The 2013 USF Football Spring Game, the exclamation point on the team’s practices that have been taking place since February, offered fans their first glimpse of what the Bulls might look like under new coach Willie Taggart.
Players in Saturday’s game were drafted into two teams, the White Squad and the Green Machine. As an extra incentive, the winning team received a steak dinner, while the losers ate hot dogs.
One of the biggest questions going into the 2013 season is who will take over the quarterback position now that B.J. Daniels has graduated. After Daniels suffered a season-ending injury against the University of Connecticut in early November. Bobby Eveld and Matt Floyd were given the opportunity to compete for the starting quarterback position under Skip Holtz’s direction.
Now that Taggart is at the helm of USF’s football program, the race to be No. 1 on the depth chart is as open as ever. The spring game allowed the two quarterbacks to make their case for starter before summer practices begin.
Matt Floyd, a 6-foot-1-inch sophomore out of Milton, Fla., established his offensive prowess early with an 85-yard pass to wide receiver Andre Davis on the White Squad’s first play of the game. Floyd threw for 208 yards and two touchdowns, both of which were passes to Davis, showing real chemistry with one of USF’s most potent receivers. But he also fumbled four snaps, three of which were recovered by the defense.
Last season, Floyd struggled taking snaps under center. He fumbled his first play of the season. Things got so bad that former coach Holtz put Floyd in the shotgun to limit his fumbles.
Bobby Eveld, a 6-foot-5-inches senior out of Tampa’s Jesuit High School, struggled to get things going on offense for the Green Machine and was unable to find the end zone until the final seconds of the game. Though he showed more control of the ball than Floyd, he would finish the game with just 143 yards passing, his last-second touchdown a result of a quarterback sneak rather than a pass play.
“Nobody’s ahead,” Taggart said at the conclusion of the game. “I thought Matt did some really good things today, but like I told them all spring, you put that ball on the ground and it takes away from all those good things you did. That’ll get you beat. [Eveld] didn’t play as well as I thought he usually plays. He made a couple of throws, but not as many as I thought he would.”
In a game where the quarterbacks on both teams struggled, the run game was noticeably quiet. Coach Taggart chalked it up to running backs not trusting their blocks # only three players rushed for more than 10 yards in the game. Sophomore Willie Davis had the longest run of the day, a 15-yard dash for the Green Machine in the first quarter. The Bulls’ top two backs, Marcus Shaw and Michael Pierre, combined for just 47 yards on 21 carries for the White Squad.
The defense showed marked improvement, particularly in the secondary. The only “big play” given up was Floyd’s touchdown pass in the opening minutes. Beyond that, the longest pass was Eveld’s 31-yarder in the final minutes of the game. Junior Linebacker Hans Louis, who will take on a starting role this season, had a game-high six tackles (two of which were for a loss) and a fumble recovery.
“I thought we played pretty good. We have a good defensive line, good defensive backs,” said junior linebacker Reshard Cliett, “I feel like we come together more than last year’s defense. We need someone like Sam Barrington and Mike Lanaris, but we’re going to get there.”
For Taggart and his team, this spring game served as the first glimpse of a revamped program that has had to work through its fair share of adversity in the last few months.
“There are a lot of people counting on us to do things the right way and win a lot of ball games,” Taggart said. “Games are going to be won from what our guys do from this point on. We’ve got a lot of work to do; we are by no means where we need to be.”
In the end, the White Squad held off the Green Machine to win 14-11. But more important than the final score (and who got the better meal) was the insight gained on how Head Coach Willie Taggart is solving the problems that caused last season’s Bulls squad to finish last in the Big East.
Samantha Ouimette is the sports editor of The Crow’s Nest. She can be reached at sports@crowsneststpete.com.
Photo contributed by USF Athletics.
