Football: Lieberman: South Florida bounces back after losing Grothe

South Florida looked done for the season after losing quarterback Matt Grothe, but what a win it… South Florida looked done for the season after losing quarterback Matt Grothe, but what a win it pulled off last week.

The Bulls defeated then No. 18-ranked Florida State in Tallahassee 17-7 with a freshman quarterback.

Redshirt-freshman B.J. Daniels threw for 215 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 126 yards. Not bad, new guy, not bad.

“He has a lot of confidence, and he needs to be a leader,” Bulls coach Jim Leavitt said in a teleconference. “He has things he has to get better on, but he does what he does. He can run and throw.”

Praise is hard to come by when Leavitt is your head coach. But to Daniels’ credit, he stepped in and the South Florida offense didn’t lose a step against a tough Seminoles defense.

Meanwhile, the win is a huge program booster for the Bulls.

“It was a good win for us. I thought our guys played very hard against a good football team,” Leavitt said. “To lose a guy like Matt Grothe, who is an absolute sensational player, and go to Tallahassee when it’s sold out, it’s hot … to win like that is a great step for our program.”

In other news, the Big East and Big 12 agreed to play a bowl game in Yankee Stadium starting in 2010.

Let’s see here, some suggested names for the bowl: The Let’s Have This In America’s Biggest City so People Care Bowl? Or, the Put the Yankees Logo on Anything and Boom — There’s Revenue Bowl? The Any Big 12 Team Will Crush a Big East Team Bowl?

Either way, it’s a breakthrough and stroke of genius for the league. The Big 12 will provide its seventh pick, while the Big East sends its third or fourth selection to the game. So we won’t see matchups of the Big 12’s elite (Oklahoma, Texas and Oklahoma State) running circles around the Big East’s elite (Cincinnati, West Virginia, South Florida and Pitt).

Here’s a hypothetical matchup if it were this year, Baylor vs. Pitt. Here are two teams equal in talent level, but one is a doormat in the Big 12 while the other is challenging for the conference championship in the Big East.

The game will run for four years, from 2010 through 2013. The name, date and television plans of the inaugural game are to be announced.

This comes after the Big East reached a deal with the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla. Both bowl games start in 2010.

Pitt Football Question of the Week:

NC State held Pitt to 94 yards on the ground. When was the last time Pitt was held under 100 yards rushing?

Last week’s answer: Thanks to senior Megan Schultz, who answered -76. That’s the least amount of rushing yards Pitt ever allowed in a game, in 1987 against BYU.

Big East Player of the Week (Offensive)

Mardy Gilyard, Cincinnati – Gilyard caught nine passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns. He’s a flat-out speed demon and the most explosive player in the Big East.

Big East Player of the Week (Defensive)

Jason Pierre-Paul, South Florida – It could’ve gone to the whole USF defense, which held Florida State to 19 yards rushing, but Pierre-Paul’s late strip sealed the deal.

Just Because They Tried Award

Maine went all out against Syracuse, and you have to give them credit as an FCS team for doing so on the road. Maine pulled off two onside kicks and two fake punts, including one from its own 25 yard line in the second quarter. That led to an amazing 17-13 halftime lead — which eventually evaporated into a 41-24 Syracuse win.

Rankings of Power – Week 4

1. Cincinnati (Last week: 28-20 win over Fresno State) – The class of the Big East is quickly climbing the national polls.

2. South Florida (Last week: 17-7 win at Florida State) – The Bulls climb to No. 2 after an impressive win, but why aren’t they in the Top 25?

3. West Virginia (Last week: Bye) – The Mountaineers need to solidly beat Colorado this week, another revenge loss from last year.

4. Pitt (Last week: 38-31 loss at NC State) — Pitt has issues. Luckily, Louisville won’t be one of them.

5. Connecticut (Last week: 52-10 win over Rhode Island) – Big win for Connecticut, who also started its backup quarterback.

6. Syracuse (Last week: 41-24 win over Maine) – That’s not a typo, that’s two straight weeks Syracuse is not a bottom two team in the rankings. It can keep climbing with an improbable win against USF this weekend.

7. Rutgers (Last week: 34-13 win at Maryland) — If anybody thought Maryland was good, they were wrong.

8. Louisville (Last week: 30-14 loss at Utah) – Not quite the 41-point defeat I predicted last week, but still no surprise here.

Week 5 Preview

Pitt (3-1) at Louisville (1-3): Pitt’s defense should get back on track against the Cardinals.

South Florida (4-0) at Syracuse (2-2): Lots of questions to be answered. Will the Orange play for a bowl bid this year? Will South Florida have another mid-season collapse?

No. 10 Cincinnati (4-0, 1-0) at Miami (Ohio) (0-4): This game has blowout written all over it.

Played last night: West Virginia

Byes: Rutgers, UConn

Get your name in the column. E-mail question answers and awesome “Yankee Bowl” names to Randy at rjl25@pitt.edu.