Rutgers takes down No. 2 Bulls
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — South Florida flopped and No. 2 is up for grabs again.
Done in by Rutgers special teams tricks, the Bulls became the third second-ranked team to lose in the last three weeks, falling 30-27 to the Scarlet Knights on Thursday night.
USF (6-1, 1-1 Big East) had its eight-game winning streak come to an end, no doubt to the delight of Boston College, LSU, Oklahoma and the rest of the teams hoping to grab the second spot in the BCS standings USF held this week.
After reaching the rankings for first time in the 11-year history of South Florida football earlier this season, the Bulls shot up the charts behind a quick and hard-hitting defense and quarterback Matt Grothe's dynamic playmaking.
Against Rutgers, the Bulls' defense got thumped. Ray Rice ran for 181 yards on 39 carries and the Scarlet Knights scored more points than any opponent had this season against USF.
Grothe was good, passing for 247 yards and a touchdown and running for another score, but he also took a pounding. Rutgers sacked him seven times and preserved a three-point lead with two late defensive stands.
"I thought the defense played hard all night," Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. "We made some mistakes. Against a good football team like South Florida, they're going to find those mistakes immediately. But the kids played incredibly hard."
A week after No. 2 California lost to Oregon State and two weeks after then-No. 2 Southern California was upset by Stanford, the Bulls became the 11th top-10 team to fall to an unranked opponent this season. There are five undefeated teams left in major college football.
In this topsy-turvy season, the Bulls' national title hopes can't quite be put to rest. But they took a major hit.
"We talk about adversity all the time and this is another part of (dealing with) adversity," Bulls linebacker Brouce Mompremier said. "It will show what type of team we have. It will show the true friends we have. We're not worried about the ranking and all that."
Third-string quarterback Andrew DePaola threw a 15-yard touchdown pass off a fake field goal to give the Scarlet Knights (5-2, 2-1 Big East) the lead in the third quarter and Rutgers also used a fake punt to set up an early field goal.
Mike Teel also threw two touchdown passes to Tiquan Underwood for Rutgers.
"Personally, rankings don't mean that much when you're on the field," Bulls receiver Marcus Edwards said. "All that stuff goes out the window. It comes down to who scores the most points and they scored more than we did tonight."
