South Florida Bulls QB Floyd comes through in tough situation

By MICHAEL MANGANELLO | Special correspondent
Published: November 18, 2012 Updated: November 18, 2012 - 12:00 AM

MIAMI --

Saturday didn't start well for South Florida quarterback Matt Floyd.

Really, it went back to Friday night when Floyd, the team's backup all season, learned during team meetings that junior Bobby Eveld would be starting ahead of him, despite sitting out the first nine games in what was supposed to be a redshirt year.

Floyd watched from the sideline as Eveld took a hard hit on a 2-yard run and stayed down on the field injured. Eveld suffered a separated shoulder, forcing Floyd into the game as the second quarter started.

His first three drives ended like this: three-and-out, an interception thrown to Miami's Jimmy Gaines at the USF 21-yard line, and an interception deep in Hurricanes territory.

"I made a couple of mistakes the first couple of drives," Floyd said. "But then after that, I began to settle down and get more comfortable. There's some things I could've done a lot better, some reads I could've made better."

It got better for Floyd, particularly in the second half. He finished 20-for-35 for 175 yards in, by far, his longest game action of the season.

Offensive coordinator Todd Fitch praised Floyd's composure in entering the game under difficult circumstances, having lost the two-week long open competition to become the starter since USF's last game after B.J. Daniels was lost for the season, and fighting through his early struggles.

"(He showed) pretty good poise," Fitch said. "I thought he looked calm out there. He missed some balls here and there, but I thought he kept his eyes up field. I thought he delivered some nice balls on that drive before the half when he kind of ran a two-minute drill."

The performance came despite the fact that his two weeks of practice had forced the coaching staff into making the difficult decision to pull Eveld's redshirt this late in the season.

"He has a knack of playing well on game day it looks like, in terms of seeing things and just staying at an even keel, not too high and not too low," Fitch said. "I saw some of that today."

Floyd wasn't given any extra chances to throw his first collegiate touchdown late in the fourth quarter when USF elected to kick field goals on fourth down deep in Miami territory in what became a 40-9 loss.

Still, Floyd instilled confidence in USF coach Skip Holtz moving forward.

"Outside of (the two interceptions), I thought he showed courage," Holtz said. "I thought he showed toughness. I thought he stood in the pocket. I thought? he threw the ball really well, and honestly, I thought he didn't get a lot of help at receiver tonight."

USF's leading receiver this season, Andre Davis, had his only catch, for 4 yards, in the fourth quarter when the game was well out of reach.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tbo/bulls/~3/KSvzdEoigUU/

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