The USF Bulls are in the news across the country but not for the reason they would like. With Arkansas firing head coach Bobby Petrino, the name that keeps coming up as a possible replacement for him is Bulls head coach Skip Holtz. Holtz is 13-12 in his two seasons with the Bulls and has a career record of 51-39. He had the Bulls ranked up to #16 in the polls in 2011 after a 4-0 start, but the team went just 1-7 the rest of the season. However, Holtz says he has no interest in the Razorbacks job. “My home is in Tampa, my wife is here. My kids are here. This is where I want to be.’’ He said his wife asked him why his name was being mentioned. “Why would anybody want to hire you?’’ she said. “You were 5-7″. “My wife has a way of making me humble.’’ said Holtz.
Andre Davis has been named the number one receiver for this fall. Davis has worked hard in the offseason and he is expecting big numbers in his sophomore year. As a freshman he played in 11 games and had 22 catches for 273 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
JaQuez Jenkins is making a case for the starting free safety position. “I’ve really been impressed with Jenkins,” coach Skip Holtz said. “He gives us that free safety we haven’t had here, tall, lanky, athletic, can cover a lot of ground at the safety position. (He) had a great interception early in the scrimmage, coming across, made a great, athletic play in the middle. We’ve played a lot of three-deep, but we have not had a free safety in the middle of the field like JaQuez Jenkins. He’s opening a lot of people’s eyes.” As a sophomore last fall Jenkins suffered a hamstring injury that cut his playing time down but he was able to be a factor a few times during the season. In the first start of career against Cincinnati he had an interception and 4 tackles. And then in the final game of the year against West Virginia he returned an interception for a touchdown. Both interceptions were key plays, in games the Bulls lost in the final minute.
USF will hold their annual spring game at Raymond James Stadium on April 21st. Kickoff will be at 6:00pm.
Last Friday was the first full contact scrimmage since last season and the team ran around 140 plays. B.J. Daniels threw a 52 yard touchdown pass to Andre Davis and newly repositioned running back, Lindsey Lamar, was the most solid of the running backs and had the big gainer on the ground when he broke loose for a 29 yard gain.
Ray Blanchette covers the USF Bulls for Outside The Redzone. He also covers NCAA football for the Saturday Blitz. Follow along at www.saturdayblitz.com. Blanchette is the owner of Blanchette Sports Holdings. Follow along with them at www.blanchettesh.elementfx.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003521034703&sk=wall or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/BlanchettSports
