Dell: USF Bulls taking nothing for granted

[Brad]

USF Bulls taking nothing for granted

By ALAN DELL - adell@bradenton.com

TAMPA -- Last week, they were hunters.

This week, they are the hunted.

It’s OK with the University of South Florida Bulls. The players know if they are going to reach their goal of becoming a top team, the target shifts to their backs.

They beat Notre Dame in a historic victory last week despite being a double-digit underdog.

The Bulls are heavy favorites tonight as a consensus 20-point pick against Ball State in their home opener at Raymond James Stadium.

Heading into the game ranked 22nd in the country (Associated Press poll), USF’s biggest fear is a letdown.

The players insist it’s not a worry.

It helps that Ball State got USF’s attention by defeating Big Ten team Indiana 27-20 last week.

“It was a big win for them and now they want to come in and say they beat the team that beat Notre Dame. Now we have the target on our back,” said running back Darrell Scott, who saw his first action last week in more than 18 months after transferring from Colorado.

Being from Indiana, Ball State is cognizant of everything Notre Dame. The Cardinals are also much better than last year’s 4-8 team that went 3-5 in the Mid-American Conference. They have a talented sophomore quarterback in Keith Wenning, who started 10 games as a true freshman. Jahwan Edwards, a true freshman running back, gained 84 yards in 16 rushes against Indiana.

But the Bulls say it’s about them. Perhaps the best thing about the Notre Dame win is that USF didn’t play particularly well on either side of the ball. The Bulls were outgained by a 2-1 margin from the line scrimmage, but took advantage of five Irish turnovers.

“Our offense struggled, and that is what we focused on this week,” Scott said. “We need to punch it in instead of settling for field goals. Our main objective is making big plays. We have momentum and are hungry. For me, I just want to knock the rust off. I felt nervous in the beginning because I hadn’t played in so long, but I have my confidence back.”

USF offensive coordinator Todd Fitch sees a lot of room for improvement, particularly with the run game, which couldn’t punch it in from the red zone after turnovers gave the Bulls some golden opportunities.

Demetris Murray and quarterback B.J. Daniels had 47 yards each to lead the ground game, while Scott produced 33 yards on 12 carries.

“We knew running against them would be tough because their strength was their front seven,” Todd said. “I thought Darrell got better as the game wore on. He had has pads down and was pretty physical. As the season goes on, I believe he will continue to grow, and Murray was like our old war horse.

“I felt pretty good about our run game even though the yardage wasn’t what we wanted it to be. The biggest negative is that we had a lot of play action and didn’t execute it well. We probably left 100 yards easily on the field.”

For the second straight game going back to last year’s Car Care Bowl, Daniels was efficient and didn’t make any mistakes. Receiver Sterling Griffin continued to build on what he showed in the preseason game, when he was the Bulls’ top receiver, and A.J. Love displayed flashes of what he did before being felled by a torn ACL last season.

Fitch expects his offense to see a lot of different things this week, especially after Ball State watched the game film.

“Notre Dame is more of a base defense. Ball State will try to pressure us and get the ball out of our hands, and we have to be able to handle the pressure,” Fitch said.

The USF defense deserves the credit for the Notre Dame victory thanks to all the turnovers it caused, particularly the strip by safety Jerrell Young at the goal line that Kayvon Webster scooped up and turned into a 96-yard touchdown and a 14-point swing.

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[DELdaBull]

Big Victory please