Florida State vs. University of South Florida – From PPG

This is the account from Katie Carlson at PRISM Press Group as she and Jason Roberts covered the upset victory of the Bulls over the Seminoles yesterday.  For more coverage from PPG of Florida-area sports, please visit www.prismpressgroup.org.

The view from the press box was blind­ing, as Florida State fans were sup­port­ing Bobby Bowden’s Semi­noles in their “white out” for USF. USF fans filled out their allot­ted sec­tions, clearly stand­ing out in their green shirts. This was the 11th largest crowd to ever assem­ble at Doak Camp­bell Stadium.

With a lit­tle over 5 min­utes left in the first, Nate Allen recov­ered a fum­ble caused by Jon Lejiste on the FSU 25. Eric Schwartz misses a field goal from the 20. Last week, while play­ing Charleston South­ern Jim Leav­itt elected to replace Del­bert Alvarado after miss­ing a field goal with Schwartz. It will be inter­est­ing to see whose num­ber he calls should another kick­ing sit­u­a­tion arise.

FSU picked them­selves up and put together a strong drive which brought them to a goa line sit­u­a­tion. USF’s defense held, includ­ing stop­ping a 4th and goal on the USF 1.

BJ Daniels throws a strike to a wide open Theo Wil­son, a 77 yard pass sets up a first and goal for USF. Daniels next pass was com­plete to Ben Bus­bee for a touch­down. Schwartz was sent in for the  PAT. USF strikes first and leads 7–0.

BJ Daniels appears com­fort­able run­ning this offense, which is cer­tainly a sigh of relief for Bulls fans con­cerned about the loss of leg­endary Matt Grothe.

Sab­bath Joseph forces a fum­ble from Tawain East­er­ling, FSU was again kept from reach­ing the end­zone. BJ Daniels didn’t waste a moment, find­ing a wide open Ster­ling Grif­fin for a 73 yard touch­down pass. USF now lead­ing 14–0.

Schwartz botches another field goal attempt to end the half.

At half time, this is cer­tainly not the game most were expect­ing. USF’s defense looks to be frus­trat­ing Chris­t­ian Pon­der, con­stantly flush­ing him out of the pocket, and stuff­ing him on any runs up the mid­dle. BJ Daniels, how­ever, looks like a field gen­eral mak­ing all the right calls, includ­ing a stun­ning 29 yard run straight up the mid­dle. Were it not for two missed field goals, FSU would be in a much worse posi­tion. Cer­tainly a 2 touch­down deficit is by no means insur­mount­able for the Noles.

BJ Daniels made his first mis­take, try­ing to evade a sack he threw an inter­cep­tion. FSU was unable to cap­i­tal­ize, giv­ing the ball right back.

Craig Mar­shall picks up an FSU fum­ble, their 3rd of the game. USF is unable to make any­thing hap­pen. FSU returned a 50+ yard punt for 63 yards, a touch­down sav­ing show string tackle made by the punter Alvarado.

Ty Jones puts the Noles on the board by punch­ing the ball 3 yards into the end­zone. Near the begin­ing of the fourth, FSU cuts the lead in half 14–7.

As USF begins another promis­ing drive, the rain has started to come down hard. A slip­pery field and wet ball will cer­tainly have an impact on how this game is played out…as a mat­ter of fact, Colby Erskin can’t hang on to a sure first down pass and USF is forced to punt it away.

Fol­low­ing another Daniels inter­cep­tion, Jason Pierre Paul forces a fum­ble from Chris­t­ian Pon­der, USF takes over at the FSU 13 with a lit­tle less than six min­utes on the game clock. The play is reviewed– but offi­cials con­firm the call on the field.

Third time is a charm as Eric Schwartz finally nails a field goal, this one from 37 yards out. USF up 17–7.

FSU’s last effort to remain in the game was dashed as Pon­der was sacked 8 yards by USF’s Craig Mar­shall. After the turn over on downs, USF’s sec­tion began rain­ing down cheers of “over rated”  and “USF” as the “white out” dis­si­pated and dejected fans left Doak Campbell.

BJ Daniels ran the clock out and jubi­lantly cel­e­brated with team mates. USF fans remained packed in their sec­tions as the final score dis­played 17–7.

Here PRISM Press founder, Jason Roberts, pro­vides a few shots from the game: