South Florida Bulls Can't Digest Their Dessert

This 2009 version of the South Florida Bulls football team fancies itself a contender for the Big East title.

Heck, coach Jim Leavitt voted his team No. 18 in the opening-season poll.

Needs to rethink that in a hurry.

Saturday's trip to Bowling Green was supposed to result in a complete beat-down of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

USF was supposed to beat the "Hill" out of those Hilltoppers.

Didn't happen.

A 35-13 win can't be very reassuring for Leavitt and his staff.

The turnovers, the nine penalties for 85 yards, the porous defense that saw quarterback Brandon Smith hit it for 125 yards rushing, yes, those and many other distressing facts have these Bulls returning home, needing to get much better in a hurry.

Special teams were bad at best.

Leavitt was quick to admit that.

"We won the football game but our special teams were not good," Leavitt lamented.

You could hear the concern in his voice. He's seen and heard about how Cincinnati and Pittsburgh have started this season.

"We have to get better. We're gonna play much better teams. No excuses. I wanna play good football."

If that's the case, these Bulls, even though they are 2-0,  have a ways to go but still have the luxury of another team that is a patsy by even Big East standards: Charleston Southern.

The Bulls get their third tiny morsel of a team next Saturday before they have to start picking on guys their own size.

In the meantime, weaknesses have been exposed the past two games.

One that came out Saturday night was placekicker Delbert Alvarado. He missed field goals of 40 and 49 yards with no pressure whatsoever on him.

You can bet Leavitt knows that the Big East games will be close, hopefully, and that the difference can come down to a last-second field goal. Unfortunately, Maikon Bonnani is out of action this season and that makes this USF team less prepared to win with a last-second kick.

There are other problems as well. Smith, who is not on the Heisman watch list, ran through the USF defense often.

His team only managed 89 yards against Tennessee. The Vols did what a good team was supposed to do two weeks ago when they Orange-crushed these Hilltoppers 63-7.

USF was supposed to do something similar to that, but didn't.

Yes, quarterback Matt Grothe is now your Big East all-time leader in total offensive yardage. He added 261 yards Saturday night and saw teammate Mo Plancher get 115 yards rushing on 18 carries. He was the first Bull to bust the century mark in 16 games.

Yes, Carlton Mitchell had two big splash-plays with catches of 50 and 65 yards to set up two touchdowns.

But there is oh so very much work for these Bulls.

There is so much they need to do.

First and foremost, they need to chew up their cupcakes properly.

That way, they won't choke on the crumbs.