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Bulls Prepare For Dome

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Jamar Taylor and the Bulls have begun preparing for playing indoors in Saturday's St. Petersburg Bowl at Tropicana Field.

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A Tribune staff, wire report

Published: December 16, 2008

Updated: 12/16/2008 01:39 am

TAMPA - When the University of South Florida plays Memphis in Saturday's St. Petersburg Bowl, it will be the first Division I-A college football game held in Tropicana Field.

It will not, however, be the first time the Bulls have been inside the Trop. USF previously held walk-through practices in the Trop before playing on Northern Illinois' artificial surface to open the 2001 season and also before visiting Syracuse's Carrier Dome in 2005 and 2007.

"I think it is a little louder in the dome," USF quarterback Matt Grothe said. "I'm sure it is going to be loud. We will have to deal with that.

"I don't think the lights will be too big of an issue. It's just like playing in the middle of the day. I'm looking forward to it. It is going to be a lot of fun."

USF coach Jim Leavitt said he previously coached in a domed baseball stadium when he was an assistant at Kansas State in 1992. The Wildcats lost to Nebraska 38-24 in the Coca-Cola Classic in the Tokyo Dome in Japan.

"I'm excited about seeing the Trop's layout," Leavitt said. "I've heard about it, but I haven't been over there and seen how they lay the turf out over the infield.

"It was very similar in Japan. The stands were on one side. It was really quite an experience."

ODDS AND ENDS: USF freshman kicker Maikon Bonani has been nominated for the Football Writers Association of America's freshman All-American team. Bonani, of Lake Wales, has hit 13 of 19 field goals, including the 43-yard game-winner with no time remaining in USF's 37-34 win against Kansas. ... Both teams will arrive in St. Petersburg today. The Bulls are staying in St. Petersburg starting tonight, but will bus to Tampa to practice at USF today through Thursday.

Brett McMurphy

CONNECTICUT: Tailback Donald Brown says he has decided to return for his senior season.

Brown led the nation in rushing this season with more than 151 yards per game. But he said Monday that he has not accomplished his goals in college, specifically going to the Orange Bowl.

Huskies coach Randy Edsall says he requested information from NFL teams about how high Brown might be drafted, and he told Brown to wait until after the International Bowl to make a decision.

LEGAL: At Gainesville, former University of Florida safety Jamar Hornsby will avoid jail time by accepting a plea bargain on four misdemeanor charges of improper use of a credit card.

He was sentenced Monday to one year of probation and ordered to pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and court costs.

Hornsby was arrested by the Alachua County Sheriff's Office in May on felony charges that he made nearly 70 fraudulent charges on the gas card of Ashley Slonina, a UF student who died alongside a walk-on football player in a motorcycle accident in October 2007.

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