USF quarterback Quinton Flowers had a career day, amassing over 350 yards total offense and five touchdowns as he led the Bulls to victory over the UConn Huskies, 42-27.
The Huskies took the opening kickoff of the game and, seven minutes later, were the first to score. It was a slow grind for UConn, with the only big play being a 17 yard rush by Arkeel Newsome that set up first and ten on the USF ten yard line. The drive would stall on the USF nine, forcing a 26 yard Bobby Puyol field goal to put the Huskies up 3-0.
As slow as UConn’s first drive was, the Bulls’ first possession was not. It took just two plays for them to get on the board. On first down, Marlon Mack rushed for 21 yards to midfield. On the second snap, quarterback, Quinton Flowers, scrambled and weaved through multiple defenders to run 54 yards for the touchdown. With 7:35 left in the first and just 29 seconds after the UConn field goal, the Bulls went up 7-3.
Each team would trade field position several times into midway through the second quarter. USF would try for a fourth and two on the UConn 33, but the conversion would fail, turning the ball over on downs. UConn would actually go backwards on the drive, negating the lost possession by the Bulls.
USF would get the ball on their own 40 and an 11 yard run by Flowers on first down moved them out to their 49. Two plays later, on a deep pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Flowers was intercepted by Jhavon Williams on the UConn one yard line. The Bulls defense would hold, though, forcing a punt by the Huskies four plays later.
With the Huskies punting from their own end zone, the resulting field position was favorable for the Bulls, who began on the UConn 49 yard line. On the first snap, Flowers hit Rodney Adams for a 31 yard reception. Mack would carry ten yards on the next play and Flowers would cap off the drive with an eight touchdown run. With 2:22 left in the half, USF increased their lead to 14-3, the score the halftime break.
The Bulls received the kickoff to start the second half. After a short run by Mack and a pass to Adams for a loss, Flowers looked deep on third down. The pass would be intercepted by Obi Melifonwu at the UConn 30 yard line.
UConn quarterback, Bryant Shireffs would seize the momentum shift. On the first play of the next possession, he connected with Newsome for a 70 yard touchdown reception. With 13:41 remaining in the third, the USF lead was cut to 14-10.
Things would continue to get worse for the Bulls. On the first play of the next possession, Flowers completed a short pass to Adams for about a yard gain. Adams would fumble the ball on the USF 25 yard line. The fumble was recovered by Melifonwu for UConn.
Again, the Huskies would not waste the momentum. A five yard run by Newsome, a 17 yard catch by Alex Bloon, and four yard run by Newsome put them in the end zone again. Just over a minute after getting within four points of the Bulls, UConn took a 17-14 lead with 12:38 left in the third quarter.
After each team trading field position, the Bulls finally answered the Husky score. With just five and a half minutes left in the period, Flowers rushed for eight yards in a score, taking the lead back from UConn, 21-17.
In their first possession of the fourth quarter, the Bulls added to their lead when Flowers connected with Valdes-Scantling for a 26 yard touchdown score to go up 28-17. That play was setup, in part, by a 17 yard Flowers rush, two plays earlier.
On the next possession, UConn drove from their own 12 yard line to the USF nine, before having their drive stall. With just 8:12 left in the game and trailing by 11, the Huskies opted to kick the field goal. Puyol’s 26 yard attempt was good, giving UConn 20 to the Bulls 28.
About four minutes later, the Bulls started to pull away, when Flowers found Mitchell Wilcox on a crossing route for a 29 yard touchdown. The drive almost was not, as Adams fumbled a 10 yard reception on the first play. The fumble was recovered by Valdes-Scantling, keeping the drive alive. With 4:21 left in the game, USF led 35-20.
On the possession that followed, the Huskies were stuck with a fourth and 11 from their own 24 yard line. With just over three minutes on the clock, made the risky attempt to convert. Shirreffs was able to connect with Noel Thomas for ten yards, but it was one shy of the first down.
With the Huskies turning the ball over on downs on their own 34 yard line, it didn’t take the Bulls long to capitalize. To be clear, on the very next play, Mack rushed 34 yards for the score, expanding the lead to 42-20.
The Huskies would get one more touchdown before the game ended, thanks in part to a pair of penalties against USF. They occurred after Shirreffs was intercepted by Jalen Spencer. The two half-the-distance penalties were for pass interference and unsportsmanlike conduct. When the dust settled, the interception was reversed and UConn got the ball on the USF 12 yard instead of the 48.
The Bulls held the Huskies to just 72 yards rushing while piling up 316 of their own. Flowers led rushers for USF, with 157 yards and three touchdowns. He also passed for a pair of scores and 213 yards. After the game, he was questioned about a comment made by head coach, Willie Taggart, that suggested Flowers was one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in the country. Flowers answered, “I don’t think anyone is better than me.” He didn’t say it in a way that was boastful, but simply moved on to the next question. Five touchdown games might make others consider the question.
Mack had another 100 yard game, running for 107 yards. Valdes-Scantling and Wilcox accounted for the two receiving touchdowns, but Mack led the team in receiving yards with 75.
For the Huskies, Shirreffs had a solid game, passing for 306 yards and two touchdowns. Thomas had 127 yards receiving, leading his team.
On the defensive side of things, team leader in tackles, Auggie Sanchez, had 11 tackles and three sacks. When Taggart was asked to comment about his performance after the game, he said, “I think I ticked him off before the game. So, I’ll start doing that before every game now. He played big time. He played like a leader is supposed to.”
Taggart didn’t expand on what exactly was said, so the question was put to Sanchez. He said, “He told me some things, some things that people said about me. I’m tired of hearing it too, that USF can’t play defense, that USF is offensive dominate team. On defense, it ticks our guys off. Just because we had one bad game, we’re viewed as having not that good of a defense.”
The Huskies drop to 3-4 (2-2) on the season. They will host the UCF Knights on the 22nd, a team that took Temple a last minute miracle to beat, today.
USF improves their all-time record against UConn to 9-5 and their season record to 6-1 (3-0). The now bowl eligible Bulls will head to Philadelphia to face Temple on Friday evening.
