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Bulls Let Another ESPN Moment Slip Away

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By BRETT McMURPHY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2008

TAMPA - For the second consecutive season, the University of South Florida appeared on ESPN's coveted Thursday night telecast with a chance to solidify itself as a national title contender.

Both times, it failed.

The No. 10 Bulls were upset 26-21 by Pittsburgh, which entered as a two-touchdown underdog, before an announced crowd of 50,307 at Raymond James Stadium.

The loss not only killed any long-shot national title hopes for the Bulls, but perhaps more importantly, derailed their hopes of winning their first Big East title.

Behind the running of LeSean McCoy (28 carries, 142 yards), the Panthers (4-1, 2-0 Big East) overpowered the Bulls (5-1, 0-1).

Last year, No. 2 USF opened 6-0 before losing 30-27 at Rutgers.

"I'm not going to go to the grave right now," USF coach Jim Leavitt said. "We're 5-1, we didn't play well. We have to find a way to play better, that's reality."

The reality of USF's early schedule was that the Bulls had dominated against three of the nation's nine worst offenses. Against the Panthers, they were the Pitts. McCoy, who was held to a career-low 55 yards last year against USF, had his ninth career 100-yard rushing day as the Panthers racked up 374 yards.

"Defensively, we didn't play very good. Offensively, we didn't play very good. And special teams were not very good," Leavitt said. "When that happens, you don't win."

Trailing 20-14 in the fourth quarter, the Bulls marched 86 yards in nine plays behind the running of Mike Ford for the go-ahead score. Ford had six carries for 54 yards on the drive, culminating with Matt Grothe's 22-yard pass to Jessie Hester for a 21-20 lead with 5:57 remaining.

However, the Panthers needed only three plays to regain the lead. Delbert Alvarado's kickoff out of bounds gave Pitt the ball at the 40. Bill Stull hit Oderick Turner for 38 yards, McCoy busted a 19-yard run to the 3, and the sophomore scored on the next play for a 26-21 lead. Pitt's 2-point conversion failed.

"Kicking the ball out of bounds is bad," Leavitt said. "They just needed three plays and got in the end zone. It was a flurry. We didn't tackle. We didn't play disciplined defense. They outplayed us."

With 4:43 remaining, the Bulls went three-and-out. Pitt took over with 3:28 left and ate up all but 22 seconds.

Grothe managed to get off a Hail Mary from midfield at the buzzer, but the ball crashed to the turf - along with USF's unbeaten season.

USF was limited to 245 yards - 219 below its season average. Grothe was 11-for-21 for 129 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Ford had 73 yards on 14 carries.

Stull (16 of 28) threw for 228 yards, including a 52-yard TD to Jonathan Baldwin.

"We broke down in the secondary too many times," Leavitt said. "Our pass defense has been very poor. Poor defense, poor tackling, that doesn't look like a team that will beat a good football team. We have to figure out a way to get better, play better football.

"We weren't in sync offensively all game. The same with the defense. We were real poor at the end. We were so up and down."

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

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