Hurricanes dispose of USF

The University of South Florida won't be putting up any billboards hyping another historic win, at least not this week.

Not after what the 19th-ranked Miami Hurricanes did to USF on Saturday in front of the second-largest home crowd in school history. Miami, king of the state's Big 3 for so many years, looked close to a return to the top Saturday, controlling the game from the start and making it look easy in a 31-10 win against USF before an announced crowd of 66,469 at Raymond James Stadium.

"It was a frustrating night all the way around," Bulls receiver A.J. Love said. "They just dominated us, just flat-out beat us."

Miami (9-3) concluded its regular season by finishing off the Bulls (7-4) early, taking a 21-3 halftime lead on a Jacory Harris 11-yard touchdown pass to Leonard Hankerson and a pair of Javarris James touchdown runs, the first set up when USF quarterback B.J. Daniels fumbled at his own 24 and Miami's Randy Phillips recovered.

Miami limited the Bulls to 220 yards of total offense while racking up 401 yards with Harris getting plenty of help from James (11 rushes, 37 yards) and his two backfield mates, Damien Berry (12 carries, 114 yards) and Graig Cooper (16 carries, 83 yards).

The Hurricanes finished with 240 rushing yards, taking some of the load off Harris, who had thrown for 300 or more yards in three of the past four games.

The Bulls' front seven provided little resistance to Miami's ground attack.

"My worst nightmare came true," USF coach Jim Leavitt said. "They moved us off the ball."

USF defensive coordinator Joe Tresey tried to make adjustments to slow Miami's talented trio of running backs, but the Hurricanes were too big for a USF defense built around speed. When Harris did drop back to pass, USF failed to get much pressure other than a first-half sack by Jason Pierre-Paul that forced a fumble the Hurricanes recovered.

"They were really more of a pass team the last four or five games than they've been a run team," Tresey said. "Obviously they felt they could come out and establish the run."

The disparity up front painted a crystal-clear picture to Leavitt of what his program must do to continue to climb the national ladder the way most felt it did by upsetting Florida State on the road two months ago.

"Our defense didn't play good enough," Leavitt said. "Our line of scrimmage on defense got whooped, really got whooped. They beat us on both sides. They are just a better football team and they showed it.

"We've got to get more physical."

With Miami controlling the tempo most of the first half, USF finally found the end zone on its first possession of the second half, scoring on a 12-yard pass from Daniels to Love with 8:12 left in the third quarter.

The score trimmed Miami's lead to 21-10, but USF could not maintain the momentum as Miami scored the game's final 10 points, defeating the Bulls by a wider margin than when the schools met in 2005 in Miami, a 27-7 USF loss.

"We really couldn't get going," Daniels said. "I feel like there were a lot of opportunities we could have taken advantage of and didn't."

After becoming the first player in Big East Conference history to pass for 300 yards and rush for 100 in USF's win against Louisville the previous game, Daniels was just 6-for-16 for 77 yards and an interception Saturday. He rushed 16 times for 39 yards.

Perhaps the worst part for the Bulls was missing a great opportunity at national publicity they would have gotten by adding a victory vs. Miami to their upset win in Tallahassee earlier this season. Instead, they will try to win at Connecticut next week to improve their bowl positioning, with the Papajohns.com Bowl appearing the most likely destination.

Questions continue to linger about where exactly USF is compared to the state's Big 3 - Florida, Florida State and Miami. Many would argue USF is currently ahead of FSU, but Saturday clearly showed the Bulls are not quite yet in the same class as a resurgent Miami program that could enter next season ranked in the nation's top 10.

"I would have loved to beat Florida State and Miami," Leavitt said. "That would have been nice. We got one. It shows where we've got to go. It shows we're not there. We've got work to do."