Colleges

Bold Bulls make way into hearts and homes

By JOHN ROMANO, Times Columnist
Published September 29, 2007

USF fans celebrate after the victory against West Virginia.
	[Ted McLaren | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Ted McLaren | Times] USF fans celebrate moments before the end of the game against West Virginia. [Brian Cassella | Times] SF head coach Jim Leavitt tries to avoid the Gatorade bath as he celebrates after the 21-13 upset win.

TAMPA -- Years from now, they will recall the night as 90-some degrees of magic. They will close their eyes and remember that the moon was nearly full.

This was the night, they will say, the University of South Florida was introduced to the world.

And, ah, it was love at first sight.

USF 21, West Virginia 13.

And a football team may never be the same.

It is not exaggeration to say this was the biggest victory in USF history, and it may not be hyperbole to say it was the kind of game that can forever change the perceptions of a program.

For what a national television audience and a sold-out stadium saw on Friday night was a team unbowed by expectations or success. A team of lesser-known recruits with oversized dreams.

And what they saw afterward was a celebration at midfield that was forever in arriving.

"Some of those kids that came here never thought that they would get to experience that," defensive coordinator Wally Burnham said. "We were just going Division I when they got here. We were still I-AA five years ago. They never dreamed this night would come, that they would get to stand out there and celebrate in front of 65,000 people and beat a fifth-ranked team.

"This is wonderful. Us old guys have been around and we've seen some things like that, but these young kids haven't. I'm real proud for them. They deserve it."

And now USF is sitting atop the Big East Conference, and staring down the possibility of playing in one of the nation's premier bowl games somewhere around New Year's Day.

"People learned that we're a team to be reckoned with," said linebacker Tyrone McKenzie. "They can keep calling us underdogs, and they can keep saying these are upsets, but to us, this is not an upset."

This was neither fluke, nor aberration. Not when the Bulls have beaten West Virginia in consecutive seasons. Not when USF held on to its lead from the end of the first quarter until the last note of the referee's whistle.

This was Jamar Taylor, a freshman running back with 33 career rushing yards, matching West Virginia star Steve Slaton virtually yard for yard.

This was Ben Moffitt, a senior linebacker, returning one interception for a touchdown and grabbing another off a carom in the fourth quarter.

This was Matt Grothe, a quarterback with no pedigree to speak of, outplaying West Virginia Heisman Trophy candidate Pat White for the second year in a row.

As introductions go, this was pure gold.

"We're building a great thing here," said safety Louis Gachette. "USF is for real."

Until now, the Bulls were more of an oddity. Almost a rumor. Like Boise State a few years ago, or Rutgers last season. Which is why having prime-time television all to themselves on Friday night was so important outside Tampa Bay.

This was USF's moment. This was a chance for a program to prove it was something more than just a poll crasher, a blip that could disappear as quickly as it arrived.

Oh, the Bulls have been in big games before, but never with the stakes so high. And they have beaten ranked teams before, but never when expectations were so ripe.

This one had the feel of something special from the moment they came running in the stadium, cutting corners and looking for daylight. And that was just the fans rushing in to the general admission student section 90 minutes before the game.

The anticipation was high, and the game was played at a fever pitch. There were six turnovers in the first 16 minutes, as both teams seemed to dance across a high wire.

You may accuse USF coach Jim Leavitt of being a zealot, and you can suggest he might consider a switch to decaf. But I defy anyone to ever say the USF coach plays scared. In the biggest game of the program's history, Leavitt dared for more.

He pulled out offensive formations the Bulls rarely use. He had Grothe looking deep on his third pass of the night. And when the Bulls had fourth and inches on their own 35 with a 14-3 lead early in the third quarter, Leavitt defied every rule of coaching by going for the first down - and making it.

The Bulls got conservative after that, but the defense refused to let them get beaten.

And when it was all over, they came to midfield and danced the way they have seen others do from afar. With the band playing the Bulls theme song over and over, players and students jumped up and down in unison.

Grothe, with his hair in a mohawk, was lifted onto the shoulders of classmates and rode around the field with others leaping beside him to rub his shaved head.

This is USF.

Hello, world.

[Last modified September 29, 2007, 01:41:35]