It was not a pretty night for quarterbacks in the football universe, unless your name happens to be Aaron Rodgers of course. While the Green Bay Packers were humiliating Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears up in Lambeau Field, there was college football to soak in.
Rutgers 23, South Florida 13 (AP recap) – It was far from pretty, but Rutgers improved to 3-0 with a strong second half performance in Tampa Thursday night, with their former head coach and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano checking everything out up close. Rutgers opened their Big East schedule with a 23-13 victory over South Florida, despite another heavy night in penalties. As sloppy and undisciplined as Rutgers was in victory, South Florida was just as ineffective and unable to protect the football. South Florida turned the football over four times, Jawan Jamison gashed the Bulls for 151 yards on the ground highlighted by the spin move of the season so far, and Rutgers outscored the Bulls 20-7 after the half for the win.
South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels was picked three times in the game and was asked to lead the team in rushing with 15 carries for 68 yards to go with his 242 passing yards while completing just 15 of his 33 pass attempts. It was another reason why preseason hype for South Florida will inevitably end in disappointment, as has been the case so many times over the years.
So at this point in time it appears that South Florida has some questions to answer, as our friend Mark Ennis of Big East Coast Bias suggests. The first one I have is whether or not head coach Skip Holtz is meeting expectations for South Florida, because I am starting to get a sense that he is a great guy but far from a great coach. But hey, the season is still young. Let's see how the rest of the year plays out for the Bulls.
As for Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights are back on the road next week, traveling to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks. This game could be very interesting, to say the least.
Tweet of the Day
Thursday nights have historically been unkind to the South Florida Bulls. Last night's loss dropped the Bulls to 0-9 all time in Thursday night games, all aired by ESPN. With the Big East opening up negotiations for their next TV deal it remains unknown if ESPN will continue airing Big East games or not (and the slant that seems to come from Storrs seems to indicate ESPN is ready to move on), but ESPN's Brett McMurphy had a ray of hope for USF fans…
Good news for USF. If Big East signs TV deal w/NBC, Bulls don't have to worry about losing any more ESPN Thursday night games
— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) September 14, 2012
Video of the Day
The circle button spin move Rutgers running back Jawan Jamison executed so impressively last night was the play that put the cherry on top of a good victory for the Scarlet Knights last night against South Florida. Thanks to The Big Lead for the video.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=w09Q8VyCJIc?rel=0
Elsewhere…
Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Tyler Wilson's status for this weekend's match-up with top-ranked Alabama is not looking good. Wilson missed Thursday's practice and is uncertain for Saturday.
In NFL action last night the Green Bay Packers handled the Chicago Bears, and it was a fake field goal for a touchdown that sort of put the game away for the Packers. Green Bay punter Tim Masthay's 27-yard touchdown pass off the fake field goal made him the first former Kentucky Wildcat to throw a touchdown pass in the NFL since Tim Couch threw his last touchdown in 2003. It's been a long time coming for Kentucky, and it comes from a punter. Naturally.
Our John Walters shares his take on Notre Dame moving to the ACC.
A day after Oklahoma and FOX Sports announced their deal for the Sooners' own network, FOX Sports struck deals with TCU and Texas Tech. For those keeping score, that makes four Big 12 schools who have their own TV network deals in some shape or form. Are school-specific networks good or bad for coverage of those schools? The National Sports Journalism Center takes a look.
Before we get in to the weekend action, here is our weekly upset alert and look at the betting lines of most interest. And to review, we took a look at the five worst and best surprises through the first two weeks.
Good to know that Missouri knows how to show good sportsmanship after losing to Georgia.
Can a 5-8 Indiana make the Rose Bowl? Who wouldn't love to see that, right?
Just how confident should the Pac 12 be?
You may have seen this already, but check out this corn maze in Ohio honoring Toledo and Bowling Green.
The Rock at Tennessee is ready for Lee Corso and the gang.
The New York Times profiles college football's all-time leader in coaching victories, who is still going strong at Division 3 St. John's, John Gagliardi.
On TV Tonight
Those looking for a Friday night game will want to tune in to ESPN starting at 9 pm ET with UNLV hosting Washington state. Any time Mike LEach is on TV, we'll be watching.
