30th Anniversary Series: Essential Road Performances
October 04, 2026 | Football
Editor's Note: To commemorate the University of South Florida's 30th football season, GoUSFBulls.com is presenting a 12-part series that covers the sights, sounds, milestones, biggest games, top performers and unforgettable personalities from the program's history. The installments will appear each Sunday that precedes a South Florida game week. Today's Part 6 is South Florida's Essential Road Trips.
A few days before the Bulls traveled to Notre Dame for the 2011 season-opener, USF head coach Skip Holtz was asked if he had ever seen "Rudy,'' the blockbuster feel-good movie about the fabled walk-on hero of Fighting Irish football fame.ย
Holtz, straight-faced: "Rudy lived across the street from me.''
True story: Holtz, a Notre Dame alum and assistant coach when his father Lou was the Fighting Irish head coach, knew Rudy Ruettiger quite well. By now, everyone knows the story. Rudy, the indomitable underdog, never quit. And at the close of the 1975 season, he got in for a few plays with his beloved Fighting Irish.
Rudy drafted a movie script about his improbable story. Nobody wanted it. Rudy, then a sales manager at a car dealership, was ready to surrender his dream. That's when Skip Holtz invited him to the deck behind his home and gave some Rudy-like advice to the real-life Rudy.
"Don't give up,'' Skip Holtz told Rudy. "It's good. Keep trying.''
After its 1993 production, "Rudy'' had a total box-office revenue of nearly $23-million. Ruettiger became a motivational speaker who traveled the world and inspired millions of people.
Which brings us to the legendary proceedings of Sept. 3, 2011 โ South Florida at No. 16-ranked Notre Dame โ when the Bulls faced Rudy-like odds. South Florida became the 60th team to visit Notre Dame Stadium (and only eight programs had won in debuts there).ย
Entering its 15th season, South Florida football already had won at places such as Auburn, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. But this was different. This was Notre Dame.
Touchdown Jesus. The Four Horsemen. Eleven national titles. Seven Heisman Trophy winners. A national following on NBC-TV. The Grotto. The Golden Dome. The Notre Dame Victory March: "Wake up the echoes โฆ shake down the thunder from the sky.''
That Notre Dame.
"None of us viewed Notre Dame as just another game on the schedule,'' Bulls cornerback Kayvon Webster said. "We trained like crazy all offseason. We knew what was ahead of us. It was a chance to get on the big-time radar.''
The Bulls did just that.
South Florida 23, Notre Dame 20.
The Bulls had plenty of inspiration after learning that Lee Roy Selmon โ the Pro Football Hall of Famer, former USF athletic director and point man for creating the school's football program โ had been hospitalized in critical condition. South Florida players wore No. 63 stickers โ Selmon's NFL football number โ on the back of their helmets.
Webster made the game's biggest play. On the game's first series, the Irish drove 76 yards in seven plays and were at South Florida's 4-yard line. Then defensive back Jerrell Young stripped the ball away from Notre Dame running back Jonas Gray. It bounced to Webster. And suddenly, he was gone, completing a 96-yard fumble-return touchdown that stunned the crowd of 80,795.
"It was a thrill, but we still had a long day ahead of us,'' Webster said.
Longer than anyone could have expected.
Because of severe lightning, the game was interrupted for two hours and 10 minutes with South Florida holding a 16-0 halftime lead. With 4:21 remaining and the Irish rallying, there was another 43-minute delay. Both times, the stadium was evacuated.
"It was one of the most painful games I ever played in,'' Bulls linebacker Sam Barrington said. "It was very difficult to warm up, go inside and cool off, then warm up again. My body was aching.
"I saw some guts that day. I remember looking at guys in the locker room and they're saying, 'Hey, I can't go right now.' Ten minutes later, they found a way. We bonded together and got it done.''ย
The Bulls got three field goals from Maikon Bonani, along with a touchdown pass from B.J. Daniels to tight end Evan Landi.
The statistics were eye-opening. Notre Dame gained 508 yards to just 254 for USF. But the mistake-free Bulls forced five turnovers, three in the red zone.
"I knew we were going to a historic place,'' said Daniels, who remembered watching "Rudy'' on television with his father back home in Tallahassee. "This was a big, big deal. Once again, we proved who we were โ a big underdog in everyone else's mind, but a team that was very capable of rising up. That was the name we made for ourselves. USF football was a force to be reckoned with.''
ย
Here are more of South Florida's Essential Road Trips, the times when the Bulls either pulled an upset or scared the daylights out of a brand-name opponent while playing at some of college football's most famous venues:
ย
Oklahoma 31, South Florida 14 at Norman, Okla. (Sept. 28, 2002) โ South Florida's first appearance on national television (TBS) produced a game that was much closer than it looked at Owen Field. The No. 2-ranked Sooners, which finished as a 12-2 Rose Bowl champion, had to work for each of their 239 yards. The Bulls surrendered an 82-yard punt-return touchdown and committed three turnovers (two of which set up OU touchdowns). The Bulls were penalized 15 times for 124 yards. Attendance: 74,432.
ย
Penn State 23, South Florida 13 at State College, Pa. (Sept. 3, 2005) โ After falling into a 17-point hole at Beaver Stadium, the Bulls battled back and made it a competitive game in the second half against Coach Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions. QB Pat Julmiste, coming off the bench, was 21-for-35 with 200 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to WR Johnny Peyton. That Penn State team finished 11-1 and was a co-Big Ten Conference champion. It defeated Florida State 26-23 in a triple-overtime Orange Bowl. Attendance: 99,235.
ย
South Florida 26, Auburn 23 (OT) at Auburn, Ala. (Sept. 8, 2007) โ The Bulls earned the program's first victory against an SEC team by deflating the No. 17-ranked Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. After Auburn was limited to a field goal in its portion of overtime, QB Matt Grothe ended it with a 14-yard touchdown pass to WR Jessie Hester Jr. That Auburn team finished 9-4 with victories against Florida, Alabama and Clemson. Attendance: 82,617.
ย
South Florida 41, NC State 10 at Raleigh, N.C. (Sept. 27, 2008) โ The Bulls dominated the ACC's Wolfpack in a downpour at Carter-Finley Stadium. QB Matt Grothe completed his first 11 passes, finishing 20 of 29 overall for 259 yards. The Bulls had 354 of their 514 total yards in the first half. The Wolfpack played without injured freshman QB Russell Wilson, who became that season's ACC Rookie of the Year. Attendance: 57,583.
ย
South Florida 17, Florida State 7 at Tallahassee (Sept. 26, 2009) โ Freshman QB B.J. Daniels led an upset of Coach Bobby Bowden's No. 18-ranked Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium. Daniels, a Tallahassee native, got his first USF start after a season-ending injury to Matt Grothe in the previous week. Attendance: 83,524.
ย
South Florida 23, Miami 20 (OT) at Miami Gardens (Nov. 27, 2010) โ Freshman QB Bobby Eveld, taking over for the injured B.J. Daniels at halftime, tied it with a touchdown late in regulation, then DB Jerrell Young's interception with five seconds remaining prevented Miami from a potential game-winning field-goal attempt. When Miami settled for a field goal in its portion of OT, South Florida won it on Demetris Murray's 1-yard run at Sun Life Stadium. Attendance: 41,118.
ย
Michigan State 21, South Florida 6 at East Lansing, Mich. (Sept. 7, 2013) โ The Bulls limited the Big Ten Conference's Spartans to 265 yards at Spartan Stadium, but the game turned around when DE Shilique Calhoun raced for a 56-yard interception-return touchdown in the third quarter. Calhoun also scored Michigan State's first TD on a 4-yard fumble return. South Florida's Marvin Kloss provided two second-quarter field goals and the third-quarter deficit was 7-6 when Calhoun struck with his second defensive TD. That Michigan State team finished 13-1, won the Big Ten title and defeated Stanford at the Rose Bowl. Attendance: 70,401.
ย
Wisconsin 27, South Florida 10 at Madison, Wis. (Sept. 27, 2014) โ At Camp Randall Stadium, one of the Big Ten Conference's most fabled settings, it was tied at halftime and a one-score game in the third quarter. Then the No. 15-ranked Badgers pulled away behind the power of RB Melvin Gordon (131 of his 181 yards in the second half). The Bulls had cut it to 17-10 in the third on a 26-yard jet-sweep reverse TD by WR Rodney Adams. That Wisconsin team finished 11-3, reached the Big Ten Championship Game and defeated Auburn at the Outback Bowl. Attendance: 78,111
ย
BYU 35, South Florida 27 at Provo, Utah (Sept. 25, 2021) โ After falling behind by three touchdowns in the first quarter, the Bulls played the No. 15-ranked Cougars off their cleats at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Freshman QB Timmy McClain, in his second career start, engineered scoring drives of 69, 62, 75, 54 and 94 yards and South Florida outscored BYU 21-7 in the second half while scoring on five of its final six possessions. That BYU team finished 10-3. Attendance: 60,217.
ย
Alabama 42, South Florida 16 at Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Sept. 7, 2024) โ The Bulls largely gave a good account of themselves against the No. 4-ranked Crimson Tide before an ultra-competitive game got out of hand with three Alabama touchdowns late in the fourth quarter. Attendance: 100,077.
ย
South Florida 18, Florida 16 at Gainesville (Sept. 6, 2025) โ The Bulls mounted an eight-play, 87-yard drive that culminated in Nico Gramatica's 20-yard walk-off field goal as the Swamp went silent (except for the few thousand green-and-gold loyalists). By defeating the No. 13-ranked Gators, USF became the first program to win games at each of Florida's other six FBS schools. Attendance: 89,909.
ย
โ30thAnniversaryโ
ย
Joey Johnston
Athletics Senior Writer
