Florida International PanthersvsSouth Florida Bulls
FIU 9/USF 19
Things to say
South Florida beat FIU 19-9 at Raymond James Stadium.
01
opener
USF grinded one out, 19-9. Defense carried them all night. FIU just couldn't move the ball when it mattered.
02
key player
Nico Gramatica was the whole offense — five field goals. When your kicker's your leading scorer, that tells you something.
03
hot take
USF wins by ten and I'm still not sold on them. You can't settle for field goals every drive against real competition.
04
deep cut
JJ Kohl threw for 301 but two picks killed FIU. That's the whole game right there — garbage-time yards, no points until late.
05
exit
Long season though. We'll see if that offense wakes up next week.
The recap
This one was a defensive rock fight that USF grinded out 19-9, and honestly Nico Gramatica's right leg did most of the scoring — the guy booted five field goals. USF couldn't really move the ball through the air, with Van Buren managing all of 100 yards passing, so the defense bailed them out by picking off JJ Kohl twice.
Kohl stuffed the stat sheet with 301 yards, but a chunk of that came in garbage time, capped by a meaningless 21-yard TD to Resar with no time left. The real turning point was that early D.J.
Crowther one-yard plunge that pushed it to two scores and let the Bulls just sit on it.