USF Football Gets Destroyed by ECU 48-28

USF Football was taken apart piece by piece versus the ECU Pirates 48-28 on Saturday afternoon at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton. The game was moved to FAU earlier this week as the state of Florida prepared for the impact of Hurricane Ian.

Pirates QB Holton Ahlers connected with wide out CJ Johnson for a 60-yard touchdown pass just minutes into the game, and it effectively put the nail in the coffin for the Bulls. Ahlers threw for 465 yards and six touchdown—both records against USF in a single game. Johnson hauled in four of those touchdowns—also a USF opponent record.

USF trailed 14-0 after one quarter, and 41-7 at halftime. That’s all you need to know. Yet again, a Jeff Scott-led team was out of the game before the first half ended. The Bulls have trailed by two or more scores after the first quarter in 12 of Scott’s 23 FBS games.

With 13:30 left in the fourth quarter trailing by 20, the Bulls forced an ECU turnover, and started at the Pirates 35-yard line. USF wasted nearly seven minutes of the game clock only to come up a yard shy of a touchdown.

“We weren’t in two-minute offense mode at that point,” Scott said about the lack of urgency to score trailing by 20 points with 13 minutes left in the game.

Scott is now 1-22 in FBS games as a head coach. USF will travel to Cincinnati next week.

Notable

• Jimmy Horn caught eight passes for 180 yards, including a 91-yard touchdown. He added another TD in the second half.
• Brian Battie rushed for 96 yards.
• Gerry Bohanon threw for 253 yards and three touchdowns. He had a costly fumble in the first half that took points off the board for the Bulls.