UCONN recap

[cophbulls]

Looking for No. 3

by Matthew Richardson

southfloridabulls.com

USF came into RayJay still licking their wounds after last weeks stinging shot to their bowl hopes in the form of a 22-20 loss to Rutgers. UCONN, beginning their Big East play, was still reeling from a devastating loss to Navy the previous week. USF came into the game a 6 ½ point favorite and looking to right their Big East ship.

On the first drive of the game the Bulls came up big and lucky. After a 55 yard rush was negated by an illegal block in the back penalty, a big USF rush knocked down a pass on 3rd and 7. The very next play resulted in another big rush which lead to a blocked punt and a USF recovery at the UConn 16.

With Matt Grothe at the helm, the offense trotted onto the field to try and take advantage of the UConn miscue. On the very first play of the drive, Golden Boy takes the snap and 16 yards later is in the end zone for his 5th career touchdown.

At 12:16 of the 1st qtr Bulls lead 7-0.

UConn comes out for their second offensive series and promptly goes three and out. Bulls ball again. After a Ben Williams seven yard scamper, Grothe hooked up with SJ Green for a 31 yard pass completion. The ensuing play had Williams hammering 13 yards for his first TD of his career.

At 9:13 of the first quarter Bulls extend their lead 14-0

At this point the Bulls are rolling and all looks well, until…………..

Yeah you knew it was coming, Grothe rush for 2, Grothe rush for 7, Grothe rush for a first down, Grothe on the ground, helmet off, rolling around in pain. Tornadoes were spawned in the Tampa Bay area as the mighty Bull nation sucked in their collective breaths.

OK so it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, high ankle sprained, he was taped and sent back in, but the damage was already done. Momentum shifted strongly in the favor of the Huskies as the Huskies immediately scored on their very next possession but missed the XP.

9:39 of the second quarter USF 14-6

Penalties are still a major problem for the Bulls as a personal foul on a third and fifteen kept the UConn drive alive for the above mentioned TD and a pass interference kept another drive alive late in the half and resulted in a UConn FG.

At the half USF leads 14-6

At the half the undisciplined injured penalty prone Bulls went into the locker room and changed uniforms with their alter-ego, the disciplined injury free Bull team we have waited all year to see. And the result was devastating, well, if you are a Husky

2:28, six plays, one beautiful spin and eight yards later mister injured golden boy scores his second rushing touchdown of the game and 6th rushing TD of the season. And that my friends, was the end of that. The very next possession was a thing of beauty and it went a little like this

THIRD QTR 10:23

S1-10 US08 RUSH GROTHE +8

S2-2 US16 RUSH WILLIAMS +2

S1-10 US18 RUSH WILLIAMS +11

S1-10 US29 RUSH WILLIAMS +4

S2-6 US33 RUSH GROTHE +10

S1-10 US43 COMPLETE WILLIAMS +6

S2-4 US49 RUSH GROTHE +12

S1-10 UC39 RUSH GROTHE -1

S2-11 UC40 COMPLETE AMARRI JACKSON +34

S1-10 UC06 GROTHE +6 TD      

5:46 THIRD QTR 28-9

And yes you saw that right, Grothe goes in again for his third rushing td on the night and 7th of the season.

And just to put icing on the cake, Grothe tosses a five yard td pass to Amarri Jackson on the next drive to put the Bulls up 35-9. Mike Benzer capped off the scoring on the next possession with a 26 yd FG 38-9. UCONN had a late TD and finished the scoring to finalize the score 38-16. That’s right count it, four straight possessions with a score. By the by, USF did not punt in the second half until 4:38 of the fourth quarter

Post game comments - Jim Leavitt

•      On the game, “That’s a big win for us, happy for our offense proud of the way our offense playedâ€Â

•      On Grothe, “Yeah he did a great job, thought his leg was broken that what they told me originally. Originally told (offensive coordinator) Rod Smith that we probably wouldn’t see Matt for awhile. Thought he was going to be out awhile but came back in the second half, great medical staff we have got.â€Â

•      On returning suspended players, “Haven’t played in six weeks might be a little rusty.â€Â

•      On Ben Williams, “(Laughing) Guess I should probably put him on scholarship now.â€Â

Grades

QB

12 of 15 for 147 yards and 1 touchdown. 80 yards on 15 carries and three touchdowns. One injured ankle. I would give golden boy an A+ due to the lack of interceptions but that rolling around on the ground screaming in pain performance that scared the *%&@ out of me drags him down. Additionally, PJ, you remember Pat right? Well he came in in Grothe’s stead and looked, well rusty to be kind. Even our third QB got a chance to snap the ball G. Gregory, he ran the ball once with not quite the success that Matt has losing a yard.

Grade A-

RB

Well lookie here, we have a running back, just in time for the return of RP. Ben Williams rushed 22 times for 108 yards and a touchdown including a couple of pass receptions for another 12, not bad for a walk on. He had shown this spark early in the season but tonight was the first night he made it happen. No fumbles, no dropped passes, congratulations Mr. Williams keep up the good work..

Grade A

WR

Played well even without Ean Randolph out with his injured neck/hip pointer, whatever JL wants to call it. In Ean’s absence SJ Green had a nice game catching 3 passes for 72 yards. Only one dropped passes I can remember. On the three incompletions, one was where Matt was about to be leveled in his own endzone and threw the ball awry, the second was dropped by SJ Green, hot pass, but could have been caught in the end zone, and the third was a deep pass that was broken up by the defender. So all in all a good game for the receiving corp.

Grade B+

OLine

I've heard and read all sorts of things about this Oline in response to the praise given to the unit in previous writings by yours truly, especially on certain message boards. Don’t think we’ll hear anything about this group after today’s game. One sack for five yards and that was right after Grothe came back on the field hobbling around on his ankle. Enormous holes were being opened all night for not only the mad-scrambling QB but also for a previously unheralded running back. A team does not rack up 203 yards rushing with a poor offensive line.

Grade A- (Only because they did give up that sack)

Defense

This defense is going to give me fits. They can be blasted (see Rutgers) they make stupid penalty after stupid penalty, they give up big plays but yet they always manage to be the ones who carry the load. They stopped a UCONN drive after the big momentum shift/injury to keep the Huskies to a FG attempt. They held the Huskies to 5 – 14 on third down completion, they kept the running game to a season low for the Huskies 2.3 yards per rush and most importantly they only allowed 9 points (OK they allowed 16 but does that last TD really matter?) This is definitely a pro defense, Stephen Nicolas is the real deal and we’ll see him next year in the no fun league (that’s NFL to you) but the discipline has to improve, has to, if we are going to compete with the like of Pitt, Louisville and West Virginia.

Grade B-

Special Teams

A big WOOOHOOO here. No turnovers, on our side, a field goal attempt was good, all five XP’s were good, this Rugby style punter is a kick to watch, and almost caused UCONN to give up the ball once, several, if not all, the kickoffs were kicked into or out of the end zone, AND on top of  all that a blocked punt. It was wonderful to have the portion of the  game that should be the most automatic, be the most automatic

Grade A+++

This is great momentum for a young team heading back out on the road. If this team can continue to improve like it has, do we dare to think 6-2 going into homecoming against Pittsburgh??????

[SANJAY]

Grade A+++ ?  Did he see our KO coverage?

[BullGrad95]

Grade A+++ ?  Did he see our KO coverage?

could not agree more.

kickoff coverage is aweful

the fact that we have to use "rugby" style punting is laughable

field goal kicking is lucky to be called putrid

leavitt needs to replace himself as the special teams coach