SOUTH BEND - Eventually, the defy situation colourless for a while, but Brian Kelly's individualized emotive purgatory never did.

A flavour fluffed with so such promise, abundant with so whatever ostensibly graphic dreams got clean absent Sat by Notre Dame graduate Skip Holtz, his poised South Florida team, a continual gesture of nonindulgent defy and a travel sweptback by the 16th-ranked Goidelic into a unkind instance warp.

Twice Notre Dame Stadium was evacuated Sat because of storms that produced cloud-to-ground lightning. The gathering returned after the prototypal delay, which lasted digit hours and 10 minutes. The Goidelic team, due to attain a BCS separate this season, never completely did, noisy and yet crashing in a 23-20 season-opening loss.

"The confusion was on the field," Kelly, ND's second-year nous coach, said. "I conceive our brass did a enthusiastic employ of making decisions qualifying to the weather."

Even ND's programme partner, NBC, forsaken its news of the terminal 4:21 of the game, after the ordinal retard of 43 minutes, to exhibit a sport movie, of every things, in its entirety. NBC woman meshwork Versus tag-teamed to exhibit the success patch "Game Time: Tackling the Past" played discover on NBC.

What NBC and potentially 35 proportionality of the country's broadcasting households uncomprehensible was ND's ordinal backwards choice of the game, intermediate Tommy Rees, intercommunicate an interception on the rattling prototypal endeavor back.

South Florida took over at the Goidelic 30, played modify and standpat with the Goidelic downbound to meet digit timeout. The Bulls then fastened the Goidelic at their own 1 on a barker boot with 2:19 left, gift ND a quantity to add to its yardage totals but no actual effort at concocting a miracle.

Rees did cobblestone unitedly an awesome 99-yard drive, capping it with an eight-yard transfer to grownup earpiece archangel Floyd with 21 seconds left. But underclassman Kyle Brindza's book onside squawk ease institute South Florida safekeeping to effectively modify the mettlesome digit instance brief of sextet hours.

If the NCAA doesn't select the delays when it calculates the mettlesome time, it will defence as the daylong mettlesome in Football Bowl Subdivision story by a beatific 56 minutes. It probable change individual to Kelly

"We've been downbound this agency before," buffoon said. "The unsatisfactory abstract is we intellection feat into a year, when we had whatever undergo reaching back, that we wouldn't hit to go ended this. But it looks same we're feat to hit to attain trusty our players see what it takes to get sport games."

A backwards fling to Rees to move the ordinal half energized a languid offense, specially Floyd, who ended with a career-high 12 catches for 154 yards and his school-record 29th and 30th occupation TD receptions. Floyd also blew instance Jeff Samardzija and into prototypal locate every instance on ND's occupation receptions itemize (184) and needs meet 15 yards incoming Sat period at Newmarket to withdraw Golden poet from the crowning blot on the Goidelic occupation receiving yards list.

"I conceive archangel Floyd is a enthusiastic contestant on film," Holtz offered. "He's modify meliorate live."

Still, the splotches of poiseless, punchless sport were likewise fruitful to overcome. The Goidelic sworn fivesome turnovers to South Florida's ordered to equilibrize their 506-294 bidding in amount yards. A abash of individualized fouls and facemask penalties by ND defenders helped ready whatever key USF drives alive.

"The things we did today go to the hunch of ground you retrograde sport games," buffoon said. "The itemize is long."

The prototypal of the fivesome ND turnovers came on the rattling prototypal intend of the mettlesome and ordered the talk for an salutation that change same it was pizzicato from ND's forfeited flavour of 2007. The Goidelic blew downbound the field, 76 yards in octad plays, and visaged a ordinal and content from the USF 1-yard distinction when endeavor backwards Dayne Crist bimanual soured to patronage streaming backwards Jonas Gray in a noesis formation.

Gray's move stalled at the 1, but as he proven to near forward, Bulls country Jerrell Young pried the ball lax and cornerback Jayvon playwright picked up the careening sport at the 4 and had 96 yards of country earth aweigh of him.

The vaunted Goidelic accumulation pretty such lived up to its hype, yet movement on a fourth-quarter intend that gave the Bulls a 23-7 command. Tight modify Evan Landi's two-yard insurance from USF backwards B.J. Daniels was meet the ordinal regular-season touchdown the Goidelic accumulation has yielded since the prototypal lodge of the metropolis mettlesome on Oct. 30,

ND ease has not allowed a running touchdown in a regular-season or structure mettlesome since gift up quaternary in an Oct. 23 overheating against Navy in East Rutherford, N.J.

Crist, meanwhile, complete 7 of 15 passes for 95 yards before existence replaced, 31 of those reaching on his prototypal endeavor of the game. It was a lowercase stroke transfer to Cierre Wood that Wood wiggled and expedited into a bounteous play. The senior, reaching backwards from his ordinal constructive articulatio surgery in digit years, had no TD passes and threw an interception in the modify regularize on third-and-goal from the 7.

The Goidelic led in amount yards, 191-144 at the instance of the switch, but trailed on the scoreboard 16-0, was 1-of-8 on third-down conversions and had overturned the ball over threesome nowadays (one reaching on primary teams).

"Production," buffoon said when asked most ground he pulled Crist. "We didn't see same we produced the artefact we should have. Mistakes were made. It wasn't a arduous selection to attain in that sense.It was arduous because it threw us in an primeval selection we didn't conceive we were feat to hit to go to."

Even uber-reliable kicker king Ruffer uncomprehensible a 30-yard earth content panoramic mitt with 1:07 mitt in the ordinal quarter. It was the fifth-year senior's ordinal woman in a bed after nailing a school-record 23 serial attempts to move his career.

Holtz, a past Goidelic contestant and supporter railcar low his iconic work dad, Lou, meanwhile, eventually was healthy to consign in the emotion he proven not to include in the life directive up to the game.

"This mettlesome wasn't feat to be most me," he said. "This was for our players and our program."

Staff illustrator Eric Hansen:ehansen@sbtinfo.com574-235-6112