For a week in the 2007 season, there should have been no doubt.
For once, preconceived notions and built-in biases went out the window. The data was what it was.
And the data showed that in the first Bowl Championship Series ratings of the 2007 season - yes, the system that was used to determine the participants in the National Championship - the USF Bulls were the No. 2 team in the nation.
Wait a minute. USF? A program that was only 11 years old? The one that saw its staff famously working out of trailers during its infancy?
The notion was almost impossible to consider before the season. USF? Where was Alabama, Oklahoma, Michigan, USC? What about Penn State? Florida? Texas?
Well, some of those bluebloods were there at the beginning. USC was the overwhelming favorite in the preseason. Texas, Michigan, Florida and Oklahoma were all in the top 10.
USF was unranked to start the year, relegated to the ‘others receiving votes’ area after the Bulls finished 8-4 in 2016. But the Bulls were relatively new members of a reformed Big East Conference, which ended up having a remarkably strong season in 2016. Five of the eight Big East teams, including USF, qualified for bowl games and all five won.
So the preseason rankings in 2017 included West Virginia at No. 3, Louisville at No. 10 and Rutgers at No. 16. USF would face all three of those teams in conference play and had a nonconference game on the road against No. 18 Auburn.
The first clue that the Bulls could do something special that season was the game against Auburn. USF went into Jordan-Hare Stadium and, despite missing four field goals, came away with a 26-23 win in overtime, capping a day in which the Bulls forced five turnovers. Jessie Hester’s touchdown catch down the left sideline ended it and sent the Bulls into the top 25 for the first time in school history.
There was no letdown the following week as USF steamrolled North Carolina in Tampa, 37-10, behind three more interceptions by the defense, which limited the Tar Heels to 164 yards.
The win against North Carolina improved the Bulls to 3-0 and set the stage for an early showdown against West Virginia, which itself would bring a 4-0 record to Raymond James Stadium, coming in as the No. 5-ranked team nationally.
A sold-out crowd of 67,012 saw the Bulls deliver their biggest regular-season win in history, a win that was also fueled by the defense. Nate Allen had an interception and recovered a fumble. Linebacker Ben Moffitt had two interceptions, including a pick-six that put the Bulls on the board. George Selvie had eight tackles and lived in the Mountaineer backfield. All of that allowed USF to win 21-13 on a day in which the Bulls were outgained 437-274.
On their own, the wins against Auburn and West Virginia were program-changing for USF. But the Bulls’ ascent toward the top of the polls also came about thanks to an uncharacteristically wacky season across the nation.
Michigan famously lost to Appalachian State. USC lost to Stanford in what was considered one of the biggest upsets of all time. LSU fell to Kentucky in triple-overtime. California, which had climbed to No. 2 in mid-October, lost to Oregon State.
All of that, coupled with USF’s unbeaten record, left the Bulls with a pretty good resume. USF moved to No. 6 in the Associated Press poll after the win against West Virginia, but there were still two weeks left before the first BCS rankings of the year.
The Bulls held serve, winning at Florida Atlantic and returning home to top UCF 64-12. Now the Bulls were 6-0. The writers’ poll listed the Bulls at No. 2. The coaches’ poll put them at No. 3. And five of the six computer ratings that comprised the BCS formula listed USF as the top team in the nation.
When the numbers were entered into the Excel sheet, there the Bulls were. No. 2 in the nation.
And when the numbers were televised to the nation, the debate began.
“It shouldn’t be possible, because they don’t deserve to be up there,” said Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson on live television.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit was nonetheless impressed with USF. “If you look at their resume, and forget their name,” he said, “in my opinion, they deserve to be up in the top five.”
Unfortunately for USF, the Bulls’ stay at No. 2 was a brief one, emblematic of that bizarre 2007 season in which an incredible
seven No. 2-ranked teams lost during the course of the year. Remember, this was the season in which the National Championship matchup entering the final week was going to be West Virginia against Missouri. Instead, both lost and we had LSU and Ohio State playing for the crown.
The next game for USF after the initial BCS rankings was against Rutgers, which itself was in the midst of its own renaissance and would host a record crowd for a Thursday-night prime time matchup. USF was edged 30-27 by the Scarlet Knights, becoming the first team to score more than 23 points against the Bulls. The hangover that followed sent the Bulls to losses to UConn and Cincinnati. USF did rebound with three straight wins to close the regular season, but had a tough go of it against Oregon in the Sun Bowl to finish 9-4.
There has been plenty of success for USF since then. The Bulls were a combined 28-4 between the start of the 2016 season and the midway point of last year. In the years that followed the 2007 season, the Bulls scored nonconference wins against Clemson, Notre Dame, Florida State, Miami, South Carolina, Texas Tech, Georgia Tech and Illinois, among others. No longer the figurative new kid on the block, USF has shown that it is here to stay.
But for one week in October, the Bulls made you forget everything you thought you know about the college football hierarchy.