Bulls gore Cards from www.courier-journal.com

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Sunday, September 25, 2005

SOUTH FLORIDA 45, LOUISVILLE 14

Bulls gore Cards

Big East debut quickly turns into a debacle

By Eric Crawford

ecrawford@courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal

TAMPA, Fla. -- When the University of Louisville football team's charter airplane was arriving at Tampa International Airport on Friday, the pilot had to abort his landing when he spotted another plane on the runway.

In last night's game against South Florida in Raymond James Stadium, the No. 9-ranked Cardinals never got off the ground.

 

Unranked South Florida, a 20-point underdog, put a 45-14 shocker on the Cardinals, who watched their national title dreams -- and most of their national credibility -- fly away into a muggy Tampa Bay night, rising with the chants of "overrated" from a crowd of 33,586.

"Who's the role model now?" South Florida defensive end Terrence Royal crowed, responding to a Tampa newspaper column early in the week that held up U of L as an example to USF's young program. "We're going to show you who's the best of the Big East!"

It was a rude welcome to the conference for U of L, which had been a near-unanimous pick to win the title but now must fight its way up from the bottom.

Bobby Petrino, who suffered his most lopsided loss in two-plus years as the Cardinals' coach, was searching for an explanation afterward. Arriving to speak with reporters, he stood against a cinder-block wall and said: "It's like a firing squad. Go ahead and fire."

First question: What happened?

"I wish I knew," he said. "I did not do a good job of getting the team prepared. We thought we were prepared. We came in today during walk-throughs and I thought we had good focus. Obviously, we didn't. I take all the blame for that. That's my job. Something we're not used to is coming out in a game and not playing well, particularly early."

U of L (2-1) piled up 493 yards of offense. Sophomore quarterback Brian Brohm threw for 389 yards. The Cards had 10 more first downs and nearly eight more minutes of possession than the Bulls.

But those numbers were as empty as the building facades in the Pirate Village in the Raymond James end zone. The important plays all went to South Florida. U of L had the stats, but the Bulls had the spirit.

Coach Jim Leavitt showed his team clip after clip of poor plays they had made in last season's 41-9 loss at U of L. By the time the Bulls (3-1) took the field, they were loaded for bear.

U of L drove to the South Florida 31-yard line on its first possession, but on fourth-and-three, redshirt freshman Mario Urrutia couldn't haul in a catchable pass from Brohm.

South Florida, which figured U of L's defense would be geared to stop the run, called a screen pass to running back Andre Hall on the first play, then quarterback Pat Julmiste went deep along the left sideline to sophomore wide receiver Amarri Jackson.

Cornerback William Gay was in position to make a play, but he didn't turn to see the ball. Jackson pulled it in and sprinted 57 yards to the 1, and Hall carried it in on the next play.

It was an omen. Jackson, who had accounted for only 15 yards on two touches in the previous three games, would burn the Cards all night. The junior-college transfer, who played basketball at nearby Hillsborough Community College until he decided he missed football and transferred to USF, went into fast-break mode, finishing with two catches for 75 yards, two carries for 63 yards and two TDs and even a TD pass.

Bad omen No. 2 came on the Cards' second series. They used 11 plays to march to the South Florida 15 before sophomore kicker Art Carmody's 32-yard field-goal try bounced off the right goalpost. Hitting the post hurt the Cards in a loss at Texas Christian two years ago, and a blocked field-goal try was crucial in a double-overtime loss here two years ago.

After stopping the Bulls on their next possession, U of L pushed into South Florida territory for a third time but lost the ball when tight end Gary Barnidge fumbled after a 9-yard reception at the 31.

Four plays later, Jackson sprinted 51 yards on an end-around, and USF led 14-0.

Following an ineffective U of L possession, South Florida used another end-around, this one a 12-yarder by Jackson, to go up 21-0.

"When you're not ready to play, weird things happen," Petrino said. "You fumble the ball. You catch the ball and fumble it. You have penalties that you don't usually have."

Still, the Cards gathered themselves right before halftime. Elvis Dumervil forced a fumble and Zach Anderson recovered, and they drove 46 yards in eight plays to Michael Bush's TD dive from a yard out.

But right when they got their offense going, their special teams gave way. A short kickoff to the USF 30 wound up in a return back into U of L territory, and the Bulls tacked on a field goal to make it 24-7 at halftime.

"I thought we had good energy at halftime," Petrino said. "I thought our players really believed we could come back and make it happen."

South Florida put those hopes to rest quickly. Chad Simpson ran the second-half kickoff back 94 yards for a touchdown. He was touched by only one defender.

Three plays later, Bush fumbled and Royal recovered at the U of L 36. That set up an 11-yard touchdown pass from Jackson, who took a handoff and found an uncovered Derek Carter in the end zone to make it 38-7.

"Coming out of halftime, we needed to make the play on special teams and we needed to score quick," Petrino said. "And just the opposite happened."

Put into obvious passing situations, Brohm was sacked four times and took hits on many other throws.

"They definitely have a great defense, a fast defense," the sophomore said. "I wasn't doing a good job getting us checked into the right protections, and we didn't pick them up. We've got to play better. They're a good football team. We've just got to learn from this. We didn't play the way we're supposed to, the way we know how."

Petrino said his team was outplayed in every phase.

"South Florida did a nice job," he said. "They had a good game plan. They played faster than we did. They hit harder than we did. Basically, we got outcoached and outplayed."

Now, having suffered the program's most disappointing loss since a season-opening defeat to Kentucky in 2002, the Cards turned their attention immediately to what comes next: Florida Atlantic and former U of L coach Howard Schnellenberger in Saturday's homecoming game.

"There's still a lot of football to play," Petrino said. "… This will challenge where we're at as a team and what kind of leadership we have as a team. We're either going to come together or we're going to fall apart. I'm hoping we're going to come together."

[bulls96go]

petrino is brutally honest to say he was outcoached!

forget the Auburn thing, this guy has class

i am pleased usf did not try to run up the score.

this may turn into a serious rivalry