South Florida pulled a second big upset in as many weeks with an 18-16 win over No. 13 Florida on Saturday.
USF won the game with a 20-yard field goal by Nico Gramatica as time expired. The Bulls were 18.5-point underdogs ahead of the game as Florida had a disastrous final three minutes to help set up USF’s win.
The Bulls’ upset hopes were on life support after Gramatica missed a 58-yard field goal with 2:52 to go. USF coach Alex Golesh elected to send out his kicker in that spot instead of trying to get the seven yards the offense needed for a first down.
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Florida unraveled after that. USF had two timeouts remaining when Florida took over. The Gators then threw on first down and the pass fell incomplete. After USF called timeout following a Florida run play on second down, the Gators then threw again on third down and DJ Lagway’s pass went through Vernell Brown III’s hands.
It got worse from there. After USF took over with more than enough time to get in field goal range, Florida was more than happy to expedite the journey. Dijon Johnson committed a 13-yard pass interference play on USF’s second play of the drive and then Brendan Bett showed that he didn’t learn a lesson from the Eagles’ Jalen Carter on Thursday night.
Bett was penalized 15 yards and got ejected for spitting on a USF player. His penalty gave USF the ball on its own 39-yard line, and the Bulls were across midfield on the next play on a 29-yard completion.
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USF beat Boise State in Week 1
South Florida has to be ranked on Sunday, right?
The Bulls dominated Boise State in Week 1 on the way to a 34-7 win. The Broncos were the non-power conference representative in the College Football Playoff a season ago and entered the season as the favorites to be that team again.
Now, South Florida has a huge early lead in that race. Granted, the Bulls will need to win the American Conference to have a realistic shot at the playoff, but wins over Boise State and Florida should be absolutely huge in the eyes of the committee.
And even if USF isn’t ranked on Sunday, the Bulls’ game against Miami in Week 3 is now one of the biggest games of the weekend. USF has held its opponents to just 23 points through two games so far. Miami may have a much better offense than both Florida and Boise State, but USF will present a much stronger test than many envisioned before the start of the season.
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The pressure on Billy Napier only increases
This is not how Billy Napier’s make-or-break season was supposed to start.
The easy excuse for Florida is that the Gators were looking ahead to a trip to LSU in Week 3. But Florida shouldn’t have been overlooking a team that beat Boise State so convincingly.
The Gators committed 11 penalties for 103 yards and also had the only turnover of the game. USF averaged more yards per play than Florida did and never trailed by more than six points. After Florida took a 9-3 lead into halftime, USF took the lead with 2:03 to go in the third quarter on a 66-yard TD pass from Byrum Brown to Keshaun Singleton.
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Florida got the lead back with 12:29 to go, but the Gators simply couldn’t execute enough from then on to put the game away.
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