A Few Notes from Skip Holtz Press Conference

Coach Holtz held his weekly press conference as the team prepares for the game on Saturday at UCONN.

Holtz was up-beat as usual, stating the team was focused and prepared for the game at hand. The team had been "getting back to basics" the last two weeks, trying to iron out the mistakes and problems they saw in the loss to Pitt.

Holtz stated that the team is not taking UCONN lightly and says they are a talented team that will play smash mouth football (reminding people of Big Ten style of play). After the Bulls gave up over 300 yards rushing to Pitt, the team will have to be better in run defense if they want to get a road win here. Holtz also stated that the Bulls linebackers will have to be more aggressive at the point attack. In the Pitt game we could see the linebackers playing back and rushing up to make a stop, not finishing tackles and letting Ray Graham run all over them. The Bulls will have to dig deep in this game against another run heavy team.

Holtz was asked about conference realignment and he stated he is happy about being in the Big East. He said he is proud and confident in the conference.

Holtz stated that defensive tackle Demi Thompson will be out this week. Thompson has been dealing with back issues all season and it would appear they continue to linger. Terrence Mitchell was due to test himself today to see if he could return to the field (no official word yet on his condition or status).

Scouting UCONN: Special Teams

Time to take a look at the UCONN special teams. USF did a better job last week stopping kick returns, but didn't get a lot of great punts going. The special teams unit will have to step up in this game because it will play a big part in the outcome. Let's see who USF will have to face.

2011 Preseason Big East Blogger Poll Results

A few days after the release of the Big East media poll, in which South Florida was picked to finish third behind West Virginia and Pittsburgh, we bloggers across the conference have put together our own ballots reflecting how we feel the conference will shape up this year. The bloggers who submitted ballots were of course myself and Matt, Jim from HailWV, Scott from Bearcats Blog, Brian from Orange::44,Bryan from PittScriptBlog, Bryan from The Fighting Wannstaches, and our newest addition to the blogroll, Jerry from NJ.com. Before the final results, here's my ballot and Matt's ballot. As you can see, we're just as confident in the Bulls as we were at the beginning of the summer. The final results of the poll weren't quite as favorable for USF, as they were just barely overtaken for the #1 spot (Thanks a lot, Jim).

1	West Virginia	60
2	South Florida	56
3	Pittsburgh	49
3	Syracuse	32
5	Louisville	30
5	Cincinnati	30
7	Connecticut	17
8	Rutgers	14