Final: USF 35, FAU 23

USF survives with a 35-23 win. Ben Williams finishes with 185 yards rushing and four touchdowns.

Comments

[SRQ Steve]

Yes, Ben W. had a good game. But why didn't Mike Ford play at all? Ben W fumbled. Why didn't he get pulled?

[Dave]

Well, the coaches must've ripped into the O-line at halftime. Those guys were great in the 2nd half. Williams and Grothe made great individual efforts, too. Grothe's passing left a lot to be desired, too (and the Jackson drop was a killer). Ben was amazing again, and I thought that secondary played well enough. However, where was the QB pressure? When they took Selvie out, no one else stepped up. Kiper said Buie will be drafted? I don't think Buie should've been playing- he did not pick up the slack. Marcus Edwards should not be returning punts anymore- too many bad decisions (not just the penalty play, but he got crushed on another). The punting game was good, despite the guys in the stripes really screwing us over at the end.

We should've killed them. We weren't ready, and I expect it show in the polls. Watch for a drop to 7/8. FAU was a lot better than I thought, too, but when we need to solidify our reputation, playing them close does not look good.

Players of the game: Anyone named Ben

[jb-92alum]

frustrating win--but it is a W...cliches proven today--
1> no matter how good you are, losing the turnover battle 3-0 is not a good way to look impressive...
2>the effort so evident agsint WVU needs to be there EVERY game...without it, we look ordinary...
3>good teams win the games they should...despite the errors and problems, we should have won and we did..

we need to fire it up a noch or two next week...if we do that, it will be nighty-night time for the Knights..

[Ken]

Sorry. We didn't look ready for this one--or FAU is a whole LOT better than I'd thought. Turnovers hurt, Grothe's passing was off, passes were dropped, and the defense didn't look sharp. I thought we were ranked too high last week, and I predict we'll drop several slots. It is quite a change from being the hunter to, all of a sudden, being the hunted.

[James]

I don't see any dramatic results for teams near USF in the polls that can knock us down significantly. In fact, with #5 Wisconsin losing and #8 Kentucky losing the only team with no losses anywhere near us in the polls is BC, which could move to #5 just ahead of USF. If LSU beats the Gators, USF stays at #6 in my opinion. If LSU loses, USF could move to #5. There will be no drop this week.

And regardless of the polls this week, just think about it: USF had to travel (to Ft. Lauderdale) one week after an extremely emotional win against WVU. FAU is very well coached and is stocked up with some excellent players from the state of FL. This is not a bad win for USF by any means. In fact, I think NOT rolling over FAU will benefit the Bulls in a big way. There's nothing like a reality check when you are riding a wave of dreams come true.

Bulls 12 - 0 in BCS title game!

[Ken]

I agree about the reality check. Let's hope it helps. We've got another Florida team absolutely gunning for us next week, and we'll have to be sharper to go 6-0.

[Matthew Cox]

Did you ever think you'd see the day when someone was mass-producing "Beat USF" shirts? Beautiful...

It's a different world being the hunted instead of the hunter, eh? Run defense is going to need to step up next week, I'm sure UCF has more than 1 rushing play in their book to use, and it didn't seem like we could stop FAU's FB counter play for awhile there

[Brian R]

I agree we looked bad and didn't play our best but FAU is everybit as good as the Ole Miss (Ole Miss is awful) team UF almost lost to. In addition, BC didn't drop when they struggled at HOME to D-1AA UMass. FAU is no power but they are solid and certainly are better than UMass and everybit as good as Ole Miss. The UNC team we destroyed at home a couple weeks ago just beat Miami. We played awful, turned the ball over, lost one of our tailbacks early to injury and was missing another that was suspended and we still won on the ROAD against a team playing it's heart out looking for the upset.