In a great battle between 2 legendary coaches, it all came down to overtime... Central Michigan and the Bulls from South Florida traded blows for an entire 4 quarters, but 4 just wasn't enough time to get a winner in this matchup.
CMU took the opening kickoff and drove 85 yards on a 16-play drive that mixed a combination of pass and running plays up well enough to keep the talented Bulls defense off balanced. On the 16th play Bert Emmanual Jr punched it in from 1 yard out on an option keeper. USF went 3 and out. But a perfect punt pinned the Chips at their own 3-yard line. After a nice pass to TE Chris Temple to move it to the 9, Emmanual coughed up the ball on a veer option. DJ Harris scooped up the ball and found himself dancing in the end-zone to tie it up at 7.
Emmanual would then find his RB Marion Lukes on a 54-yard pass play to the endzone early in the 2nd to put the home crowd in a frenzy with 14-7 lead.
USF would then on an 87-yard blast by Byron Keith to tie the game up at 14 with just 1:11 left before the half. CMU would run the quarter out and go into the locker room tied at 14 a piece.
The 3rd would see CMU struggle to move the ball as USF would take a 21-14 lead with just :21 seconds left in the quarter on a 68-yard beautiful pass from Byrum Brown to Naiem Simmons to break the deadlock.
The 4th would see the teams trade turnovers, punts and field position, before CMU wideout would find a 51-yard TD pass from Emanuel to tie it all up at 21 with just under 3 minutes left in the game. With neither team wanting to make a fatal mistake that could cost then the game, both teams just ran simple plays to get to OT.
In OT USF drove all the way to the 3-yard line before Brown made a game costing mistake... Brown was intercepted in the end zone by David Cochran to end a very important drive for USF without any points to show.
CMU got the ball...lined up in the Maryland I and on the very 1st play of their overtime possession Marion Lukes broke free for a 25-yard gallop to seal the deal for the WAS!!!!
In College Football, road wins can be hard to come by. They are even harder when turning the ball over versus solid teams with a good coach.
USF played well enough to win tonight, but costly turnovers in the redzone couldn't be overcame. Defensively, after a great Week 1 performance, the USF defense was picked apart and couldn't stop the surgical passing attack of CMU.
That, combined with turnovers equals a road loss.
GG as always Ank. It was a classic
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