TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -South Florida fans didn't want to leave. Not even after more than three hours of sitting in 90-degree weather.
Most of the more than 12,000 sun-drenched, green-clad boosters remained in their end zone seats chanting ''USF, USF,'' for some 20 minutes after the Bulls defeated No. 18 Florida State 17-7 Saturday. It was the first meeting between the schools and came in front of Florida State's biggest home crowd in four years.
The USF team stormed to the south end zone to salute their fans as the final seconds ticked off the clock. USF President Judy Genschaft, also in green, was leaving her air-conditioned skybox looking for the quickest way to the Bulls locker room.
''Do you believe it?'' she said happily as she hurried to an elevator.
''You have to beat them to get talked about,'' South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said.
''It changes history,'' he added. ''You have to beat them to get talked about. Now I can say we should be talked about.''
It was USF's first win over the state's big three - Miami, Florida and Florida State.
''They whupped us,'' said FSU coach Bobby Bowden, who talked all week about not being eager to play South Florida for the first time. ''They're a lot better than I thought.''
Bowden and his staff are now also likely to face questions about how they could let a talent like USF quarterback B.J. Daniels get out of town.
Daniels, a redshirt freshman who grew up in Tallahassee and was largely ignored by Florida State recruiters, dismantled the Seminoles' defense with one big play after another in his first career start. He was replacing four-year starter Matt Grothe, the Big East Conference's career total offense leader, who had a season-ending injury last week.
''It feels good playing in front of your friends and your family,'' Daniels said. ''I was very familiar with the people around so I definitely felt comfortable and it wasn't anything to get me nervous.''
-EDIT-
''He's a great athlete,'' Bulls defensive end George Selvie said. ''I'm glad to have him as my quarterback.''
''He killed us,'' Bowden lamented after the game. ''Boy, they've got a great one there.''
-EDIT-
''The way we got beat up on offense, I didn't know we could get beat up like that,'' Bowden said. ''They did everything faster than I thought.''
-EDIT-
''It's a great story, a quarterback coming back home,'' Leavitt said. ''Those things don't happen all the time, but it did today. It did today.''
(I deleted the game stuff & left the story Have a great day!)
No comments:
Post a Comment