ST. PETERSBURG. Fla. \u2014 Just as SEC Football Media Days wrapped up in downtown Tampa, American Conference Media Days got started right across the Bay on Thursday. The two-day event is being held at the Hilton Bayfront in downtown St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
The opening day had a more informal, fan atmosphere with pictures being taken before the conference commissioner and coaches are scheduled to take the podium on Friday.<\/p>\n
USF head coach Brian Hartline and two Bulls players also sat down with Jon Gruden for the \u201cGruden Goes Long\u201d podcast. During the appearance, Gruden put tight end Wyatt Sullivan on the spot by asking him to draw a route on his well-known white board.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it was really cool,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI\u2019ve always watched the YouTube videos and the quarterback guru camps, and I\u2019ve always really wanted to be a part of it. I had a dream last night that I was going to be on the board, and I got to be on the board, so that was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sullivan said the route he drew was \u201ca vertical seam,\u201d while not giving away too much about the play.<\/p>\n
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Gruden said Sullivan showed promise while breaking down the route.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy\u2019s a heck of a talent,\u201d Gruden said. \u201cI challenged him off camera, but you can tell the passion he has for the game. He\u2019s getting better and better in terms of coming out of his shell and explaining some of the nuances that he has to learn but I think he knows that Hartline is gonna have a system of football that will ask the tight ends to do a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hartline said Sullivan communicated well during the breakdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWyatt did a good job,\u201d Hartline said. \u201cI\u2019m glad he picked that play, but no, not a whole lot of critiques besides the way he drew it. It looked like my 8-year-old drew it, but other than that, the communication and the knowledge was good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linebacker Grayson \u201cPup\u201d Howard also impressed Gruden, who asked about the origin of his nickname. Howard said he got it in middle school before high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the youngest on the field, and coach said, \u2018I\u2019m going to call you ‘Pup’ because I know one day you\u2019re going to be a big dog,\u2019 and it stuck ever since,\u201d Howard said.<\/p>\n
Gruden told Howard, \u201cYou\u2019re not a pup anymore. You\u2019re a big dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard called the nickname \u201chumbling\u201d and said it has stayed with him over the years.<\/p>\n
Gruden said Howard brings experience and leadership to the Bulls.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s played in the SEC,\u201d Gruden said. \u201cThe guy\u2019s a leader. He\u2019s obviously a great communicator, and he\u2019s got to replace a couple great linebackers that we had at USF.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gruden also said he is excited about the direction of USF football, mentioning the team\u2019s new stadium and Derrick Brooks.<\/p>\n
USF made a short trip from Tampa to St. Petersburg for the event. The Bulls are nearing the end of their summer schedule before fall camp begins Aug. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG. Fla. \u2014 Just as SEC Football Media Days wrapped up in downtown Tampa, American Conference Media…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,143,115,275,110,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,19211,835],"class_list":["post-351016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-college-football","tag-news","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-usf-bulls","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}