2007 South Florida Bulls football team

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The 2007 University of South Florida Bulls football team will represent the University of South Florida (USF) in the 2007 college football season. Their head coach is Jim Leavitt, and the USF Bulls will play all of their home games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. The 2007 college football season will be only the 11th season overall for the Bulls, and their third season in the Big East Conference.

2007 marks the first year that South Florida has been ranked in any poll. Following Week 3, they were ranked #23 in the AP Poll and #24 in the Coaches Poll. After a decisive win against UCF in Week 7, the Bulls made their first ever appearance in the BCS rankings, debuting at #2 and trailing only the Ohio State Buckeyes. After a close loss against Rutgers in Week 8, they dropped back to #10 in the BCS.

Schedule

9/1/07Elon*

• Raymond James Stadium
• Tampa, FL

ESPN GamePlanW 28–1333,639 9/8/07at No. 17/13 Auburn*

• Jordan-Hare Stadium
• Auburn, AL

ESPN2W 26–2382,617 9/22/07North Carolina*No. 23/24

• Raymond James Stadium
• Tampa, FL

ESPNW 37-1037,693 9/28/07No. 5/5 West VirginiaNo. 18/18

• Raymond James Stadium
• Tampa, FL

ESPN2W 21-1367,018 10/06/07at Florida Atlantic*No. 6/9

• Lockhart Stadium
• Fort Lauderdale, FL

ESPNUW 35-2321,106 10/13/07UCF*No. 5/5

• Raymond James Stadium
• Tampa, FL

ESPNUW 64-1265,948 10/18/07at RutgersNo. 2/3

• Rutgers Stadium
• Piscataway, NJ

ESPNL 27-3044,267 10/27/07at UConnNo. 11/12

• Rentschler Field
• East Hartford, CT

ABCL 15-22- 11/03/07CincinnatiNo. 20/21

• Raymond James Stadium
• Tampa, FL

ABCL 33-3845,172 11/10/07at Syracuse

• Carrier Dome
• Syracuse, NY

- 11/17/07Louisville

• Raymond James Stadium
• Tampa, FL

- 11/24/07at Pittsburgh

• Heinz Field
• Pittsburgh, PA

-

Game notes

Elon

	1	2	3	4	Total
Phoenix	0	3	3	7	13
Bulls	0	7	14	7	28

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.

Auburn

	1	2	3	4	OT	Total
Bulls	14	0	0	6	6	26
#17/13 Tigers	3	14	0	3	3	23

See also: 2007 Auburn Tigers football team

Even after four missed field goals, the Bulls upset number 17-ranked Auburn 26–23 in overtime.

A week after the game, the Bulls entered both polls for the first time in school history, entering the AP Poll at #23 and the Coaches Poll at #24.

North Carolina

	1	2	3	4	Total
Tar Heels	0	3	0	7	10
#23/24 Bulls	14	6	10	7	37

See also: 2007 North Carolina Tar Heels football team

The Bulls proved that they deserved 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. 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

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mountaineers	0	3	3	7	13
#18 Bulls	7	7	7	0	21

See also: 2007 West Virginia Mountaineers football team

The Bulls beat the #5 ranked team in the nation, before their first-ever sold out home crowd, with a total of 67,012 announced (62,004 actual). The Bulls are now 2-1 against West Virginia.

Florida Atlantic

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	7	10	6	23
#6 Bulls	7	0	14	14	35

See also: 2007 Florida Atlantic Owls football team

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.

UCF

	1	2	3	4	Total
Knights	7	3	0	2	12
#5 Bulls	12	17	14	21	64

See also: 2007 UCF Knights football team

The Bulls proved their #5 ranking is no fluke by decimating the cross-state Knights 64-12. 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 and Cal, 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), 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

	1	2	3	4	Total
#2/3 Bulls	10	7	3	7	27
Scarlet Knights	3	10	14	3	30

See also: Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Questionable calls by the Big East officials, the inability to capitalize on Rutgers turnovers, as well as the inability to stop Ray Rice led to a 3 point loss for the Bulls. The first of the season.

Connecticut

	1	2	3	4	Total
#11/12 Bulls	0	0	9	6	15
Huskies	3	13	3	3	22

See also: Connecticut Huskies

After suffering through the first half of the game, USF overcame a 16 point defecit 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

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bearcats	31	7	0	0	38
#20/21 Bulls	14	6	7	6	33

See also: Cincinnati Bearcats

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 but actual attendance was 45,538 for USF's homecoming game.

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

Syracuse

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulls					0
Orange					0

See also: Syracuse Orange

Louisville

	1	2	3	4	Total
Cardinals					0
Bulls					0

See also: 2007 Louisville Cardinals football team

Pittsburgh

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulls					0
Panthers					0

See also: Pittsburgh Panthers football

External links

• Official USF athletics site