BULLIEVE: South Florida Stuns Auburn

For anyone who’s followed the South Florida Bulls, their victory at Auburn isn’t a surprise.

The Bulls are simply designed to play SEC-style football. Their defense is small and fast but hits hard and tackles exceptionally well. Their secondary is one of the best in the nation. Their quarterback is a playmaker. And most importantly, the team perseveres in tough times.

The only thing missing, I guess, is a field goal kicker.

But even with Delbert Alvarado missing field goals left and right and even with the Bulls failing to take command of a game where they forced five turnovers, they didn’t crawl into a hole and wither.

The Bulls kept giving themselves more chances to win.

South Florida coaches showed faith in Alvarado, and he forced overtime with a 19-yard field goal with under a minute left. They had faith in their defense that held Auburn to a field goal in overtime. And the Bulls showed faith in their quarterback, and Matt Groethe found Jesse Hester for a 14 yard game winning touchdown in overtime.

Beating a team like Auburn isn’t about playing better football. Beating Auburn is about surviving torture.

Auburn plays tough, plays physical, controls the special teams, makes tons of mistakes, forces you to make even worse mistakes, then breaks off a random big play to break your back.

South Florida lived through the torture of four missed field goals, and lived through the torture of being given five turnovers and being unable to do anything with them.

They still showed the mental toughness to keep playing the game with maximum focus.

That mental fortitude will serve them well when the Big East season gets under way.

—E. Blasco