The South Florida Bulls showed a major turnaround from Week’s 1 & 2, falling in a thriller to the Florida Gators, 31-28.
Give credit where credit is due. The USF Bulls came from Tampa ready to play and USF had Florida at the edge of their heels even in the fourth quarter. However, due to costly mistakes and penalties, USF couldn’t seal the deal in The Swamp when they needed to or had the chance to. Despite the Bulls’ failure to pull of the upset, they deserve a ton of credit for putting up a fight throughout the entire game against a No. 18-ranked team.
This is now the third losing effort for the South Florida program versus the Gators, with one of the three coming from last season’s home contest.
Offense
If you want to talk about an old school game plan with a modern twist, you have it here with USF. USF dominated the rushing attack, ultimately leading to what gave South Florida a shot throughout the entirety of the game.
The team ran for a total of 286 yards versus the Gators defense, with Brian Battie Gerry Bohanon adding in over 100 yards individually on the stat sheet.
USF was effective at being able to find the open gap in Florida’s defense and run their way right past them.
One aspect of the offense that still hasn’t improved, though, is the air attack, as Bohanon only threw for a little over 100 yards passing and two interceptions versus the Gators. However, the Bulls are creating their identity based off their rushing attack offensively.
Overall, this was a solid performance on the offensive side of the football. USF played arguably their best game in this aspect and while there is room for improvement, the team showed they could be very competitive if they can repeat how they played against Florida.
Defense
Shifting to the other side of the football, the defense built off of last week’s performance versus Howard, grabbing two interceptions over Anthony Richardson, who is projected to be drafted in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
The biggest defensive play happened in the fourth quarter when Freshman Kansas State transfer DB, Aamaris Brown, was able to pick off Richardson in the endzone, resulting in the Bulls earning the chance to win in Gainesville.
And while the outcome didn’t necessarily turn out the way Bulls fans hoped, it still was a massive play and opened some eyes around the nation in terms of the competitiveness and resiliency of this South Florida program.
Final Thoughts
Coming into this game, many fans and the “general population” in college football would have had Florida as a slam dunk to win, even after their loss to Kentucky last week. But after the Gators performance against USF, questions do pop up for Florida heading into their rivalry matchup next week against Tennessee.
As for the Bulls, this was the first game where it felt like a team effort. Yes, the score may have not been the favored outcome for fans, but this game was a major stepping point for this program heading into a Louisville game next week that may actually be winnable if the team can continue to build heading into next week.
For Head Coach Jeff Scott, this game was also a major outcome, as Scott proved he can hang with the top teams in the country and he and the rest of the USF team may have just gave fans and people some hope for the Bulls going forward.