TAMPA, Fla. – Syracuse has played football for 117 years. South Florida has played for 10 seasons.

On Saturday, the Bulls beat Syracuse for the second year in a row, 27-10. They’ve sped up the 107 year gap with, well, speed.

South Florida had it. Syracuse didn’t. Game over.

Obviously there was more to it than that – but this was not a situation where Syracuse can say the game slipped away from it. It’s not one of those ‘If this would have happened, and that would have happened, suddenly it’s ours’ games. It wasn’t even the type of game where you can say that if USF played in Syracuse at a different point of the season, it would have been different.

That simply wasn’t the case. The problem was South Florida was better. Plain and simple. And the main reason the Bulls were better was because they were faster.

‘They run all the way around the field,’ senior quarterback Perry Patterson said. ‘It was the same defense as last year.’

The same thing happened last year, too. USF came into the Carrier Dome on homecoming weekend, a day when No. 44 was honored. It was supposed to be a celebration. It turned into a slaughter. The Bulls won 27-0 in a track meet disguised as a football game.

On Saturday, the only thing different was the Pirate ship behind the end zone.

‘I knew what we were getting into before the game started,’ Patterson said. ‘They’re Florida guys. They’re a tough bunch, an experienced bunch. They’re going to make plays out there.’

Patterson saw it.

The defense flew around the field – especially around the offensive line. The Bulls had seven sacks, and on a few cases, they came around untouched. Just a quick burst around the edge and the play was over.

Delone Carter saw the speed, too.

The freshman running back busted a 47-yard run in the second quarter. He started at his own 25-yard line, ran up the middle, broke a tackle, made a juke and was running straight toward the ‘Captain’s Grill’ set up behind the end zone of Raymond James Stadium. No one in front of him, except the fans at the picnic tables.

But when Carter was approaching the USF 30-yard line, he heard something.

Footsteps. They caught up.

‘I didn’t even see the guy,’ Carter said. ‘I heard him at the last second. I tried to put a stiff arm out, but it was just too late.’

A.J. Brown saw the speed, too.

Brown’s been an important part of SU’s defense throughout the season and he played free safety in Joe Fields’ place in the second half. He recorded an interception, but the play that gnawed at him after the game was USF receiver Taurus Johnson’s 79-yard touchdown in the third quarter. The Orange blitzed, Brown was in coverage and Johnson slipped inside on the route, caught Grothe’s pass and ran it past everything Orange.

‘I was a little worried about his speed, so that was a factor in it,’ Brown said. ‘It’s not talked up; they definitely have speed.’

The SU defensive backs were giving the Bulls cushion all game, letting USF take their shots underneath. If SU pressed, it gave a chance to get beaten deep. Even on Johnson’s long touchdown, it wasn’t a case where SU was beat deep. Johnson ran past SU after the catch.

The unnerving part is speed’s not something that can be taught. They can’t go to the drawing board and figure out how to discover it. It’s not the result of some inspired pep talk. It’s like size in basketball or power in baseball. It just comes naturally.

Especially natural to South Florida. In the program’s 10th year, they’re 7-3 and will spend Winter Break playing football. The program, which literally started in a trailer, has quickly become a success. And it gave Syracuse a lesson on Saturday.

To become a factor in college football, do as the South Floridians do: find speed.