A King Cougar Victory

By on October 28, 2017

Tampa, Fla. — The nation’s longest winning streak (12 games) was on the line in Tampa today and standing in the way was a stout Houston Cougars team. The Cougars fresh off a tough four point at home vs the #24 Memphis Tigers came to Raymond James Stadium to play. And at the final whistle two things were very evident, the Houston Cougars played well to the end and everyone in Raymond James this day knows who D’Eriq King is.

King made two huge plays, one by land and one by air.  King finished with 83 rushing yards on 20 carries but the Bulls faithful wished it was 63 yards on 19 carries.   King crossed the goal line with just 11 seconds left in the 4th quarter leaving the Bulls faithful stunned.  The 9 play, 49 yard dagger in 1:35 was set up by three key plays.  First a 50 yard kickoff return by Brandon McDowell just into USF territory to the 49.  Then after a consecutive losses of 4 & 10 due to a tackle for loss and a sack, it was 4th and 24 from the Houston 47, 4th and 24!!!  King completed a 30 yarder to Courtney Lark in all kinds of traffic down to the USF 33.  Charlie Strong said of the play, “Just go up and knock it down and get off the field and the game’s over.” After a rush of 6 and a pass completion of 6 it was first and ten on the USF 21.  An incomplete pass and a King skip out of bounds for a yard set up the climax, back backing scene.  On 3 and 9 from the 20, King zigged and zagged into the end zone sending Houston bench and few fans that made the trip into delirium.

Now coming into the Bulls have scored 30 plus points in 24 straight games, a NCAA AP Poll era (since 1936) record, which was in doubt at the end of the first fifteen minutes as the first quarter ended deadlocked with zeros.

The Cougar defense slowed the Bulls offensive attack in the first quarter holding the USF offense to just 86 yards. The Cougars offense only managed 28 yards.  The Cougars stopped the Bulls a critical 4th and 1 from the Houston 11 late in the quarter.

USF finally, on their fifth possession (second of the second quarter) hit pay-dirt complements of a two-yard plunge by D’Ernest Johnson. I guess finally can be used because USF during the 24 game 30 plus point streak, scored often and early. The Bulls took the 7-0 lead to the halftime locker room and the uneasy feeling of the rain soaked crowd was arise at Raymond James Stadium.

That uneasy feeling turned to real concern when the Cougars took the 2nd half opening drive 75 yards in a swift 1:58 in just six plays as D’Eriq King connected with Courtney Lark on a 39 yard pitch and catch, with the extra point the game is tied 7-7.

Later in the 3rd quarter the teams traded rushing touchdowns to tie the score at 14.  For USF, Quinton Flowers a 3 yard sweep assisted by a great seal block by Mitch Wilcox and Houston’s Mulbah Car plowed in from the 4. Car was the game high rusher with 137 yards on 18 carries for a blistering 7.6 yards per carry.

USF paced a touchdown lead back with 10:27 left in regulation when Flowers scored his second TD again with his wheels.  Flowers counterpart would not be out done as King from the 1 and the extra point tied it at 21.

USF in a tie game with the winning streak on the line, let alone an AP ranking of 17 puts together their most impressive drive of the game.  A 64 yard, 10 play drive ending with an Emilio Nadleman field goal of 30 yards off the soggy Raymond James Stadium turf.

Now with just 1:46 left, the Bulls need to play defense and shut down the Cougars.  Again King not be out done by Flowers takes advantage of the great return by McDowell and then King makes what I’m sure are to of the biggest plays of the Sophomore’s career.

USF still a task at hand with three more American Athletic Conference games left including the Black Friday War on I4 at UCF, who is currently undefeated in the conference at 4-0 and 7-0 overall.  Just for fun the Knights pounded non-conference Austin-Peay today 73-33.

Houston Passing
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT
D’Eriq King 12/20 137 6.8 1 0
Kyle Postma 2/5 5 1.0 0 0
TEAM 14/25 142 5.7 1 0
South Florida Passing
C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT
Quinton Flowers 23/38 325 8.6 0 0
TEAM 23/38 325 8.6 0 0
Houston Rushing
CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
Mulbah Car 18 137 7.6 1 46
D’Eriq King 20 83 4.2 2 44
Duke Catalon 8 23 2.9 0 15
Kyle Postma 2 12 6.0 0 12
TEAM 48 255 5.3 3 46
South Florida Rushing
CAR YDS AVG TD LONG
Darius Tice 26 92 3.5 0 18
D’Ernest Johnson 14 32 2.3 1 8
Quinton Flowers 14 7 0.5 2 16
Marquez Valdes-Scantling 1 6 6.0 0 6
TEAM 55 137 2.5 3 18
Houston Receiving
REC YDS AVG TD LONG
Courtney Lark 2 69 34.5 1 39
Linell Bonner 6 40 6.7 0 23
Steven Dunbar 3 19 6.3 0 13
John Leday 2 14 7.0 0 7
Davion Mitchell 1 0 0.0 0 0
TEAM 14 142 10.1 1 39
South Florida Receiving
REC YDS AVG TD LONG
Marquez Valdes-Scantling 10 186 18.6 0 38
Tyre McCants 3 54 18.0 0 33
Darnell Salomon 4 49 12.3 0 22
Temi Alaka 2 21 10.5 0 11
Deangelo Antoine 2 9 4.5 0 9
Mitchell Wilcox 1 4 4.0 0 4
Elkanah Dillon 1 2 2.0 0 2
TEAM 23 325 14.1 0 38
Houston Fumbles
FUM LOST REC
Mulbah Car 1 1 0
– Team 1 0 0
TEAM 2 1 0
South Florida Fumbles
FUM LOST REC
Devin Abraham 0 0 1
TEAM 0 0 1
Houston Defense
TACKLES MISC
TOT SOLO SACKS TFL PD QB HUR TD
D’Juan Hines 13 10 0 2 0 0 0
Austin Robinson 7 6 1 2 0 0 0
Ed Oliver 7 5 1 2 1 0 0
Emeke Egbule 7 3 0 1 0 0 0
Leroy Godfrey 6 4 1 2 0 0 0
Khalil Williams 6 4 0 1 1 0 0
Terrell Williams 6 4 0 0 0 0 0
Alexander Myres 6 4 0 0 0 0 0
Matthew Adams 4 4 0 0 0 0 0
David Anenih 3 3 1 1 0 0 0
Reggie Chevis 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
Joeal Williams 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Jerard Carter 2 2 0 1 0 0 0
Terry Mark 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Payton Turner 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Nick Thurman 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Isaiah Johnson 2 1 0 0 1 0 0
Cameron Doubenmier 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Garrett Davis 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Jeremy Winchester 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Josh Burrell 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
TEAM 84 62 4 12 3 0 0
South Florida Defense
TACKLES MISC
TOT SOLO SACKS TFL PD QB HUR TD
Deadrin Senat 12 8 2.5 4 0 0 0
Deatrick Nichols 10 9 0 1 1 0 0
Auggie Sanchez 10 6 0 0 0 0 0
Greg Reaves 9 6 0.5 2.5 0 0 0
Khalid McGee 6 5 0 0 0 0 0
Jaymon Thomas 3 3 0 0 0 0 0
Devin Abraham 3 2 0 0 0 0 0
Nico Sawtelle 3 2 0 1 0 0 0
Mike Love 3 1 1 1.5 1 0 0
Emilio Nadelman 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Tajee Fullwood 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Josh Black 2 1 0 1 0 0 0
Kevin Bronson 2 1 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
Ronnie Hoggins 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tyre McCants 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Trevon Sands 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Bruce Hector 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mazzi Wilkins 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
Kelvin Pinkney 1 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0
Mike Hampton 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
TEAM 74 50 5 12 4 0 0
Houston Interceptions
INT YDS TD
No Houston Interceptions
South Florida Interceptions
INT YDS TD
No South Florida Interceptions
Houston Kick Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
John Leday 2 70 35.0 43 0
Brandon McDowell 1 50 50.0 50 0
TEAM 3 120 40.0 50 0
South Florida Kick Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
D’Ernest Johnson 2 35 17.5 18 0
TEAM 2 35 17.5 18 0
Houston Punt Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Brandon McDowell 4 12 3.0 7 0
– Team 1 8 8.0 0 0
TEAM 5 20 4.0 7 0
South Florida Punt Returns
NO YDS AVG LONG TD
Tajee Fullwood 1 9 9.0 9 0
Donelle Thomas 1 1 1.0 1 0
TEAM 2 10 5.0 9 0
Houston Kicking
FG PCT LONG XP PTS
Caden Novikoff 0/0 0.0 0 4/4 4
TEAM 0/0 0.0 0 4/4 4
South Florida Kicking
FG PCT LONG XP PTS
Emilio Nadelman 1/1 100.0 30 3/3 6
TEAM 1/1 100.0 30 3/3 6
Houston Punting
NO YDS AVG TB IN 20 LONG
Dane Roy 8 384 48.0 2 4 58
TEAM 8 384 48.0 2 4 58
South Florida Punting
NO YDS AVG TB IN 20 LONG
Jonathan Hernandez 9 362 40.2 1 0 53
TEAM 9 362 40.2 1 0 53
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