USF FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: Bulls Placed on Homecoming Show

Takeaways, highlights, notables, sights, sound bites and studying experiences from USF’s 48-13 Homecoming victory in opposition to the Florida Atlantic Owls and a stay up for Saturday afternoon’s American Conference street showdown in opposition to the Memphis Tigers.

 

The Quick Read

* With the Bulls shifting up one spot to No. 18 within the Associated Press ballot — after delighting this system’s largest Homecoming crowd in 16 years (an introduced 45,169) with a strong 48-13 victory in opposition to Florida Atlantic — life appears fairly good for Alex Golesh‘s workforce. In actuality, the work has simply begun. All gasoline, no brakes. 

* Could this be the beginning of a cool new custom to honor the luminaries of USF Athletics? Loved that Tampa Bay Rays ace left-hander Shane McClanahan — a former USF pitching nice — dealt with the coin flip. Loved it much more when McClanahan flipped it right-handed.

* Surely the American Conference has a handful of elite linebackers. And the voting often will get cut up as a substitute of loading up on one workforce. But there is not any query that Mac Harris and Jhalyn Shuler are persistently enjoying on the degree of first-team all-conference performers. 

* Sneaking a freshman quarterback onto the sphere for a landing go thrown out of punt formation? Two blocked punts that produced factors and one other excessive punt snap that led to a security? Consistently efficient punting? Field-goal makes from 52, 45, 43 and 41 yards? And now a shock “pooch” kickoff that was plucked out of the air and recovered, resulting in a landing drive? Show me a special-teams unit that has produced greater than USF’s finely tuned group.

* We’re seven video games in. USF had zero turnovers in three of them.

* Freshman WR Jeremiah Koger now has 12 receptions for 259 yards and 4 touchdowns – in his final three video games. That’s a 21.6-yard common per catch. Chas Nimrod is averaging 20.3 on his 22 receptions. If this lasts, what a rarity. You hardly see a workforce with two receivers averaging 20-yards-plus per catch.

 

Game Takeaway

The Bulls turned bowl eligible Saturday evening.

And hardly anybody seen.

After a 48-13 Homecoming victory in opposition to Florida Atlantic, the Bulls (6-1, 3-0 American Conference) have a lot larger issues in thoughts.

“I guess we became bowl eligible tonight,” head coach Alex Golesh said. “I do not know if a single younger man in that locker room provides one heck about being bowl eligible. I mentioned it two years in the past. I mentioned it final 12 months. That (profitable six video games in a season) shouldn’t be the usual right here. It won’t ever be the usual right here.

“I instructed our guys there have been six groups within the prime 25 that received upset this week. We earned the suitable to not be considered one of them, however (it reveals) how fragile profitable actually is. It goes proper again to their every day habits, proper again to our course of, proper again to the tradition that we’re constructing right here. Lots of credit score to the older guys right here who proceed to pour into their course of with out ever being emotionally connected to the top consequence.”

USF, which by no means trailed, received its usually environment friendly sport out of QB Byrum Brown (14-for-24 passing, 256 yards, three touchdowns with 111 speeding yards and an extra rating). Brown’s 22-yard run capped a 12-play, 75-yard drive to start the sport.

Twice, Brown tossed a scoring go to a decent finish (11 yards to Jonathan Echols, 24 yards to Wyatt Sullivan) and he additionally had an electrifying 60-yarder to game-breaking freshman large receiver Jeremiah Koger.

Meanwhile, extra speeding touchdowns had been scored by Nykahi Davenport and 325-pound offensive lineman Cole Skinner (for the second straight week). Place-kicker Nico Gramatica linked on field-goal makes an attempt of 41 and 28 yards.

Defensively, the Bulls made the Owls (3-4, 2-2) one-dimensional, limiting FAU to simply 23 yards speeding (-13 till halfway by way of the fourth quarter) and weathering the 50-pass assault from dink-and-dunk QB Caden Veltkamp, who was sacked 5 occasions. The Bulls additionally had 11 tackles for a loss. 

After USF earned its first four-game profitable streak in seven years, Golesh mentioned the workforce would rejoice — briefly — earlier than getting on with preparations for Saturday afternoon’s ESPN2 street sport in opposition to the Memphis Tigers, a formidable foe within the American Conference.

“I told our guys to shut out any outside noise they get,” Golesh said. “We’re going to proceed getting patted on the again for doing rather well in these video games each week, however the distinction between a pat on the again and a slap within the face is eighteen inches. It’s actually, actually fragile.”

The Bulls look like centered.

“I didn’t even know we were bowl-bound until I saw it on the (video) screens,” Skinner said. “That does not imply something. That’s simply the usual. We’re imagined to be bowl-bound. That’s the underside line. We’re imagined to be there, one hundred pc.”

Whether it is focus, maturity or just concentrating on the duty at hand, Brown mentioned the Bulls are pushed by a guiding pressure.

“We love each other,” Brown said. “And as cliche as that sounds, it is true. The love could be very deep. We will go to battle for each (teammate) each single play. If somebody goes down, the following particular person is stepping up with the identical love and the identical intent. So that is actually all it’s.”

 

The Big Play

USF had taken a 14-3 lead early within the second quarter when punter Chase Leon lined up for the kickoff. That appeared regular. Although Adam Zouagui is the first kickoff man, Leon had kicked off six occasions this season. But Leon executed a “pooch” kick — consider a golf chip from the perimeter, designed to take a seat up and hit the inexperienced — that was plucked out of the air by special-teams ace JeyQuan Smith on the FAU 35-yard line. The Bulls then mounted a seven-play landing drive — all runs — that culminated in OL Cole Skinner’s 1-yard rumble into the top zone, making it 21-3.

 

Game Balls 

* QB Byrum Brown, who accounted for 4 touchdowns — three passing (with 256 passing yards on 14-for-24) and one speeding (with 111 speeding yards).

* LB Mac Harris, who had a team-leading 10 tackles, 1.5 sacks and a pair of.5 tackles for a loss.

* RB Nykahi Davenport, who rushed for 71 yards and one landing.

* WR Jeremiah Koger, the quickly bettering freshman, who had 4 receptions for 90 yards and a 60-yard landing (the third straight sport by which he has scored).

* S Fred Gaskin, who had seven tackles, one sack (for a 21-yard loss), one deal with for a loss and one pressured fumble.

* P Chase Leon, who averaged 43.7 yards on three punts, but in addition delivered an excellent “pooch” kickoff that was flagged down by WR JeyQuan Smith to offer USF a bonus possession (by which it scored).

* B-backer Rico Watson III, who had 4 tackles, one deal with for a loss and an interception (returned 21 yards). And who can overlook his spectacular obvious 92-yard fumble return for a landing to shut out the primary half? Alas, the play was frustratingly negated when replays indicated that Owls QB Caden Veltkamp truly threw an incomplete ahead go (as a substitute of fumbling) after harassment from B-backer Ira Singleton.

* LB Jhalyn Shuler, who had seven tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss, two go breakups and the tipped ball that led to Watson’s interception.

* The tight ends: Jonathan Echols scored for the second straight week (on a superb catch throughout a 19-yard wheel route) and Wyatt Sullivan produced his first USF landing (in opposition to his former workforce, FAU), a 24-yarder on fourth-and-1 that noticed him drag Owls CB Terez Reid with him on the ultimate eight yards into the top zone.

 

Notable Numbers

1 — Number of occasions that USF has opened with a 4-0 convention file (2017). They want another win to make it two. 

2 — Number of speeding touchdowns this season for OL Cole Skinner (6-foot-5, 325 kilos). He is considered one of simply 4 offensive linemen within the final 30 years to attain the feat. 

4 — Number of occasions that USF opened with a 3-0 convention file (2016, 2017, 2018, 2025).

6 — Number of occasions that USF started a season by profitable no less than six of its first seven video games (2007, 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2025).

15-14 — USF’s all-time file in Homecoming video games. Saturday’s win in opposition to FAU broke USF’s five-game dropping streak on Homecoming.

17 — Number of various gamers who’ve scored a landing this season for USF. Note: 14 completely different gamers scored touchdowns for USF in all of final season.

22-23 — USF’s all-time file in opposition to state of Florida opponents (6-8 vs. UCF, 5-0 vs. Florida A&M, 5-2 vs. FAU, 2-0 vs. Florida International, 1-0 vs. Bethune-Cookman, 1-3 vs. Florida, 1-3 vs. Florida State and 1-7 vs. Miami).

23 — Rushing yards by FAU (and 21 of these had been gained on the Owls’ closing drive).

475 — Rushing yards this season for QB Byrum Brown. That ranks seventh amongst Football Bowl Subdivision QBs (the highest three are from the service academies with Air Force’s Liam Szarka main the pack at 725 yards).

2,237 — Total yards gained by USF throughout its four-game profitable streak (a mean of 559.3 yards per sport).

 

The List

By profitable at Memphis on Saturday afternoon, the USF Bulls would have this system’s first five-game profitable streak in seven years. Here are this system’s all-time finest profitable streaks inside one season.

7 — 2002, 2017, 2018

6 — 2001, 2007

5 — 1998, 2008, 2009, 2016

4 — 1999, 2011, 2015, 2025*

*—ongoing

 

Next Up: Memphis

Memphis (6-1, 2-1) misplaced a little bit steam and dropped from the nationwide rankings after Saturday’s 31-24 upset street defeat in opposition to the UAB Blazers. But there’s nonetheless nice incentive for the Bulls, who’re 4-9 all-time in opposition to the Tigers and 2-4 on the Liberty Bowl stadium. 

Memphis defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks 32-31 on Sept. 20 and likewise registered a 55-26 victory in opposition to FAU in Boca Raton.

The Tigers have been paced by the accuracy and athleticism of QB Brendon Lewis (69.5-percent, 1,337 yards, eight touchdowns, plus four hundred and forty yards speeding and 7 scores). There’s a productive operating sport with Sutton Smith (480 yards, 6.4-yard common) and Greg Desrosiers Jr. (389, 6.8).

In its final journey to Memphis (2023), USF was upended 59-50 in a wild sport. Memphis beat USF 21-3 final season in a sport that was moved to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium as a result of Hurricane Milton.

USF is amongst three American Conference groups with an unbeaten league file, together with Navy (6-0, 4-0) and Tulane (6-1, 3-0). USF travels to Navy on Nov. 15, however does not play Tulane within the common season. The American’s prime two groups advance to the convention championship sport (held on the dwelling subject of the highest-ranked workforce) with a possible College Football Playoff bid hanging within the steadiness.

–#GoBulls–