Setting The Scene | Gameday Central | Game Notes 
Date: Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Eastern
TV: ESPN
Radio: WFLA 970 AM (Tampa) & WQBN 1300 AM (Spanish)
Stadium: Nippert Stadium
Stadium Capacity - Surface: 35,000 - Field Turf
Tickets: 877-CATSTIX

The Game
The No. 24/23 University of South Florida football team (6-2, 1-2 BIG EAST) hits the road for Thursday night game at Cincinnati (5-2, 1-1). The contest will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast nationally by ESPN from Nippert Stadium on the Cincinnati campus.

The Series
Thursday will be the sixth meeting between the two schools. Cincinnati leads the all-time series, 3-2, and has won the last two meetings. USF has lost both meetings at Nippert Stadium (2006,2004) and has not defeated UC since a 31-16 victory in Tampa in 2005.

The Broadcasts
The game is being showcased to a national audience by ESPN with the premier crew of Chris Fowler, Craig James, Jesse Palmer and Erin Andrews. USF's radio broadcast with Jim Louk, Mark Robinson and Mike Pepper can be heard on 13 affiliates statewide and nationally on Sirius satellite radio. In addition, 1300 WQBN will broadcast the game in Spanish with David Cuevas and Victor Rodriguez behind the microphones. Both USF radio broadcasts can be heard on GoUSFBulls.com.

The Coaches
USF: Jim Leavitt (Missouri ?78) is the only coach in USF history. He has a career record of 85-49 (.634) and is in his 12th season at USF. He is 24-18 in day games, 54-43 on television, 1-3 on Thursdays, 31-34 away from Tampa and 13-11 in BIG EAST play. Leavitt is 2-1 when playing the fourth game of the annual BIG EAST schedule.
Cincinnati: Brian Kelly (Assumption ?83) owns a 153-56-2 all-time record as a head coach and 16-5 record at Cincinnati.

The Program
The USF program has an all-time record of 57-32 at the NCAA FBS level and an 85-49 overall record. The FBS winning percentage of 64.0 was good enough to rank USF 16th among FBS schools in all-time winning percentage entering 2008. USF is ranked for the 10th consecutive week, which is the longest-active streak in the BIG EAST. The Bulls have been ranked in 18 of the last 21 regular season polls.

Wrapping Up Louisville | Louisville Surpises USF, 24-20
USF could not hold on to a late 20-17 lead in losing at Louisville for the third time in three all-time trips to Papa John's Cardinal Stadium ... CB Quenton Washington got his first career start ... With his fourth rush of the game, a one-yard run, RB Ben Williams reached the 1,000-career rushing yard mark for his career ... He came into the contest against Louisville with 998 yards and finished with 1,012 career yards ... He is the ninth player in USF history to rush for 1,000 career yards ... Matt Grothe is also on that list ... WR Jessie Hester extended his consecutive receptions streak to 17 straight ... Hester had a career high of eight catches and 74 yards in the game ... DE George Selvie had two sacks and four tackles for loss .. . The four tackles for loss tied a BIG EAST single game high for the junior and is the highest output by any BIG EAST player this season ... He increased his season TFL total to 10 and his sack total to 5 ... Selvie now has seven games with four or more TFL ... QB Matt Grothe completed eight straight receptions with four coming against Syracuse last week and the first four vs. Louisville ... It ties the second longest streak of his career ... His longest was an 11-for-11 stretch against North Carolina State on Sept. 27 in Raleigh ... Grothe's streak of 65 consecutive passes without an interception ended with 12:01 left in the third quarter when CB Woody Turenne recorded his fourth pick of the season ... Grothe passed for 300 yards for the third time this season and the sixth time in his career ... He had 344 vs. Louisville ... Grothe's 40 pass attempts against Louisville marked the fourth time in his career that he has attempted at least 40 and the third time this year ... He finished the game 30-of-40 for 344 yards, two TD's and two interceptions ... WR Taurus Johnson caught his 100th career reception with less than one minute remaining in the first half ... Johnson came into the game with 96 career catches ... He is just the fourth player in school history to accomplish the feat joining Hugh Smith (131), Huey Whittaker (117) and Charlie Jackson (104) ... He is also the second player in school history with 100 career receptions and 10 career touchdowns joining Hugh Smith who had 10 TD receptions and a school record 131 receptions ... Johnson finished with six receptions and increased his career total to 102 ... Johnson's 94 yards is his fourth best single game total of his career ... DE Jarriett Buie had 1.5 sacks for the second consecutive game and increased his season total to 3.5 ... Buie had two career sacks prior to this season ... DT Aaron Harris had 2.5 tackles for loss in the first half ... He came into the game with two tackles for loss ... LB Kion Wilson intercepted the first pass of his career on a deflection in the second half ... FB Richard Kelly scored his second career touchdown ? first receiving ? on a three-yard pass from Matt Grothe with 3:05 left in the third quarter ... TE Cedric Hill extended his streak of games with a catch to 19 ... TE Ben Busbee scored his first career touchdown on a 15-yard pass play from Grothe with 9:22 left in the game ... USF's nine tackles for loss are a season high ... That mark surpasses the previous best of eight against Tennessee-Martin on Aug. 30 ... USF outscored Louisville 7-0 in the third quarter ... The Bulls have outscored their opponents 66-7 in the third quarter this year ... The loss evens the all-time series with the Cardinals to 3-3.

THREE & OUT
USF, which ranks 11th nationally in total defense, has forced 10 turnovers through eight games this season... In 2007, the Bulls led the NCAA in turnovers forced with 42... Several factors play into the explanation, but arguably the biggest reason is the simple fact that opponents haven't been able to run that many plays... USF has held opponents to three-and-outs (or the equivalent) on 46 of 102 drives this season... That means 45.1 percent of the time, the opponent has not been able to get a single first down... A highlight was against Syracuse, when USF held the Orange to 6 three-and-out possessions and just nine yards in the second half on Oct. 25 ... Below is the breakdown of forced three-and-outs compared to total drives in each half and each game:

Notes: The Bulls' offense has 186 first downs this season and opponents only have 117... USF is only allowing 14.6 first downs per game, which is the eighth-best mark nationally.

The Most Balanced BCS Team
USF is the only team in a BCS Conference with four players that have at least 200 yards rushing (Matt Grothe, Mike Ford, Mo Plancher, Jamar Taylor) and four players that have at least 200 yards receiving (A.J. Love, Taurus Johnson, Jessie Hester and Carlton Mitchell). The only other NCAA FBS team that can claim the same balance is Tulsa, who has five players in each cateogory.

Most 200-Yard Rushers
7- Air Force
5- TCU, Navy,
4- Florida, Navy, Okla. State, Texas, Tulsa, USF, New Mexico

Most 200-Yard Receivers
6- Texas Tech
5- Houston, Central Mich., Kansas St., Western Mich., Tulsa,
4- USF along with 19 others

Defensive Trends
? After eight games the USF defense has allowed seven rushing touchdowns ... The defense has given up just 15 rushing touchdowns over the past 23 games and just 17 over the last 26 games ... The USF defense did not give up an offensive touchdown until the fourth quarter of the second game (UCF) ... The USF defense came up 53 seconds short of holding FIU without an offensive score ... Three of the rushing touchdowns came in a blowout win over Pitt in the last regular season game of 2007 and two in the Bulls' loss to Pitt in 2008 ... Additionally, the Bulls allowed just eight all last season and nine in 2006 ... The Bulls have shut out an opponent eight times, but the UTM game did not count even though the UTM points were scored on a turnover by the offense.

? Against UT Martin, the USF defense gave up less than 100 yards of total offense for the just the fifth time in program history and for the first time since limiting FAMU to 85 yards in 2005. UT Martin had 97 yards, 38 through the air and 59 on the ground.

? USF held FIU to just 189 yards of total offense ... It marks the second time this season that USF has held an opponent under 200 yards ... The other instance was against UT Martin, which had 97 yards ... It was the fourth time USF had accomplished the feat in the last 16 games and the ninth time since the start of the 2004 season.

? The USF defense has intercepted a pass in 17 of the last 21 games and has 30 picks during that time... The Bulls were fourth nationally with 23 interceptions in 2007.

? USF has also held two opponents under 10 points, UT Martin had 7 and FIU had 9, this season ... And three opponents to 10 or less points with the inclusion of NC State... It marks the first time USF has held two opponents under 10 points in the same season since 2005 ... USF has held an opponent to less than 10 points on multiple occasions in the same season eight times (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008) in 12 years of football ... The program record is five opponents under 10 points in 1998.

? Over the last four years USF has forced 108 turnovers and if you included blocked kicks, the number jumps to 116.

Big East Leaders
The Bulls lead the BIG EAST in pass defense (186.8), total defense (268.2) and opponent penalties (72.1 yards). Tyrone McKenzie is second in the BIG EAST in tackles (62) , passes defended (9) and 10th in tackles for loss (7.0). George Selvie is second in tackles for loss (10.0) and third in sacks (5.0). Jerome Murphy is fourth in passes defended (7), seventh in interceptions (2) and 22nd in tackles (45). Kion Wilson leads the BIG EAST with two fumble recoveries.

Offensive Trends
? USF set a program record with 5,383 yards of total offense in 13 games in 2007. It is going to make a run at that record in 2008. The Bulls are averaging 425.8 yards per game, which would equal 5,535 yards over a 13-game season.

Through seven regular season games, USF is on pace to break several of the offensive records it set last season. Below are the USF records compared to the 2008 projections:

? The UT Martin game was the third time in the previous 13 games that USF racked up 300 yards on the ground. The Bulls had exactly 300 against UTM. The other two instances were at Florida Atlantic (302 on 10/06/07) and at Syracuse (346 on 11/10/07).

? The offensive outputs against UT Martin and UCF marked the third time in USF history that USF had posted 500 yards of total offense in back-to-back games. The NC State game marked the fourth time in 13 games that USF has surpassed 500 yards of total offense. The other two occasions were against UCF (543 on 10/13/07) and Syracuse (582 on 11/10/07).

? USF racked up 520 yards of total offense against NC State, which marked the third time this season the Bulls surpasses 500 yards, tying the program record for the most games with 500+ in a single season... The 2001 teams also accomplished the feat three times.

? USF has posted 400 yards of total offense and scored 30 or more points in 12 of the last 19 games.

? This season marks the first time in program history that the Bulls have scored at least 30 points in their first three games... USF scored 30 or more points in seven consecutive games from the final six games of 2001 to the opener of 2002... USF has only scored 30 or more points in three consecutive games on three previous occasions... The aforementioned instance from 2001-02, another three game streak in 2002 and a four-game streak in 2007.

USF Hosting the AFC Champion
The USF football practice facility will host the AFC Champion in Super Bowl XLIII. The AFC team will use the practice fields, training room, locker room and weight room from Jan. 25-31, 2009.The Super Bowl is returning to Tampa and Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 1. It is the fourth time that Tampa has served as the host city and the second time at Raymond James Stadium. It is also the second time that USF has served as a practice facility. After Super Bowl XLIII, USF will be one of only six programs to play their home football games in a stadium that has hosted multiple Super Bowls while they have been a tenant. The others are USC, UCLA, San Diego State, Miami and Tulane.