As we enter the home stretch of the 2025 season, the USF Bulls are in a position to do something special. Their 55-23 win over UTSA on Saturday put the Bulls in a position to control their own destiny and accomplish something that no other USF football team has done in the history of the program.
The Bulls are in position to win their first conference championship in football. A conference championship would surely put the Bulls in position for a berth in the College Football Playoffs. So, what do the Bulls have to do to reach these two milestones?
The answer is easy. USF needs to win its last three regular-season games and then win the AAC conference championship game. That should propel them to a berth in the College Football Playoffs. But what is easy is also hard to do.
First up is a matchup with Navy this week in Annapolis. You could make a case that this is the most crucial game in the history of USF football, considering what is at stake.
The Bulls received a significant boost from Tulane over the weekend, as they traveled to Memphis and defeated the Tigers 38-32. With that win, the Tigers were eliminated from the conference championship, barring an act of God. That win also put the Bulls in the driver’s seat to punch their ticket to the AAC Championship game in December.
There are five conference teams with one loss in the AAC: Tulane, North Texas, East Carolina, USF, and Navy. Any one of these teams could match up against USF in a conference championship game. All the Bulls need to do is run the table in these three games against Navy, UAB, and the final home game of the season against Rice. If the Bulls can accomplish this, they have a good chance of hosting the AAC Championship game at Raymond James Stadium.
So, who would the Bulls play in the championship game? That remains to be determined, as several variables will influence who the second-place team in the conference will be.
Bulls head coach Alex Golesh is not getting caught up in the playoff talk and rankings. “I don’t care about perception at all. That’s somebody else’s job to figure out where we belong.” Golesh went on to say, “I know where we belong. Truly, what I told these guys before the game (is) when we play really hard, we’re a good football team.”
“When we play really hard with elite detail and a violent intent, we can play with anybody in the country.”
So, it’s all on the Bulls. They can’t count on help from anyone else. It’s up to this team to have the will to win and go out and accomplish great things in these last three games. In the words of the late great Al Davis, “Just Win Baby, just win!”