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Victory In Cold Could Bring Sun

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By BRETT McMURPHY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2007

Updated: 11/25/2007 12:23 am

PITTSBURGH - In the past few days, Sun Bowl selection committee chairman John Folmer said he has heard from several University of South Florida officials.

"Those USF guys are politicking hard," Folmer said Saturday night. "I'm impressed."

And based on USF's 48-37 victory at Pittsburgh on Saturday, Folmer should be returning those calls as early as Tuesday to extend USF an invitation to the Sun Bowl to face either Oregon, Arizona State or California from the Pac-10.

"Our selection committee decided Wednesday to take the Big East's highest-ranked available BCS team," Folmer said.

When today's BCS rankings are released, that should be USF, according to projections by CollegeBCS.com's Jerry Palm.

With No. 20 UConn losing at Big East champion West Virginia 66-21, No. 23 USF should jump UConn and remain ahead of No. 24 Cincinnati, which defeated Syracuse.

At Heinz Field, the Bulls (9-3, 4-3 Big East) used a 38-point second half to strengthen their chances to get to the Sun - and the Bulls think it's all right.

"Hopefully we're headed to the Sun Bowl," USF senior Richard Clebert said.

To get to the Sun, the Bulls had to win in the cold. The temperature at kickoff was 35 degrees, the second-coldest game in USF history, and the Bulls' first win when it was 45 degrees or below.

"It was cold as heck," Clebert said. "I was freezing."

Trailing 14-7 late in the second quarter, the Bulls offense began to heat up. Held to 63 yards to that point - 29 coming on Sam Miller's run on a fake punt - USF drove 61 yards at the end of the half, capped by Delbert Alvarado's 31-yard field goal two seconds before halftime to cut the deficit to 14-10.

Then on the first play of the third quarter, USF quarterback Matt Grothe ran 80 yards untouched for a touchdown. Grothe's run officially took 13 seconds, but USF senior cornerback Trae Williams said it seemed much longer.

"The Kentucky Derby isn't the most exciting two minutes in sports," Williams said. "That was."

Grothe said he didn't expect that long of a TD gallop. "Ahhh, no, I think Pittsburgh overreacted a little bit," Grothe said. "We had some really good blocks and tight end Cedric Hill did a good job blocking downfield.

"I think anybody would have scored on that. I was winded the rest of the game."

USF's defense allowed Grothe to take a breather. Free safety Nate Allen's 37-yard interception return for a TD increased USF's lead to 27-14, and senior linebacker Ben Moffitt returned an interception 60 yards to the 1, setting up a Mike Ford TD run for a 34-14 lead.

"I thought I was in for the score," Moffitt said.

After Pitt (4-7, 2-5) closed to 34-21, Williams returned an interception 21 yards for a 41-21 cushion.

USF's defense allowed three TDs in the final seven minutes, but the outcome wasn't in doubt. Even though several defenders played injured, Pitt running back LeSean McCoy had only 55 yards, 57 below his average.

USF coach Jim Leavitt was impressed by how the team responded after an earlier three-game losing streak.

"They're so resilient," Leavitt said. "You know we 'could have,' 'if' and 'what if' and all those things. This team very well could be a 12-0 team. Some things we did wrong, some calls that were very controversial, turnovers, it was pretty frustrating in that stretch.

"You can't leave the game in the officiating hands. That's one thing I've learned. These last three games we didn't want to worry about it coming down to a last-second call."

Now the only call to worry about is the one to notify USF of its official bowl invitation.

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com.

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