Bulls Beaten By Miami At Line Of Scrimmage; USF Students Showed Up Big Time
TAMPA, Fla. – When looking at Miami's scoring drives, it is hard not to notice the length: 75 yards, 90, 80, 80, 80, 80, 96. That is not a misprint. Not on a Saturday evening when the No. 8/11 Hurricanes piled up 592 yards in a 50-15 win over the Bulls at Raymond James Stadium.
The last four of those drives came in the second half when the 'Canes broke open what was a 22-15 game after two quarters. The Bulls led, 15-14, late in the first half before Miami's Cam Ward connected with Samuel Brown on a 76-yard touchdown with 37 seconds remaining. It was all Hurricanes from there thanks to how they dominated up front, including limiting the USF run game to 62 yards.
"It's a line-of-scrimmage game at the end of the day, and we couldn't hang in there in the second half on both sides of the ball," said coach Alex Golesh. "We wore down on both sides of the line. We couldn't hold up (with our protection) like we needed to, and then defensively, to see yourself wear down."
The second half was particularly brutal as the Bulls (2-2) were outscored 28-0 with the defense allowing 338 yards and 9.6 yards per play.
"Go to practice, get in the lab, try to fix that second half, and learn from those mistakes that we made," said linebacker Mac Harris.
Reps for Bryce
Quarterback Byrum Brown was banged up twice against Miami. He sat out one play in the second quarter and was seen jogging up the tunnel after leaving the field in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. He returned to the sideline about midway through the quarter, but Golesh opted to stick with backup Bryce Archie, which made sense with the game out of hand.
"(Byrum) came back out on the field at the end there and could have come back in, but we let Bryce stay in so he could get those reps," said Golesh .
Student Section(s)
Of the announced crowd of 58,616 at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday evening, 15,670 were students. The student section in the north end zone holds 8,700 and those not able to grab a seat in that section, as well fans who could not get a seat in the sold-out lower bowl, filed into the upper deck on the venue's west side.
"Super grateful to our fans," said Golesh. "That's a college football environment. That's what we want to play in front of. That was really, really cool for them to show up."
Android Users: Download our free app to stay up-to-date on the latest news.
Connect with us:
