Bulls Trounce The Owls 52-3 on Senior Night Behind Byrum Brown’s Historic Feat

The South Florida Bulls put an exclamation point on their regular season Saturday night, routing the Rice Owls 52-3 at Raymond James Stadium on Senior Night. Behind a dazzling five-touchdown performance from quarterback Byrum Brown, USF improved to 9-3 (6-2 AAC), securing their first nine-win season since 2017 and capping off an undefeated home campaign. The loss ended Rice’s hopes for bowl eligibility, dropping them to 5-7 (2-6 AAC) to finish the year.

The story of the night was USF’s explosive offense, led by their dynamic junior quarterback. Byrum Brown was nearly unstoppable, throwing for 275 yards and four touchdowns while adding another 104 yards and a score on the ground. In doing so, Brown became just the 12th player in FBS history to eclipse 3,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a single season.

The Bulls wasted no time taking control. On their opening possession, Brown orchestrated a 68-yard drive, capping it with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Keshaun Singleton. The duo connected again later in the first quarter on a 47-yard scoring strike, extending the lead to 14-0. Singleton finished with a game-high 125 receiving yards on six catches.

USF continued to pour it on in the second quarter. Brown found a wide-open Mudia Reuben for a 60-yard touchdown pass, making it 21-0. Running back Nykahi Davenport added a 2-yard touchdown plunge before halftime. Rice managed their only points of the game as time expired in the second quarter, with kicker Enock Gota connecting on a 44-yard field goal to make it 28-3 at the break.

The second half brought more of the same. USF opened the third quarter with a drive that featured a gutsy fake punt conversion from their own territory. Brown then found Jeremiah Koger for a 7-yard touchdown pass, pushing the lead to 35-3. A 23-yard field goal from Nico Gramatica extended the advantage to 38-3 heading into the final frame.

In the fourth quarter, Brown called his own number for a 5-yard touchdown run before exiting the game to a standing ovation. Backup quarterback Gaston Moore put the finishing touches on the blowout with a 3-yard touchdown toss to senior Christian Helms for his first career catch and score.

Can’t say enough about the defense, which was once again led by Mac Harris & Jhaylun Shuler, who had 7 & 5 tackles respectively. The defense as a whole stormed to the ball and attacked the Owls at every angle to keep them out of the endzone when they got close.

After the game & amidst swirling rumors about his coaching future, USF Head Coach Alex Golesh praised his team’s ability to stay focused.

“I apologized to our guys. The last thing I would ever want to be is a distraction to our team,” Golesh said postgame. “We talk about having no distractions… Distractions take away from the main focus of what we’re trying to do, which is win football games. These guys, I feel like, have my back, and I have their back, and I apologized. I told them that I didn’t put it out, and it wasn’t true.”

Golesh reserved his highest praise for his star quarterback. “When your quarterback can be your hardest worker, your toughest football player, your smartest, the most buy-in, you can do some really, really special things,” he said of Brown.

When asked about his own future, Brown kept his focus on the immediate task ahead. “We have one more game,” he said, referring to the upcoming bowl game, adding that he had “no thoughts” beyond that but acknowledged he would have a decision to make.

For Rice, the night was a stark reminder of the work that remains. The Owls’ offense struggled to find any rhythm against an aggressive Bulls defense, managing just 257 total yards.

Reflecting on the season-ending loss and the year as a whole, Rice coach Scott Abell pointed to the need for consistency.

“How do we rate success this year will be when we really evaluate how we grew, and then are we ready to take the next step for the program? The next step is to compete with these teams,” Abell said. “And when you show flashes of it, you get excited, but that’s all we did this year against this top tier, we showed a flash here and there. We showed a quarter here and there. We got to play four quarters.”

The Bulls now await their bowl destination, looking to achieve a 10-win season, while the Owls head into the offseason looking to regroup and rebuild.

The Bulls fans also now wait to find out who will be their next Head Coach as Auburn announced the signing of Alex Golesh to a multi year contract at an average of 7.5 million dollars which makes their season bittersweet.

The biggest question still remains to be seen. Will Byrum Brown follow him to Auburn with a pocketful of NIL money? I personally am torn as Brown is a fantastic kid, and I don’t think he can make it in the NFL due to his arm limitations so I hope he can get the most money he can while he can and that’s probably at Auburn.