Greg Auman had some breaking news last night as WR Coach Phil McGeoghan is leaving USF for the Miami Dolphins and will be their Assistant Receivers Coach under new coach Joe Philbin.

McGeoghan joined the staff in 2009 under Jim Leavitt and one of the four coaches retained by Skip Holtz when he took over the next season. McGeoghan has done well developing the receivers on the team, and started garnering national attention as a top notch recruiter over the past couple of seasons. Just this year, Coach McGeoghan was the primary recruiter for Chris Bivins and Sean Price, two of our highest rated signees.

I don't blame McGeoghan one bit for leaving. While I would have loved for him to stay, you can't blame a guy for advancing his career, especially when the NFL is calling. At 32, McGeoghan has a bright future in front of him, and I wish him the best of luck and hope he does well with the Dolphins.

We will keep you updated when Skip hires someone to replace Phil.

Now that National Signing Day is history, let's take an extremely early look at how USF's roster is setting up for 2012 and identify some possible areas of need with the class of 2013. And right off the top, we'll find two critical positions that will need to be addressed next February.

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QUARTERBACK: This is a must-recruit position in the class of 2013. B.J. Daniels is a senior this coming season, and the only other quarterback who received a scholarship out of high school is Matt Floyd. I suspect Floyd might have really been the backup quarterback at the end of last season, but at that point it didn't make sense to burn his redshirt. So when Daniels got hurt against Miami, the coaches turned to Bobby Eveld. As long as Floyd becomes the backup this fall, the position isn't a major problem in 2012. But it will be unless another quarterback (or two) joins the team in next year's recruitiing class.

RUNNING BACK: Another position that is going to be a serious need in the 2013 class. Darrell Scott's ill-advised departure leaves the position as Demetris Murray and a lot of question marks. Will Marcus Shaw or Bradley Battles finally step up? Can Michael Pierre come in from junior college and make a difference? What about Willie Davis, who redshirted last year? Could Victor Marc or even Lindsey Lamar get more carries somehow? Fortunately there's a bumper crop of running backs in Florida in the class of 2013. USF needs to get one and maybe two of them if they can.

There are fullbacks on the roster, but they didn't get much use last season so screw it.

WIDE RECEIVER: Holy crap! Sterling Griffin, Deonte Welch, and Andre Davis were all big contributors last year. Ruben Gonzalez got on the field as a true freshman. Terrence Mitchell should be back and ready to chip in. Then you add in Chris Dunkley (transfer), D'Vario Montgomery, Alex Mut (who grayshirted with an injury last year), and LaMarlin Wiggins... this is the deepest position on the team. And they're all going to be back in 2013! I'd be surprised if USF brought in more than one receiver in next year's class. I would not be surprised if they didn't bring in any.

Let's go ahead and add Sean Price in here as well, even though he's a tight end. Probably the best player in the 2012 class. He's going to be a weapon any time the Bulls are under center or in the pistol, and I could see him being split out as a wide receiver from time to time.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Getting Kameron Davis on signing day was helpful for the long-term, while Lawrence Martin and Chandlor Mathews should be able to play in the short term and build some more depth. This is going to be a very green position next year - Mark Popek, Damien Edwards, and Danous Estenor are the only seniors - but with the influx of linemen that have been recruited in the last two seasons, it hopefully won't be a position of need in the 2013 class.

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There's not much suspense to USF's signing day this year. Eight members of the class of 2012 are already enrolled in school, and while there may be a surprise or two like there was with Elkino Watson last year, it looks like everyone we expect to sign with USF today will in fact do so.

Sorry we don't have any hot interns to dress up in short skirts and put on a webcam, but we'll be around to comment and cyber-watch the faxes roll in. Feel free to comment below along with us. After today, I pretty much go into my hyperbaric football chamber and don't come out until spring practice.

Here are the 17 players we expect to see committed (or already enrolled, if they're marked with an asterisk):

• Kofi Amichia - OL (LOI in at 9:30 AM)
• Chris Bivins* - DB
• Josh Brown* - DB
• Kameron Davis - OT (LOI at 11:25 AM)
• Guito Ervilus - ATH (LOI in at 7:53 AM)
• James Hamilton* - DT
• Eric Lee* - DE
• Lawrence Martin* - OT
• Chandlor Mathews-York* - OL
• Jarvis McCall - DB (LOI in at 11:50 AM)
  
• Tevin Mims* - DE
• D'Vario Montgomery - WR (LOI in at 9:15 AM)
• Fidel Montgomery* - DB
• Daniel Perry - DE (LOI in at 9:55 AM)
• Michael Pierre - RB (LOI in at 9:55 AM)
• Sean Price - TE (LOI in at 9:35 AM)
• Jalen Spencer - ATH (LOI in at 9:05 AM)
• Tashon Whitehurst - MLB (LOI in at 11:10 AM)
• LaMarlin Wiggins - WR (LOI in at 8:25 AM)

Oh hey guys, National Signing Day is tomorrow! We will get to finally hear Skip and the coaching staff hear about how the next group of players will bring USF that much closer to bringing home a conference and national championship.

While USF does have a solid group of commitments, don't expect a lot of suspense tomorrow. USF already has their top targets either enrolled like Gainesville CB Chris Bivins and Olympia DT JT Hamilton or committed in North Marion TE Sean Price, Armwood DB Jarvis McCall, and Winter Park WR D'Vario Montgomery.

With JUCO RB Mike Pierre committing over the weekend and filling the roster spot left by Darrell Scott, USF will only be waiting on the decisions from Northeast HS OL Kameron Davis and Gainesville HS LB Tashon Whitehurst.

Davis is a 6'5", 285 lb tackle from Oakland Park, FL and will be choosing between USF, West Virginia, and East Carolina tomorrow. According to Greg Auman, Davis will be doing the hat dance around 11 AM, so we should be still doing our liveblog when he announces his decision. The 2-Star/3-Star was named 7A 1st Team All-State this year, and certainly would bolster a position of need. If you believe Josh Newberg of Bulls247 (and you should), USF has the inside track for his commitment.

Whitehurst is currently a Syracuse commitment, but that hasn't stopped the 6'3", 190 lb MLB from exploring his options and taking official visits to USF and Rutgers over the past few weeks. The 2-Star/3-Star visited Rutgers the week before Greg Schiano left Rutgers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , and was surprised by his move to the NFL. Even with Schiano gone, Whitehurst will be choosing between Rutgers, USF, and Syracuse sometime tomorrow. Sources did tell Voodoo Five (yes we have sources) after Whitehurst's visit to Rutgers that USF looked to be the favorite tomorrow.

We have some highlight videos of Davis and Whitehurst after the jump. We will try to keep you guys updated as the faxes start rolling in tomorrow.

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Skip Holtz and the USF football team got some great news over the weekend as they received a verbal commitment from Oak Ridge TE/DE Guito Ervilus. Josh Newberg of Bulls247.com was first with the news ($ Link), and Ervilus chose the Bulls over UCF, Kentucky, and FIU.

The 6'4" 220 lb Ervilus was starting to receive some attention from Florida State early in the recruiting process, but Guito tore his ACL during spring practice and they soon backed off. Guito can be used in a variety of positions including tight end, wide receiver, and even linebacker, but according to Greg Auman, Ervilus will get play at defensive end when he arrives on campus next season.

If you're wondering about his recovery process, Ervilus' knee is completely healed according to Oak Ridge HS Elijah Williams and is currently playing basketball for the Pioneers.

Ervilus has a chance to be a quality contributor for the Bulls on the line, although probably not for a year or two. With a solid quartet in Julius Forte, Ryne Giddins, Anthony Hill, and JUCO early enrollee Tevin Mims at end, Ervilus will have a year to learn the system and put on some muscle before earning a spot on the two deep in 2013.

Ervilus was rated as a 3-Star recruit by 247, Rivals, and ESPN, and a 2-Star recruit by Scout.

After the jump, we have a video of Guito's junior highlights.

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Last night, after a couple of days of speculation, USF officially hired Kansas State co-defensive coordinator Chris Cosh to fill their open defensive coordinator job.

This isn't exactly a home run hire. I live in Big XII country and Kansas State was on TV pretty much every week here, so I ended up watching a few* of their games. They were insanely entertaining, but they didn't make very many plays on defense. It was a lot like watching USF play defense against Notre Dame -- they were OK giving up yards and field position as long as they "made them snap it again," in the words of Skip Holtz. And then K-State would get some timely defensive play, or they'd block a kick, or get a big return, or some other kind of sorcery or voodoo would happen, and they'd win.

That all sounds well and good, but remember what I've said over and over again. Winning close games is not a skill and it evens out over time. (See also: 2010 and 2011 USF Bulls.) What happens if they don't make all those big plays and K-State wins seven games instead of 10 and goes bowling in Shreveport? It probably makes this hire a lot less appealing.

But don't just take my word for it. After noticing that K-State fans were not exactly upset to see Cosh leave, I asked TB at Bring On the Cats, SBN's Kansas State blog, to share his thoughts, which he was nice enough to do for us:

Cosh was an underwhelming hire from the beginning (ed. note: he was also the DC in 2004-05, went to Maryland after Ron Prince replaced him with Raheem Morris, and was rehired when Bill Snyder unretired in 2009). He was mediocre at Maryland and most fans in Manhattan had no idea why he was brought on as co-defensive coordinator with someone like Vic Koenning, who is clearly a superior DC. Cosh and his staff have proven to be decent recruiters, as the upgraded talent level at K-State this season was a big reason for the defense's marked improvement against the run. In addition to being only moderately effective, Cosh's defenses are frustrating to watch. He very rarely blitzes, and the blitzes he does employ are obvious and not particularly well designed. His secondaries have shown a remarkably consistent ability to be out of position, and his players are rarely particularly good tacklers. Cosh plays zone almost exclusively, and against most Big 12 quarterbacks, that was a standing invitation to be picked apart.

Hope that helps. For your sake, I'm sorry you guys are going to be stuck with him. But for our sake, I'm thrilled at the possibility of upgrading our defensive coaching staff.

Excellent! It sounds like USF lost Mark Snyder and replaced him with... well, another Mark Snyder.

Let's get into some other things after the jump.

* More like five or six, at least. It was because of EcoKat. As far as you know.

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Last week we went through the possible matchups as USF looked to find a 12th game and finish its 2012 football schedule. Tonight, Greg Auman has reported that the Bulls will travel to Reno to face the Nevada Wolf Pack in a non-conference game*. Nevada has September 8 open along with the Bulls, so it seems likely that the game will be scheduled for that date.

The Wolf Pack is joining the Mountain West Conference this season. You probably know them best for their pistol formation, former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and coach Chris Ault, who is in this third stint as Nevada coach and is in the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2010 Nevada finished 13-1, claiming the WAC championship after a memorable win over Boise State (the dawning of the "Tessitore Effect") and finishing the season ranked #11 in the AP poll.

Despite losing its quarterback and two best rushers (Kaepernick and running back Vai Taua), the Wolf Pack went 7-6 last season, playing in the Hawaii Bowl against Southern Miss and taking a huge throng of fans with them to Aloha Stadium on Christmas Eve. Nevada finished the 2011 season ranked sixth in FBS in total yardage. They averaged 522.8 yards of offense per game, and were one of only two FBS schools (Northern Illinois being the other) to rush for over 3000 yards and throw for over 3000 yards. Especially on a long road trip and at altitude in Reno, this will be quite a test for the Bulls and whoever their new defensive coordinator ends up being.

This will be only the third game USF has ever played west of the Rocky Mountains, and their first since 2001. They lost to San Diego State in 1999 in their first-ever game against an FBS opponent, and they were crushed by Utah 52-21 in 2001. Also, I understand gambling is legal in Nevada, which probably has at least one staff member scrambling for airfare and accomodations even as I type this. Boy, how about that flight in?

* as far as we know.

We may have a problem with the 2012 football schedule. USF needs at least one more game, and time's starting to run out to find it.

For the sake of our exercise, let's say the Big East somehow forces West Virginia to stay for another year, because this gets even messier if they're gone. It would still be an eight-team league with seven conference games. None of the new teams would join until 2013.

Now, USF has four non-conference games already lined up:

- September 1, Chattanooga (FCS)
- September 22, at Ball State
- September 29, Florida State
- November 24, at Miami

If the Big East stays intact, the Bulls will also have four Big East home games (Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Connecticut) and three road games (Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia), for a total of 11 games.

The problem comes when you try to fill that 12th game, which would have to be on either September 8 or September 15 unless you want to try and shuffle or postpone games to make room. It's going to be hard to fill one of those dates with a quality or even semi-quality opponent.

Let's work on this step by step. I'm using the schedules posted to FBSchedules.com for this exercise, which is updated regularly and should be up to date.

First, ignoring any other non-conference games on their schedules, which FBS teams (other than the ones USF is already playing) have an open date on September 8 or September 15?

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