TAMPA, Fla. - The University of South Florida invited officials from the Bowl Championship Series and the Big East Conference tie-in bowl games to Thursday night's nationally televised showdown.
They all left impressed.
With Pittsburgh.
Junior tailback LeSean McCoy rushed 28 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns, including a 3-yard score with less than five minutes remaining, as the Panthers upset the 10th-ranked Bulls, 26-21, before a crowd of 50,307 at Raymond James Stadium.
The loss was a crushing one for USF (5-1, 0-1), which proved - once again - that Coach Jim Leavitt's program melts like ice cream in August when the stakes and pressure get higher.
"We didn't get the job done," Leavitt said. "Why? I don't know."
Last year the Bulls stunned the nation by soaring to No. 2, then proceeded to drop three straight games, starting with a heartbreaking Thursday night loss at Rutgers.
Pittsburgh (4-1, 2-0), meanwhile, pulled ahead of Connecticut for first place in the Big East and the league's berth in the BCS. Make that four straight wins for the Panthers, who came in as a two-touchdown underdog, against ranked teams.
And from a national perspective, make that five teams ranked in the Top 10 falling over the previous eight days - with plenty of games still to play.
"Nobody has gone through the Big East undefeated in all the time we've been in it," Leavitt said of the Bulls' four seasons in the league. "We've got to find a way to get through this."
Last year USF's defense held McCoy to a career-low 55 yards, but this time his decisive touchdown came after the Bulls rallied from a 17-7 halftime deficit to take a 21-20 lead with 5:57 to play on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Matt Grothe to Jesse Hester.
Bulls freshman kicker Maikon Bonani, a hero here last month when he nailed a field goal as time expired to beat nationally ranked Kansas, duck-hooked his kickoff out of bounds to give the Panthers the ball at their 40.
On first down, Panthers quarterback Bill Stull hit a wide-open Oderick Turner for 38 yards. McCoy went 19 on the next play down to the 3, then capped an easy three-play drive with the game-winner at the 4:43 mark.
