Notre Dame Gives a Gift to South Florida: A Win

In what has to be the oddest football game I've ever seen, the scoreboard reads South Florida 23, Notre Dame 20.

What that board won't tell you is that Notre Dame really lost this football game to Notre Dame.

The team that was supposed to be growing in year two of the Brian Kelly era, was supposed to be more polished, more steady played the single-sloppiest and worst football game I can remember.

It started early. Notre Dame was blowing South Florida off the ball, opening up huge running lanes and moved the ball to the Bulls two yard line in just five plays. Rather than punch it in, Notre Dame put the ball in the hands of butter fingers Jonas Gray who put the ball on the turf and watched as it was run back 95 yards.

The Irish again sprint into the red zone, and inside the five yard line only to see an interception in the end zone.

After the ensuing stop, Theo Riddick muffed a punt and handed South Florida the ball at the Notre Dame 22 yard line.

Somehow, despite having the ball constantly gift wrapped for them, the Bulls were unable to punch it in, converting only 3 of 4 field goal attempts.

At the half, the Irish trailed 16-0 despite gaining more than 100 yards more than the Bulls in the half.

Then the monsoon came.

Following the first stadium evacuation in Notre Dame history, the Irish found more of the same.

The defense produced a quick stop and watched the offense again march to the five yard line only to see a ball bounce off of T.J. Jones head and get picked off.

Three trips inside the Bulls five yard line, zero points.

Finally, late in the third quarter, Tommy Rees found a rhythm and produced points. A touchdown on Notre Dame's second drive of the second half was followed up by another solid drive into the red zone and inside the 15.

Sure-footed David Ruffer missed his first field goal attempt of the year.

South Florida then in all reality put the game away.

A time-consuming drive ended with the Bulls' only offensive touchdown of the day on an amazing jump/fake/throw thing over a very confused Dan Fox, who could have easily intercepted the ball had he been looking at the ball.

After standout Cierre Wood found the end zone on the next Irish possession to cut the deficit to 10, the rain returned.

The second-ever evacuation in Stadium history followed.

Tommy Rees' only poor pass resulted in Notre Dame's fifth and final turnover.

The Irish would tack on another TD on a pretty Rees-to-Floyd pass, but could not recover an onside kick that seemed to be bouncing directly at Floyd.

A single knee mercifully ends the game.

Notre Dame out gains South Florida 508-254.

Produce 27 first downs to USF's 20.

Racked up over four yards per carry to USF's three.

Other than that, it gets ugly.

The Irish handed the football to South Florida five times.

They were penalized eight times for 74 yards.

They allowed 20 points off turnovers.

And South Florida only managed a single field goal on a possession that wasn't started by a Notre Dame turnover.

The most troubling thing I can think of was simply that the team entered the ballgame not at all ready to play. Everything was sloppy. Receivers dropped balls through their hands, running backs missed holes, and Dayne Crist was completely lost.

In fact, barring injury, it is doubtful that Crist starts again.

After starting 6/8 on the first two possessions, he finished the half 1/7 with an interception. He also stared down receivers, made poor reads, and held the ball way too long. He ended the half with 95 yards and an interception hitting seven of 15 with an interception.

Following the interception in the end zone, Crist had a constant "deer in headlights" look while making his pre-snap reads. It was obvious that he didn't know what he was looking at from the USF defense.

In the many years that I have been watching football, high school, college, or pro, I've never seen a team physically win the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and lose the contest.

On the bright side, Cierre Wood was as advertised. He showed good field vision, great bursts, and was extremely slippery in scampering to 104 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown.

Also a bright spot was Tommy Rees, attempting his best Joe Montana impersonation. Rees came off the bench to connect on 24 of 34 attempts for 296 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

The defense also didn't disappoint, keeping the Irish in the game while the offense sputtered and gift-wrapped the game for the Bulls.

Notre Dame once again proved that you can't give the ball away five times, take the ball away zero times, and commit 75 yards worth of penalties and hope to win.

The fact that the David Ruffer missed field goal turned out to be the difference gives hope that if Notre Dame can stop beating themselves, they'll still manage to beat most of the other teams on their schedule this year.

If they can't clean up their act, more of the same can be expected.

For Skip Holtz Christmas came early as the Irish gave him all the gifts he could want in the form of a homecoming win at his alma matter.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/834254-notre-dame-gives-a-gift-to-south-florida-a-win

Jon Sim Jason Arnott David Clarkson Patrick Davis Tyler Eckford Mark Fraser