The USF Bulls, with a chance to get a statement win against Tulane in their conference opener, failed miserably in losing to the Tulane Green Wave 45-10 to begin conference play. After the loss to Tulane, the Bulls are 2-3 on the season.
That makes the third consecutive game that USF has been blown out. Against Alabama and Miami, they hung in there for a half, but their lack of depth and inability to finish came back to haunt them in the second half.
Against Tulane, they were out-coached and outplayed from the very beginning.
The Green Wave jumped on the Bulls early and often and led the Bulls 14-0 before USF had even crossed midfield.
Alex Golesh prides himself on game preparation and the process, but this team looked as if they didn’t practice all week.
Coach Golesh talked about the effort against Tulane.
“I’ve got to own us looking the way we did,” Golesh said. “Because it wasn’t good.”
This is the standard go-to line for the last three weeks. If you’re taking responsibility and know certain things on both sides of the ball need to be fixed, fix it instead of showing up every week and getting run out of the stadium.
The Bulls are in the midst of the most challenging part of their schedule. Still, like last season, they are digging themselves a big hole, and even though the Bulls could go on a run in the second half of the season against lesser competition, playing for a conference championship may be out of reach by that point.
Golesh is now 0-9 against teams with winning records and gives up 31 points a game in those losses.
The lack of anyone being able to drop back in the pocket and complete a pass consistently is hurting this Bulls team.
Tulane’s game plan was to take Byrum Brown and his playmaking abilities away and not let him beat them. The other goal was to slow down the Bull’s running game.
Mission accomplished on both counts.
The Bulls finished the game with 26 yards on 25 carries. Byrum Brown was 12/19 passing for 124 yards and -12 yards rushing on eight carries before leaving the game with a leg injury.
The offensive line did a horrible job blocking, and the team averaged 1.0 yard per carry.
Running the ball has been the bread and butter for USF under Alex Golesh. If the Bulls are not effective in running the ball, it will be hard for them to succeed since they also don’t have a consistent passing game.
The defense seems to be regressing every game instead of getting better. The Bull’s defense is giving up 34.8 points a game through five games.
Tulane outgained USF 317 to 148 in the first half and 528 to 201 on the day. It was one of the lowest outputs for the Bulls in the Alex Golesh era.
Yet, Golesh remains optimistic. “We’re closer than we’ve ever been, and now you’ve got to learn how to respond to this because we still have a ton of ball left to play. Really good cultures can respond and bounce back. We’ve got to continue to build ours.”
The Bulls have a bye week before hosting Memphis at Raymond James on Friday Night, October 12th, in a nationally televised matchup.
This is another game that the Bulls need to win if they are going to continue to build momentum for conference play.
The USF fans deserve better. After suffering through the Jeff Scott years, hope sprung eternal with the hiring of Alex Golesh.
I understand it is only year two of the Golesh era, but this team seems to be regressing instead of moving forward.