Sheppard's Late 34-yard Run Lifts Temple past USF 17-13
South Florida came in 4-0 and left 4-1, and the reason has a number on it: 34. That is how many yards Ajani Sheppard ran for the touchdown at 3:08 of the fourth quarter that gave Temple a 17-13 win. It was the last score of the day.
The game was never more than seven points apart. USF got on the board first with a 35-yard Nico Gramatica field goal, and Carl Hardin answered with a 34-yarder for Temple to tie it at 3-3. Sheppard threw 24 yards to JoJo Bermudez with 45 seconds left in the first half for a 10-3 lead. D.J. Crowther tied it at 10-10 with a 1-yard run at 8:33 of the third, and Gramatica's 49-yard field goal at 12:51 of the fourth put USF in front 13-10. That would be the final USF score.
The yard totals say USF should have won. USF out-gained Temple 319 to 274, threw for 205 yards to Temple's 92, and had Crowther carry 23 times for 68 yards and the touchdown. Temple ran for 182 on 36 carries and won anyway. Each team lost a fumble, and Sheppard, who ran 14 times for 87 yards, was responsible for Temple's. Without that run it is a 13-10 USF win, which is how thin this was.
Temple is 2-3 now. It beat a 4-0 team with 92 passing yards and one touchdown pass, and I will take that as a lesson that the box score is not always the whole story.
For fantasy, Sheppard was the top scorer on the day with 24.4 points, while Crowther's 14.5 was a disappointment against his recent run.