Bulls roll to easy 56-7 win in opener

TAMPA – It won’t always be this easy – it really can’t be, frankly -- but openers don’t come much more dominating than USF’s 56-7 drubbing of Division I-AA’s Tennessee-Martin on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium.

"The thing I'm happiest about is that sometimes we've played a team like that and we haven't done what we were supposed to do," coach Jim Leavitt said.

The opening quarter went so near-perfectly for the Bulls, with four touchdowns in their first four possessions, that USF had quarterback Matt Grothe on the bench after just one quarter.

After an interception by backup Grant Gregory, Grothe was back, but it was little more than an encore, a chance for one more touchdown before calling it a night at halftime.

"It'd be nice if all of them would be like that," said Grothe, who finished 6-of-8 for 96 yards and two scores. "We came out and we executed. There was a lot of talk before the game about the last two years, so we wanted to come out and score some points."

USF had struggled in openers against I-AA teams the last two years, eking past Elon 28-13 last year and leading McNeese State 13-10 in the fourth quarter in 2006 before pulling away.

This time, there was no trouble, as a crowd of 48,058 looked on, the most for a USF opener since the program’s first game in 1997. The defense pitched a shutout, with the only points coming off a fumble return, and the Bulls held UTM to 97 total yards of offense, 23 off the school record set in that first-ever game against Kentucky Wesleyan.

"We wanted to set the tone early, especially on defense," said safety Carlton Williams, who had an interception on a deep pass. "Once you start, you don't want to let anybody get momentum. Our goal tonight was to keep going and keep going and don't let up."

The Bulls (1-0) scored four touchdowns on their first 18 plays, only going to third down once along the way. Grothe found receiver Jessie Hester for the first of two touchdowns, then sophomore Mike Ford had touchdown runs of 4 and 6 yards, with senior Ben Williams going 12 yards for the fourth score.

It was a record night for USF on punt returns, as senior Marcus Edwards set a school record with 124 yards on seven returns, all in the first half. Dunedin’s Theo Wilson added to that when he took a punt blocked by walk-on Cameron Perkins and returned it 67 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

UTM, which got $300,000 to come to Tampa for its first game against a major-conference opponent, only got on the scoreboard when USF brought freshman B.J. Daniels in for a dubious debut. Daniels fumbled on his third play, and UTM's D.J. Miller recovered the loose ball and returned it 72 yards for the touchdown. At that point, UTM’s offense had totaled 52 yards of offense the entire game.

Daniels recovered nicely, finding receiver Dontavia Bogan for passes of 36 and 20 yards on the next drive, which was spoiled when receiver Ed Alcin fumbled into the pylon for a touchback. Daniels finished 4-for-4 for 86 yards. USF was able to pile up 520 yards of offense despite substituting liberally, allowing several reserves and even walk-ons to make their college debuts.

After the sting of a 35-point loss to Oregon in the Sun Bowl had lingered for eight months, the Bulls now have confidence heading into next week’s game at Central Florida.

"I do recognize we've got different teams ahead," Leavitt said. "None of you have to share that with me. I recognize that, and I think our team does, too."

Comments

[Don Corleone]

UTM’s DJ Miller is clown. After talking junk to the USF student section during pregame, he has the nerve to do the shhhhhh to the fans while he’s being crushed by 42 points. I was glad the last two TD’s were put on the board.

[Upstart Bull]

Greg,

How serious is Ryan Schmidtt's injury?

[Stephen Blackehart]

THAT was 48,000+ fans? Were they all under their seats?

Great job by the Bulls, though. That's how you have to play when you're ranked.

[Ken]

Sure sounded good on the radio--really no errors from the first-team offense--or defense, which was pretty close to perfect the whole night.

[BullBard]

You know it was a great game when you think to yourself, did we punt the ball?

[Ken]

Two questions, Greg: One of course is about inuries. The other the Alverado's missed FG--the radio guys seemed to think it was touched--is that true? And if so, why (did he kick it low or what)?

[Jason]

UCF is a joke. This is gonna be fun. Go Bulls

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I thought that throw BJ Daniels made after he fumbled the ball was a hell of a toss from a true freshmen.

I am begining to worry about Mike Ford being soft. When he went down after that carry, I screamed in the bar some profanties and told the sorry sack to "GET UP!.." Guy is always hurt. IN the words of the Bill Parcells..."I don't know how she is doing, she will have to tell you, I thought she had a decent game, but - like I said, you'll have to talk to her about the injury."

Alverado was shaky again.

And in a bar full of Illini fans - clemson fans - Mizzou fans - it was me and this other dude represeeenten the USF faithful. Two dudes in a bar of 200 people - I think we were the loudest.

I tried to pay the lady 20 bucks at a previous bar to put on the 1st quarter, she wouldn't do it, so i walked down the street to find this guy with his Grothe jersey on watching the USF game by himself on some 16 inch tv in the corner next to the dumper... We rolled though

[Taurean]

Ari,

At least you CAN watch the game. There arent many bars in Japan that I can watch USF games.

So all I can do is check ESPN and of course Greg`s blog (fabulous job, btw).

[G.A.]

Didn't realize I had such the international following. Thanks much.

[Pleased]

Is it just me..or does Leavitt have an insecurity complex?? Or was that a miss quote(which i doubt) about being reminded of playing better teams ahead. Oh...and i love Jason's comment on UCF being a "joke"...i'm betting he's not winning any football pools anytime soon!!