B.J. Daniels, South Florida Offense Take a National Nosedive

Now everyone knows.

Now everyone knows that poor old Skip Holtz has a pretty good defense at the University of South Florida but counters that with an offense that perhaps not even a mother could love.

Everyone knows because the University of South Florida Bulls had the national stage Thursday night when they played West Virginia up there in Morgantown—a tough place to play if you're not a Mountaineer.

USF and West Virginia had it all to themselves on ESPN.

Now everyone knows.

Everyone knows how really horrible the offense can be for South Florida, and they know that West Virginia is probably the best team in a weak Big East Conference.

Skip Holtz sure knows.

He knows that his quarterback, B.J. Daniels, is lost, a player wandering out there as if he's blindfolded. He's a quarterback who gives his team no chance, a quarterback who once again made the wrong pass at the wrong time.

USF's stout defense had kept things close for 29 minutes Thursday night. With the score 10-3 and time running out in the first half, these Bulls were actually still in the game, hanging in there on the road in a hostile environment.

Suddenly Daniels went into the same coma we saw in Gainesville. It was Gator-ja vu all over again.

Deep in his own territory, Daniels threw an ill-advised pass, looking for Evan Landi. Instead, Robert Sands stepped in, grabbed it and promptly took it to the USF seven, where the Mountaineers scored on a nifty hook-and-ladder that went from Geno Smith to Jock Sanders then, on a flip, to Noel Devine, who tightroped down the sideline for the score.

At 17-3, with this USF offense, the Bulls were doomed.

"Devastating" and "egregious" is how the gang in the ESPN booth described Daniels' latest self-inflicted gunshot. No need to say anything else about that. Those two adjectives sum it up pretty well.

Certainly, the USF defense deserved better.

Those defenders, led by first-time starter at linebacker DeDe Lattimore, did a tremendous job all night.

When you hold the speedy Noel Devine to 29 yards on 13 carries and the beastly Ryan Clarke to 27 on 10, your team should have a great shot at winning.

Quarterback Geno Smith, who USF came close to signing once upon a time, did most of the damage. He was so very efficient, completing 24 of 31 for 219 yards, two touchdowns and NO interceptions.

The USF offense?

Now everyone knows. Knew it at the half. A whopping 94 yards for 30 minutes, zero for five on third downs.

The Bulls offensive repertoire looks something like this:

Daniels throw lateral pass. Handoff to Mo Plancher. Daniels throw lateral pass. Daniels looks for Dontavia Bogan. Handoff to Mo Plancher. Daniels throws lateral pass again.

When the madness was over, Daniels completed 20 of 30 passes for 119 yards—that's less than six yards per throw for you math majors out there.

Horri-bull?

Terri-bull?

"It is bad," Holtz admits.

It is bad because his quarterback is a Pick-a-potomus.

It is bad because there really is no other option except walk-on Bobby Eveld.

It is bad because without the pre-halftime giveaway, the Bulls still lose 13-3 in a near replay of the homecoming loss to Syracuse.

USF is now 3-3 and 0-2 in the Big East, eliminating any worries about a November Big East collapse.

The collapse is already here, and it doesn't get any better next week with a road trip to Cincinnati for a Friday night national telecast.

USF will once again be on display for everyone.

But after Thursday night, there's nothing to hide.

Everyone knows.

Everyone knows that Skip Holtz had a nice defense and one giant embarrassment of an offense.

An offense headed up by the dreaded Pick-a-potomus.