South Florida Bulls Football

Saturday is South Florida's last call for a signature football win for this 2010 season.

There has been absolutely no "buzz" around South Florida football this year. It is what it is.

Yes, the Bulls have looked good at times, and yes, they are 6-4, but they'll need to play really, really well to have a winning season.

Judging by the offensive performance at home against Pitt last Saturday, that will be a tall order.

Pittsburgh would have been a signature win for Skip Holtz and his guys. But it was clear from the start of that contest that something was very, very wrong with B.J. Daniels' right knee, and that really put the kibosh on USF's upset chances.

Right now USF has three Big East wins, two of those over teams having disaster seasons—Cincinnati and Rutgers—and the other over the rebuilding Louisville project of Charlie Strong.

The loss to Syracuse at home was a mud pie in the face; other than that, this season has plodded along as most thought it would.

Holtz' team needs a good solid restocking effort in the offseason, and don't be surprised if at some point next year, Daniels is not the starting quarterback. Judging from his time at East Carolina, Daniels simply isn't a Skip Holtz kind of guy when it comes to signal callers.

Still, it's last call time, and the good news is that Holtz and his staff have managed to keep the team in virtually every game, save the Florida fiasco, and that was in doubt until Daniels went interception crazy and let the Gators put it out of reach.

Which brings us back to the "U." At this point Miami, like USF, has no "buzz." There's been a lot going on down there, and the 'Canes have arrived at Saturday's game with a 7-4 overall mark and are out of the ACC hunt at 5-3, just as the Bulls are out of the Big East running.

Still, Miami has more at stake in this one. USF has nothing to lose, and a win down there would give USF that "hey look at us" win that it doesn't have.

After Miami, the Bulls get UConn at home to close the regular season, and they'll desperately need to win that to have a 4-3 Big East record and a 7-5 overall record.

Unless something really snazzy happens down south on Saturday.

When Maikon Bonani put his foot to the leather with time running out Saturday in Louisville, the ball exploded off his shoe and headed straight for the middle of the uprights.

The USF kicker's shot might have been good from 56 yards, but it wasn't good.

Seems like cagey Charlie Strong had called a second-straight timeout right before impact and nullified South Florida's bid to beat his Cardinals in regulation.

There was Charlie, jumping up and down in glee like he just won the Super Bowl. You had to think to yourself, "that is so annoying."

USF was seemingly robbed by Strong and had struggled offensively all day and its hopes seemed doubtful in overtime.

Then Charlie Strong got too full of himself. He figured his decision making was infallible, with that timeout and the field goal that wasn't.

Fourth-and-inches, and this guy's going for it in overtime.

Strong didn't figure on Terrell McClain and the rest of the USF defensive front. McClain stood up the Cardinal center and flat-out stuffed Justin Burke's attempt at a quarterback sneak.

Karma.

USF took over and ran some plays before Bonani kicked the 37-yard gamewinner. Final, USF 24, Louisville 21.

Karma.

Charlie Strong had no timeouts to freeze him.

Karma.

Yes, Karma bit Strong hard.

Nice.

Skip Holtz is now 6-3 and 3-2 in the Big East and the Bulls are still in the title hunt. Chalk up another one where Holtz did some magnificent coaching. Three wins in a row in November.

Isn't that a nice change?

Just call it Big East insanity. Just when you thought Syracuse might be stepping up its game...well you know the rest. It was a really, really quick schedule last week with only two games so let's get right to it.

South Florida 28, Rutgers 27

This was really a great game to watch. Lots of action, lots of big plays, very entertaining and made for television.

USF got a career performance from Mo Plancher, who seems like he's been there 10 years. Actually it has only been six and he put up 135 yards rushing and caught three passes for another 45. Huge night for Mo and he got bailed out at the end of the game when he fumbled at the Rutgers goal line and tackle Jake Sims fell on the ball for USF's winning score.

Can't figure out who thought USF was a 10.5-point favorite in this one but no doubt the bookies took a pounding with this one. 

USF ended Rutgers' hopes to win in the last minute when Jacquain Williams sacked Chas Dodd on an all-out blitz on a 4th-and-3 near midfield and time running out.

Both teams performed well.

Grades:  South Florida: A; Rutgers: C

Louisville 28, Syracuse 20

How about this one, Syracuse fans? Perhaps Syracuse was overconfident...after all, Louisville was using backup quarterback Justin Burke, filling in for injured Adam Froman and Jeremy Wright took over for Bilal Powell, who is nursing a sore knee.  Wright nearly put up 100 against the Orange defense (19/98) and did a great job.

This game shows that Charlie Strong is way, way ahead of schedule at Louisville and this win gave Cardinal fans something to really get excited about.

Talk about Big East turmoil—it's in full bloom.

Grades:   Louisville: A+; Syracuse: F

There you have it, short and sweet. See you on Thursday for some entrees, appetizers and a few more games you can sink your teeth into. 

If you missed this one, you missed a doozy.

South Florida Bulls 28, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 27.

Prime time Wednesday night on The Deuce, ESPN2.

This was a win that Skip Holtz wanted badly and needed worse.

It was a win that pulled his team even (2-2) in the Big East and just as important, got them a fifth victory and in the running for some sort of bowl game.

Oh yes, and there was that little milestone of a 100th win for the program—can't forget that.

It was a nervous victory. The moment of truth came with time running out, about 2:09 left and Rutgers moving the ball until the Knights faced a fourth and three at their own 49. A conversion would have meant an extended drive and a potential game-winning field goal.

USF defensive coordinator Mark Snyder did what he needed to do.  He brought the house full blitz and Jacquain Williams planted Chas Dodd back at his own 43 and it was ballgame—almost. The Bulls had to run some clock which they did and survived some shaky snaps and managed to milk the clock. A punt left Rutgers deep in its own territory with but 36 seconds left.

Ball game. Tough ball game. Hard hitting ball game. Big play ball game; a watch the lead change hands about a half dozen times ball game.

Made for prime-time, no doubt ESPN was happy with this one.

Holtz was overjoyed.

"I'm so proud of this team," he gushed afterwards.

He should be.

The Bulls finally ended four years of domination by Rutgers with the past two games especially embarrassing for the old Jim Leavitt regime.

This USF team still has a way to go but give credit to the elderly (23-year-old) Mo Plancher, who had the night of his life. He ran for 135 yards and survived two fumbles inside the 10-yard line. The second at the goal line at crunch time with tackle Jake Sims bailing him out, falling on the ball in the end zone for the winning USF touchdown.

Ball game.

B.J. Daniels continued his recovery. Only had one pass picked and his defense held Rutgers to a field goal off of that turnover.

This victory will also make everyone forget how foolish the punt coverage team looked early in the game when four players surrounded Mason Robinson and watched him catch the ball at his own 40 then take off while they thought he signaled a fair catch. We'll forget that he went 60 yards for a touchdown.

This victory will also make everyone forget how Rutgers bamboozled the defense with that Dodd to Mohamed Sanu to Mark Harrison trick play that caught the secondary with their pants around their ankles.

Yes, this will will ease the pain of those losses to Syracuse and West Virginia.

However, there is still a lot of work ahead for these Bulls if they want in to the postseason.

There is still Louisville, Pitt, Miami and UConn.

Yes, Skip, there's a lot of work to do.

But for right now, you and the guys should enjoy this one.

Now get back to work!

Very few Sport’s fans today can say that they have witnessed a team’s centennial win. For Skip Holtz’s and the South Florida Bulls, that victory came over Schiano’s Rutgers on Wednesday night in what could be the closest Big East game of the season.  Rutgers has never been kind to the Bulls, defeating the Bulls four of the five games; and Wednesday night’s game went down to the wire.

Moise Plancher, the six-year senior and only player on the team to have seen every game against Rutgers, held the back for the Bulls and rushed 135 yards to lead the Bulls to victory over Rutgers. The victory was all the sweeter for the Bulls with Lou Holtz in attendance, even taking the time to take photographs for fans.  After the Bulls victory, the son of the legendary Lou, Skip Holtz, made his way to the sideline with the players for a feel good moment in which the players began to sing the alma mater.

Rather than focus on the negativity of the game and not take away from a monumental program that has risen as fast as the program began, I decided to analyze the plays from the game that made a detrimental difference in the game.

1) Perhaps what will be the most replayed highlight from the game, on a long 3rd-and-21, Chas Dodd passed to Kordell Young but was sacked by Keith McCaskill for a South Florida safety.  I found it hard to call this simply the best play of that drive, mostly because of the fact that 15 yards were lost in total for Rutgers’s possession, with that play only accounting for a loss of four yards.

2) Usually a fumble recovery is often heartfelt with chastising about why the ball hit the ground in the first place, however when that fumble recovery is picked up for a touchdown, give credit where credit is due. For this play, I commend Jacob Sims for acting fast and retaining ball possession. On a side note, as that play developed, I was afraid that a illegal forward pass would be called similar to a play against Rutgers that would eventually knock a once No. 2 ranked USF off the map (I still stand by the fact that in 2007, it was not an illegal forward pass).

3) When the announcement was first made that Skip Holtz, a coach notable for his special teams abilities, was selected as a candidate for USF’s open coaching position, a few South Florida fans sighed relief. There is no hiding the fact that USF has suffered losses and unnecessary close games by the kicker's leg. However, Wednesday night became a time to forget history, the countless hauntings of Wednesday nights, the unnecessary domination by Rutgers and the missed field goal kicks. On Wednesday night, Maikon Bonani kicked a 47-yard field goal rather than risk going for it on 4th-and-2. While sitting in the student section, I am almost certain everyone within my parameter was certain this was going to be missed. Bonani came through when he was needed and for that I thank him.

4) The decision was hard as to whether to place this touchdown pass as No. 4 or No. 5 on the list. However with the Bulls being down, the pressure was on to maintain composure and score once more. That is why the No. 4 most important play of the game goes to BJ Daniels' six-yard touchdown pass to Dontavia Bogan.

5) The final most important play of the game was BJ Daniels' four-yard pass to Evan Landi to score the first touchdown for the bulls. Scoring first on the opening drive is always a great way to being a game.

The victory at Tampa tonight was an extraordinary win for the South Florida Bulls and one that will go down in the books as an important step in determining what level South Florida should be in under the Skip Holtz era.

Congratulations to Skip and company, BJ and crew and to South Florida fans worldwide.

If you saw this one coming, then perhaps you should call your short-term investment broker or take up a new career as an oddsmaker.

If someone told you that the University of South Florida defense would give up 590 yards of offense to Cincinnati Friday night, surely you'd think that it would have been a very, very ugly loss for USF.

You can't be serious. If the Bearcats gained 600 yards, the score must have been something like Cincinnati 52, South Florida 10, right?

Ski[ Holtz got his team ready, somehow, and went out and won a game he had no business winning, which he has done numerous times in the past.

No mirage. Final score: South Florida 38, Cincinnati 30.

Who would have thought that USF would win a football game and surrender 512 passing yards, most of it to South Florida nemesis, Zach Collaros? This USF team is known for its solid defense. How did this happen?

Holtz began the evening with a smile as he strolled the field at Nippert Stadium with a big smile, walking up to his guys and telling them "Hey, have some fun tonight. This is what it's all about. This is old school. This is Friday Night Lights."

It was Friday Night Lights Out for the Bearcat offense, but somehow, USF's dormant offense came out of hibernation and B.J. Daniels finally, at last, went an entire game with NO interceptions. We need to say that again: NO interceptions.

In the process, USF found a ground game that was reliable enough to help Daniels. Although 92 yards rushing is nothing to get excited about, this victory was.

The Bearcats had won 13 straight Big East games and 14 straight on campus. This was supposed to be No. 15.

It was exciting, for sure.

USF led 38-30 late in the game and got a huge break. Collaros had to leave the game with a left knee injury, leaving backup Chazz Anderson to try and pull this one out. But the situation and pressure was too much for Anderson to handle. Bad for the Bearcats, beautiful for the Bulls.

The defense would finally clamp down when it needed to. After giving up 137 yards receiving to D.J. Woods, 158 to Armon Binns and another 174 to Marcus Barnett, the leak would be sealed in the final minute.

The Bulls got it done, somehow, someway, but that's a Skip Holtz trademark: Win when you're not expected to.

That's the way East Carolina surprised teams like Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

Now, in Cincinnati, they've got to be wondering out loud: How did that happen?

It happened, and Holtz got his first Big East victory. Who would have thought that?

Brother, can you spare a touchdown?

No truth to the rumor that Skip Holtz was seen this week on the corner of Fowler Ave. and 30th Street holding up that sign.

The South Florida Bulls are not exactly the talk of the town these days with that offense of theirs that is, for the lack of a better word, pretty offensive if you're forced to watch it.

Touchdowns? What touchdowns?

You may or may not be aware that Skip's old hangout, East Carolina, is an offensive juggernaut. The Pirates can score points in bunches, and they even beat their main rival, N.C. State, last Saturday in Greenville. Life goes on without Skip, so it seems.

As for USF, the Bulls go on national display for the second week in a row Friday night in Cincinnati. Hopefully there is a touchdown to be found somewhere between Tampa and Cincinnati, perhaps two. And it will take more than that with the offensive weapons at the Bearcats disposal.

You can start with last year's USF heartbreaker, one Zach Collaros, who got his team over the hump at Raymond James with a 75-yard touchdown run. He doesn't need to do that these days; all he has to do is let guys like Isaiah Pead and John Goebel run for yardage, and if that's not working, he can look for D.J. Woods and Armon Binns with the passing game.

USF will have to counter with some very, very stout defense and hope like all get-out that B.J. Daniels can emerge from his mental coma and make better decisions when he drops back to pass. Suffice to say that B.J. has got to be driving Skip totally nuts, if not worse.

And speaking of Holtz, there's already an insane sort of rumor that the elder Holtz, aka Dr. Lou on ESPN, is being bantered as next year's coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers, with the idea that Skip would take over the helm shortly thereafter.

Nice to be wanted, even if your offense can't score.

Sorry for the digression.

Meanwhile, back in Cincinnati, the Bearcats still find themselves involved in the Big East title hunt: They're 1-0 with a good chance to be 2-0 come late Friday night.

The South Florida Bulls are already compiling a wish list for the recruiting trail. That's what happens when you start 0-2 in Big East play.

Still, USF does get the national spotlight with Cincinnati, and no doubt the announcers will talk about USF's speed and talent and how many great athletes there are down here in the state of Florida.

They'll talk about potential, and hopefully, USF will unleash what little it has in the desperate search for the end zone.

Brother, can you spare a touchdown?

Now everyone knows.

Now everyone knows that poor old Skip Holtz has a pretty good defense at the University of South Florida but counters that with an offense that perhaps not even a mother could love.

Everyone knows because the University of South Florida Bulls had the national stage Thursday night when they played West Virginia up there in Morgantown—a tough place to play if you're not a Mountaineer.

USF and West Virginia had it all to themselves on ESPN.

Now everyone knows.

Everyone knows how really horrible the offense can be for South Florida, and they know that West Virginia is probably the best team in a weak Big East Conference.

Skip Holtz sure knows.

He knows that his quarterback, B.J. Daniels, is lost, a player wandering out there as if he's blindfolded. He's a quarterback who gives his team no chance, a quarterback who once again made the wrong pass at the wrong time.

USF's stout defense had kept things close for 29 minutes Thursday night. With the score 10-3 and time running out in the first half, these Bulls were actually still in the game, hanging in there on the road in a hostile environment.

Suddenly Daniels went into the same coma we saw in Gainesville. It was Gator-ja vu all over again.

Deep in his own territory, Daniels threw an ill-advised pass, looking for Evan Landi. Instead, Robert Sands stepped in, grabbed it and promptly took it to the USF seven, where the Mountaineers scored on a nifty hook-and-ladder that went from Geno Smith to Jock Sanders then, on a flip, to Noel Devine, who tightroped down the sideline for the score.

At 17-3, with this USF offense, the Bulls were doomed.

"Devastating" and "egregious" is how the gang in the ESPN booth described Daniels' latest self-inflicted gunshot. No need to say anything else about that. Those two adjectives sum it up pretty well.

Certainly, the USF defense deserved better.

Those defenders, led by first-time starter at linebacker DeDe Lattimore, did a tremendous job all night.

When you hold the speedy Noel Devine to 29 yards on 13 carries and the beastly Ryan Clarke to 27 on 10, your team should have a great shot at winning.

Quarterback Geno Smith, who USF came close to signing once upon a time, did most of the damage. He was so very efficient, completing 24 of 31 for 219 yards, two touchdowns and NO interceptions.

The USF offense?

Now everyone knows. Knew it at the half. A whopping 94 yards for 30 minutes, zero for five on third downs.

The Bulls offensive repertoire looks something like this:

Daniels throw lateral pass. Handoff to Mo Plancher. Daniels throw lateral pass. Daniels looks for Dontavia Bogan. Handoff to Mo Plancher. Daniels throws lateral pass again.

When the madness was over, Daniels completed 20 of 30 passes for 119 yards—that's less than six yards per throw for you math majors out there.

Horri-bull?

Terri-bull?

"It is bad," Holtz admits.

It is bad because his quarterback is a Pick-a-potomus.

It is bad because there really is no other option except walk-on Bobby Eveld.

It is bad because without the pre-halftime giveaway, the Bulls still lose 13-3 in a near replay of the homecoming loss to Syracuse.

USF is now 3-3 and 0-2 in the Big East, eliminating any worries about a November Big East collapse.

The collapse is already here, and it doesn't get any better next week with a road trip to Cincinnati for a Friday night national telecast.

USF will once again be on display for everyone.

But after Thursday night, there's nothing to hide.

Everyone knows.

Everyone knows that Skip Holtz had a nice defense and one giant embarrassment of an offense.

An offense headed up by the dreaded Pick-a-potomus.

While the sun beat down on what seemed like a pretty sparse homecoming crowd, so many things became evident on a bright Saturday afternoon about this 2010 University of South Florida football team.

First and foremost, this team has a long way to go. Skip Holtz has a lot of work to do, probably too much to produce anything that will impress us this year.

Second, that 13-9 loss on Saturday was pretty painful to watch.

If you pulled the dipstick on the South Florida offense, no doubt you'd find it is at least a couple of quarts low.

Same on defense.

Sure, things started out OK. The Bulls went uptempo and took the opening kickoff and marched right down into Syracuse territory. The student section was rocking, and everyone felt great.

Then B.J. Daniels did his thing. He had two receivers to his left, one covered down the sideline, one wide open towards the middle, and of course Daniels chose the covered receiver and threw a pass that was going to be intercepted the moment it left his hand.

It took the energy out of the stadium like a giant vacuum.

You don't have to be an astute observer of the college game to now realize that Holtz simply cannot trust Daniels. He threw four picks at Florida and two more on Saturday.

Holtz tells us they're trying to tailor the offense to fit Daniels instead of vice versa. If they tailor the offense to fit Daniels, then they might as well run the ball on every play because it is painfully obvious that Daniels has regressed this season.

This one was painful to watch because the offense produced only three points all afternoon.

Just when things were looking very woeful for anyone wearing green and gold, Lindsey Lamar got everyone on their feet with a 94-yard touchdown return in the third quarter that gave USF a 9-6 lead—the extra point failed to materialize and no doubt would come back to haunt USF.

It wouldn't be that close.

"The Drive" proved the killer in this Big East opener for the Bulls.

Syracuse, starting right in front of the fired-up student section, proceeded to drive 98 yards for the winning touchdown. Pushed it right down the throat of the defense.

Most of it came on the ground. USF looked powerless to stop the Orange.

Syracuse scored, went up 13-9, and that's exactly how it would end.

It was sad, ugly, and left countless USF folks shaking their collective heads. They watched as USF got a lot of decent breaks and had every opportunity to win the game.

USF had never lost to Syracuse.

Now they have and things only get worse from here.

Got to head up to Morgantown for a Thursday night battle with West Virginia.

Tough isn't the word to describe what's waiting for USF up there.

Long way to go, short week to get there, and this team is at least two quarts low.