TAMPA – The University of South Florida had another visit from the maker of the yo-yo Saturday afternoon as they dropped to the bottom of the string faster than you can say Duncan.
Since starting the season with five straight victories their record since reads loss, loss, win, loss, win and now another loss all adding up to a 7-4 record after being drubbed by #17 (BCS) Miami 31-10 before a sellout crowd of 66,469 in their final 2009 regular season game at Raymond James Stadium.
Last week USF head coach Jim Leavitt was not a happy camper even after his Bulls took down BIG EAST rival Louisville by 12-points becoming bowl eligible but was a little more reserved when talking about Saturday – and beyond.
“This is never fun coming up here after a whooping like that,” he said. “They beat us at the line of scrimmage pretty good. Part of it is we have to keep recruiting, you all saw that. They’ve got some pretty good players but we have to play better than that. Miami’s a very good football team and they just beat us. They beat us both sides. They’re just a better football team and they showed it. My worst nightmare came true. They knocked us off the ball and ran pretty effectively on us.”
Leavitt talked about how young a football team he has, not that he was offering any excuses, and they were not deep enough to compete against the likes of the Hurricanes. He did say the Bulls’ day will come.
A loss to UCONN next week in the season finale could leave his team with a return visit to the St. Petersburg Bowl for the second consecutive season even though Leavitt allegedly ruled that out. He may not have a choice if South Florida ends at 7-5 or not be invited to a bowl at all.
“There was a lot of excitement out there,” said wide receiver Carlton Mitchell, who pulled in just one pass for 21-yards. “The game didn’t turn out as planned but at the same time you have to look at the bigger picture. It could have been a lot worse. A lot of people came together so there’s always a positive.”
Mitchell was reflecting back on the early part of the season when QB Matt Grothe went down with a season ending injury only to see the team rally around redshirt freshman BJ Daniels and are possibly going to play one more game before their season ends.
The Hurricanes showed why they are in another class, at least right now, because they did virtually everything right in dominating the first half leaving them in the position to cruise the rest of the way.
It secured the school of its first nine-win season since 2005 and upped their victory total from the previous year for the second time in a row under head coach Randy Shannon. The ‘Canes also won every non-conference game they played beating Colorado, Temple and USF, and were a perfect 3-0 in road games played in the State of Florida.
The Bulls may have lost their big chance at a major bowl game, not so much because of the loss but how they looked – and it wasn’t pretty. Other than an Eric Schwartz field goal in the first half, there was little to cheer from the Bulls’ faithful.
Daniels again looked out of his element completing just four passes, one to the other team, for a total of 49-yards, fumbled twice losing one and his running game was completely shut down rushing seven times for just two yards. The final two quarters were not much better finishing with 77-yards passing and just 39 on the ground.
“I could have done better and I say that every week,” said Daniels. “Win or lose, good or bad but I felt as a team we just couldn’t get it together. They ran the ball well and took a lot of minutes off the clock so we really had to come out firing and get going offensively.”
Falling behind by 14 early changed things but Daniels did not agree with his coach that this team is not yet on the level with Miami simply saying, “I don’t think so”
“One thing is BJ is a battler, said Leavitt. “He tries and it’s not all BJ. I have to look at film but I thought he competed hard and there were times in the game I thought we were there. I’m sure he made mistakes but you gotta play football.”
Moise Plancher led USF with 78-yards on the ground which was surprising because the ‘Canes defense stiffened each time the ball was handed off.
“They gave us a lot of variations,” said Plancher. “But it was mostly us, we were inconsistent. We’d have a good driver and on the next we’d shoot ourselves in the foot. There was nothing we didn’t prepare for, we just didn’t execute.”
Plancher also thinks the Bulls are on the same level with Miami and thought on another day they could have won. He believes the Bulls lost the game not the Hurricanes winning it.
So was the second half going to be a repeat of the first?
Daniels came out like a house afire at the start of the third quarter using his arm and legs to march the Bulls the length of the field. The drive appeared to stall on the two because they were called for consecutive illegal motion penalties pushing the ball back ten yards only on a third and goal the 20-year old ran more than he threw and bought enough time to find AJ Love in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown making it 21-10.
After a number possession changes, Delbert Alvarado gave Miami terrific field position after a short 26-yard field goal starting at the USF 46. Two plays later Harris had two men in the end zone and Dedrick Epps came down with a 33-yard TD reception putting the visitors back up by 18 at 28-10. A fourth quarter three-pointer polished off the 21-point victory.
Still referring to recruiting, Leavitt was very animated where talking about where his team got beat.
“One of our weaknesses is getting better up front,” he said. “We got to get stout, big, physical people that can play inside. We’re not that big and physical and we haven’t been able to recruit, a lot of those guys over there we tried to bring here and game like this don’t help. Well, maybe it will help a lot because they will see we have some needs.”
Wishful thinking.
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SCORING DRIVES (Plays/yards/time – final play)
FIRST QUARTER
MIA - 12/81/5:04 – J Harris to L Hankerson 11-yds – PAT Good (MIA 7 USF 0)
MIA - 3/24/0:42 – J James 5 yd rush TD – PAT Good (MIA 14 USF 0)
SECOND QUARTER
USF – 10/61/4:15 – E Schwartz 36-yd field goal (MIA 14 USF 3)
MIA – 11/85/3:59 – J James 2 yd rush TD – PAT Good (MIA 21 USF 3)
THIRD QUARTER
USF – 13/82/6:48 – BJ Daniels to AJ Love 12-yds – PAT Good (MIA 21 USF 10)
MIA – 2/47/0:37 – J Harris to D Epps 33-yds – PAT Good (MIA 28 USF 10)
FOURTH QUARTER
MIA – 8/48/4:49 – M Bosher 32-yd field goal (MIA 31 USF 10)
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BULL RUSH: DE George Selvie wore jersey #10 instead of his usual #95 as the final home tribute to fallen RB Keeley Dorsey who died at the age of 19 after a conditioning workout in 1997. This would have been Dorsey’s senior year ….. The crowd was the second largest to see USF at home …..
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THE TAKEAWAY: Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine and centerfielder B.J. Upton were at the game ..... Miami’s first possession resulted in an 81-yard drive taking 5:40 off the clock. It was the first time the ‘Canes scored on their opening drive on the road since their opener at Florida State ….. Senior running back Javarris James had his third multiple rushing game with his pair of first half runs. The first time he accomplished the feat was in 2007 vs. Marshall and in 2008 against NC State ….. WR Leonard Hankerson is the only Hurricanes’ player with a catch in all 12 games this season …..
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USF AWARD CANDIDATES:
B.J. Daniels – BIG EAST Rookie of the Year
Kion Wilson – All BIG EAST
George Selvie – All American National Defensive Player of the Year
Carlton Mitchell – All BIG EAST
Nate Allen – All American
Jason Pierre-Paul – All American
Comments
The 'Canes' non conference games were not Colorado, Temple, and USF. They were: Oklahoma, FAMU, UCF, USF.
Thanks
I appreciate the correction. I must have read it wrong on the Miami notes.
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