A battle in the state of Florida took place on Saturday evening as USF hosted #8 ranked Miami. Considered to be two of the current best programs in the state, they were bound to get into an exciting showdown… and the game certainly did not disappoint in the first half.
Led by a Heisman candidate at quarterback, Cam Ward and the Miami offense marched down the field in methodic fashion to start the game. After a few costly defensive penalties by USF, running back Damien Martinez opened the scoring by punching in a two-yard run up the middle to make the score 7-0 in favor of Miami.
The Bulls started their first drive hot, quickly making their way down the field until they got the door shut in on them at the Miami 40-yard line. This set up a 58-yard field goal attempt for place kicker, Nico Gramatica (son of Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend, Martin Gramatica), who drilled the kick down the middle of the uprights. The incredibly lengthy field goal cut into Miami’s early lead to make the score 7-3.
USF’s defense came to play on the ensuing drive. On third down, Miami wide receiver Jacolby George bobbled a short crossing route that shoveled its way into the hands of USF defensive back Brent Austin who went down at the Miami 30-yard line.
Taking advantage of the great field position, the Bulls reached deep into their bag of tricks in the red zone. Quarterback Byrum Brown handed the ball off which was lateraled to wide receiver Sean Atkins on a reverse play. Atkins looked to throw and found a wide open Brown who waltzed into the end zone to make the score 9-7 on a 12-yard touchdown pass.
The Hurricanes responded quickly as Cam Ward fired a quick dump-off pass to Damien Martinez who sprinted up the sideline for a 36-yard gain. This was followed by another big play of 22 yards as Ward connected with wide receiver Isaiah Horton over the middle. The senior quarterback went right back to him later in the drive as he lobbed a short pass to the goal line which was brought in by Horton for a 6-yard touchdown. Miami regained the lead quickly on this drive by going 90 yards in only 8 plays and set the score at 14-9.
Byrum Brown’s offense did not take the touchdown lightly as he connected with Sean Atkins on a crosser over the middle which went down as a fast 28-yard gain. This set up a 51-yard field goal attempt for Nico Gramatica which he drilled yet again to bring the Bulls within two points of Miami at 14-12.
After Cam Ward missed multiple open receivers downfield, Miami was forced to punt the ball back to USF to the sound of a roaring home crowd that was very pleased to see a great performance from the Bulls early on.
They continued to give the fans something to cheer about as they slowly, yet effectively moved their way down the field. The Bulls ran more than eight minutes off of the clock through a combination of option runs and short throws that were centered entirely around Byrum Brown. With only the goal left to go, Miami was crucially able to sack Brown twice which forced another field goal attempt from USF. This time, place kicker John Cannon took the 45-yard attempt and shot a line drive between the uprights to put USF ahead 15-14 with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. The drive totaled 19 plays, which were important for USF to keep Cam Ward on the Miami sideline.
The Hurricanes were glad to get Ward back onto the field as he immediately made an impact on only the second play of the drive. Wide receiver Sam Brown Jr. bolted past the defensive secondary down the sideline and Ward launched a beautiful ball that landed perfectly in Brown’s stride to give the lead right back to Miami on a 76-yard touchdown. Deciding to go for two, Ward side-armed a pass to Damien Martinez in the flat who dove into the end zone to further the lead at 22-15.
In stark contrast to the prior offensive drive, USF tried to execute a speedy two-minute drill starting from deep in their own territory. They were able to completely flip field position from the USF 19-yard line to the Miami 17-yard line after running back Ta’Ron Keith cut a screen pass up the middle of his blockers and sprinted all the way down the field for a huge 64-yard gain. USF got stuffed on the next series of downs which set up John Cannon for a 31-yard field goal attempt. He shanked the kick wide right and kept the score as it was at 22-15. Miami was then content to take a knee to waste the remaining 18 seconds of game clock and go into the locker room up by seven.
Coming out of the break, Miami’s defense quickly forced a punt which allowed their offense to find some early success. Cam Ward methodically charged his offense down the field into the red zone where they set up at the 7-yard line on first and goal. Ward scampered down to the 1-yard line before handing off the ball to Damien Martinez up the middle for his second touchdown of the game to make the score 29-15.
South Florida began to get a drive going before a costly holding call on fourth down forced them to punt the ball back to Miami again. It then became evident that this was a different Miami team in the second half than it was in the first as Cam Ward hit multiple receivers in stride to quickly set the Hurricanes up in the red zone. Ward then threw up a jump ball to Isaiah Horton on a fade towards the end zone which Horton contorted his body for to make a spectacular catch while being heavily contacted and went down on the 1-yard line. Miami used the great play to set up a third touchdown of the game for Damien Martinez on a one-yard run.
USF finally managed to form a response as Byrum Brown connected with tight end Payten Singletary on a crosser for 26-yards to set them up on Miami’s side of the field. As the fourth quarter began, Brown went down with an injury and would not be seen again in the game. Backup quarterback Bryce Archie came into the game as his replacement and was immediately thrown into a fourth down situation. He chucked the ball into the end zone for Sean Atkins who managed to draw a pass interference. Then, Archie overthrew a ball towards the end zone on third down which was intercepted on a great toe-tap effort by Miami defensive back Mishael Powell.
Looking to capitalize off the interception, Cam Ward and wide receiver Xavier Restrepo connected twice for major gains before he hauled in a third reception on a back shoulder fade in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown. With yet another touchdown, Miami increased their lead to 43-15.
With the score now well out of reach, each side was content to substitute in their backups to run the clock out. During the garbage time play, Jordan Lyle broke free for Miami on a 91-yard touchdown run to extend the Miami lead to 50-15 which would be the final score of the game.
Cam Ward was by far the player of the game as he completed 24 of 34 attempted passes for 404 yards and 3 touchdowns with only one mistake on a single interception. He also added 25 yards on the ground on four carries. Another strong performance for the Heisman candidate only helps his case for the award at the end of the year and shoots him further up NFL draft boards for 2025.
Following the game, head coach Alex Golesh said, “it’s a line of scrimmage game at the end of the day… and we couldn’t hang in there in the second half.”
When asked about the injury to Byrum Brown, coach Golesh said, “he got banged up on the drive before he went down… [he] came back at the end, could’ve gone in.” That’s good news for the South Florida signal caller going forward as he is a vital piece of the offense.
Next up for Miami, they will host Virginia Tech at home in their first ACC game of the season. The Hurricanes are heavy favorites in the game as well as frontrunners to win the ACC Championship. Now sitting at 4-0 on the season, it will soon be seen if their second half blowout performance will propel them any further up the national rankings than their current #8 spot.
For USF, they now drop to 2-2 on the season with each loss coming against a top-10 nationally ranked opponent. They will look to right the ship next week when they travel to Tulane to compete in their first American Conference game of the year.