Strong tells Bulls to avoid yapping

TAMPA — As the coach of a preseason conference title favorite, USF coach continually has warned his players they will get their opponents' best shot.

Verbal shots included. Saturday at Tulane, the Bulls returned fire and Strong suggested it nearly cost them.

“I said to our guys the other night, ‘We were up, and on defense we kind of lost our edge when we started talking, chirping,’ ” said Strong, whose team surrendered 21 unanswered second-half points in a 34-28 victory.

“And I said, ‘Just keep playing. You don’t need to chirp, just keep playing.’ And then it turned into a chirping game. So now you lose your edge, you lose your focus.”

Tulane collected 208 of its 415 yards in the game's final 18 minutes, scoring touchdowns on three of its last four possessions. Before that, USF appeared on pace for its fourth consecutive victory by a margin of 30 or more points.

Then the Green Wave began chipping — and chirping — away.

“But the great thing about it is, they owned up to it,” Strong said of his players. “It’s like, ‘Coach, you know what, you're exactly right. If we had just kept playing ...’ ”

Strong said freshman linebacker sidelined since taking a hard shot to the chest against Temple, has practiced on a limited basis this week. Whether he plays Saturday against Houston remains uncertain. Meantime, safety who sustained an ugly turf burn during his interception at Tulane, indicated Tuesday he’s fine.

Charlie Strong Keirston Johnson, Devin Abraham,