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At 7-17 away from Raymond James, USF expects a challenge from its future C-USA foe.
By PETE YOUNG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 19, 2002
In 51/2 seasons, South Florida has 39 wins.
Seven have come on the road.
The Bulls have won 16 straight at home. They have won two straight on the road. Once. Ever.
You get the picture.
USF hasn't had nearly the success away from Tampa as in Raymond James Stadium. Today at East Carolina (2-3), the Bulls can improve their record of road futility and accomplish several milestones.
With a win, the Bulls would: achieve back-to-back road victories for the first time since beating Cumberland at the end of the 1997 season and Liberty early in 1998, their first and second seasons; beat a Conference USA team on the road for the first time (in their third try); and improve to 2-0 against C-USA teams this season.
To do so USF (4-2) will have to alter a significant trend: its 7-17 road record.
"If we play our game, we'll be fine," coach Jim Leavitt said. "I think we play pretty good on the road."
Then what's different about away games? Leavitt said essentially nothing, except the level of competition.
"We leave on Friday, we stay in a hotel. That's (the only differences)," Leavitt said. "We've played some pretty good people on the road. We certainly played pretty good at Pitt (35-26 win last season), we beat North Texas (24-17 on Oct. 5), we've played Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah -- we've played some of the best teams in the country on the road. We've gone to some very tough places."
There are mitigating circumstances behind USF's home/away win total -- among them, USF has played more home games (37 to 24) and, as Leavitt noted, has played tougher teams on the road.
Regardless, the Bulls have done much worse away from home. They can buck their track record at 2 p.m. at 43,000-capacity Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, N.C.
USF is 1-2 on the road this season. The Bulls played well in a 31-14 defeat at Oklahoma, outgaining the Sooners by almost 100 yards, and in the win at North Texas. At Arkansas, the Bulls were crushed 42-3.
The USF-ECU game appears even; the oddsmakers have made it a pick 'em. According to a Web site that takes a composite ranking of several dozen polls, power indexes and computer rankings, USF is the nation's 48th-best team, its highest ranking ever on the site. East Carolina is 84th.
The Bulls are aiming for their third straight win and are coming off what is regarded as their best home win, 16-13 over Southern Miss. East Carolina is 2-0 in C-USA, same as Southern Miss.
"It's a great opportunity. We're looking forward to it," middle linebacker Kawika Mitchell said. "The games against the conference teams (USF joins C-USA next season) get us even more pumped up."
The Pirates are not playing as well as in recent years -- ECU has seven winning seasons in the past eight years -- but have won two of three.
"It's going to be a tremendous challenge," Leavitt said, noting ECU has won six straight against Florida teams, including wins over Miami in 1996 and '99. "East Carolina is an outstanding program."
The stars of the Southern Miss win were junior defensive end Shurron Pierson (four sacks) and senior return man/receiver DeAndrew Rubin (215 all-purpose yards), but the game-in-game-out stalwarts for the Bulls are seniors Marquel Blackwell and Mitchell.
A poor statistical game at Arkansas removed Blackwell from the national media's quarterback radar screen, but he is playing as well as ever. Two fumbles vs. Southern Miss aside, Blackwell has been a mistake minimizer while efficiently operating the no-huddle offense. He has been sacked nine times and thrown three interceptions in 227 pass attempts.
Mitchell leads the nation in tackles for loss while leading the Bulls with 68 tackles and 11 quarterback hurries.