Offense excels in Green and Gold Bowl

In the first scrimmage of the spring practice season, the USF defense got the better of its offensive counterpart, limiting the Bulls to two touchdowns from open play. But in Saturdays Green and Gold Bowl, the offense excelled as fans had the opportunity to see this seasons Bulls in action for the first time.

The results are both good and bad for the coaching staff, as every good offensive play means a bad defensive play.

Every time you throw a touchdown pass, you say, Ooh nice play, and then, Who was that defensive back? coach Skip Holtz said. That was our defense, too.

USFs three quarterbacks, B.J. Daniels, Bobby Eveld and Matt Floyd, combined to throw for more than 500 yards and seven touchdowns on a night where 10 touchdowns were scored between the Green and Gold teams. The final score was 43-35 in favor of the Gold team.

Today wasnt our best day, junior linebacker DeDe Lattimore said. Emotionally, some of us werent in the game. Im not sure what it was. Weve just got to get better with the fundamentals, running to the ball, more energy.

Senior cornerback Kayvon Webster echoed his teammates sentiments, showing concern for the offensive explosion on both sides.

Theres things that we can continue to get better on, as far as the penalties and missed assignments, he said.

Penalties were a concern for the team as a whole, as is expected in just the second scrimmage of the teams spring season.

There were a lot of good plays on both sides of the ball, but the one thing that stood out to me was that we had way too many penalties out there, Holtz said.

An emerging story of the spring practices was the competition between junior Bobby Eveld and redshirt freshman Matt Floyd, who were listed as co-backups behind fifth-year senior Daniels. Both Eveld and Floyd played quarterback for the victorious Gold team and had impressive showings.

Tampa native Eveld impressed early, completing his first eight passes and racking up 100 yards on his way to a 154-yard, three-touchdown night. His breakthrough game came a week after a disappointing showing in the first scrimmage of the season.

I felt like it went a lot better than last week, he said. I was seeing the field a lot better.

Holtz said listing the quarterbacks even on the depth chart motivated Eveld to recover from a poor performance in the first scrimmage.

This week I thought Bobby really responded and he fought back, Holtz said. He sat in there and made some poised decisions.

Floyd held his own as well, going 18-for-30 for 174 yards and two touchdowns. However, he also threw an interception to Webster.

Me and Matt are pretty good friends, Eveld said. On and off the field well push each other, but we wont take it personally.

The starting offense, led by Daniels, was no less impressive. Daniels had two touchdown passes of his own and started the game with a bang, throwing a bullet to Andre Davis who made an impressive grab for a 59-yard gain.

This week I got the chance to make a big play to start, and it sparked our offense, Davis said.

Davis had an impressive showing, grabbing four catches for 118 yards and three scores.

As a whole, Holtz said his squad saw the second Green and Gold Bowl at Corbett Soccer Stadium as a success and good preparation for the official spring game Saturday at Raymond James Stadium. He also said he was especially impressed with the atmosphere from fans on campus.

Just put 50,000 seats around that field, and well play right there, right in our backyard, Holtz said.