University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
South Florida upsets Southern Miss, 16-13
10/13/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
South Florida upsets Southern Miss, 16-13
TAMPA, Fla. ?South Florida parlayed an opportunistic defense and timely offense into a 16-13 victory over Southern Miss in Raymond James Stadium here Saturday night.
The game was just the second between the two teams. Southern Miss beat the Bulls 41-7 midway through the 2000 season in Hattiesburg. A Conference USA member in everything but football, USF will join the league in football as well, next season. The victory was the second for the Bulls over a member of C-USA as they defeated Houston, 45-6, in 2001.
South Florida improved to 4-2 with the victory while Southern Miss dropped to 4-2, and lost for the second time in three games. The Golden Eagles will entertain Cincinnati Oct. 19, in a C-USA game that also will be homecoming for Southern Miss.
The game in Tampa was the first in that city for the Golden Eagles since a season-ending 11-10 victory over Tampa in 1974.
In the South Florida game, the Bulls grabbed a quick lead with just 3:36 into the first period, when Santiago Gramatica capped a four-play, eight-yard drive with a 28-yard field goal. A 50-yard DeAndrews Rubin return of a 53-yard Mark Haulman punt set the stage for that short drive.
The Golden Eagles quickly fought back to grab the lead some six minutes later, when junior tight end Terrell Browden grabbed a nine-yard Dustin Almond pass at the 5:32 mark of the first period. Almond was on in relief of Micky D?Angelo, who started the played the first two series for the Eagles. It was Almond?s first extended action of the season. The Browden catch also was the first scoring pass of the season for him, the second of his career, and the first of the season for Southern Miss to a tight end.
Both teams added second period field goals and then repeated that in the third, to leave Southern Miss with a 13-9 edge going into the final 15 minutes of the game. Hugh Smith capped what would prove to be the winning drive for the Bulls with a seven-yard scoring run at the 9:31 mark of the final period and the ensuing extra point put USF ahead 16-13, with what appeared to be plenty of time remaining.
But the Bulls then proceeded to keep the Golden Eagles bottled up deep in Southern Miss territory for much remainder of the game. Head Coach Jeff Bower?s team did mount a late challenge that ended only when senior placekicker Curt Jones missed a 43-yard field goal as time expired, preserving the victory for the Bulls and sending the Eagles away disappointed. Jones had earlier connected on field goals of 19- and 45-yards.
It might be difficult to envision how the defenses played well when the two offenses combined for 876 yards, 412 for Southern Miss and 464 for the Bulls, but all that offense resulted in just two touchdowns, the Southern Miss score in the first period and the Bulls? TD in the final stanza.
Senior running back Derrick Nix saw a great rushing game end in disappointment. The Attala, Ala., native ended his night with 126 yards on 21 carries. It also marked the first Golden Eagle loss in his career when he rushed for over 100 yards. During the game, he moved past Sammy Winder and into second place on the career rushing list at Southern Miss, with 3,144 yards, only 452 yards away from surpassing Ben Garry and taking over first place. Nix also has rushed for 744 yards through six games, already ahead of the team-best 594 yards gained by Dawayne Woods last season. Also the team?s rushing total through six games, 1,039 yards, is just 15 yards away from matching last season?s 11-game total of 1,054 yards.
Almond made his first extended playing time of the season count. He finished with 24 completions in 39 attempts, threw one touchdown and did not throw an interception. He also scrambled his was to 16 net yards on nine carries.
Defensively, the Eagles gave up yards, but South Florida found the end zone hard to locate. Senior linebacker Rod Davis led both teams with 13 tackles, and junior defensive back Etric Pruitt added 11. Davis recorded one of Southern Miss? two tackles for loss, and also came up with his sixth career fumble recovery, to move into a tie for third place on that list. For a second- straight game, the Eagles did not record a quarterback sack. Southern Miss also did not have an interception, snapping an eight-game streak dating back to the Nov. 17, 2001, game against Tulane, with USM getting at least one interception.
Following the South Florida game, the Golden Eagles stay busy, hosting C-USA rival Cincinnati in a 1 p.m., homecoming game Oct. 19. Cincinnati was a 35-17 loser to Tulane, Saturday, to drop to 2-4, 1-1 in the league.
