International Bowl Recap

Floridians, Canada and the middle of winter don't generally mix, and after one half of the 2010 International Bowl, it appeared that the South Florida Bulls were decidedly out of their element. Fortunately, they didn't stop fighting.

USF's football team - though playing indoors at the Rogers Centre - seemed flat and disinterested for the first 30 minutes of Saturday's postseason duel with Northern Illinois. The bitter Toronto cold wasn't felt by Jim Leavitt's boys, but they did seem to be frozen in the face of Northern Illinois's harder hitting and manifest enthusiasm.

With the Mid-American Conference looking to snap a 13-game bowl losing streak, the Huskies of DeKalb, Ill., came to Canada with a purpose, and that pronounced passion knocked USF back on its heels. A 3-3 halftime tie had to put frowns on many faces in the South Florida locker room. Near the end of a bowl season in which some teams have cared while many others haven't, the Bulls had a choice: fight or fade away.

Clearly, they chose the better path in a sparsely-filled stadium that made it hard for either team to generate much energy.

The punishment dealt by the Huskies in the first half subsided in the third quarter, as the Bulls began to knock around Northern Illinois. Leavitt said at halftime that his offense needed to give running back Mike Ford more touches, and that approach was validated in short order. Ford - a junior from Sarasota, Fla. - got very few carries in the first half, but in the second 30 minutes, he ran wild. Ford rumbled for 182 yards after halftime, thanks to five runs of more than 20 yards. Just as significantly, Ford's prowess on between-the-tackles runs opened up the passing game for USF quarterback B.J. Daniels, who was under siege in the first half.

Because Ford loosened up NIU's defense, South Florida was able to slow down the Huskies' front seven and put Daniels in favorable passing situations. As a result, Daniels was able to hit A.J. Love with a 46-yard bomb to give USF a 13-3 lead with 5:12 left in the third quarter. That one play gave the Bulls a two-score cushion, and it broke the will of an NIU team that had competed so valiantly up to that point. The final 20 minutes of regulation witnessed Ford pound the Huskies into submission, with a 24-yard touchdown run capping off the scoring at the 6:25 mark of the final quarter.

And so, a season ends. In 2010, USF may or may not have Leavitt, who's currently being surrounded by rumors of a potential firing. Whether or not the ax falls, the Bulls need to carry this second half with them when August camp comes calling.

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By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer