The USF Bulls did not improve off their surprising performance in Week 3 versus Florida as Louisville blew out the Bulls on Saturday afternoon, 41-3.
Coming into this game, there were people who actually saw USF having a shot or possibly getting an upset win on the road to finish non-conference play but unfortunately, the Bulls dropped their second game in a row in similar fashion to the most prior meeting to Saturday’s game.
This was definitely a different looking team than what we saw in Gainesville and it really questions certain aspects of this team going into conference play.
Game Recap
If you are a Bulls fan, there was nothing to be excited about offensively in Week 4.
Gerry Bohanon still showed signs of struggle in the passing game, finishing with less than 100 yards passing and throwing two interceptions, leaving South Florida now as the only FBS level team in the country without a passing touchdown.
It’s understandable to realize that this team’s first means of offensive production in on the ground but to be the only FBS team without a passing score is something that needs to be fixed urgently.
Louisville did a fantastic job at stopping the run, keeping all USF running backs under 50 yards on the ground. The team would wind up finishing with less than 200 yards of total offense and nothing got going for the Bulls.
While we did see some bright spots for the Bulls defense and offense, the execution has been lacking with many missed play opportunities and mistakes. The defense did have two forced fumbles and the offense had some nice chunk passing plays but the plays were meaningless with USF trailing by a wide margin.
The defense just wasn’t playing to it’s fullest at points versus Louisville and the defensive unit looked outplayed for a majority of the game.
South Florida would allow 542 yards of total offense with Malik Cunningham having a touchdown rushing spree, scoring three touchdowns on 113 yards of rushing versus the Bulls. The only person or object that could stop Cunningham was the field goal net, as he got tied up with the net after scoring a touchdown in the second quarter.
Even special teams, which arguably has been the best component of USF this year, had their struggles. It was one of the more poorer performances by this program.
Overall Thoughts
There’s not much to say regarding USF’s performance in Saturday’s loss to Louisville. This was a complete 180 from what was shown by USF in the last two weeks and puts into question what the season outlook will be for the Bulls going forward.
The Bulls were sloppy on defense and on offense they just weren’t able to produce anything, even in their strong suit, which is their rushing attack.
Luckily, the non-conference schedule is behind them. This gives South Florida a chance to do some damage in conference play starting with ECU.
However, with that being said, “What are the South Florida Bulls?” and “What is the Direction and Look of this Team going forward?”
Those are questions that should be answered when they play a sneaky ECU team in Boca (due to Hurricane Ian) on Saturday.