Bull Run

Here's all you need to know about what South Florida's defense did to West Virginia on Friday night: Dick Vitale.

By the second quarter of the game, ESPN2's cameras were turned to Dickie V in the Raymond James Stadium club seats. With very little prompting, Vitale donned a headset and spoke at length with play-by-play man Sean McDonough about USF, life in west Florida (Vitale lives in Sarasota), the Devil Rays, and whatever else Dickie V could think of. This was during play, mind you.

Still in the first half, McDonough offered a lengthy background on USF linebacker Ben Moffitt, who is married with two kids and commutes 45 minutes each way to school and practice. Again, this story came to us during the game.

(McDonough's best line of the night, uttered upon seeing Vitale's presumably long-suffering bride sitting next to Dickie V: "There's Mrs. Vitale to Dick's right, still waiting to speak her first words." Perfect.)

Let me offer you this nugget about how sports are produced on television: when the crew starts going to interviews in the stands and lengthy biographical sketches of players, they ain't doing that to "enhance the broadcast."

They do that when the game is a dud, or a blowout. USF fans should take this as a compliment.

The final stats on Friday night don't reflect it, but South Florida's defense was absolutely stifling. West Virginia, a team ranked 2nd in the nation in rushing coming in, managed 188 yards on the ground -- 169 yards below its average.

I said it on Rec Warehouse College Kickoff, and I'll say it again: USF's defense on Friday night was as good as I've seen anybody play all year. Period.

Big Four, Big Five, whatever. That's a win over Auburn and West Virginia in the same season for a program that's barely ten years old.

South Florida is hereby legit.