The REAL First Game

[Guest BasketBull.]

A sellout likely

SHARON GINN, JOEY JOHNSTON. St. Petersburg Times. Sep 6, 1997.

Eight hundred tickets for today's game will go on sale at noon at the north gate of Houlihan's Stadium, and "that's probably all we're going to have," said Ron Macosko, assistant athletic director for marketing.

When those tickets sell out, no more will be available to non-students, he said.

Students who wish to attend with non-students can purchase tickets in the student section. Those tickets would be part of the 10,000 allotted for students.

If all of those 10,000 are accounted for, no student will be turned away. Seating would spill into the end zones.

Programs for the inaugural game are going fast. USF printed 10,000, and people have been ordering them by the bundles, Macosko said.

"It's kind of interesting," he said. "We've never been through anything quite like this."

Macosko said isolated fans have not received their season tickets or parking passes. Anyone who has not been taken care of by today may call the USF athletic department at (813) 974-2125. Voice mail messages will be returned.

ON THE SIDELINES: It's unlikely that true freshmen Tchecoy Blount or Aleous Chambers will be eligible for the game. Both are awaiting clearance from the NCAA Clearinghouse on a course each took in high school, and neither had gotten word as of Friday afternoon.

Chambers, from Hillsborough High, and Blount, Dixie Hollins High, have been allowed to practice on waivers. If Blount, a defensive end, becomes eligible, he would be worked into the lineup as soon as possible. Chambers, a linebacker-turned-fullback who was one of the gems of his recruiting class, probably will be redshirted.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Proceeds from parking and concessions, after expenses are paid, are split between the Tampa Sports Authority and the Buccaneers. USF will make money only on ticket, program and merchandise sales.

FARAWAY FANS: Mike Lewis, executive director of the University of South Florida athletic association, said most USF football season-ticket holders are from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties.

But because of the historic nature of tonight's opener with Kentucky Wesleyan, Lewis said many out-of-state USF alumni will be at Houlihan's Stadium. Steven Plaisted is traveling from Kent, Wash., a suburb of Seattle. Eric Fordin will come from Port Washington, N.Y. John Harper already has arrived from Southlake, Texas.

"We wouldn't miss this game for anything," said Harper, a 1974 USF graduate and director of executive communications for GTE who was transferred to Texas last year. "They were talking about football when I attended USF. After a long, uphill battle, I think most alumni are fired up that it's finally here.

"I expect people to come from far and wide for this game. We're apparently setting a world record for season-ticket sales in the Division I-AA ranks. I expected football to be the thing that would best unite our school, but the support has been unbelievable. It will be awesome to be part of this night."

Lewis said USF season-ticket orders came in from 17 other states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

"There's nobody coming to our games from London or Paris," Lewis said. "At least, nobody we've heard about yet." - SHARON GINN, JOEY JOHNSTON

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BULLWHIPPED

SHARON GINN. St. Petersburg Times. Sep 7, 1997.

No one really knows how far the fledgling South Florida football team will go, or how fast.

But after Saturday night's inaugural-season opening game, Bulls fans can hold these truths to be self-evident: that Chad Barnhardt does have a rocket for an arm, that the defense will be hard-hitting and aggressive and that first opponent Kentucky Wesleyan was hand-picked to kick off the Bulls' program with a victory.

How else to explain a 77-point pounding?

Looking like a team tired of practice and eager to play, USF raced out of the blocks and never stopped. It fired up the sellout crowd of 49,212 at a reconfigured Houlihan's Stadium with an 80-3 victory over an outmanned Kentucky Wesleyan team.

The Bulls scored and scored often: through the air, on the ground, on an interception return. They held the Panthers to 74 total yards. They fed off the support from the crowd, which was nothing less than overwhelming.

"It was awesome," said coach Jim Leavitt, who slapped hands with fans lining the field on his post-game walk to the locker room. "You get tears in your eyes. You really do. We've got all that support and we haven't done anything... It takes your breath away."

The energy "just trickled down from the crowd," defensive end Brett Avery said.

"Everyone in the crowd was going crazy," he said. "The fans were just tremendous. The feeling we got on the field just blew me away."

Nevertheless, as huge a victory as it was, there was no Gatorade shower for Leavitt, and just a little bit of celebration. Kentucky Wesleyan is nowhere near the caliber of The Citadel, next week's opponent.

And how much can you really tell about a I-AA team that beats up on a Division II (non-scholarship) opponent, especially one that lost last year's opener 66-0 to Western Kentucky?

USF had some glitches on offense, such as dropped or overthrown passes and broken plays, that caused Leavitt and offensive coordinator Mike Canales concern. And it wasn't always perfect on defense. But one thing it did easily was score.

"I thought they did a pretty good job," Leavitt said of his players, then chuckled at the understatement.

"I'm the type of guy who'll always say, `Where can we improve?' It's like night and day, (this game) to next week's. We're not naive."

Barnhardt, the junior transfer from South Carolina, showed he wasn't about to let Leavitt down for naming him quarterback last week over sophomore Lance Hoeltke. Barnhardt completed 14 of 28 passes for 255 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Barnhardt and roommate Clif Dell hooked up for two of the most exciting plays, a 52-yard TD pass in the third quarter and a 50-yard pass at the start of the second that led to a touchdown on the next play. Dell finished with five receptions for 149 yards.

After the margin of victory, probably the biggest surprise was Clearwater High's Jermaine Clemons. He replaced the injured Rafael Williams and ran for 132 yards and three touchdowns.

Clemons, a freshman, was electric, averaging 18.9 yards a carry and scoring on runs of 15, 80 and 19 yards and on a 5-yard pass from Barnhardt in the first quarter. He came in after Williams, the starter who rushed for 48 yards and a touchdown on eight carries, sprained his ankle.

Canales spent a lot of time last week working on the Bulls' first 10 plays. He must have known something USF didn't, because that's how many plays it took to score its first touchdown.

After a 10-yard lateral by Barnhardt to receiver Charlie Jackson and a 15-yard run by Williams got the crowd juiced, things stalled a bit.

But after the Bulls made it through two incomplete passes, two short gains and a penalty, Barnhardt had his first big play, a 32-yard pass to tight end Trevor Hypolite. Two plays later, Williams entered the history books with a 1-yard run up the middle.

It got far easier after that. The Bulls scored seven more points in the first quarter, 21 in the second and 28 in the third. Kentucky Wesleyan wore down quickly as the game went along.

Kicker Steve Riggs was perfect for the night, connecting on 10 of 10 extra points and a 27-yard field goal.

Defensively, the Bulls hardly allowed Kentucky Wesleyan to cross midfield. Leavitt made a big deal about the Panthers' line being bigger than USF's, but the Bulls were unmistakably quicker and more aggressive.

And in the eyes of the officials, at least, they made few mistakes. USF was flagged just four times for 47 yards.