2007 South Florida Bulls football team

The Bulls proved that they deserved their first ever AP/Coaches top 25 ranking with a convincing win over the Tar Heels. Many said that the Bulls would overlook UNC in preparation for the show-down with West Virginia the following week, but the Bulls proved otherwise. Grothe threw for 230 yards and a touchdown and junior RB Benjamin Williams led the Bulls with 64 yards rushing and a score. Hester Jr. and junior wideout Taurus Johnson had 3 catches for 34 yards apiece. However, the heroes of the day were the Bulls' defense, who dominated UNC forcing three interceptions and allwoing under 180 total yards. The Tar Heels did not score their TD until there was less than one minute left in regulation and the Bulls had their second string defense on the field.

West Virginia

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Mountaineers
R1=0
R2=3
R3=3
R4=7
Home=#18 Bulls
H1=7
H2=7
H3=7
H4=0The Bulls beat the #5 ranked team in the nation, before their first-ever sold out home crowd, with a total of announced attendance of 67,012. The Bulls are now 2-1 against West Virginia.

Florida Atlantic

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Owls
R1=0
R2=7
R3=10
R4=6
Home=#6 Bulls
H1=7
H2=0
H3=14
H4=14Nursing a "West Virginia hangover" from their upset the week before, the Bulls looked sloppy against the Owls. However, Benjamin Williams put the game out of reach with his fourth rushing TD with less than 40 seconds to go. Williams would finish with 186 rushing yards on 25 carries. In addition, the Bulls helped FAU achieve their highest recorded attendance in either Lockhart Stadium or Dolphin Stadium.

UCF

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Knights
R1=7
R2=3
R3=0
R4=2
Home=#5 Bulls
H1=12
H2=17
H3=14
H4=21The Bulls proved their #5 ranking is no fluke by decimating the cross-state Knights 64-12 in front of a home crowd announced at 65,948. The Bulls held the Knights to just 145 total yards and Kevin Smith, who came in as the nation's leading rusher at 172 yards per game, to just 55 yards. South Florida gained 543 total yards—over three times as much as UCF—while holding the ball three fewer minutes than the Knights. UCF has yet to beat South Florida in three meetings, and the last game of their four-game series will be held at UCF in 2008.

After losses by LSU and Cal, South Florida moved into #2 in the AP Poll (behind Ohio State) and #3 in the Coaches and Harris Polls (behind Ohio State and Boston College), earning first-place votes in all three. When the first BCS rankings were announced, the Bulls were #2 behind Ohio State. Even though they were #3 in the Coaches and Harris Polls, they swept through the computer rankings, getting #1 in all but one of them.

Rutgers

Linescore Amfootball
Road=#2/3 Bulls
R1=10
R2=7
R3=3
R4=7
Home=Scarlet Knights
H1=3
H2=10
H3=14
H4=3

Connecticut

Linescore Amfootball
Road= #11/12 Bulls
R1=0
R2=0
R3=9
R4=6
Home=Huskies
H1=3
H2=13
H3=3
H4=3After suffering through the first half of the game, USF overcame a 16 point defecit and nearly won the game. In the end, it came down to whether or not the Bulls could score one touchdown on fourth down with less than one minute remaining in the game. If the touchdown had been successful, the Bulls could have either sent the game into overtime or won by one point with a two-point conversion. Unfortunately for South Florida, the throw was not caught and Connecticut won the game by 7 points.

Cincinnati

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Bearcats
R1=31
R2=7
R3=0
R4=0
Home= #20/21 Bulls
H1=14
H2=6
H3=7
H4=6The Bulls put 14 points on the board before the offense even touched the football. Trae Williams ran an interception back 73 yards for a touchdown, and Mike Jenkins took a kickoff return 100 yards for another TD in the longest play in USF history. Cincinnati scored 31 points in the first quarter, a school record for the most points in any quarter, and led 38-20 at the half.

USF shut down the Bearcats' scoring in the second half, and closed the score to 38-33 with 2 minutes to go. After stopping UC on a fake field goal try with less than 30 seconds remaining, the Bulls had one last try for the win. They moved from their own 39 to the UC 18 and had two chances to score the winning touchdown with 8 seconds left, but it was not to be. The first try, to Carlton Mitchell, was broken up by Mike Mickens in the end zone. With 2 seconds remaining, Grothe fired the ball to Jessie Hester and even though the replay clearly showed Hester being interfered by UC's Anthony Williams, Hester still had a shot at the ball but couldn't bring it in, and the officials did not call a penalty.

Attendance was announced at 57,379.

The Bulls dropped to #28 in the BCS standings after the loss, just 3 weeks after debuting in the BCS Poll at #2.

yracuse

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Bulls
R1=7
R2=13
R3=21
R4=0
Home=Orange
H1=0
H2=3
H3=7
H4=0Looking to end a three-game losing skid, the Bulls recorded a lopsided victory over the Orange. Mike Ford rushed for 123 yards and two TDs, while the Bulls set a new school record for total offense with 536 yards.

Louisville

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Cardinals
R1=3
R2=7
R3=0
R4=7
Home=Bulls
H1=20
H2=21
H3=0
H4=14

In the final game at Raymond James Stadium for the 2007 season, Louisville was looking for their 6th win of the year so that they could become bowl eligible. But, destiny was on the Bulls' side from the very first play. USF kicked off the ball to Louisville and instead of returning the ball, Louisville fumbled it. Nate Allen successfully recovered the ball for South Florida and scored the fastest touchdown in school history (8 game seconds). From that moment on, Louisville simply could not keep up. By the end of the first half, the score was a shocking 41-10. And once the game was over, the Bulls defeated the Cardinals 55-17.

The following day, USF did not re-emerge in the Associated Press or Coach's Polls. However, they did rank #23 in the BCS standings.

Pittsburgh

Linescore Amfootball
Road=Bulls
R1=7
R2=3
R3=17
R4=21
Home=Panthers
H1=7
H2=7
H3=0
H4=23

Two days after winning the game against Pittsburgh, it was announced that USF would be play in the Brut Sun Bowl against a team from the PAC-10 Conference

un Bowl

Linescore Amfootball
Road=#23/25 Bulls
R1=0
R2=14
R3=0
R4=7
Home=Ducks
H1=8
H2=10
H3=28
H4=10

USF faced the Oregon Ducks in the Brut Sun Bowl on December 31, 2007. The two teams started out playing undisciplined football and easily set a Sun Bowl record for most penalties in the bowl's history for one game. USF trailed by only four, 18-14, at halftime. In the second half, Oregon exploded on offense, leading to a 56-21 rout of the Bulls. With the loss, USF fell to 1-2 in bowl games.

References

External links

* [http://www.gousfbulls.com/ Official USF athletics site]