USF Falls to Louisville, Losing Streak at Five Games Now

Another week, another loss (Picture: www.gousfbulls.com)

As most of you know, I have been in Atlanta all week for work and flew home today, taking off at 4PM and missed most of the USF game on the TV.  However, using the wonderful world of the stat update on the phone and twitter accounts of the USF faithful, I got a pretty good handle of what happened in this game for the Bulls and it seems some things never change.

The Bulls battled tough and were able to rally late in the game to tie and take the lead against the Cardinals.  However, late in the game, bad game management and poor execution doomed the team.  The time out call by Holtz with seconds left left me wondering what he was thinking out there.  The Bulls wasted seconds in their final drive.  The defense failed to get anything done in the late drive against the Cardinals, allowing them to carve up the field and take the lead.  Then of course there was the decision to kick the extra point, the penalty, and then the decision to go for two points when the decision should have been made the first time. The clock management and the coaching strategy was bad and nothing seems to be changing.  Yet, with all that said, there were some highlights that we should take from the game.

Daniels was 21 out of 38 attempts for 189 yards, 3 scores and a late interception that he threw up for grabs.  He was sacked 4 times in the game as the line continued to struggle to keep him on his feet.  He rushed 12 times for just 34 yards.

The USF run game overall did well.  Lindsey Lamar had 15 carries for 110 yards, Demetris Murray had 13 for 57 yards, and Marcus Shaw had 4 carries for 30 yards.  

Andre Davis returned on the radar, catching 4 balls for 47 yards and 2 scores.  True freshman tight end Sean Price caught 3 passes for 38 yards and a touchdown, his first catches of his career, a career we are all hoping continues to grow.  Derick Hopkins had 5 receptions for 54 yards and D'vario Montgomery, returning from a bruised hand, had a catch for 8 yards.

The defense played well at times, but late in the game was not able to get a stop and continued to get gashed for big yards.  Sam Barrington led the way with 10 tackles.  Reshard Cliett, starting to get more reps, responded with 9 tackles, Mark Joyce had 5 tackles, DeDe Lattimore had 5 tackles, and Tevin Mims had 4 tackles and 1 tackle for loss.

So where do we go from here?  USF has lost 5 games now, continues to repeat the same mistakes and fans are near the end of the rope of patience for this team.  The Bulls will return home to take on Syracuse on Saturday night at 7PM for the home coming game.  Cross your fingers, say a prayer, make a sacrifice to the gods at the volcano, the team needs to do everything they can to rally, stay together and not completely mail it in for the rest of the season