Chasing Grothe: Past the Halfway Mark

The matchup against Louisville pretty much delivered what was expected: A lot of Cardinal defense and not a lot of room for error. Daniels left the bye week with 9773 career yards, fifth in Big East history and 1102 yards away from tying Matt Grothe's record (10875). With only six games to go, it's time he starts moving if he plans on closing in on the record. Since he couldn't rack up a bunch of yards against Temple and Ball State, he'll have to do it against some tough defenses in Louisville and Cincinnati.

The game plan was relatively conservative, and the offense was largely carried by Lindsey Lamar and his first career 100+ yard rushing game. Daniels was effective in his passing, though, completing 21 of 38 attempts for 189 yards with one interception on a Hail Mary as time expired. What really damped his day offensively was his ineffectiveness on the ground. Daniels ran for a positive 34 yards on the day, but the Louisville line evened the score with a few sacks of their own, for a loss of a total 34 yards, bringing the net gain on the ground to zero.

So, after what may be one of the rougher defensive tests of the season, B.J. emerged in relatively decent shape, though his quota is ever-growing. With the added numbers, his career total is now up to 9962, growing closer and closer to that 10,000 mark. Barring a dismal performance against Syracuse this homecoming weekend, he should eclipse the 10,000 yard point sometime in the first quarter. The only two Big East quarterbacks to achieve that number are Grothe, of course, and West Virginia's Pat White. With five games remaining, Daniels is looking at a 913 yard gap between himself and Grothe, and 567 behind White, for what it's worth. In order to achieve just second in the record books, Daniels would need to just average 113.4 yards per game for the next five games. To make it to #1, he'll need 182.6 yards per game. If he misses a game for any reason, those numbers for #1 and #2 go up to 228.25 and 141.75 YPG, respectively. Seeing as how USF needs to win all but one game to make a bowl, I'll save myself the trouble of that calculation for now. For now, though, go to the USF homecoming game vs. Syracuse on Saturday to see B.J. pass the 10,000 yard mark, after gaining 48 yards.