This is the first in a series of posts looking back at the regular season and looking ahead to USF's bowl date with Clemson on New Year's Eve. As promised, with USF headed to Charlotte to finish the 2010 season, Ben Folds quotes will be all over this thing.
Have the last eight USF football games left you exhausted with sweaty palms and shortness of breath? Have you noticed an unusual number of erratic, possibly irrational mood swings while watching the Bulls play? Does it take you awhile to calm down when the final whistle blows?
Starting with the first conference game, against Syracuse, and going through the entire conference schedule, along with the game at Miami, here are some stats to prove why it's been such a grind to watch USF football from October on:
- The last eight games have been decided by a total of 43 points. No final margin was larger than 14 points, and seven of the eight have been decided by eight points or less.
- The biggest lead any team had at any time in these games was 15 points, which was USF's lead on two occasions against Cincinnati.
- The last six games have all been decided on the last play or the next-to-last play.
- USF was outgained in six of the eight games, and won four of those six. (The two games where they gained more yards were against Rutgers, a one-point win, and in the loss to UConn.)
- Except for the Cincinnati game, USF did not throw for 200 yards in any of the last eight games.
- To play off a stat pulled up by Greg Auman, USF lost four of the five games in this stretch where it gave up 20 points or less, and won all three games where they gave up 21 or more.
- Six of the eight games included a score in the fourth quarter that either tied, untied, or changed the lead in the game.
- USF trailed in the fourth quarter in seven out of the eight games. They won the only game where they didn't trail and won three of the seven where they did.
- Voodoo has written 137 ALL-CAPS STRESSED OUT MANIC DEPRESSIVE TWEETS in the last eight games. (NOTE: Not an official count but it sounds about right,) Mom and Dad, you made me so uptight, gonna cuss on Twitter tonight!
Bonus shoutout to Phil Steele's USF page, which was very useful in putting these numbers together quickly.
Ben Folds - Myspace Gig - Rockin' the Suburbs (via theSuburbsUK)