LL:  Bulls Look to Make Statement

[Brad]

Published Friday, September 17, 2004

Bulls Look to Make Statement

Jim Leavitt sees this as an opportunity, although he doesn't want his players concentrating on that.

From outside, Saturday's game in Columbia, S.C., between Leavitt's Bulls and South Carolina can be seen as another chance for USF to make a statement.

At present, most view USF as a notch below the top teams in Division I-A, not on a par with schools in elite conferences such as the SEC.

If Leavitt believes that, he is keeping it to himself. To almost everybody else, if USF beats a veteran Gamecock squad on the road it will be an upset.

How big an upset is hard to judge. When you see things like Troy State beating Missouri, Southern Miss going to Nebraska and embarrassing the Cornhuskers and Fresno State whipping Kansas State, you begin to wonder.

Given his coaching philosophy, it may well be that Leavitt has not even considered how his team stacks up with South Carolina or anybody else.

"It's a good opportunity for our program to play an awfully good SEC team," Leavitt said. "I am really looking forward to the opportunity to see how our team will respond.

"We do have some talented players and some guys who have been in some big games.

"It's not like it's the first time we've been in a situation like this," Leavitt reminded."

It appears Leavitt and his team are past the point where they feel outmanned by anybody, and that is the first step in going toe-to-toe with the big boys.

In part, that's because of the way Leavitt approaches every game. He wants his team focused.

Not on anything that happened last week, which is over.

And not on anything which might happen, which is still ahead.

He wants his players to focus on the game at hand and forget the rest. He doesn't even want them thinking about winning the game. He wants them to think about each play as it comes up, concentrating on that moment and nothing else.

Thus, while he is concerned about the injury suffered by Tennessee Tech receiver Drew Hixon in USF's opener last week, he is doing everything he can to minimize its impact on his team and particularly the players involved, Mike Jenkins and Javon Canon.

He did not shut them off from the media, as many coaches might have. Had Leavitt done that, the play would have taken on even more significance and the potential for having a negative impact on the team would have been much greater.

"It's interesting how our program has evolved," Leavitt said. "When you take a I-AA team (Tennessee Tech) that beat a nationally ranked I-AA team (Gardner-Webb) and you don't absolutely blow them out, you're not doing very good.

"It hasn't always been that way in the long history of South Florida football," Leavitt said with more than a little irony. "It's changed and that's probably good."

Saturday's game will be another barometer of just how much it's changed.

For this team to move forward, it must play well against opponents like South Carolina. A blowout will be a setback to the program.

And the Bulls do not believe they are overmatched.

"It's a matter of being prepared," Canon, a four-year veteran defensive back, said.

"We're not in awe of anybody. We don't put anybody on a pedestal."

They have to prove that Saturday.

Patrick Zier is a correspondent for The Ledger. He can be reached at sports@theledger.com.

Story Link

[E.T.]

Oh Man !!! Really wish I could watch this game !!!

Go BULLS !!!

[ChiTownBull]

can't wait to listen to the game on the net tomorrow!

[dabull80]

Who is Canon ?

[beastiebull]

I'm having flashbacks to Bama.  Similiar lead up to this game.  Hope I'm wrong.

[E.T.]

Who is Canon ?

Typo ... Javon Camon #12

Go BULLS !!!

[BullWriter]

Let's not forget we were up on Bama by quite a bit, and the crowd was all but out of the game.  We LET them back in, the crowd got back into the game, and the momentum (and our lack of conditioning) just steamrolled us.

If we can strike first and take out the crowd, we've got a chance.  If not... it could get dicey.

[smazza]

good luck bulls

[namuh-bull]

We will make our own good luck.  Pound them into the ground, Bulls.

[Jim Johnson]

Let's not forget we were up on Bama by quite a bit, and the crowd was all but out of the game.  We LET them back in, the crowd got back into the game, and the momentum (and our lack of conditioning) just steamrolled us.

If we can strike first and take out the crowd, we've got a chance.  If not... it could get dicey.

The tide turned at Bama when Banks threw a pass that slipped thoguht Huey's hands, into the hands of a Bama defender who took it to the house.  Banks went on to throw a couple more INT's if memory serves correct.

If Julmiste/Banks can eliminate interceptions, then we might be able to pull this off.

Conditioning shouldn't be a problem.  7:00pm in Columbia will be cooler and less humid than 7:00pm in Tampa (much less than 2:00pm in Tuscaloosa.)