No Bull

In an article about USF being knocked out of the national title picture, Mark Schlabach wrote "The Bulls even had six points taken off the scoreboard." And, USF coach Jim Leavitt remarked after the game that "It was a huge call, no doubt about it." Leavitt went on to add that it had nothing to do with the second half, which saw the Scarlet Knights rally from a 17-13 halftime deficit to take the game 30-27.

The officials made the right call. It was fairly obvious that the South Florida player (Schlabach says it was Tyrone McKenzie) tossed the ball forward when he was being tackled so that one of his teammates could grab it and make it the rest of the way to the end zone (Schlabach has it being Trae Williams who actually picked it up and scored). It was obviously an illegal forward pass. So, while they did have 6 points taken off the board, it's a little misleading because the points never should have been up there in the first place.

Schlabach mentions all the things that went wrong for the Bulls, from the missed FG's to the points being taken off the board. What he fails to address are some of the miscues by Rutgers that gave USF extra chances. Rutgers muffed a punt in the second quarter that led directly to a USF TD. They had the FG blocked and returned a fair distance when the six points were taken off the board and they muffed another punt early in the 3rd quarter, handing the ball back to USF. Then, late in the 4th quarter, Ray Rice fumbled when Rutgers was trying to salt the game away. So, it wasn't exactly a clean game by the Scarlet Knights.

After the fact, let's go back and look at the big mistakes (and some of the big plays) and see how a less crazy game might have unfolded.

Play #1: Fake punt on Rutgers' first possession that led to a FG. Let's say they just punted. The game would be 0-0. USF, subsequently, drove down the field for a FG, which would give them a 3-0 lead. Rutgers goes 3 and out on their next possession and then the teams trade TD's. USF leads 10-7 early in the 2nd.

Play #2: Tim Brown muffs a Delbert Alvarado punt. Let's say he makes the catch. This wipes out the 7 points on the Grothe to Hester TD and extra point. Instead of being 17-10 USF (actual), the game remains at 10-7. Rutgers drove and had a FG attempt, but it was blocked. Then, Alvarado missed a FG and Ito made one for Rutgers on the next possession. That ties the game at 10, rather than being 17-13 as really happened.

Moving to the second half, the Teel to Underwood TD would make it 17-10 Rutgers.

Play #3: Brown muffs another punt. But, Alvarado has his FG attempt blocked. So, that's a wash. Wiping it out doesn't change the score. Rutgers is still up 17-10 (actual score is 20-17 Rutgers).

Play #4: Rutgers fakes a 32 yard FG. Depaola to Brock nets the Scarlet Knights a TD. Let's wipe the TD off the board and make it a FG, instead. Thus, Rutgers leads 20-10, rather than 27-17. Coincidentally, the margin is still the same.

The rest of the game plays out fairly straightforward. They trade FG's to make it 23-13 (actual score was 30-20). Then, Ford ran for a TD to end a bullish drive by USF to cut the lead to 3 points. Rice's fumble didn't affect the score because USF was forced to punt after they recovered the fumble.

South Florida is probably out of the national title picture. I don't think it's that bad. I realize they have the same number of losses as LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, Cal and USC. But, unlike those schools, USF doesn't have a conference title game (an additional difficult game at the end of the schedule) like LSU and OU or a deep stable of elite teams in their conference like the Pac-10. If Booty and Longshore weren't injured, would USC have lost to Stanford and would Cal have lost to Oregon State? I doubt it. And, while USC hasn't been torching opponents this year (and I despise USC, so I hate giving them credit), they have been finding ways to win games. Maybe it's a name thing that will keep a 1 loss USF team out of the national title picture. I hope not. If it happens, I hope it's because there are two teams out there who are better than the Bulls, and I think there are.