Sunday, 3 a.m.
Will the University of Florida's Dan Mullen pay for his latest disappointment with his head?
And if not, will he call for that of defensive coordinator Todd Grantham?
The late-season swoon of the Florida Gators gets worse and worse. On Saturday night, Florida dropped its third straight game and its fifth of the season, 40-17 to South Carolina.
The Gators, ranked as high as 10th in the nation this year, have turned into one of the worst teams in recent Florida memory. And with it, the noise from an unhappy fan base has grown.
"I certainly don't think they gave up," Mullen said, responding to a question after the game. He said he thought his team had a good week of practice, although several players (including quarterback Emory Jones) had the flu.
In the last three games, the Gators have given up 123 points and 1,164 yards.
For the Gamecocks, Kevin Harris had 127 had and ZaQuandre White had 111. The Gators, as a team, had 82 yards rushing.
South Carolina started former third-teamer Jason Brown, who passed for 175 yards.
Houston 54, USF 42: The Bulls gave it a shot against the 20th-ranked Houston Cougars, but in the end, they just couldn't match up.
The Cougars gained 647 yards, and for the second straight year, broke the 50-point barrier against the Bulls.
Still, USF gave it a run, leading most of the first half thanks to two 100-yard kickoff returns for touchdowns by Brian Battie. Quarterback Timmy McClain threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns.
“Hats off to Houston," USF coach Jeff Scot said. "I thought they played excellent in the second half. We just got beat. It wasn’t an effort thing. They were just better than us in the second half. It wasn’t even close. That’s disappointing. We had opportunities, but what I told the players, we just got beat in the second half by a good team. That’s the negative: we didn’t finish the game. The positive is that our guys played their hearts out. They continue to do it over and over again. It was not an effort thing.”
“We haven’t been able to break through, but we did a lot of really good things. There’s a lot of things to look at. Brian Battie had two kickoff returns for touchdowns. I think that tied an NCAA record with two 100-yard kickoff returns. A lot of really good things there. Offensively, eight-of-16 on third down. I think Houston was one out of 130 Division-I FBS teams on third down coming into today’s game, only giving up about 25 percent on conversions. We haven’t done well on third downs, but I thought we did a better job tonight. I thought Timmy McClain looked healthy and looked back to what the guy we saw earlier in the year. He made some really big plays for us whenever we needed it.”
But the Bulls' defense could never slow the Houston offense. Quarterback Clayton Tune threw for 385 yards. Receivers Nathaniel Dell had 164 yards and KeSean Carter had 123. Running backs Ta'Zshawn Henry had 130 yards and Alton McCaskill had 125.
Miami 33, Georgia Tech 30: The winning kept up. So did the quarterback.
Oh, you can talk about the points the Hurricanes left on the field in a narrow win over Georgia Tech. No one thinks the Hurricanes are a powerhouse. But the Hurricane's continued turn their season around in Miami Saturday.
The Hurricanes won their third straight game -- by a total of eight points -- in a victory over Georgia Tech. Freshman quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who has been torrid in the victories, threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns.
"I was proud of our team for finding a way to win," said Miami coach Manny Diaz. "(It was) a game that you look at the things that occurred to allow Georgia Tech to stay close. The turnovers of course jump out. Nine points on defensive scores. It was everything to be in a day where it's not our day and the thing with this team is we don’t give into that. The guys found a way to win. We made it hard by not being able to convert on short-yardage situations where we could have killed the game."
Miami had 563 yards, but had to hang on with a last-series stop.
The Hurricanes play at FSU next week.
North Carolina State 28, FSU 14: If the thought of FSU"s sixth loss of the season makes you feel a little ill, well, that's how they got here.
The flu-infected Seminoles were outmanned by the 7-2 Wolfpack. Among others, the Seminoles missed starting quarterback Jordan Travis. Backup McKenzie Milton hit 22 of 44 passes for 233 yards.
"We have to be more consistent to finish off games," said FSU coach Mike Norvell. “I don’t question these guys' hearts or determination, we just have to work to continue to get better.”
The Seminoles struggled to run the ball, gaining a minus one yard rushing for the first half. For the game, FSU had 38 yards.
"Challenging week for everybody," Norvell said. "In the community, there was a sickness that spread and just really made it challenging. 25 or so guys missed some practice.”
“There were times we literally had one player at a position group. You see the kids and how they’re trying to respond and how much they care. I told them in pre-game how proud of them I was.”
FSU is home against Miami Saturday.