on the football field. Then if he ends up being a major player for Holtz, he could shift away from hoops like Daniels did last season.

- As for this year, Auman did an excellent summary of what Holtz might do with the remaining scholarships available for 2010. Holtz could either give them to new players, or give them to walk-ons who have earned it on the field. By the way, count me among those who are surprised that Mistral Raymond doesn't have a scholarship.

More about the rest of the sports on campus after the jump.

- Here are two stories on Dominique Jones from the Dallas Morning News that are worth reading: One about the Mavericks enjoying DoJo's confidence, and another that talks to Stan Heath about what he suggested to his now-former player once he found out Jones was headed to Dallas.

- There's been quite a bit of turnover on the baseball staff in the past couple of weeks. First, hitting coach Bryant Ward left the program to take the same job at Loyola Marymount. (We'll leave aside any thoughts about why someone would leave USF to take the same job at a school that went 23-33 last year and hasn't had a winning record since 2005.) He's been replaced by former USF great Chris Heintz, a four-year star and All-American in 1996 who recently finished up a 13-year pro career. Scott Carter has an extensive Q&A with Heintz that's worth your time.

In addition to Ward leaving, pitching coach Lazer Collazo suddenly resigned on Monday night. A replacement has not been named yet, but I think you might be able to safely speculate two things. One, Collazo might not have decided on his own to resign. (The reason given is a hint - I know Collazo has a large family but he's been coaching for years and years, and I can't figure out why he would decide to stop coaching now.) Second, Lelo Prado must know that there's some writing on the wall for him. He only has one year left on his contract, and with the new stadium opening up, it's time to win now.

- Another good Q&A from Carter, as he talked to the new men's golf coach, Chris Malloy. Malloy was an assistant with Florida State for the last four years, part of a team that won this year's ACC championship and made it all the way to the Final Four. There's really nowhere to go but up for the men's golf program, and with the ability to keep using all the recruiting connections he made at FSU, Malloy is coming into a very good situation.

- I like this GoUSFBullsPuzzle.com site. The idea is that fans send in pictures, videos, and other multimedia, and as more items come in, pictures begin to form with the "pieces" that they receive.

- On the other hand, the "Beat Florida" shirt contest. Let's just say this is not getting the kind of attention that I think the athletic department was hoping for. Granted these are student designs, and not everyone has elite artistic talent or Adobe Illustrator. Still, the lesson here should be that you should have the sketches professionally done, THEN let everyone vote. Now there are people asking why Napoleon Dynamite drew our shirt design. Not good times.

- Finally, two things we are aware of but deliberately not linking to: The Mike Ford arrest, because he's not on the team anymore and we don't feel like piling on. And the secondary NCAA violations, because they're no big deal and because it once again proved that someone can hit a 500-foot home run from time to time but still have a terrible batting average.