Get it early: Tomorrow's game story

I'll have lots more later tonight, but here's a first look at the game story for Sunday's paper ...

FORT LAUDERDALE  -- USF nearly fumbled it all away.

The No. 6 Bulls, in their debut as a top-10 team, didn’t look the part for much of Saturday’s game at Florida Atlantic, committing four turnovers and letting a young Sun Belt team hang around far too long for anyone’s comfort.

But strong second-half running, especially from junior Ben Williams, helped the Bulls escape with a 35-23 win before a sellout crowd of 21,106 at Lockhart Stadium.

“I thought they did a great job of handling all the adversity, the turnovers, to keep battling,” said coach Jim Leavitt, whose team improved to 5-0 for only the second time in its 11-year history. “Give FAU a lot of credit. It’s due to them. They fought their tail off.”

The final score doesn’t reflect how close the Owls (3-3) came to giving the Bulls more than a scare. USF never trailed, but FAU got the ball twice in the final six minutes with a chance to drive for a go-ahead touchdown.

USF’s defense stepped up, not allowing the Owls past their own 21-yard line, where a fourth-down pass fell incomplete in the final minute. With 29 seconds left, the Bulls padded their cushion for scoreboard-watching poll voters with a school-record fourth touchdown run from Williams.

The 5-foot-7 former walk-on, who is USF's starter but had managed just 124 yards in the first four games, finished with a career-best 186 yards, the sixth-best total in school history. That included 54 on another fourth-quarter score, making up for a costly fumble early in the final period.

“Ben’s a guy that can get it together real fast,” tackle Walt Walker said. “He’s hard on himself when he does anything wrong, so he really focused in on doing the right thing. He went to the o-line and said, ‘We’re going to get together and get it going. Let’s trust each other and go.”

Playing without leading rusher Mike Ford, who was held out after missing classes, USF still rushed for 257 yards in the second half, finishing with 302 as a team, the Bulls’ highest total since the 2005 season.

That said, USF’s offense has committed 11 turnovers in its last three games, and offensive coordinator Greg Gregory said the team ran only when it struggled with its initial plan to test FAU’s pass defense.

“We came into this game planning on throwing it a ton. Our game plan was to throw the ball like mad,” Gregory said. “But we’re not throwing it that consistently at quarterback, and when we are, we’re not catching it consistently. We have chances for big plays, and we’re not hitting them.”

Grothe threw for just 122 yards, the second-lowest complete-game total of his career, but made up for it on his feet, rushing for a career-high 120 yards and a 32-yard touchdown on fourth-and-1.

"I don't think we came out flat," Grothe said. "I think the few early turnovers got to us, got us down, and it took a while to get back up."

The Bulls, whose fans accounted for nearly half the Lockhart crowd, left town with a close win, but will need to play better at home this week as they face a closer rival in Central Florida.

“I worried about this game from the beginning of the year,” Leavitt said. “I thought this would be the toughest challenge up to this date, as far as emotionally making sure we’re ready to go.”

FAU quarterback Rusty Smith threw for 259 yards and three touchdowns, including one to Riverview grad Jason Harmon and a 47-yard strike to DiIvory Edgecomb that cut the lead to 28-23 with 6:43 to play.

"It was a bittersweet defeat, because we didn't take advantage of all the opportunities we had to win the game," Owls coach Howard Schnellenberger said. "The sweet part of it is that we played them as well as anybody has this season."

Comments

[Ken]

Nice piece.

[james]

It wasn't the chicken wings and beer making my stomach upset it was our play during this game.
Man I am so glad we pulled it out. FOUR tunovers!!! We need to stop that and get the passing game going.

Greg what' the latest on the injuries? Sure hope they are serious.

[brian]

Any guess how many players will be on the tackling sleds this week?

Grothe must improve on his passing game; of course, it would help, if the accurate ones get caught...

[Justin]

I suppose this is as good a place as any to post this but USC just got stunned by Stanford and LSU is trailing Florida by 10 in the 3rd... Does USF have a legitimate national title chance? I've never really considered it until now but things seem to be falling into place at a pretty alarming rate.

[G.A.]

We'll get to this in a post, but for now, I think USC will be ranked higher than USF, even after a home loss to an unranked Stanford team. There's just too much respect for the Trojans nationally.

Voters may feel the Boise factor: that relatively unknowns aren't all that bad and can play with the big boys. USC will drop below the Bulls.

[Justin]

Greg I don't necessarily disagree with you but eventually if every top team in the country has a loss except the bulls I would think they would be in the championship game. It could be a repeat situation of the Florida/Michigan debate last year where Pollsters aren't necessarily voting for the best team but which team is most deserving of the game. (in the gators case it ended up being a moot point)

[DR]

Greg, people are giving USF a hard time for playing it close with FAU, but USF was a 16 pt favorite. USC was favored by 41 points, how could they possibly stay in the Top 10? These polls are completely biased if they do. Its not the history of the program that is being rated, its 2007 thats being rated and they lost to Stanford.
Is there anybody's gut that ISN"T screaming for a playoff system?!? Osama Bin Laden probably thinks we're idiotic for not having a playoff system in division 1 football. Its just crazy!

[Dav]

Well, assuming we dont drop for any reason (which we should't... FAU was a team with a winning record and a legend for a coach) we automatically move up to 4th. USC only dropping two spots after losing to Stanford... at HOME... like... come on. USC will not free fall down the polls, but I have a hard time seeing them at #3.

And LSU is struggling... but seem to have momentum. The top 3 could be Cal, Ohio State, and USF.

LSU won.

[Jim]

Good piece Greg. Thank you for all the hard work on keeping us updated with the facts.

[Matthew Cox]

"The sweet part of it is that we played them as well as anybody has this season."

And that right there shows how far FAU has to grow to get to where USF is...never in 11 years have we heard CJL mention anything "sweet" about losing. Had the situation been reversed, Leavitt would've been fired-up-irate at just losing the game, let alone losing a close game at home to a top ten team.

Since when did Schnellenberger start settling for "moral victories?"

[JL]

If we play like that against UCF, we will lose.