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Young USF prepares to start over

The football team has plenty of new faces and a new division - I-A.

[Times photo: Bill Serne] Freshman Chris McBee yawns, waiting for the team photo to be taken.

By BRUCE LOWITT

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 9, 2001

TAMPA -- Call them the Baby Bulls II.

"We're pretty young all the way around, probably as young as the first team we had four years ago," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said Wednesday at the team's annual media day at Raymond James Stadium. "We've had to replace so many starters. That wasn't very smart on my part.

"We had 25 seniors last year and most of them starters and a lot of them figured into our two-deep (chart). And when you lose that kind of experience that can be tough. But what makes this exciting is that we've got a lot of talent and they're young."

The Bulls lost their two top starting running backs -- Otis Dixon and Rafael Williams.

But they have senior Derrick Rackard, and Leavitt said he is counting on his leadership. Rackard, sophomore Vince Brewer and freshman Clenton Crossley are the three most likely candidates for the two starting roles, with Quinton Callum just behind them.

Callum, who signed a letter of intent with Florida State in 1999 but played junior college football instead, sat out 2000 and joined USF Sunday.

The Bulls lost their three top receivers -- Williams, Scott McCready (a free agent with the Patriots) and Charlie Jackson.

"Now (junior) DeAndrew Rubin is our key guy," Leavitt said, "and with (sophomore) Chris Iskra on the other side, that's two young kids." Behind them for the time being are senior Hugh Smith, junior Ryan Hearn (who switched from defensive back) and freshman Bruce Gipson. "We've lost a lot of experience," Leavitt said. "We think we've still got a lot of talent."

On the defensive line, juniors Emerson Morris and Chris Daley are projected as starters, but Leavitt said sophomores Ian Blackwell, Shurron Pierson and Cedric Battles, and freshmen Kenny Huebner and Derek Carter will push them.

"There's more competition for starting roles since our first year, too," Leavitt said. Position by position, he reeled off the players lost to graduation and their potential successors. "We're going to have some pretty good depth at a lot of positions, but it will be young depth," he said. "They haven't played much football but they're talented.

"We're pretty young all the way around. But the thing is, we haven't gone after too many junior college players. We've gone after a lot of high school players. We wanted to have guys we could develop. And over the past couple of years we think we've developed some pretty good football players who haven't had an opportunity to play.

"This year they'll get the chance."

This year they're moving up to Division I-A. Most of the teams they'll play in top division are coming off less-than-sparkling seasons. Memphis was 4-7. So was Utah. North Texas was 3-8. So were Houston and Connecticut.

That won't make the transition any easier, Leavitt said, "because they've all had 85 scholarships for a while. When you have 85 scholarships for that many years the competitive bar is raised every day in practice.

"We've only had 60-something scholarships. ... The first year we played, they didn't think we were going to beat anybody. We had only 15 scholarships that first year. Everybody we played in Division I-AA had more than 15. We're trying to get close to 85 now. So our competitive level maybe hasn't been as strong as what some other schools have had."

He said he could envision four or five freshmen making the roster. Wide receiver Travis Lipp from Bradenton, he said, has been impressive.

"The opportunity is there for me to play," Lipp said. "I just have to prove to myself that I can go get it." Being able to stay in Florida, he said, was a major reason he picked USF. "This state has the best football around. Being in Division I-A is just another perk."

Last season was USF's "transition" year, its last in I-AA, when the Bulls played four Division I-A teams and were beaten by all four. But they haven't had a losing season since their first (5-6 in 1997).

"I think we're about where I was hoping we would be," Leavitt said. "I wanted to be a very powerful I-AA team ... and I think most people would say we're about as good as there is in I-AA -- which means we're probably not very good in I-A."

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