Last year at about this time, the college football world got swept up in what was quickly turning into one of the more remarkable stories of recent vintage.  The Rutgers Scarlet Knights, long the doormat of not just the Big East conference but of all college football, were on the rise.  In fact, in order to fully appreciate the depth of futility of the Rutgers football program, all you needed to know was that the school had gone to exactly two bowl games in its 136-year football history.

 

However, Greg Schiano's team was having a remarkable season in 2006.  Led by a tireless, hard-nosed senior (fullback Brian Leonard), a brilliant sophomore (RB Ray Rice), and a relentless stalwart on the defensive line (DT Eric Foster), Rutgers had reeled off nine wins in a row and sparked debate about the viability of extending a legitimate opportunity to play for the National Championship to the one-time laughingstock from Central Jersey.  They were everyone's Cinderella team and garnered a fair amount of national support, mostly driven by their underdog appeal.

 

But a funny thing happened on the way to the BCS Title Game ball, midnight rang in Cincinnati.  A stunning 30-11 drubbing by the 6-5 Bearcats ended the Scarlet Knights' title hopes and turned their otherwise regal carriage of a season into a flattened pumpkin on the turf of Nippert Stadium.

 

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

In 2007, the bloom appears to be off the Rutgers football rose.  While the Scarlet Knights are still a talented and successful team, a pair of early-season losses have dropped last year's media darlings out of the national rankings.  The shoe, or in this case, the glass slipper, is on someone else's foot this season.  

 

  

That foot, it turns out, belongs to another previously unheralded Big East team, the University of South Florida Bulls.  Unlike Rutgers, which had had over a century of gridiron misery before capturing lightning in a bottle, USF has little football history at all.  The South Florida football program has only been in existence since 1997 and, of that time, has only been a Div-1A school for the last seven seasons.  So, the real surprise of their ascent in 2007 has less to do with a futile legacy and more to do with the school's lack of any kind of legacy.  New kids are simply not supposed to be this good this soon.

 

That said, the 2007 Bulls have more in common with the 2006 Scarlet Knights than not.  If you recall, Rutgers had parlayed a gutsy senior leader, a sophomore phenom, and a dominant defensive lineman into a near-dream season.  South Florida is doing the same with an eerily similar ledger.

 

Gutsy senior leader. Check. 

 

USF linebacker Ben Moffit doesn't understand what it means to quit.  You simply work until cannot anymore.  As proof of that, he spends his off-seasons felling trees.  That's right. Paul Bunyan is alive and well.  And he plays middle linebacker for the South Florida Bulls.  On a football field, that means four quarters on overdrive - 60 minutes of keeping your foot on the gas.  It also means film study and gym work all day long to prepare to play one of the most demanding positions on the field and then a long drive home at night in time to tuck in your two young kids.  

 

  

And he repeats the home portion of that cycle because he knows what it's like when your father isn't around to do that.  Moffit's birth father left his family when he was just months old.

 

He repeats the football part of that cycle, because he knows that his teammates count on him to make plays - like the one he made in USF's signature win against West Virginia earlier this season.  In the first quarter against the then fifth-ranked Mountaineers, Moffit picked off a pass and returned it 26 yards for the game's first score.  Although the Bulls had beaten West Virginia a year before, Moffit's stunning TD seemed to give his teammates the momentum they needed for an encore.  He also had a second interception in the game, a fourth quarter pick that sealed the win, 21-13.  So, when the Bulls are staring at one of the big trees in college football that needs to be brought down, they have a guy who knows just how it is done.

 

Sophomore phenom.  Check.

 

It's probably safe to say that the South Florida offense depends heavily on QB Matt Grothe to make things happen.  In 2006, Grothe, as a freshman, threw for over 2,000 yards and 12 TD's.  He was also the team's leading rusher, scampering for 509 yards and a team-high 7 scores.  This year, the addition of highly-touted RB Mike Ford was supposed to take some of the heat off of USF's star QB.  However, it is Grothe again who leads the Bulls in rushing with 346 yards.  

 

  

And the second-year QB's style of play can probably best be described as chaotic.  Whether scrambling wildly for jagged gains or firing the ball downfield with equal parts hope and arrogance, Grothe always sees possibility and never pitfall.  Fittingly, one of Grothe's football idols growing up was one of the biggest gunslingers of them all, Brett Favre.  And while Favre is headed for Canton and Grothe is still taking mid-terms, it's not difficult to see a little of Favre's bravado in the young QB's game.

 

Perhaps, that kind of swagger is required to lead a team that has no reference point for its current altitude and no way of knowing what is required to stay in that rarified air.  If so, Grothe seems to have that swagger, and it's probably a good thing because a certain degree of fearlessness will be required for how much further the team has to go in the pitch dark.

 

Dominant defensive lineman.  Check.

 

George Selvie had originally wanted to protect college QB's rather than smashing them into the turf.  However, USF Coach Jim Leavitt has to be pleased with the way things turned out.  Although he'd been recruited as an offensive lineman, at 230 pounds, Selvie looked more like a center in the low post than a snapper on the football field.  So, his transition to defensive end seemed to suit his frame much better.  How much better likely surprised even Selvie and Leavitt.  

 

  

Opponents have found that Selvie simply cannot be blocked.  In six games this season, he already has 11.5 sacks and 22 tackles for loss.  And the scariest part may be that, as a sophomore, Selvie is only going to get better.  As for any possibility of a let-up, it's not likely.  His father was a 20-year Navy veteran, and it's easy to see a similar sense of dedication and discipline in his son.

 

So, when USF takes on Rutgers this Thursday with their perfect season on the line, they might well take a moment to look at the team on the other sideline, because they'll see a team that was in the very same position just a year ago and had their dream season turn to dust.  For Rutgers, it's a chance to take away what was taken from them in 2006.  They're two teams with similar ingredient lists but are on opposite sides of wild expectation and jaded disappointment, separated almost precisely by a calendar year.

 

And you better believe that the step-teams from the SEC, Pac-10, and Big-12 will have one eye on the clock and one eye on the game in Piscataway tomorrow night hoping that royal carriage turns into a pumpkin when the clock strikes midnight on this year's version of Cinderella.

 

However, the team with Paul Bunyan at linebacker, a gunslinger for a QB, and an unstoppable force flying off the defensive edge might have a thing or two to say about what happens to their ride.

 

Stats:

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/teamStats?categoryId=103087

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/playerDetail.jsp?yr=2007&org=651&player=95

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/playerDetail.jsp?yr=2007&org=651&player=59

http://usf.rivals.com/playerstats.asp?Team=SOUFLA&year=2006

 

Other:

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/08/Sports/Linebacker_is_USF_s_o.shtml

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2811249

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=719695

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers_Scarlet_Knights#Football

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/collegesports/2003952725_bulls16.html

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/teamSchedule?categoryId=86051