LAWRENCE, Kan. — Been at the stadium for a few hours now, and I got the pleasure to watch the Bulls arrive by their charter buses. It went without incident, though. No jeering, no hecking, no chucking of beers at the players. Filed in and are now warming up.
Couple of late scratches: Richard Clebert did not travel with the team. He has a terrible groin injury according to SID John Gerdes, and safety Danny Verpaele will not start, looks like Carlton Williams will be taking his place. As for Clerbert, looks like Woody George will get the start just like last week at UCF. Depth chart-wise the Bulls are looking at Chris Robinson and Julian Riley for tackles off the bench. Coach Jim Leavitt said they would be rotating a lot on the line, and tonight looks no different.
To wrap up this quick note, Thed Watson will start at guard today.
That’s it for now. More later, hopefully before halftime.
— Mike Camunas
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Bulls bring rain with them
KANAS CITY — It’s raining. Well, at least it’s only in Kansas City — the Missouri side that is. I just checked over on Lawrence, Kan., and it’s clear, but chilly. Game time looks to be in the somewhere in the 50’s. Yikes.
Anyways, just a few things.
Kansas is dead. I think these mid Westerns are in bed by 10:30 p.m. at the latest. It was just odd to me. My photog, Josh Corban, Times writer Greg Auman and I all went out to a bar-b-que place last night, and they were shutting down at 9:30 CST. Heck, we didn’t get in until 7 p.m. Just plain odd, in my opinion.
Should be fun tonight to meet Kawika Mitchell at the game. The Kansas City linebacker had mentioned this week, with the Chiefs bye week, that he might attend the game. At the Oracle, I’ve been meaning to do a feature story on him since I took over as Sports Editor. Hasn’t gone over as well as I hoped. Last year, I was going to go down to Miami to get him at a Dolphins game, but Hurricane Wilma changed the game time on me, and I couldn’t make it. I’ll talk to him a the game and get a story in later this week. Now if I could just talk to his former defensive coordinator.
There are two Big East/Big 12 games today. USF and Kansas, and Louisville and Kansas State. K-State should get destroyed by Louisville. I think most feel that’s a given, even with K-State‘s No.14-ranked defense, since they are facing the nation’s best offense. Louisville is too deep a team, even Michael Bush and Brian Brohm-less. USF and Kansas, on the other hand, looks to be a good game. I love this story about the two freshman quarterback, both of whom beat out seniors (if you want to call Pat Julmiste’s “thigh bruise” getting beat out), to get the starting positions. The Bulls’ have the No. 27-ranked defense, and I have been impressed with the way the defensive line — all nine different lineman they have been using — swapping in and out numerous times in the game and still coming up with the big late play, or containing their opponent’s offense. Two big forced fumbles have basically won the games for them the past two weeks.
Okay, enough for now. I expect Thed Watson to play with the loss of Jake Griffin, and I expect the punting game to have a different feel to it. Even though I reported Leavitt was sticking with Delbert Alvarado, I also think he doesn’t have much confidence in either Alvarado, nor Ilia Petrov.
More to come from Lawrence. Oh yeah, at that's central time I'm posting at.
— Mike Camunas
Anyways, just a few things.
Kansas is dead. I think these mid Westerns are in bed by 10:30 p.m. at the latest. It was just odd to me. My photog, Josh Corban, Times writer Greg Auman and I all went out to a bar-b-que place last night, and they were shutting down at 9:30 CST. Heck, we didn’t get in until 7 p.m. Just plain odd, in my opinion.
Should be fun tonight to meet Kawika Mitchell at the game. The Kansas City linebacker had mentioned this week, with the Chiefs bye week, that he might attend the game. At the Oracle, I’ve been meaning to do a feature story on him since I took over as Sports Editor. Hasn’t gone over as well as I hoped. Last year, I was going to go down to Miami to get him at a Dolphins game, but Hurricane Wilma changed the game time on me, and I couldn’t make it. I’ll talk to him a the game and get a story in later this week. Now if I could just talk to his former defensive coordinator.
There are two Big East/Big 12 games today. USF and Kansas, and Louisville and Kansas State. K-State should get destroyed by Louisville. I think most feel that’s a given, even with K-State‘s No.14-ranked defense, since they are facing the nation’s best offense. Louisville is too deep a team, even Michael Bush and Brian Brohm-less. USF and Kansas, on the other hand, looks to be a good game. I love this story about the two freshman quarterback, both of whom beat out seniors (if you want to call Pat Julmiste’s “thigh bruise” getting beat out), to get the starting positions. The Bulls’ have the No. 27-ranked defense, and I have been impressed with the way the defensive line — all nine different lineman they have been using — swapping in and out numerous times in the game and still coming up with the big late play, or containing their opponent’s offense. Two big forced fumbles have basically won the games for them the past two weeks.
Okay, enough for now. I expect Thed Watson to play with the loss of Jake Griffin, and I expect the punting game to have a different feel to it. Even though I reported Leavitt was sticking with Delbert Alvarado, I also think he doesn’t have much confidence in either Alvarado, nor Ilia Petrov.
More to come from Lawrence. Oh yeah, at that's central time I'm posting at.
— Mike Camunas
Saturday, September 09, 2006
So far not so good
TAMPA — Well, for those not subscribing to ESPN 360, it hasn’t really been that pretty at Raymond James stadium. The Bulls have found enough flags on punt returns to last them the entire season, and dug themselves into a 20-7 deficit.
Three on one play. One before, one during and one after a punt return by Ean Randolph. The Webber International transfer had three punt returns, and the only one that wasn’t taken back was a 76-yard scamp for the score.
Strange things. The offense looks a little weak, while the play calling seems very uncreative, even by Rod Smith standards.
Quarterback Matt Grothe is the team’s leading rusher at 41 yards, then add that to his 58 he had last week, that gives him a huge lead above senior running back Walt Smith at 99 yards.
The Bulls botched their first series after halftime, and walk on punter Delbert Alverado had to punt it away, and by the way, Alverado has looked very solid in his replacement of scholarship punter Ilia Petrov.
That’s about it for now. I’ll try to add some left over notes I have after the game. On the other hand, the crowd size — especially in the student section — is quite large for the second week in a row. My prediction, probably about a thousand over last week’s 26 K and change.
— Mike Camunas
Three on one play. One before, one during and one after a punt return by Ean Randolph. The Webber International transfer had three punt returns, and the only one that wasn’t taken back was a 76-yard scamp for the score.
Strange things. The offense looks a little weak, while the play calling seems very uncreative, even by Rod Smith standards.
Quarterback Matt Grothe is the team’s leading rusher at 41 yards, then add that to his 58 he had last week, that gives him a huge lead above senior running back Walt Smith at 99 yards.
The Bulls botched their first series after halftime, and walk on punter Delbert Alverado had to punt it away, and by the way, Alverado has looked very solid in his replacement of scholarship punter Ilia Petrov.
That’s about it for now. I’ll try to add some left over notes I have after the game. On the other hand, the crowd size — especially in the student section — is quite large for the second week in a row. My prediction, probably about a thousand over last week’s 26 K and change.
— Mike Camunas
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Time slots filling up
Two more game times for the football team's schedules were released today, and not shockingly, they are both at 7 p.m. The Oct. 7 game vs. Connecticut and the Nov. 11 game vs. Syracuse were posted on gousfbulls.com, meaning just two games are left without start times: the Oct. 13 game at UNC and Nov. 14 game at Louisville.
All that's next is getting some of those games on TV.
Mike Camunas
All that's next is getting some of those games on TV.
Mike Camunas
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Game day: 5:15 p.m.
TAMPA — Just arrived at Raymond James and it’s still pretty dead, at least inside the stadium. A handful of McNeese players are warming up and the band is quietly filing into their section.
Just a few things. Of course it has been reported that Pat Julmiste will start at quarterback. No shock there. He would have been my choice, but for those watching the game at home on ABC 28, redshirt freshman Matt Grothe should see some playing time.
Should be interesting to see how Grothe does, and who the quarterback’s new favorite receiver turns out to be, especially on the four wide sets with a single back in the back field. That will be Moise Plancher, who was one of the few players to show up at the media conference Tuesday.
Plancher was fun to talk to on the side. I usually like to talk to the players on what it’s like to be a student. Sometimes it’s funny because these players have just as good war stories about the first day of classes, parking and other college clichés.
Turns out Plancher doesn’t own a car. He did at one point, but last year it got towed and he just led the DMV auction it off. Now, he claims, he gets rides from a few players here and there, but walks to most things, including to the athletic facility, on campus.
That’s all I got for now. Sorry its not much, but it is game day, and just walking up through the parking lot to the stadium, I could feel electricity in the air.
There are fans who really enjoy this: Bulls’ games. They are die hard USFers and will do anything for their green and gold. Then there are the fans who just like college football, The raised beer can cheers made me laugh, which then made me realize college football will always be college football.
Just a few things. Of course it has been reported that Pat Julmiste will start at quarterback. No shock there. He would have been my choice, but for those watching the game at home on ABC 28, redshirt freshman Matt Grothe should see some playing time.
Should be interesting to see how Grothe does, and who the quarterback’s new favorite receiver turns out to be, especially on the four wide sets with a single back in the back field. That will be Moise Plancher, who was one of the few players to show up at the media conference Tuesday.
Plancher was fun to talk to on the side. I usually like to talk to the players on what it’s like to be a student. Sometimes it’s funny because these players have just as good war stories about the first day of classes, parking and other college clichés.
Turns out Plancher doesn’t own a car. He did at one point, but last year it got towed and he just led the DMV auction it off. Now, he claims, he gets rides from a few players here and there, but walks to most things, including to the athletic facility, on campus.
That’s all I got for now. Sorry its not much, but it is game day, and just walking up through the parking lot to the stadium, I could feel electricity in the air.
There are fans who really enjoy this: Bulls’ games. They are die hard USFers and will do anything for their green and gold. Then there are the fans who just like college football, The raised beer can cheers made me laugh, which then made me realize college football will always be college football.
Mike Camunas
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