Road Woes Continue in 59-0 Loss at South Florida

TAMPA, Fla. – On the road for the third game in a row and facing an FBS opponent for the second time this season, Charleston Southern fell 59-0 to South Florida, Saturday at Raymond James Stadium in front of 38,798 people.

With the loss, CSU starts 0-3 for the second year in a row, but will look to right the ship against former Buccaneer assistant Jamey Chadwell and the North Greenville Crusaders as they return home next weekend for their home-opener. Last year the Bucs faced an 0-3 record but won seven of their last nine games to end the year. USF improved to 3-0 with the victory.

“USF is obviously an excellent football team,” said Coach Jay Mills. “We expect them to contend for the Big East title and play in a major bowl game. That said, I think a lot of our wounds tonight were self inflicted, but they are correctable. Some of that had to do with playing a really good football team, some of it had to do with crowd noise and a number of things occurred because we didn’t execute to the best of our ability. I felt like our effort was good, I liked that ‘look in their eyes’ so-to-speak. I know we have the coaching staff and the players to correct the things that we need to correct.”

CSU had 188 yards of total offense for the game but was shut out for the first time since a 42-0 loss to Liberty on Oct. 25, 2008. A.J. Toscano finished the game 13-24 with one interception and 127 yards. It is his third-straight game with at least 120 passing yards. Kwame Krakue looked as if he was on pace to tie his career high six catches for the third time this year after catching three passes for 43 yards in the first half, but was kept without a touch in the final two quarters. Antwan Ivey led CSU in the rushing and receiving category with six catches for 34 yards, adding 20 yards on eight carries. For the second game this year (Florida), the offensive line did not surrender a sack.

Fred Godfrey and Andrew McKain tied for game-high honors with seven tackles each. James Antaplyan had one tackle-for-loss, while Ryan Ard and Jacques Bazile combined for another.

Backup quarterback B.J. Daniels tied starter Matt Grothe with 149 passing yards, and was the leading rusher with 105 yards on eight carries to lead the Bulls in that category. Daniels was 10-13 passing and accounted for three touchdowns (one passing, two rushing).

Special teams’ miscues and unforced errors put the Bucs in a hole early as they took on their second FBS school of the season. A fumble on the second play from scrimmage led to an early touchdown by the Bulls, while a 75-yard blocked field goal return went back for the third USF score in the first quarter. A 27-yard pass to Stevenson set up the field goal attempt, and tied the longest pass play of the year for CSU.

A blocked punt on the final drive of the first quarter led to another scoring drive for USF, putting them up 28-0. CSU did record 73 yards of offense in the first quarter alone, but could not find the scoreboard.

Finally the Bucs hoped the momentum was shifting as a touchdown-scoring fake field goal by USF was called back for an illegal formation. The result of the penalty was a missed 34-yard field goal attempt by Delbe Alvarado.

Penalties again stalled the CSU drive, and on the ensuing possession, without Grothe, their starting QB, the Bulls hit their second 50-yard touchdown pass of the game to go up 35-0 with just 0:44 left in the first half.

CSU had 122 yards of offense in the first half, with 98 of those coming through the air. The Bulls, meanwhile, tallied 273 yards with 22 passing yards.

A 16-yard run by Daniels capped off a 10-play, 63-yard drive to open the third quarter and move USF to a 42-0 advantage.

In USF territory, Toscano was picked off on the goal line by Jerome Murphy, who returned out to the 36 yard line. As the USF offense moved near the red zone, CSU was aided by a pair of 15-yard penalties making it first and 40 for the Bulls back on the CSU side of the field. A 15-yard face mask penalty against CSU gave USF the first down back, and a 22-yard run by Daniels put them back in the red zone, where he put it in from seven yards out to make it 49-0.

A fourth-quarter touchdown and Eric Schwartz’s first-career field goal made it 59-0 with 6:20 left in the game.