KICKED BY KARMA: Rutgers Puts Damper On South Florida’s National Title Dreams

Last year Rutgers was the darling of college football. Two losses ended the Scarlet Knights Championship dreams, but seriously, who thought they actually had a chance?

My, how a year changes things.

This year it was the South Florida Bulls who found themselves in the same position Rutgers was in last year.

And this year it was Rutgers playing spoiler.

Call it fate. Call it coincidence. Call it crazy. But I'll call it karma, and everyone knows that karma is a bitch. And ,unfortunately, the Bulls found that out last Thursday the hard way.

Being ranked No. 2 had the Bulls shooting for the stars. Maybe they were getting ahead of themselves. The Scarlet Knights entered the game fired up and after the gun sounded, Rutgers emerged with a 30-27 win that was just a weird as the rest of the college football season.

A swarming defense contained Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe, sacking the kid seven times.
The special teams of Rutgers proved to be the deciding factor in the game.

Andrew DePaola, usually the 3rd string QB, tonight the "holder" threw a 15 yard score off a fake field goal in the 3rd quarter to give Rutgers the lead after a fake punt help set up another score in the first half.

What wasn't unnatural was Ray Rice who gave the Knights a much-needed 181 yards on 30 carries in the ball game, and Mike Teel threw for two scores as the Scarlet Knights pulled off their own upset. And after a desperation pass by Grothe on a 4th and 37 was picked off, Rutgers could celebrate.

It was a must win for the Scarlet Knights, if they wanted to have any chance at a Big East title and a potential BCS berth.

They certainly made a case Thursday night.

Meanwhile, South Florida didn't have much time to celebrate their highest ranking in their short history. Still, with this season the Bulls hopes might not be done.

But it did just get a lot harder.

After the No. 2 team lost for the third straight week, some speculate that that spot in the poll is cursed. The Bulls might believe that, and if it's true LSU better watch out this weekend—especially if they keep passing up field goals for last second touchdowns.

—C. Nierman