AMHERST — UMass acting head coach Ed Pinkham warned of South Florida’s big-play capability on Tuesday.
The second-year defensive coordinator – who was the Minutemen’s coach Saturday while Mark Whipple served his one-game suspension – said the Bulls were capable of exploiting defensive mistakes for home-run plays. It was those momentum-changing plays that were UMass’ demise Saturday at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
Jordan Cronkrite had three rushing touchdowns of 30 yards or more and Blake Barnett hit on a 72-yard touchdown pass on USF’s second play from scrimmage. The Bulls tacked on a scoop-and-score touchdown on a special teams fumble to race past the Minutemen in the second half and finish with a 58-42 victory.
“The defense played with a lot of energy tonight, a lot more than we had in the past,” linebacker Bryton Barr said. “Just a couple of missed assignments, that’s what really hurt us.”
The game began turning in USF’s favor late in the second quarter on what was one of UMass’ highlight moments. Pinkham challenged a call that Barnett had scored on a quarterback keeper after a 66-yard run from Cronkrite and successfully overturned the score.
The Minutemen (2-5) stuffed the Bulls on consecutive plays at the goal line to force a field goal and maintain their slim lead at 14-13.
“We were ready to go,” Barr said. “We had a lot of energy and we knew we could stop them, and we obviously did.”
On the ensuing kickoff, however, Vincent Davis stripped the ball from Marquis Young and the Bulls recovered at the UMass 19-yard line. USF (5-0) scored on the next play to take the lead for good entering halftime.
The Bulls led at the break because the Minutemen could not capitalize on their chances to extend the lead. In the second quarter, UMass drove to the USF 22 with a 14-10 lead, but Jaylen Larry sent a low snap skipping past Andrew Ford that the Bulls recovered. After forcing a punt, UMass drove toward midfield but a holding penalty put the unit behind the chains and stalled the possession.
The UMass offense didn’t start clicking again until after the Minutemen were down three scores, and senior Ross Comis led the unit on three straight scoring drives. Ford said chasing points isn’t ideal, but the Minutemen are also well equipped to come from behind if necessary.
“For us, we have the ability to go up-tempo when we’re down like that, we don’t have to do too much different,” Ford said. “We just have to make our possessions count and we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
The avalanche of momentum consumed UMass in the third quarter when in a span of 5:24 USF’s six-point halftime advantage ballooned into a three-score deficit for the Minutemen. Cronkrite took the Bulls’ second play of the half 77 yards for a touchdown and then Andrew Ford threw an interception that eventually led to a 30-yard score from Cronkrite.
Cronkrite finished with a school record 302 yards on the ground, most of which came on just four rushes – the 30-yard touchdown, the 66-yard scamper, a 76-yard score and the back-breaking 77-yard run.
“To play defensive football, you have to be gap sound,” Pinkham said. “If you wind up with two people in the same gap, that means there’s an open gap. That’s exactly what happened on both of those (third-quarter runs). We wound up in the wrong gap, he found it and off he went.”
USF’s final score in that pivotal stretch was also its most controversial. On the kickoff following Cronkrite’s 30-yard touchdown, Davis hit Young on the return and forced a fumble that he scooped up and returned 12 yards to make the score 40-14. However, replays showed Davis hit Young in the chin with his helmet, a tackle that could have been flagged for targeting and negated the score.
Instead, Young was shaken up on the play and walked off with some assistance after five minutes. There was no update on the senior’s status after the game.
Young was more fortunate than UMass freshman Michael Nesmith, who was wheeled off the field on a stretcher in the second quarter after being hit on a UMass kickoff. Nesmith was motionless on the field for more than five minutes after absorbing a hit from Trevon Sands that was flagged as a targeting penalty. The Hallandale Beach, Florida, native did flash a thumbs up while being wheeled off on a stretcher. According to a UMass spokesman, Nesmith was responsive while being wheeled off and was transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital for further evaluations.
Barr called both hits “unnecessary” but added “it’s the game of football, it’s a violent game.” Ford said those moments are ones that are tough to go through no matter which team has a player injured.
“It brings you back to reality really quick that at any point in a game it could all be over,” Ford said. “You never want to see anybody go down on either side of the ball, but when it’s one of your brothers, it’s tough. You want to go out there and fight for them.”