Homecoming King Daniels Leads South Florida to Historic Win

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Welcome home, B.J.

Quarterback B.J. Daniels, who actually lived on the Florida State campus as a youth, returned to his hometown Saturday and helped deliver a historic victory for the University of South Florida. While the 17-7 defeat probably won't serve as an epitaph for the 18th-ranked Seminoles, it certainly damages their national resurgence and disrupts the pecking order in the Sunshine State.

It appears the Big Three is evolving into the Big Four. In a hurry, too.

"It's Florida State. To come up here and beat them in their stadium, they are ranked right now, they have so much prestige, so many wins," said USF All-American defensive end George Selvie, who spearheaded a powerful pass rush that produced five sacks and forced a crucial fourth-quarter fumble that slowed any FSU comeback.

'It was great to come up here, being the underdog, and beat this team and change history. They are part of the Big Three; we have a chance to make it the Big Four."

Of course, one of the bigger storylines was Daniels' return to his backyard, where the redshirt freshman was a two-sport star at nearby Lincoln High School.

Daniels' father Bruce used to work as the housing director at FSU, and the Daniels family lived on campus until B.J. was 7. Daniels grew up a fan of FSU quarterback Charlie Ward and had dreams of playing at FSU, but the Seminoles never actively recruited him. Other opportunities developed, and the Bulls offered Daniels the chance to play both basketball and football.

It was an easy decision.

And an incredible showing Saturday.

Pressed into his first career start after Matt Grothe was lost for the season last week with a torn ACL, the poised and confident Daniels ran for 126 yards, threw two second-quarter touchdown passes and accounted for 341 total yards offense to help the Bulls (4-0) remain undefeated.

While USF coach Jim Leavitt felt Daniels pressed a tad in the second half, wanting to win the game by himself -- who could blame him? -- he rarely blinked under the pressure.

It was USF's first win over the state's Big Three -- Florida, Miami and FSU.

"You can't even make this stuff up," said Bruce Daniels, who stood with family, friends former prep classmates and teammates of his son near the USF buses that would caravan the Bulls five hours back to their Tampa campus. Added David Wilson, Daniels' high school coach at Lincoln: "He's just a soft spirit and it (pressure) doesn't affect him."

The defeat will surely impact the Seminoles (2-2), who were coming off one of the most impressive victories of the season at then-No. 7 BYU last Saturday. FSU was thoroughly whipped along the line of scrimmage, finishing with just 19 net rushing yards and converting 2-of-12 third-down conversions. Quarterback Christian Ponder was pressured relentlessly, completing 25 of 37 passes for 269 yards, most of it coming on short throws.

Ponder's fumble when sacked by Jason Pierre-Paul with 5:53 remaining helped the bullish Bulls seal the game.

"Boy, I will tell you what, they are a whole lot better than I thought," FSU coach Bobby Bowden said. "I knew they were good, but when they're playing Western Kentucky, Wofford, Charleston Southern... you just aren't sure of the people they are playing. They are good. They beat the heck out of us.

"They whipped us."

Yes indeed.

USF stopped the Seminoles on four plays from the three-yard line early in the second quarter, a series that Bowden said "told the story right there." The Bulls then needed just five plays to cover 99 yards to get the game's first touchdown as Daniels dismantled FSU with one big play after another. Polite and personable, Daniels said he wasn't nervous considering the circumstances.

"Not at all. I am really not a nervous person," he said.

"I was excited to get out there and play hard for my team. All week I"ve been preaching to my teammates it's not about me, it's about the Bulls stepping up and making a name for ourselves. It was nice to come home and play in front of my friends and family, but it was much bigger than that."

When the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard before a sold out crowd of 83,524 at Doak Campbell Stadium , the large contingent of green-clad USF fans in the south end zone erupted in celebration. A "Whiteout"-- FSU fans were encouraged to wear white shirts to match the Seminoles' white jerseys and pants -- had turned into a wipe out .

"Everyone is disappointed," Ponder said.

"I think everyone realizes that we had a good opportunity to win this ball game and we did everything we could to lose it. USF played great. We're disappointed and come Monday, we are going to have to deal with it."

USF didn't want the party to end.

Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon, USF's former director of athletics who is now involved with the school's fund raising foundation, hugged players as they came off the field. "It doesn't get any sweeter than this," Selmon said. As Daniels gave a quick television interview, teammates Mike Ford puckered up and kissed Daniels on the cheek. Grothe did something FSU wasn't able do to much - slowed Daniels down enough for a mighty bear hug.

Naturally, USF fans didn't want to leave. They chanted "USF, USF," long after the Bulls entered their locker room and FSU fans had made their way to the exits. Leavitt admitted he was nearly overcome by emotion when he saw the fans' excitement. It also was the Seminoles' largest home crowd in four years.

"I nearly broke (down) -- we've built our program from the grassroots," Leavitt said.

"It's great for the University of South Florida, it's great for the city of Tampa and the Tampa Bay area, my home St. Pete, the whole deal. It's a very historical win. It does, to me, change history. I've been on record clearly saying that you have to beat one of them ... you have to beat them to even really get talked about. You can't come close. I told our team if we come close, it doesn't matter. You have to beat them.

"So, at least now, people ask me about 'should you be in the Big Four,' I'd say, 'well at least we should be talked about once in a while, that we are a team that's competitive.' It's one game. We know that."



The season-long, 10th anniversary celebration of Florida State's 1999 national championship team continued Saturday, when 40 players from the first, wire-to-wire No. 1 team -- and the only unbeaten team in Bowden's career -- were introduced prior to kickoff.

Former greats such as Peter Warrick and Brett Williams shared their feelings on whether the Seminoles were close to regaining their past glory at halftime. Warrick believes the Seminoles need a proven leader on the field, while Williams felt the team had made improvements with its preparation, attitude and technique.

That all might be true, but the Seminoles need to regroup in a hurry for ACC play next week at Boston College. A conference title and automatic BCS berth remain goals.

"Now you see what kind of character you have - some guys will come back and mope," FSU receiver Bert Reed said. "We have to have the leaders like we did after the Jacksonville State game and not let that happen and practice hard and want to get better. We let the little things slip today - protection, ball handling, dropping balls."

Daniels and the Bulls made the little things count.

And the Big Three is evolving into the Big Four.

"He just does what he does all the time," Leavitt said of Daniels.

"He tried to press too much the second half, tried to force things, he wanted to win the game, I think himself. The passion and the drive he had was really remarkable. It's a great story."