TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- It was not a shutout, but Texas Christian gave coach Gary Patterson another dominant defensive effort and snapped the second-longest home winning streak in the nation.
Six days after their first shutout in nearly three years, the 17th-ranked Horned Frogs recorded eight sacks and posted a 13-10 Conference USA victory over South Florida, which had a 21-game home winning streak snapped.
Last week the Horned Frogs (6-0) limited Army to just 28 rushing yards in a 27-0 win. They were even better against the Bulls (3-2, 2-1), who were held to 19 yards on the ground in their second Conference USA home game and first on national television.
Bo Schobel and Brandon Williams had two sacks apiece for the Horned Frogs, whose relentless blitzing limited South Florida to just 25 minutes on offense and 123 yards.
TCU entered the game ranked sixth in the nation in run defense and had limited foes to just 69.8 yards per game. It allowed 132 yards to Navy - the top-ranked rushing offense, but has surrendered just 170 yards, an average of 42.5 yards in the last four contests.
South Florida suffered its first home loss in nearly four years, ending their winning streak, which trailed only Miami's 25-game run at the Orange Bowl. However, the Bulls' defense played effectively against TCU's offense for most of the game.
One of the few lapses resulted in the Horned Frogs' lone touchdown. With 61 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Cory Rodgers streaked down the right sideline, beat cornerback Ron Hemmingway and hauled in a 43-yard TD pass from Tye Gunn.
South Florida got within 7-3 on a 42-yard field goal by Santiago Gramatica with 4:06 remaining in the first half. But Nick Browne booted field goals of 37 and 18 yards to extend TCU's advantage to 13-3.
The Horned Frogs did struggle in the fourth quarter, when Brian Fisher avoided several tackles and connected with Elgin Hicks on a 19-yard TD with 9:27 remaining.
Fisher was the only Bull that TCU could not contain. He played wide receiver, then came in at quarterback for Ronnie Banks, who completed 11-of-21 passes for just 69 yards.
Fisher also had a 48-yard punt return to put South Florida at the TCU 32. Six plays later, working out of the shotgun formation, he scrambled left, then right before hitting an uncontested Hicks in the right side of the end zone.
Fisher tried to direct another scoring drive but could not get past midfield. South Florida was forced to punt and never got back the ball.
Fisher came in after Banks was sacked on consecutive plays early in the fourth period.
Gunn made his first start since September 6 and completed 10-of-19 passes for 132 yards. The sophomore separated his shoulder in practice September 9 and backup Brandon Hassell led the Horned Frogs to victories over Vanderbilt, Arizona and Army.
After directing TCU's first scoring drive, Gunn's 25-yard completion to Reggie Harrell set up Browne's 37-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.
Rodgers had three catches for 71 yards while Robert Merrill carried 22 times for 76 yards as TCU extended its winning streak to eight games and improved to 6-0 for the seventh time.
The home loss was South Florida's first since it was defeated by Hofstra on November 13, 1999.
