Joey Knight’s takeaways from USF-BYU

In the wake of Saturday’s dramatic proceedings, bowl eligibility for USF seems more plausible than pipe dream today. Winning two in a row on the road (at Navy and East Carolina) will be difficult, but do-able. Pull that off, then steal at least one of the last four (three of which are at home), and the Bulls are in.

Sophomore center Brad Cecil locked up the distinction of most inconspicuous hero Saturday, playing through a dinged-up shoulder and ankle sprain and helping the run game amass 243 yards. “I told the team, that’s who we want to be,” Coach Charlie Strong said. "When you talk about toughness, you look at him. He was not gonna come out of the game.”

Count punter Trent “Aussie” Schneider among Saturday’s contributors in the clutch. His 61-yarder from his own end zone late in the game forced BYU to start its final, futile drive from its own 26. Schneider averaged 52.8 yards on five attempts, eclipsing his own USF single-game record for average.

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