The first scrimmage of fall practice is this afternoon at 1:00pm at the Vero Beach Sports Village. It's free and open to the public, and Ken will be coming down from his home to watch it in person, for those of you who like meeting celebrities and who have a very loose definition of the word "celebrity."
1. Yesterday's workout wasn't too heavy -- no pads, everyone in a jovial mood, switching jerseys with each other and stuff. And also my favorite bit from last summer is back, as the team held the Bulls Olympics opening ceremony by the pool.
B.J. Daniels has been practicing the last couple of days, but Skip Holtz isn't sure how much he'll use him in today's scrimmage because hamstring injuries can be really tricky:
"The problem with hamstrings is that you really never know when it’s 100 percent healed. The last thing you want to do is put him out there, have him change speeds trying to get away from the pass rush, and of a sudden he pops it and then it’s two weeks (out)."
We should get quite a bit of Bobby Eveld and Matt Floyd today, and we might also have a Ryan Eppes sighting since he's the only other quarterback on the roster.
2. Speaking of Eveld, Greg Auman caught up with him after Friday's practice. He also had a chance to talk to offensive coordinator Todd Fitch and got some good information about Darrell Scott. I've been insisting all along that Demetris Murray would have a bigger edge than it appeared to keep the starting running back job because he had the advantage of doing the little things in the USF offense last year. It sounds like Scott might be narrowing that gap based on what Fitch had to say
"I tell you what, he has become a well-rounded player. He's blocking. He's route-running. I think he has the highest completion catching percentage of all our skill players, catching the ball probably at a 96 percent rate. He's working every snap. I told him two nights ago as the team was going on 'I'm very proud of the way you're working and blocking and route-running, just being an all-around player and not just when the ball is in your hands."
Fitch also talked about some of the incoming freshmen like Andre Davis, Ruben Gonzalez, Darrell Williams, Thor Jozwiak, and Brynjar Gudmundsson (which I spelled right on the first try).
3. The official site has a rundown of this year's Bulls Olympics event, plus a video recap of last year's competition. They have Holtz's post-practice interview as well as interview with last year's two highly-touted recruits, Terrence Mitchell and Todd Chandler. Not to jump around the list, but Adam's article from #1 also has a bit about Chandler and his improved conditioning and mental focus.
4. Andrea Adelson hasn't had that much to write about USF this week, but she did include Daniels on her list of players who have the potential to go from "good to great" this season.
5. Congratulations to former USF nose tackle Richard Clebert, who won an Arena Football championship for the second straight year. His Jacksonville Sharks scored on the final play of the game to beat the Arizona Rattlers 73-70 in Arena Bowl XXIV last night. It might have been the greatest game in Arena history -- each team scored twice in the last minute, and Arizona had the title ripped away from them after they had gone ahead with 21 seconds left. Plus the sheer guts by the Sharks to go for a touchdown on the last play when a 20-yard field goal would have sent the game to overtime.