PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Life is not healthy in the upper reaches of the top 10 this season.
South Florida, ranked second in the initital BCS standings and harboring dreams of playing for a national championship, discovered nothing lasts forever, losing to Rutgers 30-27 before a sellout crowd of 44,226 at Rutgers Stadium.
The Bulls are suddenly 6-1 and wondering what happened, just like LSU and Cal last weekend.
“We came in here with a chip on our shoulder,” South Florida corner back Trae Williams said. “We were looking to prove something on national TV, looking to show we’re deserving of our ranking. Obviously we didn’t get it done. Hey, it’s one loss. We have the rest of the season ahead of us. We can still win the Big East championship.”
He said it as if it were some sort of consolation prize.
“Personally, rankings don’t much as much when you’re on the field,” Bulls receiver Marcus Edwards said. “All that stuff goes out the window. It comes down to who scores the most points, and they scored more than we did.”
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The Scarlet Knights, who built a national reputation for themselves by knocking off Louisville on the same frenzied Thursday night atmosphere, threw the national championship race into more chaos.
Rutgers coach Greg Schiano pulled out all the stops in this one, including a fake field goal that resulted in a 15-yard touchdown pass from holder Andrew DePaola to Kevin Brock late in the third quarter that gave the Knights a 27-17 lead. The Knights also recorded seven sacks on South Florida’s outstanding young quarterback Matt Grothe.
“The chop is back, baby,” Rutgers defensive tackle Eric Foster said. “Like I told the guy before the game, we love Thursday nights. We saw all those towels waving and, oh baby, that really inspired us.”
Rutgers opened the door for two more unbeatens — Ohio State, which plays Michigan State Saturday in Columbus, and Boston College, which has a bye this weekend before traveling to Virginia Tech for an Oct. 25 Thursday night game — to enter the spotlight as the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the country, provided the Buckeyes win.
This has been such a crazy season. Top-ranked LSU lost last weekend to Kentucky in overtime. USC, Cal and South Florida, which all spent time at No. 2, have all lost in the last three weeks. Eleven teams that spent time in the top 10 in the last two and a half weeks are no longer.
And there are only five unbeaten teams — Ohio State, Boston College, Kansas, Hawaii and Arizona State — left in Division I-A football. At this rate, it is becoming impossible to predict the future.
Rutgers’ sensational junior tailback Ray Rice may have changed his future after he rushed for 181 yards in 39 carries. Those are Heisman numbers, especially against a seemingly impenetrable defense that had limited running backs to under 100 yards in the previous 14 games.
But then again, Rice has owned the Bulls the last three years, rushing for 176 yards as a freshman and 202 yards last year when the Knights had a breakthrough 22-20 victory over the Bulls in Tampa.
Source: feeds.feedburner.com
