Whew! Glad that’s out of the way!

That was the way I felt after my first game on the University of South Florida beat Friday night. I was just glad I made deadline.

With an 8 p.m. kickoff and an 11:30 p.m. first deadline for the newspaper, it was cutting it close. Thankfully, I survived intact. Meanwhile, the Bulls thrived for the first time in a few weeks.
The victory was USF’s second win over a ranked team this season – FSU was ranked when the Bulls knocked off the Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium in September – and revived a team that looked lost the previous two games.

“I don’t know if you want to look at it so much as pressure [to win]; you look at it more as morale,’’ defensive coordinator Joe Tresey said of the important victory. “Our kids have really hung in there the past two weeks. They just really focused this week and played and practiced very outstanding. Not that they hadn’t before, but they knew they needed to.
“And they did.’’

The Bulls now have 11 days until they kick off the final third of the season on Nov. 12 at Rutgers, followed by home games against Louisville (Nov. 21) and Miami (Nov. 28), and a regular-season closer at Connecticut on Dec. 5.
As I’ll try to do after every game the rest of the way, here are some initial postgame thoughts before practice resumes this week:

 I covered the USF-FSU game in Tallahassee from an FSU perspective without focusing too much on Daniels’ big day in his first career start. However, Daniels was obviously the story that day and again Friday night against West Virginia. For a guy with only five career starts, Daniels appears to have a tremendous future ahead of him. Right now, he is probably considered by most pundits the fourth-best starting QB among the state’s Big 4—sorry Coach Leavitt, but I’ve got no problem with that moniker after that win over FSU – behind Tim Tebow, Christian Ponder and Jacory Harris. But I can easily see Daniels becoming a more dangerous two-way threat (faster than Tebow; bigger than Ponder; and more elusive than Harris) than any of the above by the time he is an upperclassman. He is probably the best pure athlete of the bunch right now, but obviously still has tremendous ground to make up in experience and production.
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 The pair of fourth-down conversions that led to scoring drives for the Bulls were not only gutsy calls by Leavitt, but they were necessary. For a team seeking to regain its confidence, converting those fourth downs played a pivotal role in that regard.
 Defensive ends George Selvie (one) and Jason Pierre-Paul (three) combined for only four tackles, but they each knocked down a pass on back-to-back plays late in the second quarter that forced West Virginia to kick a field goal instead of scoring a potential touchdown and two-point conversion that could have tied the game 17-all. Instead, after Tyler Bitancurt’s field goal made it 17-12, USF drove down the field on the ensuing possession and took a 20-12 halftime lead on Eric Schwartz’s 26-yard field goal right before halftime
 Speaking of Schwartz, the former walk-on was 3-for-3 on field goals, further establishing his grip on the job. USF was just 4-for-11 on field goals entering the game.
 It’s obvious Jamar Taylor still needs time to work his way back into the regular rotation. Taylor, who missed the first six games with a knee injury, carried just three times for two yards. The Bulls didn’t really need him since Daniels rushed for 104 yards and Mo Plancher added 86.
 In USF’s media guide, the team record for fewest penalty yards in a game came six years ago at East Carolina when the Bulls were flagged for just 15 yards on two penalties. Considering they were penalized just 21 yards Friday, the coaching staff has to be pleased at that statistic.
 Finally, I’m guessing Leavitt and Co. are glad for the bye week coming up, especially after seeing receiver Carlton Mitchell on crutches at the end of Friday’s win. Mitchell is a key component of USF’s offensive attack.

Final thought: I’m ready to actually meet and get to know some of these Bulls to bring you folks more insight in our yet-to-be-named blog.

Off to steal some Halloween candy from my daughter …