The best team in the Sunshine State? Maybe it’s South Florida

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, August 23, 2007  |  Comments( 1 )

South Florida Bulls
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(This is the fifth in a series on Big East football teams).

When the Big East was shuffled like a deck of cards a few years back -- Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College and Temple out; Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida in -- it was the South Florida Bulls who prompted the most head scratching.

Just exactly who were these guys, anyway?

After all, the football program at the Tampa school just started in 1997, and only went Division I-A five years ago. If Jim Leavitt's team was an individual player, people would accuse it of being on steroids. No program grows that fast, that strong, that young.

But then again, maybe it's not so odd. South Florida is the biggest school in the conference in terms of students (41,000), and it's located in a state where Division I football players can be picked like oranges.

This all began to bear fruit last season, when Leavitt led the Bulls to a 9-4 record and the school's first-ever bowl victory, over East Carolina in the PapaJohn's Bowl. Along the way, South Florida upset West Virginia and gave Rutgers all it could handle, losing 22-20.

The bottom line is, nobody better take the Bulls for granted -- not even Auburn, which USF plays on the road Sept. 8 (already a sell-out).

For one thing (actually, five things), the Bulls return their entire offensive line this time around. That's good news for sophomore QB Matt Grothe, the 2006 Big East Freshman of the Year, who threw for 2,576 yards and rushed for 662 as a rookie.

New running back Mike Ford, a transfer from Alabama, should help take some of the pressure off Grothe on the ground. He and Travis Henry are the only two Florida high school running backs ever to rush for over 200 yards in 11 straight games, and Ford ran for 55 yards on eight carries in the Bulls' spring game.

On defense, South Florida features two excellent cornerbacks in Trae Williams (seven interceptions last season) and Mike Jenkins (15 pass breakups), plus outstanding linebacker Ben Moffitt.

The Bulls open with an appetizer (Elon) before traveling to Auburn. If they can win -- or, at least, hold their own -- in that contest, they'll get both West Virginia and Louisville in Tampa later on.

Interesting.
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