Bulls beat Louisville, become bowl eligible

The blood on University of South Florida coach Jim Leavitt's face remained fresh from his passionate attempt at halftime to rev up his Bulls. As he spoke following USF's 34-22 victory Saturday over Louisville, you wondered if he remained a little woozy from the collision with a helmet that caused multiple cuts on Leavitt's face and nose.

After all, the Bulls racked up 538 yards of total offense - or 379 more than in their 31-0 loss at Rutgers nine days earlier. They also became bowl eligible for a fifth consecutive season, and freshman quarterback B.J. Daniels became the first player in Big East Conference history to pass for at least 300 yards and rush for 100 in the same game.

Not a bad day on the sideline for the head coach, right? Not so fast. By the time Leavitt walked into his postgame press conference, he was much more interested in looking ahead, not behind.

"I'm pretty disappointed in how we played. You know, we got a win,'' Leavitt said as began to ponder next week's game against Miami. "I guess it's always good to win a game. If we play like that against Miami, we'll get blown out.

"I want to play good football. We're in our 10th game, and I want to get better. I want to play great football, because this group really has a chance to be special down the road. This group is really the most talented group we've ever had.''

Before an announced homecoming crowd of 49,388 Saturday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium, the Bulls looked sharp in taking both of their first two drives 80 yards, accumulating more total yards (160) on those drives than they had the whole game (159) at Rutgers.

At the end of the first quarter, USF led 14-0 on Daniels' 16-yard scoring pass to Dontavia Bogans and Mo Plancher's 2-yard run.

However, Louisville scored 16 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a two-point lead, the go-ahead score coming on a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown by Trent Guy.

Just like that, the Bulls were behind and Leavitt's blood pressure was soaring. Leavitt remained upset even after Eric Schwartz's 22-yard field goal on the final play of the first half put USF up 17-16.

After head-butting linebacker LaDre Watkins to fire up his team, Leavitt watched Daniels lead the Bulls down the field on a 10-play, 80-yard drive to open the second half. Daniels capped the drive with a 20-yard touchdown run. Daniels finished with 304 yards passing and 141 rushing, his 445 yards of total offense falling just 12 yards shy of Matt Grothe's school-record for a single game set in 2007 against Cincinnati.

"It was very important,'' Leavitt said of the drive to start the second half. "You've got to come in the third quarter and move the ball and make something happen.''

Leavitt's ploy paid immediate dividends as the Bulls held onto the lead the rest of the game despite Louisville trimming it to 27-22 on Darius Ashley's 17-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

"He was a little disappointed in us at halftime,'' said receiver A.J. Love, who caught four passes for a career-high 121 yards.

"We wanted to come out hot and come out on fire,'' Daniels said.

Offensive coordinator Mike Canales, who held a meeting with his unit on Monday to make sure everyone was on the same page, was in a much better mood Saturday than after the offensive struggles at Rutgers.

"It was rewarding for the kids,'' Canales said. "They came out and worked extremely hard during the week. We felt going into it we had an opportunity to be successful and move the ball. It just showed that we can rebound and we have the ability to do that.''

Daniels was the star of the show - for the second consecutive game, Daniels had more total yards than the opposing team - making enough big plays to keep Louisville guessing and minimizing mistakes. After committing four turnovers at Rutgers, the Bulls' only turnover Saturday was a Plancher fumble late in the game.

As for his career day in only his seventh career start, Daniels sounded a lot like his coach.

"That's good on paper, but right now, to me, Miami is more important,'' Daniels said. "I don't know if we answered anything [after that Rutgers loss], but I know as far as our confidence and morale, we definitely boosted it up a little bit.''

Louisville 0 16 0 6 - 22
South Florida 14 3 10 7 - 34
First Quarter

USF-Bogan 16 pass from Daniels (Schwartz kick), 9:56.

USF-Plancher 2 run (Schwartz kick), :19.

Second Quarter

Lou-FG Philpott 37, 10:10.

Lou-Long 20 pass from Froman (Philpott kick), 6:28.

Lou-Guy 60 punt return (kick blocked), 4:47.

USF-FG Schwartz 22, :00.

Third Quarter

USF-Daniels 20 run (Schwartz kick), 9:30.

USF-FG Schwartz 44, 7:14.

Fourth Quarter

Lou-Ashley 17 run (pass failed), 14:20.

USF-Daniels 1 run (Schwartz kick), 5:09.

A-49,388.

Lou USF
First downs 16 25
Rushes-yards 24-81 45-234
Passing 232 304
Comp-Att-Int 20-35-1 20-35-0
Return Yards 60 15
Punts-Avg. 4-48.8 3-37.7
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards 4-35 6-44
Time of Possession 23:19 36:41

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-Louisville, Ashley 10-42, Froman 6-23, Powell 7-22, Beaumont 1-(minus 6). South Florida, Daniels 22-141, Plancher 17-68, Lamar 1-24, Ford 4-3, Bogan 1-(minus 2).

PASSING-Louisville, Froman 20-35-1-232. South Florida, Daniels 20-34-0-304, Team 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING-Louisville, Long 6-96, Beaumont 4-63, Chichester 4-40, Powell 2-17, Graham 2-11, Guy 1-5, Ashley 1-0. South Florida, Hester 5-43, Bogan 5-41, Love 4-121, Griffin 4-60, Busbee 1-28, Plancher 1-11.