All things considered, it's not a bad debut for Bulls

The opponent might be someone you haven't heard much about, and probably you couldn't name two of their players if your mortgage check depended on it. If history has taught us nothing else, though, you have to look beyond the name, because you can never be sure about anything in the opening game of the college football season.

So it was Saturday night at RayJay, when the University of South Florida met Wofford, a scrappy Division I-AA team from Spartanburg, S.C. Chances are you hadn't heard much about the Terriers before this night, and it's unlikely they'll pass USF's way again, but for the better part of the first half they were exactly what Bulls coach Jim Leavitt feared they would be.

They were fearless, unorthodox and more than a little game. They also came to town for more than just the $300,000 guarantee they'd receive for playing the lamb to the slaughter.

They had the Bulls back on their heels a bit, and no one was quite sure when USF would do what superior teams are supposed to. The answer came in a nine-point blitz in the final 36 seconds of the first half that enabled the Bulls to break a tie game and eventually cruise to a comfortable 40-7 victory.

I'm not sure what conclusions we can draw from all this, since the result ended up being what everyone basically expected - although, like we said, you can never be sure when it's opening night. Two years ago, USF struggled to put away Elon 28-13 in the first game. The year before that, the Bulls led mighty McNeese State by only four points in the fourth quarter before pulling away for a 41-10 win.

Compared to those, this was cake.

In a departure from the norm, Leavitt focused mostly on his team and not the opponent in the weeks leading up to the game.

"I was nervous about it," he said. "We didn't really get to Wofford until game week."

The Bulls gave up 177 yards on the ground, but Wofford runs a funky option attack and it took the Terriers 50 carries to run up that number. USF won't see anything like that the rest of the season, though. Take what comfort you will from that.

You can take more comfort from how quarterback Matt Grothe played. It seems like this is his 10th year in a USF uniform, but - honest - it's only his fourth. As a four-year starter, he gives the Bulls a most uncommon weapon in college football. Grothe knows how to manage a game at this point, and he has to be happy with the way this season started.

He was 19 of 23 for 155 yards and a touchdown, and he ran for 44 more.

He did throw an interception when it was still a game and the Bulls were driving for a touchdown, but nobody's perfect.

"I threw it right into his lap. I'm still a little upset about it," Grothe said.

The Bulls were missing running backs Mike Ford and Jamar Taylor, but it didn't matter. Moise Plancher ran hard, scoring twice. When he went to the air, Grothe found inviting targets in Carlton Mitchell and Dontavia Bogan.

Defensively in the second half, the Bulls simply wore down their overmatched opponent from the Southern Conference.

It was the type of performance Leavitt expected. After all, he voted his team into the Top 25 in the preseason poll. Truth is, though, we won't know much about this team for at least a few more weeks. For reasons passing understanding, they agreed to a road game next week at Western Kentucky, then they'll come home to face whatever is left of Charleston Southern after the Florida Gators got done with them Saturday.

Then it's on to Tallahassee on Sept. 26 for Florida State.

Then, and only then, will we have a real idea how good USF can be. All games like this do is provide a glimpse. No one around the country will look at this score and decide to move the Bulls up the rankings.

Considering everything, though - a largely unknown opponent, opening night, and all the other gremlins that can jump up in games like this - it was as good a start as they could have possibly asked for.