2002 South Florida Bulls football team

The 2002 South Florida Bulls football team represented the University of South Florida (USF) in the 2002 NCAA Division I-A football season, and was the sixth team fielded by the school. The Bulls were led by head coach Jim Leavitt in his sixth year, played their home games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida and competed as a Division I-A Independent. The Bulls finished the season with a record of nine wins and two losses (9–2). However, the Bulls did not participate in a bowl game. They were offered a spot in the 2002 Seattle Bowl (after initially being publicly denied a spot in it by the executive director of the bowl) but declined it due to how they would have had to pay the bowl $2 million to play in it, as the bowl was only extending a spot to the Bulls so they would cover the financial woes of the game.^[1]

2002 South Florida Bulls football
Conference	Independent
Record	9–2
Head coach	Jim Leavitt (6th season)
Offensive coordinator	Mike Hobbie (2nd season)
Offensive scheme	Multiple
Co-defensive coordinators	Rick Kravitz (6th season) Wally Burnham (2nd season)
Base defense	3–4
Home stadium	Raymond James Stadium
Seasons ← 2001 2003 →

2002 NCAA Division I-A independents football records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
South Florida			–						9	–	2
No. 17 Notre Dame			–						10	–	3
Connecticut			–						6	–	6
Utah State			–						4	–	7
Troy State			–						4	–	8
Navy			–						2	–	10
Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
August 29	7:00 p.m.	Florida Atlantic	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL		W 51–10	22,074
September 7	7:00 p.m.	Northern Illinois	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL		W 37–6	23,559
September 14	7:00 p.m.	at Arkansas	War Memorial Stadium Little Rock, AR	WMOR	L 3–42	55,817
September 28	7:00 p.m.	at No. 2 Oklahoma	Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium Norman, OK	TBS	L 14–31	74,432
October 5	8:05 p.m.	at North Texas	Fouts Field Denton, TX	WMOR	W 24–17	15,512
October 12	7:00 p.m.	Southern Miss	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	FSN	W 16–13	28,181	[2]
October 19	2:00 p.m.	at East Carolina	Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium Greenville, NC	FSN	W 46–30	33,419	[3]
November 2	7:00 p.m.	Charleston Southern	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL		W 56–6	23,144	[4]
November 9	7:00 p.m.	Memphis	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL		W 31–28	32,270
November 16	7:00 p.m.	Bowling Green	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL		W 29–7	28,098
November 23	3:00 p.m.	at Houston	Robertson Stadium Houston, TX	FSN	W 32–14	12,856
Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Roster

2002 South Florida Bulls football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class QB 10 Marquel Blackwell Sr OT 72 Ken Dawson Sr RB 26 Billy Henderson So C 71 Alex Herron So WR 22 Elgin Hicks Jr WR 4 DeAndrew Rubin Sr WR 2 Hugh Smith Sr WR 15 Huey Whittaker Jr WR 86 Bryan Williams Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class DL 55 Cedric Battles Jr LB 51 Devon Davis Fr DE 53 Julian Johnson Sr LB 52 Mike Minus Jr LB 5 Kawika Mitchell Sr DL 54 Emerson Morris Sr LB 50 Stephen Nicholas Fr DE 41 Shurron Pierson Sr DB 32 J. R. Reed Jr DL 93 Lee Roy Selmon Jr DB 21 Maurice Tucker Sr DB 17 Kevin Verpaele Jr DL 8 Greg Walls Sr DB 24 Antonio Warren So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 7 Santiago Gramatica So	Head coach Jim Leavitt Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster

Team players in the NFL

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Kawika Mitchell	Linebacker	2	47	Kansas City Chiefs
Shurron Pierson	Defensive end	4	129	Oakland Raiders
DeAndrew Rubin	Wide receiver	7	253	Green Bay Packers