South Florida Ends Downward Spiral

Bashed by the Bearcats and pounded by the Panthers, the South Florida football team was in a downward spiral.

After its usual 5-0 start, it looked for all intents and purposes like yet another unexplained downward turn into Big East oblivion. It happened in 2007 and again in 2008 and it looked like the bad dream would resurface this season.

Then last Friday, on national television, USF quarterback B.J. Daniels picked up his team with his arm and his legs. He piled up 336 yards total offense, outdid West Virginia's team total and got his team out of the depths of a downward spiral with a 30-19 win.

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USF vs. Pitt: Dion Meets Kion

First things first. When South Florida takes to Heinz Field on Saturday to face Pittsburgh, this is simply a "must win" for the Bulls.

It's a must win because they fell flat on their collective faces last Thursday at home when they had a chance for a statement win against unbeaten Cincinnati.

Even with Bearcat quarterback Tony Pike out of the game by the third quarter, the Bulls were seemingly helpless to stop backup Zach Collaros. The result was an embarrassing 34-17 loss and a poor start to a difficult stretch of October Big East games.

Pitt is unbeaten in the Big East, 3-0 and brings a balanced attack that features a spectacular freshman named Dion Lewis. He's explosive to say the least. He's the second leading rusher in the nation with 918 yards. He's already drawing comparisons to Pitt great Tony Dorsett.

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Bearcats, Thursdays Cruel to Bulls

Thursday, Thursday, can't trust that day....
Thursday, Thursday, sometimes it just turns out that way....

(with apologies to the Mamas and Papas)

It was all there for the South Florida Bulls Thursday night.

They had the home crowd of nearly 64,000 that they were hoping for.

They had a defense that appeared determined to put the clamps on Cincinnati's all-star quarterback, Tony Pike.

They got off to a great start.

Then it all went south, like it has on other October Thursdays.

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USF, Cincy Battle in Prime Time

The Big East LOVES to have center stage.

The conference that has too many basketball teams and too few football teams puts its two big guns on display Thursday night before a national television audience on ESPN.

The Cincinnati Bearcats, unbeaten at 5-0 and ranked 8th in the AP, 9th in the USA Today polls, comes to Raymond James Stadium to tangle with South Florida, also unbeaten at 5-0 and newly-entered into the polls at 21st.

Something's gotta give.

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Big East Game of the Year

Let's call it what it truly is.

South Florida vs. Cincinnati is the Big East Game of the Year.

It is THE game.

And here's one more: It will be the most IMPORTANT football game played in Raymond James Stadium this year.

Sorry Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You've got 5-0 USF vs. 5-0 Cincinnati. National telecast on ESPN Thursday night. Huge crowd expected. This is USF's chance to outdraw any remaining Tampa Bay Buccaneer home games. And appropriately, USF is going all out this week -- breakfast with the Bulls, lunch with the Bulls, dinner with the Bulls, send the cheerleaders, send Rocky, send anyone in green and gold.

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USF's Leavitt Irked By Billboard

South Florida football coach Jim Leavitt is mad.

He's unhappy. He's irked, he's irritated.

So what's new?

This time, it's not the Tampa media, it's not his players or his staff. He's not really happy with his athletic department's marketing gurus.

While USF has this week to prepare for next Thursday's HUGE home game with Big East power Cincinnati, the marketing folks decided they'd brag in a big way.

The big way was a billboard at a major Tampa interstate location declaring USF's entry into what it proclaimed as Florida's "Big Four." The billboard displayed the logos of the University of Florida, Florida State and Miami and added USF.

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Life Is Good for 5-0 Bulls

South Florida did what it was supposed to do on Saturday -- it disposed of Syracuse in the Big East opener for both schools.

The 34-20 victory for USF was sparked by seven turnovers. You read it right -- SEVEN.

The defense made it easier for the Bulls and now life is good at 5-0.

Still, there will be skeptics.

They've seen this before: fast starts, collapses later on.

The Bulls are getting their due. They made their 2009 debut in the polls, checking in a 23rd in the AP, 24th in USA Today.

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USF Heads for October Slugfest

We've seen it before and now we have another fast start for the University of South Florida football team. Four straight wins, four and oh-my, now it's time for the Big East.

The month of October will make or break this 2009 edition of the Bulls. The next 30 or so days will determine their fate, determine if they are contenders or pretenders for the Big East title and the BCS bowl berth that accompanies it.

Good new is they get somewhat of a warm up on Saturday. A warm up, perhaps. Syracuse is in the process of re-inventing itself, led by born-again quarterback Greg Paulus, the former Dukie, the former point guard for Coach K.

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USF Stuns FSU with Bullish Effort

Florida State University never saw this one coming.

The Seminoles were confident they'd handle upstart South Florida in the friendly confines of Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday.

FSU never saw first-time starter B.J. Daniels coming. Likewise, the Seminoles never saw the South Florida defense coming, and that was a mistake.

The South Florida Bulls, playing FSU for the first time ever, stunned the 18th-ranked Seminoles in every facet of the game and reshuffled the state's football power structure with a 17-7 victory.

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USF Pins Hopes on Daniels

Meet Bruce Edward Daniels, known in University of South Florida football circles as B.J.

He is fast, blazing fast, elusive, shifty, powerful and has a heck of an arm for throwing the football.

He is perhaps a reincarnation of an incredible college football player who once graced the field of the old Tampa Stadium. His style of plays bears remarkable resemblance to a former University of Tampa and NFL great.

Travel back 35 years in Tampa football history, if you will. The year was 1974 and it was the senior season for the remarkable Freddie Solomon, dynamic quarterback for the UT Spartans.

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USF Loses Grothe for Season

It was Jim Leavitt's worst fear.

The Sunday MRI on the left knee of all-everything quarterback Matt Grothe spelled it out in shocking manner:

Torn anterior cruciate ligament.

The 2009 season for the all-time leader in Big East offensive yardage crashed and burned.

And the news ushers in the week that all USF players had marked and circled. This is FSU week. The Bulls make their first-ever trip to Tallahassee for a Saturday game that will let them know how they've progressed in the state's football hierarchy.

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USF Suffers Big Loss in Victory

The University of South Florida was supposed to beat the stuffing out of Charleston Southern on Saturday night and it did, 59-0.

The Bulls were supposed to get out of that contest without any serious injuries and turn their sights toward bigger prizes, FSU and the Big East.

They didn't.

Fate dealt the Bulls a real whammy when all-everything quarterback Matt Grothe, the all-time offensive leader in the Big East, was tackled, bent backwards in an awkward position and suffered a sprained left knee with three minutes left in the half and his team ahead 28-0.

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USF Bulls Need a Huge Win

It is totally time Jim Leavitt's University of South Florida Bulls to quit messing around and get serious about this 2009 football season.

It's time for them to get serious and trample the last of three "warm up" opponents before things begin to heat up.

Here's the deal: a giant cupcake of a team -- Charleston Southern, will place itself in the USF line of fire Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bulls need to unload on the Buccaneers, no, not the Pewter Pirates of Raheem Morris, but these Charleston Southern Buccaneers, the 1-AA Buccaneers. USF can't even count this game towards bowl eligibility so the Bulls better show up and fine tune their game.

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USF Win Reveals More Weaknesses

When a team aspires to win the Big East football title, as the University of South Florida does, you take advantage of what are considered "lesser" teams on your football schedule.

You take those "lesser" teams to task, score early and often, pin them down defensively and generally make mince-meat out of them.

That's what Tennessee did to Western Kentucky last week, in a 63-7 Orange landslide.

USF had its shot at the Hilltoppers Saturday night in Bowling Green with terribly unimpressive results.

Sure USF came out with a 35-14 win. Sure Matt Grothe emerged as the new record holder for Big East total offensive yardage. Sure the Bulls are 2-0.

But at the same time, this victory showed more weaknesses than strengths.

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Expect a Big Night from South Florida

We'll make the call right now, today.

USF will man-handle the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Saturday night in Bowling Green, Ky.

The reasons are simple: USF is flat out better, is an advanced program compared to Western and watched film of Tennessee flat-out tearing up the Hilltoppers in Knoxville last week.

Defensive coordinator Joe Tresey watched Monte Kiffin's new defense swarm to the ball, squash Hilltopper backs and receivers left and right on a day that saw Western held to 83 yards total offense.

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