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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, September 13, 2008

USF gives Kansas the boot

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

South Florida's Maikon Bonani (28) follows through on his game-winning, 43-yard field goal that beat Kansas, 37-34, as time expired.

CHRIS O'MEARA | Associated Press

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TAMPA, Fla. — South Florida coach Jim Leavitt had a hunch about Maikon Bonani that turned out to be right.

The freshman's third field goal, a 43-yarder as time expired last night, gave the 19th-ranked Bulls a 37-34 victory over No. 13 Kansas in a game both viewed as an opportunity to make a strong case for more national attention.

Bonani, making his college debut, also converted kicks of 34 and 23 yards after missing badly on a 41-yard attempt in the second quarter, justifying Leavitt's decision to use him instead of junior Delbert Alvarado.

Alvarado, USF's kicker the past two seasons, was 1 for 4 on field goal attempts in the team's first two games.

"I knew it was the right thing to do," Leavitt said. "Maikon's a very good kicker. He certainly showed that tonight."

Matt Grothe threw for 338 yards and two touchdowns for USF (3-0), which overcame a 17-point deficit to take a 34-20 lead before Kansas' Todd Reesing tied the game with two fourth-quarter TD passes.

Reesing had the Jayhawks (2-1) on the move again when safety Nate Allen intercepted a deep throw that would have moved Kansas into field goal range, then returned it 40 yards to the Kansas 27 with 30 seconds remaining.

Bonani kicked the game-winner two plays later.

"He's a great kicker. We saw it in practice," Allen said. "We had confidence in him sitting over there. We didn't think it was going to overtime, and he nailed it."

Grothe won the matchup of undersized quarterbacks who elevated their teams into the national spotlight with TD passes of 21 yards to Taurus Johnson and 37 yards to A.J. Love during an 18-minute stretch in which USF outgained the Jayhawks 346 yards to 15 to climb out of its big hole and take a 34-20 lead.

A week after throwing for a career-best 412 yards against Louisiana Tech, Reesing went 34 of 51 for 373 yards and three touchdowns.

Johnathan Wilson caught two TD passes and finished with nine receptions for 160 yards, while Kerry Meier had 11 catches for 120 yards for Kansas.

"I like the way the kids displayed character and fought back," Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. "But we put ourselves in that position, so hopefully this is a learning experience."

BAYLOR 45, WASHINGTON STATE 17

WACO, Texas — Baylor freshman quarterback Robert Griffin ran for a school-record 217 yards and two touchdowns on only 11 carries to lead the Bears over the Cougars last night, a day earlier than scheduled because of Hurricane Ike.

Griffin threw for 129 yards, including a 27-yard TD pass to Ernest Smith, a play on which Griffin scrambled from one side of the field to the other before throwing off his back foot. He had TD runs of 1 and 58 yards, along with a 57-yard run that set up another score for Baylor (2-1) and a 58-yard sprint on his last play.

"It's a confidence boost," Griffin said. "We came out and beat Washington State, a legitimate team. We didn't just beat them. We beat them pretty good."

Washington State, forced to fly to Texas and play on the same day, dropped to 0-3 for the first time since 1999. The Cougars and first-year coach Paul Wulff were coming off the worst loss in school history, 66-3 to California.

"That quarterback makes everybody look slow," Wulff said.

"We just got outplayed, made too many mistakes and we don't give ourselves our chance," Wulff added, refusing to blame the travel issues. "It was a combination of them outplaying us and our own mistakes."

The game was originally scheduled for 10:40 a.m. (CDT) today, but was moved up to beat the expected deteriorating weather from Hurricane Ike.

The massive storm was approaching the Texas coast about 230 miles away last night, and was then expected to move through the state.