Sophomore quarterback Mike White, who started the final five games of the 2013 season, has been named the USF Bulls’ starting signal-caller, edging out Steven Bench.
Head coach Willie Taggart named White the starter on Sunday, a day after the team’s second live scrimmage of the month. Taggart addressed the media following the scrimmage, indicating a decision was forthcoming.
“We want to go into next week being pretty sure on who we’re going to work with and who we’ll continue to bring along with us,” Taggart said.
White, the youngest QB in camp at age 19, learned of his starting role at a team meeting on Sunday.
The Bulls, a disappointing 2-10 a year ago, started four quarterbacks in 2013. White threw for 1,083 yards and three touchdowns last year, tossing nine interceptions while completing 53.1 percent of his passes.
Bench, a transfer from Penn State, threw for 392 yards in 2013 and had three picks, completing 40.6 percent of his throws. Bobby Eveld and Matt Floyd also started games last season.
Seeking a major turnaround in Taggert’s second season at the helm, the Bulls open up at home this season against Western Carolina at Raymond James Stadium Aug. 30. The Bulls don’t want a repeat of last year’s home opener, an embarrassing 53-21 loss to McNeese State.
“I feel like our football team is right on schedule where we want it,” Taggart said during AAC Media Day. “Last year wasn’t what we all wanted it to be. But for me personally, it was enjoyable. It was enjoyable getting to know our guys. It was enjoyable building the trust within our football program. It was enjoyable exercising the demons we had to get through.
“And now seeing our guys understanding the standards and the culture we want to build in our program, you watch them daily get better. I’m excited about that. In every aspect of our program which we want our guys to be exceptionally well in, they’re doing it on the field, off the field, in the classroom. Spring was good for our guys and recruiting was good for our football program.”
By all accounts, USF enjoyed an exceptional recruiting year, and Taggart has big expectations for the 2014 campaign.
“Our recruiting class, it was great for us,” Taggart said. “We got the guys we wanted. We feel like we helped our football program out tremendously with these guys.
“I look at the 28 guys we recruited, 12 of them from the Bay Area,” he added. “That was big for us. That was an emphasis we put on when we came to USF, saying we want to make sure we take care of the bay.”
Taggart believes the team has grown closer in its first offseason together. The up-and-coming program will need the unity to reverse last year’s results.
“What we wanted to do first this off-season is come together as a football team, become a closer football team,” Taggart said. “That’s something I felt like stood in our way last year, we wasn’t as close as we needed to be in order to win games we needed to win. That was a big emphasis off the field, is become closer, start to enjoy and care about each other, play for each other.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
