USF football coach Jim Leavitt has been mostly positive about his team’s play during spring drills. Saturday’s scrimmage was no exception, though Leavitt saw room for improvement.

“With every scrimmage, you see some things that you really think are good, and there are some things that are not so good,” Leavitt said of the Bulls’ first spring scrimmage. “There are some guys making some really good plays, guys working hard.”

The scrimmage lasted roughly two hours and almost 100 plays.

Leavitt was impressed by the No. 1 defense’s performance against the No. 2 offense, which was blemished only by a 26-yard touchdown pass from David Mullins to receiver Bruce Gipson.

“I thought our overall defense had a much better day, even though our No. 1 defense did get scored upon one time on the 20-yard line,” Leavitt said.

Mullins earned high praise from Leavitt for standing up in the pocket and taking some punishment.

“Probably the guy that stood out to me the most was David Mullins,” Leavitt said. “Here’s a guy that’s been in pads … six days, and I thought he had a tremendous outing. He got hit, he was live, he got clobbered, and I thought he had great courage.”

Fullback Charlie Ross scored on a 3-yard touchdown run for the No. 1 offense, while DeJuan Green led all rushers with two touchdowns and 39 yards on eight carries.

The kicking game continued to frustrate Leavitt, however. Last year’s starter Santiago Gramatica is recovering from knee surgery, and Justin Geisler missed numerous kicks Saturday.

“Justin Geisler had a disappointing day again today,” Leavitt said. “A little bit better than the other day, but not to the standard that we want. We can’t win with that right now.

“Either he’s going to have to change or we’re going to get somebody else because we can’t have that. I like Justin, and Justin knows that, but he’s got to be better.”

Starting linebacker Kawika Mitchell sat out the scrimmage because of migraine headaches. Mitchell was replaced by Mike Minus.