The Notre Dame Fighting Irish produced an absolutely incredible amount of offense at home against the South Florida Bulls, but bad mistakes were ultimately their undoing. Despite nearly 400 yards passing and well over 100 yards rushing, USF was able to come away with a 23-20 win at Notre Dame Stadium, thanks to four turnovers by the Irish.
Notre Dame Vs. USF: Final Score, South Florida Squeaks Out 23-20 Victory
Dayne Crist threw an interception in the end zone - probably the most egregious error by an Irish offensive player in the game - and was pulled at halftime by Brian Kelly. Tommy Rees came in and performed better than Crist, but threw two interceptions. One was entirely the fault of wide receiver T.J. Jones, while the other was on Rees.
The game was delayed by weather twice, both at halftime and in the fourth quarter. The first halftime delay lasted over two hours, while the second weather delay lasted around 30 minutes.
Notre Dame almost engineered a dramatic comeback, as Rees lead the Irish down the field in the fourth quarter in a fantastic two-minute drill to bring his team back within three points, but they couldn’t recover the onside kick. The Irish will be left wondering what could have been, as they easily should have scored three or four more touchdowns than they did.
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