Defensive end David Bedford and running back Jamar Taylor have been held out of USF's first two practices of spring to focus on improving their grades, coach Skip Holtz said Wednesday.

"(It is) some academic issues that I'm hoping they'll have those resolved and will be able to be out here Friday," Holtz said. "It's just some things right now they're falling a little bit behind, and I told them before we're going to take care of what we have to off the field. I don't want them to be here for spring practice and take up a spot and have us get all excited about the job they're doing out here on the field only to find out we're not getting done what we've got to get done academically."

MORE VOLLEYBALL: As we noted earlier, Holtz likes to use volleyballs during work on his punt block unit, primarily to reduce unnecessary injuries from his punt blockers during practice.

"I've had people chip teeth and break fingers when you're blocking that many punts," Holtz said. "So we came up with the volleyball. You're trying to teach the technique. When you're doing rapid fire and you're going to have 60 balls blocked, you don't want a guy to break his finger. We've got dish-wash hands and we want to make sure they stay soft."

If we see Palmolive step in as official dish detergent of USF special teams, I won't be surprised. Somebody out there remembers Madge, right?

CUT-DOWN DAY: USF has had 25 or so walk-ons in streetclothes for the first two days of practice, but Holtz said he'll review the group during Thursday's day off from practice and decide which few to keep on the team's roster for the remainder of spring drills.