SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- B.J. Daniels dashed Syracuse's hopes just when the Orange had momentum, and the South Florida defense took care of Greg Paulus.

Daniels hit Carlton Mitchell with an 85-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second half to break open a one-point game. Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul returned an interception 18 yards for another score, and the Bulls remained unbeaten, 34-20 over the mistake-prone Orange on Saturday in the Big East opener for both teams.

''I had to put some points on the board,'' said Daniels, who a week ago led the Bulls to a stunning 17-7 win at Florida State in his first college start. ''Carlton just came open deep, the corner was cheating inside, and I hit him long.''

Syracuse (2-3) had won two straight behind Paulus, who entered the game completing nearly 70 percent of his passes. But against one of the top defenses in the country the former Duke point guard faltered, throwing five interceptions as the Orange committed seven turnovers.

Paulus finished 25 for 46 for 269 yards, was sacked three times, and equaled the school mark for interceptions set by Todd Norley in a 28-7 loss at Penn State in 1982.

''I don't think I've had five interceptions before,'' said Paulus, a star quarterback in high school in Syracuse. ''I've had eight, nine, 10 turnovers in basketball. You just can't do that against a good opponent. You start to press a little bit. It's all on me.''

Daniels' strike to Mitchell gave South Florida a 21-13 lead, but Paulus guided the Orange right back down the field to the USF 21, converting on third-and-long situations three straight times. But the fourth third down of the drive led to another turnover when Pierre-Paul hit Paulus' throwing arm as he released the ball and Kayvon Webster intercepted.

Daniels then guided USF on a 48-yard scoring drive capped by Mike Ford's 5-yard run.

Pierre-Paul made his critical interception on the Orange's next possession, laying back at the line of scrimmage on first down.

''I saw it and I grabbed it,'' said Pierre-Paul, who scored untouched. ''I was waiting and I was surprised.''

''I didn't see him,'' said Paulus, who had touchdown throws of 11 and 29 yards to Mike Williams. ''They brought pressure. I thought I could throw it over the pressure. I probably should have thrown the ball away. We'll learn from this. Sometimes, you have to have an experience like this to take a couple of steps forward.''

Since joining the Big East, the Bulls are 22-5 out of conference, with wins over Auburn, Florida State, Kansas, North Carolina and North Carolina State. In conference, they are only 15-14 and have never finished better than 4-3.

The lone exception has been Syracuse. South Florida is 5-0 against the Orange, having beaten them by a combined 174-53. But this one was by far the most difficult because, even though the Bulls scored four times off SU turnovers, they also lost three fumbles.

''We needed all of them for us to win that game,'' South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt said. ''You can't imagine how difficult it was for him (Daniels) to come in here today, after the game he had last week with all the pressure, and face a group that defended him well. He kept his head about him and finished the game out, and that is pretty impressive.''

Ford also scored on a 26-yard run in the first quarter and Mitchell caught a 33-yard TD pass from Daniels in the second.

The first 5 minutes of the game featured five turnovers. Syracuse lost two fumbles and Paulus was intercepted deep in USF territory. Orange nose tackle Arthur Jones recovered fumbles by the Bulls on their first two plays from scrimmage. Daniels fumbled his first snap of the game and wideout Dontavia Bogan lost another fumble right after Nate Allen picked off a Paulus pass at the USF 17.

''It was like high school after the first five minutes,'' said Daniels, who was 12 for 20 for 208 yards and gained 32 yards rushing. ''I guess our focus wasn't all the way there.''

The Bulls settled down after their shaky start. Mitchell had six catches for 139 yards, more than offsetting another stellar performance by his counterpart on the Orange. Williams had a career-high 13 catches for 186 yards for Syracuse.

Team Notes
- USF opened the BIG EAST season on the road for the first time since joining the conference in 2005.
- With the win over Syracuse, the Bulls improved to 5-0 for the third straight year and just the fourth time in the program's 13-year history.
- USF is 3-2 in BIG EAST openers, with victories in 2009 (at Syracuse 34-20),  2007 (vs. West Virginia, 21-13) and 2005 (vs. Louisville, 45-14) and losses in 2008 (vs. Pittsburgh, 21-26) and 2006 (vs. Rutgers, 20-22).
- USF leads the all-time series 5-0 and is 3-0 at the Carrier Dome.  Along with today, USF has won by scores of 27-0 (2005) and 41-10 (2007) at the famous indoor venue. 
- Jim Leavitt has a career record of 92-52 and is in his 13th season at USF.   Leavitt is 29-32 in true road games and 59-45 on television.  
- Offensive starters for the game were: WR Carlton Mitchell, OL Jamar Bass, LT Jeremiah Warren, LG Chaz Hine, C Sampson Genus, RG Zach Hermann, RT Jacob Sims, WR A.J. Love, QB B.J. Daniels, FB Richard Kelly, RB Mo Plancher.
- Defensive starters were: DE Craig Marshall, NT Terrell McClain, DT Aaron Harris, DE George Selvie, LB Sabbath Joseph, LB Kion Wilson, LB Chris Robinson, CB Quentin Washington, S Mistral Raymond, FS Nate Allen, CB Jerome Murphy.
- In the first 10 plays of the game, USF forced three turnovers and Syracuse forced two. The Bulls picked up a pair of fumbles and had an interception while the Orange forced two fumbles.
- USF has scored a touchdown before its opponent in all four games this season. Western Kentucky actually scored first in their game against the Bulls, though, a 40-yard field goal.
- With seven turnovers gained in the game, USF takes the NCAA lead with 16 turnovers gained. Air Force is second with 15, as of Sept. 26.
- The USF offense now has seven plays of more than 47 yards in 2009. The Bulls' longest passing play of 2008 was a 47-yard hookup between Grothe and Mitchell.
- USF forced and recovered two fumbles and had five interceptions in the game. Syracuse forced four and recovered three fumbles. The seven turnovers for Syracuse ties a game-high mark for USF opponents. USF forced seven against Louisville in 2007 and Houston in 2002.
- Since 2005, USF has forced 128 turnovers and if you include blocked kicks, the number jumps to 142.
- The USF defense has intercepted a pass in 21 of the last 31 games and has 40 picks during that time.
- USF is 33-8 when opponents score 11-20 points and 24-2 when the Bulls score 31-40 points. USF is 75-5 when leading after the second quarter and 79-5 when leading after the third quarter.

Individual Notes
- In the first quarter, S Nate Allen recorded his first interception of the season.  Allen grabbed his second interception of the game, and seventh of his career, in the third quarter.
- In the first quarter Terrell McClain forced a fumble and Quentin Washington recovered it for the first turnover of the game. USF has now forced and recovered a fumble in three of the first four games, forcing two against both Wofford and CSU and recovering one against CSU and two against Wofford.
- Sabbath Joseph forced USF's second fumble and third turnover of the game.  Jerome Murphy recovered that fumble. Joseph has five career forced fumbles and Murphy racked up his second career fumble recovery on the play.
- On his first carry of the game, RB Mike Ford picked up four yards to tie Vince Brewer's 1,099 career rushing yards, which is the eighth-most in USF history. One carry later, Ford added two more yards to take sole possession of the No. 8 spot in the record book with 1,163 yards. He is now chasing Ben Williams' 1,169 yards, which he collected from 2005-08.
- On his 23rd birthday, senior RB Mike Ford ran over the Syracuse Orange defense for a 26-yard TD return, his second touchdown of the season and 19th of his career. In the third quarter, he stomped into the end zone on a five-yard run to tie Marquel Blackwell with 20 career rushing TDs. Andre Hall leads the category with 24 and Matt Grothe has 23.
- In the second quarter, Murphy made an interception, which led to USF's second TD of the game.
- With 6:06 left in the second quarter, B.J. Daniels connected on a 33-yard pass with WR Carlton Mitchell to score USF's second TD of the game. The completion is Daniels' fifth passing TD of the year and Mitchell's second TD of the season and seventh of his career.
- USF opened the second half with a one-play scoring strike as Daniels hit Mitchell for an 85-yard TD reception. The play was the longest of the season for the Bulls, surpassing the 77-yard pass from Daniels to Theo Wilson against Florida State.
- The 85-yard TD was also the second longest TD pass in school history. The longest was a 95-yard strike from QB Marquel Blackwell to DeAndrew Rubin against Northern Illinois on Sept. 7, 2002.
- The 85-yard reception by Mitchell is his fourth play over 50 yards this season, including two passes from Matt Grothe against Western Kentucky of 50 and 65 yards, and a 50-yarder from Grothe against Charleston Southern.
- KR Dontavia Bogan collected 109 kick return yards to surpass the career 1,000-yard plateau. He entered the game with 917 yards.
- Bogan also moves into second in career kickoff returns with 40. He passed Charlie Jackson and Taurus Johnson, who each had 39. Bogan now trails DeAndrew Rubin's 60 returns.
- In the third quarter, Kayvon Webster picked up his first interception of the season.

Carlton Mitchell notes
- Mitchell moves ahead of teammate Jesse Hester and ties Scott McCready (1997-00) with eight career touchdown receptions. Mitchell now trails Hugh Smith (1999-02) and RJ Anderson (1998-99), who each have 10 career TD receptions.
- Against Syracuse, Mitchell collected his fourth 100-yard receiving game, and set a personal best with 139 yards in the game. His previous 100-yard high was 130 yards against Western Kentucky in 2009. He also had two 100-yard games in 2007, with totals of 107 (vs. UCF) and 110 (vs. Cincinnati) yards.
- Mitchell ended the game with 139 receiving yards. The school record is 149 yards in five catches by Clif Dell against Kentucky Wesleyan on Sept. 6, 1997.
- Mitchell moves past DeAndrew Rubin's 1,306 career receiving yards to take the fifth spot in the record book with 1,319 career yards. Mitchell now trails No. 4 Charlie Jackson's 1,373 yards.