RALEIGH, NC- Year two of the Jeff Scott-era at South Florida did not get off to a great start as the Bulls got shutout by NC State 45-0 on Thursday night in Carter-Finley Stadium on regional TV. The game was closer then the score might indicate, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and for coach Scott, the performance on the field was well below his expectations.

“I’m just really disappointed obviously we did not play our best or anywhere close to how we are capable of,” Scott said after the game. “All the things we talked about all preseason and all Fall Camp, unfortunately, showed up tonight. We had some key penalties several times when we had some stops and we had them in third and long and just gave them first downs for undisciplined crucial penalties. Then we had turnovers in the red zone and just never really felt like we could get in a rhythm. You can’t make those types of mistakes against a good team and my message to the team is that is 100-percent unacceptable.”

The Bulls had six penalties for 70 yards compared to just 3 for 25 for the Wolfpack. Several came at key moments. The defense also gave up 293 yards rushing on 40 carries and four rushing touchdowns. Zonovan Knight led all rushers with 163 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown while his running mate Ricky Person Jr. had 105 yards on 16 carries with two rushing touchdowns and another reception for a touchdown out of the backfield.

Scott said his defense was overworked and got overwhelmed by a good Wolfpack offense over the course of the game.

“I think they got off the field a few times early and that was part of the reason we had to make a change (at quarterback) because it wasn’t fair to the defense when we were going three and out and three and out. Unfortunately we have some guys that are out and that started to show a little bit later and we couldn’t put together any drives on offense and just kept putting the defense out there. When you do that against a team like NC State eventually they will breakthrough,” Scott said.

After a strong preseason and fall camp, Scott expected more out of the gate.

“The big takeaway is when you don't play well against a very good team it gets ugly. That's exactly what happened tonight. They got a really good team, I just wanted to see how we matched up if we played our best. We played well short of our best and that's what I'm disappointed more than anything.”

Tight end Mitchell Brinkman came to USF when coach Scott got hired and he said the 1-9 start has been tough for everyone in the program.

“I would say it's just frustrating because I see all the work that this team put in, in the offseason and, you know, everything that they've done to be successful. I hurt for my team, and for my teammates, because I know, especially the coaching staff,” Brinkman said. “I know, all the time and effort we've put in, and, tonight, we just didn't play to our standard and it's so frustrating because we spent the last nine months trying to become a better team, doing all the right things that it takes on and off the field and it's frustrating to come up short. It's gonna suck watching film, but it's something that we have to do to learn from it and get better as a team.”

OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES DOOM THE BULLS EARLY

South Florida fell behind early after NC State scored first on a 9-play 76-yard drive where the Bulls tipped a third-down pass that ended up falling into a Wolfpack receiver's hands and a Leary connected on a fluky pass on another third down. Ricky Person Jr. scored on a 33-yard touchdown on the wheel route shortly after that. The Wolfpack tacked on three more late in the first quarter to extend their lead to 10-0.

Cade Fortin meanwhile got off a very slow start throwing for -5 yards and hitting just two of his seven attempts in the first quarter.

State scored on the first drive of the second quarter on an 11-yard touchdown run by Person to open up a 17-0 lead.

Scott opted to bench Fortin at that point where he was 3-for-9 passing for 0 yards.

“Ultimately we just were not moving the ball and he can make some throws here and there, but we decided to change it up and put Timmy in there because we had to do something. Then we had some critical mistakes that he will learn from in the red zone,” Scott said.

Timmy McClain came in off the bench and sparked two drives into NC State territory but a negative run negated the first one and McClain threw a pick just before the half from the State 25 to end the second one. The Bulls managed just 97 yards in the first half with 44 of them coming on one pass play with under a minute to go in the first half. State meanwhile had almost 300 yards of offense in the first half to take a 24-0 lead.

McClain threw a second red zone interception in the second half before Scott pulled the plug on his freshman and went back to Fortin who was making his first career start and playing very little in 2020 due to COVID protocols and injuries.

Fortin came back off the bench and led the team all the way to the 4-yard line of NC State before turning the ball over on downs with under a minute to play to ensure the shutout. The Bulls marched 15 plays covering 71 yards but came up just short as Fortin couldn’t connect with receivers on the final two plays.

The Bulls possessed the ball just five times from late in the 2nd quarter through the end of the game and they had an interception, a punt, two more interceptions and a turnover on downs. State led 24-0 and then scored three-straight times in possession to put the game out of reach in the second half.

STOKES MAKES A BIG IMPACT

Generally, you don’t want to talk a lot about a punter being an impact player, but freshman punter Andrew Stokes made a big debut for the Bulls in his first football game. Stokes punted 8 times for 361 yards and pinned one inside the 10-yard line and had another punt of 66-yards that nearly was downed at the one-yard line.

“Andrew was one of the few bright spots. You never know when you got a guy playing college football for the first time and he has never played in the states and all of that and to go out and kick in that environment and kick the ball the way he did, I think he is going to be a weapon for us,” Scott said.

Aside from Stokes, Xavier Weaver had two catches for 73 yards though he was targeted 10 times. Mitchell Brinkman had two catches for 35 yards including a 30-yard reception.

McClain ended up 7-for-13 passing for 126 yards and he added 16 yards rushing on four carries. The Bulls had five receivers with two-plus catches in the game as well.

WILL JONES UPDATE

As we reported earlier in the week, starting defensive back Will Jones got hurt late in the week and is out for the year. Scott confirmed the injury and that Jones will not return in 2021.

“He got hurt in the last practice on Tuesday but that wasn’t the reason for the overall outcome in the game,” Scott said. “I hate that for him and he has worked extremely hard and is a really good player that is out for the rest of the year, but I know he will come back stronger next year.”

Defensive lineman Kelvin Pinkney was also a late scratch for the game and both Pinkney and Jones made the trip to Raleigh to support the team, but they were both missed on the field and in the rotation on defense.