2007 South Florida Bulls football team
Encyclopedia
The 2007 University of South Florida Bulls football team represented the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...

 (USF) in the 2007 college football season. Their head coach was Jim Leavitt
Jim Leavitt
Jim Leavitt is a former American football player and current linebackers coach for the San Francisco 49ers. He served at the head coach at the University of South Florida from the football program's inception in 1997 until 2009, compiling a record of 95–57.-Early years:Leavitt grew up in St...

, and the USF Bulls
South Florida Bulls football
The South Florida Bulls are a Division I FBS college football program that plays its home games in Tampa, Florida. The team began playing in 1997, holding its first team meeting under a shade tree as the school had no proper football facilities on campus...

 will played all of their home games at Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium, also known as the "Ray Jay", is a multi-purpose football stadium located in Tampa, Florida. It is home to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as the NCAA's South Florida Bulls football team. The stadium seats 65,857 , and it is expandable to 75,000 for special events...

 in Tampa, FL. The 2007 college football season was only the 11th season overall for the Bulls, and their third season in the Big East Conference
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...

.

2007 marked the first year that South Florida had been ranked in any poll. Following Week 3, they were ranked #23 in the AP Poll
AP Poll
The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...

 and #24 in the Coaches Poll
Coaches Poll
The USA Today Coaches' Poll is the current name for a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football and Division I college basketball teams....

. After a decisive win against UCF in Week 7, the Bulls made their first ever appearance in the BCS
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...

 rankings, debuting at #2 and trailing only the Ohio State Buckeyes
2007 Ohio State Buckeyes football team
The 2007 Ohio State Buckeyes football team competed in football on behalf of the Ohio State University during the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Buckeyes were coached by Jim Tressel and played their home games in Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio...

. Three straight losses to Rutgers, UConn, and Cincinnati dropped them out of the Top 25, but they won their next three games to improve to 9-3 and climb back up to #21 in the BCS poll.

USF averaged 53,170 fans in its six home games at Raymond James Stadium in 2007. Prior to this season, USF's single game attendance record for a home game was 49,212 vs. Kentucky Wesleyan in the Bulls' very first game on Sept. 6, 1997. The new single game home record is now 67,012 for the Sept. 28 game against West Virginia. In 2006, USF's average attendance was 30,222, so the Bulls' increase this year was 22,948 over last year.

Schedule

Elon

The Bulls played a "vanilla offense" in preparation for their next game against Auburn. Plays were limited to a few selections, and there were many substitutions. USF merely wanted to win this game and save their players for the game against Auburn. The attendance was announced at 33,639. Sophomore QB Matt Grothe
Matt Grothe
Matt Grothe is a professional quarterback who is currently a member of the Tampa Bay Storm. He has been with the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League. He played college football at South Florida....

 was 23-39 for 238 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. True freshman Mike Ford was the leading rusher with 83 yards on 6 carries and two touchdowns. Senior Amarri Jackson led the receivers with 63 yards and a touchdown.

Auburn

Even after four missed field goals, the Bulls upset
Upset
An upset occurs in a competition, frequently in electoral politics or sports, when the party popularly expected to win , is defeated by an underdog whom the majority expects to lose, defying the conventional wisdom...

 number 17-ranked Auburn 26–23 in overtime
Overtime (sports)
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw. In most sports, this extra period is only played if the game is required to have a clear winner, as in single-elimination...

. Grothe threw for 184 yards and a touchdown, while Ford again led the running backs with 74 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Sophomore WR Jessie Hester Jr. had 64 yards receiving and caught the game-winning touchdown in overtime.

A week after the game, the Bulls entered both polls for the first time in school history, entering the AP Poll
AP Poll
The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...

 at #23 and the Coaches Poll
Coaches Poll
The USA Today Coaches' Poll is the current name for a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football and Division I college basketball teams....

 at #24.

North Carolina

The Bulls received their first ever AP/Coaches top 25 ranking with a convincing win over the Tar Heels. Many said that the Bulls would overlook UNC in preparation for the show-down with West Virginia the following week, but the Bulls proved otherwise. Grothe threw for 230 yards and a touchdown and junior Williams led the Bulls with 64 yards rushing and a score. Hester Jr. and junior wideout Taurus Johnson had 3 catches for 34 yards apiece. However, the heroes of the day were the Bulls' defense, who dominated UNC forcing three interceptions and allwoing under 180 total yards. The Tar Heels did not score their TD until there was less than one minute left in regulation and the Bulls had their second string defense on the field.

West Virginia

The Bulls beat the #5 ranked team in the nation, before their first-ever sold out home crowd, with a total of announced attendance of 67,012. The Bulls are now 2-1 against West Virginia.

Florida Atlantic

Nursing a "West Virginia hangover" from their upset the week before, the Bulls looked sloppy against the Owls. However, Benjamin Williams put the game out of reach with his fourth rushing TD with less than 40 seconds to go. Williams would finish with 186 rushing yards on 25 carries. In addition, the Bulls helped FAU achieve their highest recorded attendance in either Lockhart Stadium or Dolphin Stadium
Dolphin Stadium
Sun Life Stadium is an American football stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, a suburb of Miami. It is the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins National Football League team, and the University of Miami Hurricanes football team. It also hosts the Orange Bowl, an annual college football bowl game. It...

.

UCF

The Bulls proved their #5 ranking is no fluke by decimating the cross-state Knights 64-12 in front of a home crowd announced at 65,948. The Bulls held the Knights to just 145 total yards and Kevin Smith, who came in as the nation's leading rusher at 172 yards per game, to just 55 yards. South Florida gained 543 total yards—over three times as much as UCF—while holding the ball three fewer minutes than the Knights. UCF has yet to beat South Florida in three meetings, and the last game of their four-game series will be held at UCF in 2008.

After losses by LSU
2007 LSU Tigers football team
The 2007 LSU Tigers football team represented Louisiana State University during the college football season of 2007–2008, winning the Southeastern Conference championship and the national championship. The team's Head Coach was Les Miles who entered his third year at the helm of LSU Football...

 and Cal
2007 California Golden Bears football team
The 2007 California Golden Bears football team represented the University of California, Berkeley in the college football 2007-2008 season. They played their home games at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California and were coached by Jeff Tedford....

, South Florida moved into #2 in the AP Poll (behind Ohio State) and #3 in the Coaches and Harris Polls (behind Ohio State and Boston College
Boston College Eagles football
The Boston College Eagles football team is the collegiate football program of Boston College. The team is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, a Division I Bowl Subdivision league governed by the NCAA. Within the ACC, the Eagles are one of six teams in the Atlantic Division...

), earning first-place votes in all three. When the first BCS rankings were announced, the Bulls were #2 behind Ohio State. Even though they were #3 in the Coaches and Harris Polls, they swept through the computer rankings, getting #1 in all but one of them.

Rutgers

Connecticut

After suffering through the first half of the game, USF overcame a 16 point deficit and nearly won the game. In the end, it came down to whether or not the Bulls could score one touchdown on fourth down with less than one minute remaining in the game. If the touchdown had been successful, the Bulls could have either sent the game into overtime or won by one point with a two-point conversion. Unfortunately for South Florida, the throw was not caught and Connecticut won the game by 7 points.

Cincinnati

The Bulls put 14 points on the board before the offense even touched the football. Trae Williams ran an interception back 73 yards for a touchdown, and Mike Jenkins took a kickoff return 100 yards for another TD in the longest play in USF history. Cincinnati scored 31 points in the first quarter, a school record for the most points in any quarter, and led 38-20 at the half.

USF shut down the Bearcats' scoring in the second half, and closed the score to 38-33 with 2 minutes to go. After stopping UC on a fake field goal try with less than 30 seconds remaining, the Bulls had one last try for the win. They moved from their own 39 to the UC 18 and had two chances to score the winning touchdown with 8 seconds left, but it was not to be. The first try, to Carlton Mitchell, was broken up by Mike Mickens in the end zone. With 2 seconds remaining, Grothe fired the ball to Jessie Hester and even though the replay clearly showed Hester being interfered by UC's Anthony Williams, Hester still had a shot at the ball but couldn't bring it in, and the officials did not call a penalty.

Attendance was announced at 57,379.

The Bulls dropped to #28 in the BCS standings after the loss, just 3 weeks after debuting in the BCS Poll at #2.

Syracuse

Looking to end a three-game losing skid, the Bulls recorded a lopsided victory over the Orange. Mike Ford rushed for 123 yards and two TDs, while the Bulls set a new school record for total offense with 536 yards.

Louisville

In the final game at Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium, also known as the "Ray Jay", is a multi-purpose football stadium located in Tampa, Florida. It is home to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as the NCAA's South Florida Bulls football team. The stadium seats 65,857 , and it is expandable to 75,000 for special events...

 for the 2007 season, Louisville was looking for their 6th win of the year so that they could become bowl eligible. But, destiny was on the Bulls' side from the very first play. USF kicked off the ball to Louisville and instead of returning the ball, Louisville fumbled it. Nate Allen successfully recovered the ball for South Florida and scored the fastest touchdown in school history (8 game seconds). From that moment on, Louisville simply could not keep up. By the end of the first half, the score was a shocking 41-10. And once the game was over, the Bulls defeated the Cardinals 55-17.

The following day, USF did not re-emerge in the Associated Press or Coach's Polls. However, they did rank #23 in the BCS standings.

Pittsburgh

Two days after winning the game against Pittsburgh, it was announced that USF would be play in the Brut Sun Bowl against a team from the Pac-10 Conference.

Sun Bowl

USF faced the Oregon Ducks
Oregon Ducks
The Oregon Ducks refers to the sports teams of the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, Oregon. The Oregon Ducks are part of the Pacific-12 Conference in the Division 1 of the NCAA. With seventeen varsity teams, the Oregon Ducks are best known for their football team and Track and Field...

 in the Brut Sun Bowl
Sun Bowl
The Sun Bowl is an annual U.S. college football bowl game that is usually played at the end of December in El Paso, Texas. The Sun Bowl, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl are the second-oldest bowl games in the country, behind the Rose Bowl...

on December 31, 2007. The two teams started out playing undisciplined football and easily set a Sun Bowl record for most penalties in the bowl's history for one game. USF trailed by only four, 18-14, at halftime. In the second half, Oregon exploded on offense, leading to a 56-21 rout of the Bulls. With the loss, USF fell to 1-2 in bowl games.

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