Colleges

Leavitt questions replay system

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 20, 2007

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Jim Leavitt acknowledged his team's struggles in a 30-27 loss Thursday night to Rutgers, noting the Bulls' inability to stop running back Ray Rice, their surrendering seven sacks, their problems with the kicking game.

But he also spent considerable time in his postgame comments on the replay reversal that took away a Bulls touchdown. Officials ruled linebacker Tyrone McKenzie made an illegal forward pass when he fumbled the ball after a blocked field goal. Instead of a 24-10 lead, Leavitt had a new reason to question the replay system.

"I've been watching that all over, and I don't know if I really like that stuff or not," Leavitt said. "It wasn't (the crew on the field) that made the call. It was somebody else turning that over. I'm going to trust them. I know the officials are going to want to do what's best for the game of football. They're going to do their best job. Let's just hope they made the right call."

Instead of being down 14 late in the first half, Rutgers followed a missed USF field goal with a kick of its own to trail 17-13 at halftime, starting a run of 17 straight points.

"It was a big part of the game," said Leavitt, extremely animated on the sideline in disputing several calls. "For them to reverse what was done on the field, it means it was totally ... I don't know. It was a huge call, no doubt about it. ... You've got the whole rest of the game, so you can't throw it all on that."

The Bulls, penalized 10 times for 99 yards, had one more call go against them in the final minutes, when quarterback Matt Grothe seemed to have converted a fourth-and-22 with a 32-yard pass to receiver Amarri Jackson, putting the Bulls in position for a game-tying field goal. Jackson was flagged for offensive pass interference, however, setting up a Hail Mary pass on fourth-and-37 that was intercepted by Rutgers.

The Bulls struggled in many areas, allowing Rice to rush for 189 yards, missing a field goal and having another blocked, giving up a fake punt, then a fake field goal for a key touchdown. USF went 2-for-14 on third downs, but the lack of a conventional running game meant consistent third-and-longs: only one of the 14 third downs had the Bulls needing 5 yards or less.

And Grothe, while accounting for 305 of USF's 362 yards of total offense, consistently did not throw the ball away when pressured, losing 60 yards on seven sacks. Four came in the fourth quarter, including the opening play of USF's last two drives, when the Bulls needed just a field goal to force overtime.

On the injury front, receiver Taurus Johnson, who left the game in the first quarter with a sprained ankle, is expected to miss 2-3 weeks. The Bulls don't know how long they'll be without tackle Walt Walker, who injured his right knee and needed help as he went upstairs to the locker room.

USF gets a long weekend to regroup and refocus, with another road game next week at Connecticut, which shares the same 6-1 record as the Bulls.

"We talk about adversity all the time," linebacker Brouce Mompremier said after the game. "This is just more adversity, but it'll show the type of team we have."

[Last modified October 19, 2007, 23:55:48]