The South Florida Bulls, the most unheralded No. 2 team in the short history of the BCS standings, play their toughest road game remaining this season Thursday night when they travel to Big East foe Rutgers Knights.
This is probably the benchmark game of the season for USF, with its toughest remaining tests in Tampa. The Bulls, in only their 11th season of college football, are off to the best start in school history at 6-0, yet this is only their second conference game this year. USF is coming off a 64-12 pasting of Central Florida of Conference USA for its eighth consecutive in overall, tying Boston College and Hawaii for the longest streak in Division I-A.
"I get distracted like everybody else, but I try to keep them to a minimum," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. "We've only played one game in the Big East, and our goal from the beginning was the Big East championship. And I want to tell you something, it's going to be a barn-burner these next number of weeks."
Rutgers, meanwhile, was 3-0 and as high as No. 10 in the polls at one time, before losing back-to-back home games to Maryland and Cincinnati. The Scarlet Knights started to right the ship last week with a 38-14 win over Syracuse.
The matchup to watch in this game is Rutgers running back Ray Rice against the USF defense. Rice ran for 202 yards on 35 carries and two TDs in Rutgers' 22-20 win over USF last year.
"He is tremendous," Leavitt said of Rice. "He can bounce outside, inside; he is strong and they have awfully good blocking. It is going to be a really tough challenge for us. We know that."Rice is averaging 136.3 yards this season and is coming off a 196-yard, three-touchdown effort in the win over Syracuse.
Last year's Rutgers game was the last time USF has allowed a 100-yard rusher, and the Bulls limited Central Florida's Kevin Smith to 55 yards on 18 carries last week; Smith had been leading the nation in rushing. USF enters Thursday's game allowing just 15.7 ppg and only 284.3 total ypg and has 20 sacks and forced 21 turnovers.
"They have great athletes, just as we do," Rice said of USF. "Everybody has to come and play their best football."
The Knights are averaging 37.2 ppg and 489.7 total ypg on the season, with 182.2 of that on the ground. Rice leads the Big East with 818 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns. Quarterback Mike Teel has had a good year, completing 62.5 percent of his throws for an average of 302.8 passing ypg. He has thrown 12 touchdowns against six interceptions.
Sophomore QB Matt Grothe makes the USF offense go, as leads the team with 346 rushing yards and 1,121 passing and has 11 touchdowns. The Bulls average 35.3 ppg and 393.5 yards per game. Rutgers, however, only allows 17.2 ppg and 296.8 total yards.
"We have a huge game this week, a lot on the line, a lot at stake," Bulls linebacker Ben Moffitt said. "We have to really get it done."
The lowdown: The Knights and Bulls have split two prior meetings, and USF will be the highest-ranked team to come to Rutgers since Nov. 2, 2002. The Scarlet Knights have not lost three straight home games since 2003, and they won't Thursday night.
Rutgers, a 2-point underdog at WagerWeb.com (the first time it has been an underdog this season), will win outright and ruin the Bulls' BCS national championship dreams.
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