Quick Start Leads Bulls Past UNC - Trib

[E.T.]

Quick Start Leads Bulls Past UNC

Published: Oct 15, 2006

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Watching North Carolina on tape, South Florida quarterback Matt Grothe saw a weakness he and his teammates could exploit. He didn't see a physical flaw, but a psychological one.

"We knew we needed to stop them early and if we could put some points on them early, they would fall apart," Grothe said "Watching tape the last four or five days, people had been scoring on them and they would just fall apart after that."

Grothe had a touchdown pass in South Florida's 37-20 victory over the Tar Heels on Saturday, and Ricky Ponton returned from a six-game suspension and ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns in the Golden Bulls' second-straight victory.

"Well, it was a beautiful day until the game started," North Carolina coach John Bunting said. "We continue to do not enough things to win and a lot of things to help us lose.

"South Florida's a pretty good team and, right now, we're not," Bunting said.

Ponton was one of three players suspended by South Florida (5-2) before the season for violating an unspecified school policy. Each player was given a six-game suspension.

"He meant a lot," Grothe said. "The last few weeks it was either me or Ben (running back Williams) running the ball for the most part. Ricky came in and got some 12-, 13-, 15-yard carries. It opened it up a lot. We had two or three long pass plays on play action there because of him."

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt would not allow Ponton to speak to reporters after the game. No reason was given, but the coach was happy to see him back.

"I had no idea he had over 100 yards," he said. "That's big. That's good."

North Carolina (1-5) dropped its third straight game. After the Tar Heels took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, quarterback Cam Sexton missed nine straight passes. He threw a touchdown pass to Jon Hamlett with 33 seconds left in the third quarter, and Connor Barth kicked two field goals, including a career-long 52-yarder earlier in the period.

But the Tar Heels stymied themselves all game long, committing 10 penalties for 87 yards.

"They're drive-stoppers, they're momentum killers," North Carolina wide receiver Jesse Holley said. "They cost us a lot today.

"People don't stop us. We stop ourselves, bottom line," he said.

South Florida countered Ronnie McGill's 15-yard scoring run midway through the first quarter with Taurus Johnson's 19-yard touchdown run on a reverse with 1:13 left in the period.

The Golden Bulls converted two interceptions into touchdowns. After Stephen Nicholas' first career interception at the North Carolina 35, Grothe tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to S.J. Green with 12:03 left in the half.

Danny Verpaele's interception and 26-yard return set up Ponton's 1-yard burst with 9:10 left before halftime. Ponton had a 2-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter.

Benjamin Williams capped a 71-yard drive off the opening kickoff in the second half with a 1-yard score, giving South Florida a 27-10 lead. Ponton's second score pushed the lead to 34-13, but the Tar Heels came back and scored on Sexton's touchdown pass and that left Leavitt upset despite the cushion.

"I thought after we went up and scored in the third quarter, for our defense to allow them to drive all the way down and score was disappointing," he said.

But Leavitt couldn't have felt nearly as bad as the Tar Heels, especially Holley.

"We let a lot of people down, fans, ourselves, the coaches," Holley said. "They came out there and supported us again. We disappointed them."

[E.T.]

The Golden Bulls converted two interceptions into touchdowns.

Now this looks familiar  >

[BullBlood]

"Golden Bulls"

Pathetic.  Is this a tampa writer?????  Are you kidding me????

[windbane]

can someone e-mail these guys and inform them?  isn't that 3 so far TODAY that have said golden?  come on...

[BullsFanInTX]

We are light years ahead of UCF.  Why are idiots still getting us mixed up.  If I see golden bulls one more time I will scream.

[E.T.]

I think Greg will probably mention it in his blog . . .

SOFA KING sad  >

[Grateful Dad]

Maybe they're remembering the Golden Brahman days :

[hightechbull]

This is not a Tribune article from a Tribune writer.

It was gleened from an AP wire story.  See here -> http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/gamecenter/recap/NCAAF_20061014_SFL@NC

On that note, it was very sloppy of the Tribune to publish that AP story word for word.  It should have said (see bolded word)

The Golden Bulls [sic] converted two interceptions into touchdowns. After Stephen Nicholas' first career interception at the North Carolina 35, Grothe tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to S.J. Green with 12:03 left in the half.

Our mascot used to be the Golden Brahmans, but we have not used that term in decades.  Get with it AP writers.

[USF03]

maybe they remember the old USF mascot... "Golden Brahmans"

In the election, five finalists were selected: the Buccaneer, the Golden Brahman, the Olympian, the Cougar, and the Golden Eagle.

The Buccaneer, which received the most votes, was originally not adopted because it was believed that a junior college in Pensacola had the same mascot. The Golden Brahman, which had lost to the Buccaneer by only three votes, was chosen instead.

After it was learned that the junior college mascot was in fact the Pirate and not the Buccaneer, a 12-member judiciary committee decided that the Buccaneer would serve as the USF mascot.

With the decision came controversy. Many students were unhappy about the lackadaisical way in which the contest was run, while others thought that both choices were unfit to be the official mascot.

A petition was formulated and collected more signatures than the actual number of votes in the original election. A run-off election was granted between the Buccaneer and the Golden Brahman. The Golden Brahman was victorious and was officially unveiled Nov. 17, 1962.

They just missed the end of this story...

Once all conflict was cleared up, the Golden Brahman successfully remained the mascot until the early '80s.

"The athletic department decided to change the mascot to the Bulls around 1982 for promotional reasons, to advertise basketball games and homecoming events," said Marshall.

http://usfweb2.usf.edu/History/rocky.html