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Elliott column: Relieved Bulls Glad To Escape From Lockhart With Victory

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Mick Elliott/The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 7, 2007

Updated: 10/07/2007 12:33 am

FORT LAUDERDALE - Junior Benjamin Williams carried 25 times for 186 yards. Quarterback Matt Grothe added another 120 on the ground. All the same, the sixth-ranked South Florida Bulls' best run Saturday against Florida Atlantic may have been off the field and out the door.

And no one bothered to look back.

The Bulls high-tailed it out of town with a 35-23 victory that was beautiful only in the Bulls-eye of the beholder, but sure beat what could have been.

'I worried about this game from the beginning of the year,' USF coach Jim Leavitt said. 'I thought this would be the toughest challenge for us up to this date as far as emotionally making sure we were ready to go.'

Mr. Magoo without his glasses could have seen this coming. Nevertheless, it was as inevitable as rush-hour traffic. The 5-0 Bulls beat Auburn, North Carolina and West Virginia before coming to South Florida. They have soared from unranked to unbelievable and here waiting were the Owls.

Who?

'Your kids can't play sky-high every week. And they are kids,' USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said. 'We've been sky-high for three weeks. Our kids have never been down this road.'

The first thing USF learned about being an over-aspiring long shot that just broke into the nation's top 10 is that not everybody shared its joy.

Last week's lofty ranking had barely been announced before Alabama coach Nick Saban suggested the Bulls are too dumb to play anywhere else. Then the FAU home crowd welcomed them with chants of 'overrated.'

Talk about no respect; the Owls missed a first-quarter field goal wide left and the scoreboard operator still put up three points. In the third period as USF lined up for fourth-and-1 at the Owls 32, which Grothe carried into the end zone, an FAU campus police officer with holstered revolver on his belt began leading home-crowd cheers from the sideline.

Carrot Top, the comedian who happens to be one of FAU's most-famous alumni, couldn't have given the Bulls a worse script.

Watch Your Step

Without banana peels, there could not have been a better environment for a USF slip up. Lockhart Stadium, where the old NASL's Fort Lauderdale Strikers once called home, is a city-owned facility now used primarily by various local high schools. Even with an FAU record crowd of 21,106 - one side filled predominantly with green and gold - it had the feel of a flea market.

Coming off last week's emotionally charged upset of West Virginia at sold-out Raymond James Stadium, the Bulls were sharp as soup spoons.

It was 7-7 at halftime and 21-17 after three quarters. When FAU scored on a 47-yard pass play with 6:42 remaining, the Owls trailed by five and could have closed within a field goal had they made a 2-point conversion.

Not until Williams scored his fourth touchdowns of the game with 29 seconds left did the Bulls ever feel safe.

'I would not say we felt helpless, but it was a tough feeling in the gut,' senior offensive tackle Walt Walker said. 'I know that feeling and I don't like it. It was gut-check time. And we decided to do something about it.'

Everybody Sing

FAU, according to the school fight song, is where 'there's football in pa-ra-dise.' The lyrics also include 'cheering our football team down the field and waving our colors, too. Hoot! Hoot!'

USF, however, got to holler - even if it was in relief.

'We did a good job against a team that was really looking forward to playing us,' Grothe said. 'Coming off a big win against West Virginia, I honestly don't think if we had played this game last year after beating West Virginia, we would have lost. I think that's the biggest difference between this team and last year's team. Just the unity.'

In the short term, beating FAU by 12 points - a program even younger than 11-year-old USF - may or may not be enough for the Bulls to climb in the rankings. Even as the number of undefeated teams continued to thin Saturday, it's doubtful the polls will be overly impressed by a laborious victory against Florida Atlantic.

Which is a just enough to punch Leavitt's hot button.

'Everybody tries to look at this deal - these guys are ranked, these guys aren't ranked, all this stuff and it's sad,' USF's coach said. 'It's not the truth. The truth is they've got a darn good football team. The truth is that we came into Lockhart Stadium, their home, and they had everything in the world going to get ready for us.'

Run Bulls, run.

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