Bulls Win PapaJohns.com Bowl
(December 27, 2006)

The University of South Florida Bulls were looking for a better result in the school's second consecutive bowl appearance. They got it with a 24-7 victory over East Carolina in the inaugural PapaJohns.com Bowl at Legion Field in Birmingham. It was the first bowl victory in school history.

The bowl hoopla began with a send off party at USF where an area Papa John's handed out free pizza to the crowd. In Birmingham, the team visited a local hospital and received a history lesson at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. A bowling night saw East Carolina defeat the Bulls.

After being shutout in last year's Meineke Car Care Bowl, USF wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Ben Moffitt recovered an East Carolina fumble and, on USF's first offensive play, Ben Williams ran 16 yards and the Bulls were up 7-0 just 1:06 into the game. A second TD run from Williams, from 1 yard out on fourth down with 6:17 off the clock, made it 14-0.

The Pirates came back with James Pickney (8 of 25 for 125 yards) heaving a 48 yard TD pass to Barry Good (5 catches for 116 yards), so the first quarter ended 14-7. Matt Grothe (5 of 10 for 81 yards) answered with a 37 yard pass to Amarri Jackson and a Delbert Alvardo field goal gave the Bulls a 24-7 lead at the half.

The bad news came when Matt Grothe suffered a hairline leg fracture midway through the second quarter. He is expected to make a full recovery and be available for spring drills, but Pat Julmiste had to finish the bowl game. Playing in his last game, and having 24 starts under his belt, Julmiste (6 of 8 for 49 yards) played smart.

It was really the defense that won the day for USF. The Bulls recorded six sacks, two by Stephen Nicholas, as James Pickney took a pounding and had to leave the game. ECU was inside the South Florida 20 yard line three times and came away with no points. USF went five for five on fourth down conversion in the school's first bowl victory. The second half was scoreless and the Bulls won 24-7.

Ben Williams, with the two early TD runs that made it 14-0 and 67 yards rushing, was named game MVP by the media. Jim Leavitt said of the victory, "We felt like if we would win, this would be the best team in the history of the University of South Florida. We had never won a bowl game, never won in December. I'm very proud of our football team."

USF sold around 5,100 tickets to the game, which had an announced attendance of 32,023. The number was similar to what the school sold last year.

Of course, talk quickly turns to next year. Just nine seniors will leave the team with linebacker, quarterback and special teams impacted the most. Ben Moffitt will return, but Stephen Nicholas and Patrick St. Louis will leave the linebacking corp. Junior to be Brouce Mompremier should start next year. With Pat Julmiste gone, the Bulls will need depth at quarterback, especially if the team is determined to have him run the ball. Anthony Severino may have the early edge as backup. Ean Randolph will be a hard to replace weapon on special teams. Receiver S.J. Green will be gone, but the Bulls are fairly deep at that position. Other graduating seniors are TE Will Bleakley, LS Ryan Bordeau, TE Devin Gordon and RB Walt Smith. Having Louisville and West Virginia at home makes an off-season of dreaming about a Big East championship. Jim Leavitt commented, "We've got a very young team. I think it just sets us in position to do some bigger things in the future." He had to add, "You don't know. I've seen some teams have a lot of people back and fall on their face."

The University of South Florida has something to put in it's trophy case, the PapaJohns.com Bowl trophy. The football program is just ten years old. More trophies are sure to be added.