WR Sterling Griffin (#17) showed a lot of promise as a true freshman amassing 265 yards and 2 TDS in 10 games last season.
Skip Holtz and QB B.J. Daniels’ quest to lead the Bulls back to BCS prominence is becoming more of an impossibility as injuries continue to plague the team. The latest victim is sophomore WR Sterling Griffin who fractured and dislocated his right ankle during voluntary workouts on Monday. The prognosis for Griffin is at least 6-8 weeks plus recovery time to get back into playing shape. However, Holtz is confident Griffin will return to the field at some point during the season.
This is the second receiver to go down this year which is severely depleting the Bulls’ WR corp. Senior A.J. Love tore his ACL during the spring game and his return status is yet to be determined. Aside from Dontavia Bogan, the Bulls have a lot of untested and unproven WRs in the works. This forced Holtz to convert RB Lindsey Lamar into a receiver just to add depth.
For all the South Florida Bulls fans, this doesn’t help the young Daniels as he loves, almost to a fault, to make high risk plays rather than the easy option. This shows the confidence in his arm, but as the talent and depth continues to diminish at the skill positions, Daniels must limit his risk. Holtz’s philosophy for Daniels is for him to take more snaps under center rather than at the shotgun formation. This will provide RB Moise Plancher more options on the ground.
The Bulls arguably have the best athletes in the Big East, the question is can Holtz bring his success from East Carolina to South Florida. We will certainly know the answer to that question on September 11th when the Bulls travel to the Swamp to face a Tebow-less Florida Gators squad.
