Battie now 137 yards from 1,000-yard season; Boyles leads team in tackles for sixth straight game
TAMPA, Nov. 12, 2022 – With interim head coach Daniel Da Prato at the helm in his first game as a head coach, USF football (1-9; 0-6 AAC) battled SMU (6-4; 4-2 AAC) to a 17-17 tie at the half before giving way to a 41-23 Mustangs victory Saturday in Raymond James Stadium.
Running back Brian Battie posted his third straight 100-yard rushing game and fifth of the season running for 145 yards on 26 carries as he climbed within 137 yards of the Bulls’ 10th 1,000-yard rushing season.
Linebacker Dwayne Boyles led USF in tackles for the sixth straight game and pushed his career tackle total to 297, just three shy of becoming just the eighth Bull to post 300 tackles.
Bulls quarterback Katravis Marsh completed 12-of-31 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with an injury after absorbing a hard hit on a running play. He had movement in his extremities and was taken to Tampa General Hospital for further observation.
SMU quarterback Tanner Mordecai passed for 280 yards and two touchdowns and running backs Camar Wheaton (112 and 2 TD) and Tyler Lavine (112 and 1 TD) both ran for 100-yards as the Mustangs put up 553 yards of offense.
A Spencer Shrader field goal in the final seconds of the first half had the game knotted at 17 at the break after the Bulls held an SMU offense that scored 77 points the week before in check in the first 20 minutes.
SMU opened it up in the third quarter as Mordecai hit Rashee Rice with a 21-yard touchdown pass and Jordan Kerley on a 70-yard bomb to make it 31-17 nine minutes into the quarter.
Facing a 4th-and-three at midfield, USF went for it and failed to complete a short pass. SMU took over and made it 21 unanswered points, driving 44 yards and taking a 38-17 lead when Tyler Lavine scored from eight yards out. The Mustangs later tacked on a 45-yard field goal for 24 straight points that put the game away.
The Bulls scored on a late touchdown drive as quarterback Byrum Brown hit tight end Jayson Littlejohn for a 17-yard touchdown, the first for both on their careers.
SMU took an early 10-0 lead after a 1-yard touchdown run on their second drive of the game and a 22-yard field goal after a drive stalled at the USF5.
USF got its offense in gear on its third drive as Battie burst for 14 yards and Marsh hit Jimmy Horn Jr. for a 24-yard gain. A big 4th-and-1 pick up by Michel Dukes at the SMU20 kept the Bulls moving toward the endzone and USF finished it off with a 1-yard plunge by freshman Jason Albritton that completed a 12-play, 75-yard drive.
SMU responded with an 11-play, 75-yard drive capped by an 18-yard touchdown run up the middle of the field from Wheaton, his second of the day, to make it 17-10.
The Bulls cut the lead back to three, 17-14, when Marsh found Xavier Weaver on a beautiful 32-yard touchdown pass on a deep post route with 2:44 to play in the first half.
Mordecai hit Jordan Kerley for a big 34-yard gain and SMU was quickly threatening. The Bulls defense stiffened and forced a 53-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide right.
The Bulls got the ball back with just over a minute to play. Marsh hit Horn again for 20-yard gain and Sean Atkins for another 20 as the Bulls moved to the SMU19 before the drive stalled. A five-yard motion penalty moved the ball back to the 24 and Shrader nailed a 41-yard field goal to tie the game at 17 going into the half.
KEY STATS
• SMU outscored USF 24-6 in the second half and outgained the Bulls 553-381 on the day.
• RB Brian Battie logged his fifth 100-yard rushing game of the season, third straight, and the seventh of his career as he ran for 145 yards on 26 carries.
• LB Dwayne Boyles posted his sixth-straight game leading the Bulls in tackles as he had nine on the day. He now has a career-best 90 tackles on the year to go with 9 TFL, both lead the team. He is 11 tackles shy of a top 15 season at USF (No. 15 Javan Camon, 101, 2004) and becoming the 16th player to post 100 tackles in a season at USF. It would be the first Top 15 tackle season posted at USF since Auggie Sanchez (2015 & 2016).
NOTABLE
• WR Xavier Weaver caught four passes for 60 yards, increasing his career receiving yards total to 1,735 yards, placing him 4th all-time on the USF receiving chart, 401 yards shy of the career record of 2,136 set by Andre Davis (2011-14).
• RB Brian Battie now has 863 yards and 6 rushing touchdowns on the season (86 ypg) with two games to play. He needs 137 yards to post the 10th 1,000-yard rushing season in program history and first since Jordan Cronkrite ran for 1,121 yards in 2018.
• LB Dwayne Boyles increased his career tackle total to 297 placing him 8th all-time. He is now 3 tackles shy of becoming just the eighth player in USF history to log 300 career tackles.
QUOTABLE
” Obviously, a difficult week for our young men and for our department. We were able to fight through that for the week and we came out and I’m proud of our kids and their effort. But, at the end of the day you play this game to win, and we didn’t play well enough to win the football game, and we need to find ways to continue to be better at what we need to do this week starting tonight.”
Interim Head Coach Daniel Da Prato
UP NEXT
USF hits the road for a Friday night clash at Tulsa next week. The 9:00 p.m. (ET) kickoff will be televised on ESPN2.
Season tickets • Single-game tickets • Group tickets (10+): call 1-800-GoBulls
ABOUT USF FOOTBALLThe USF football program first took the field in 1997 and celebrated its 25th season in 2021 while breaking ground on a $22 million Indoor Performance Facility. The Bulls have posted 15 winning seasons, earned 16 All-America selections, including 2021 consensus All-American Brian Battie, and 31 first-team all-conference selections. USF has had 30 players selected in the NFL Draft and has made 10 bowl games appearances (going 6-4 in those games), posting a program-record six straight appearances from 2005-2010 and most recently making four straight bowl appearances from 2015-18. The Bulls posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, logging a program-record 11-2 mark in 2016 while finishing both seasons ranked in the Top 25. USF spent a program-record 20 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 during the 2016 and 2017 seasons and reached as high as No. 2 in the national rankings during the 2007 season.
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– #GoBulls –
