Coming into Saturday’s game with the Crimson Tide, no one except the Bulls thought they could stay with them for 4 quarters. Well the USF Bulls proved everyone wrong as they were in the game until late in the forth quarter when Bama Quarterback Ty Simpson punched it in from the 1 yard line to give Alabama a 17-3 lead late in the game.
The Bulls fought all game long and weathered a hour rain delay in from of over 65,000 fans. It was the most fans I have see in the stadium for a Bulls game since I started covering them 15 years ago. It was also great to see Alabama fans worry about losing the game as their team struggled.
Bulls QB Byrum Brown was great with 23 carries for 92 yards but struggled mightily with his accuracy and finished by going 14 for 28 for 87 yards and 1 costly pick as the team was moving the ball in the forth quarter trying to tie the score at 10.
Bulls fans, the coaches and the national media could not say enough about the Bulls defense who held Alabama QBs to 107 yards in the air with Buchner and Simpson throwing for a combined 10 for 23. The Bulls defense was led by Daquan Evans who had 8 tackles with 4 for loss, 3 sacks and 1 pass deflection. He was in Bama’s backfield all day long and had an amazing game.
Other Bull players who stood out in Saturdays contest were linebacker Jhalyn Shuler, who led all players with 11 tackles; receiver Sean Atkins (six catches, 42 yards); and running Nay’Quan Wright, who rushed 15 times for 62 yards and ignited the entire stadium with an early bull-dozing run of an Alabama defender.
With 6:54 left in the third and the game tied at 3, Alabama got things going as expected late in the game. Taking over at their own 16, the Crimson Tide went 84 yards on 6 plays with Roydell Williams diving in from the 1 yard line.
After Alabama scored, The Bulls got momentum and drove into Bama territory. On 1st and 10 at the Alabama 41-yard line, Golesh decided to go for a bomb towards the end zone. Brown threw a corner post route but the receiver ran a middle post and Malachi Moore intercepted the pass to thwart USF’s comeback attempt.
You could feel the air come out of the stadium and many fans departed after the play. Golesh said “Because we were moving it, we were chunking down the field on that drive. That was a critical drive in the game for us to make it 10-10 and I don’t know if I got impatient as much as I saw an opportunity. … In every imaginable way that’s my fault, and I told Byrum that and I told (the receiver) Michael Brown-Stephens that.”
With Alabama having 4-5 star players for backups, its tough for a club like the Bulls to keep up with SEC powerhouses when backups have to get rotated in. Its just a size situation but keeping with Alabama for the whole game, the talk of moral victory was said by many but Bulls Head Coach Alex Golesh wasn’t having it.
“Valiant efforts are for losers,” he said. “Moral victories are for losers. Winners win. So there are no moral victories. … You can say that’s an SEC team. You can say the No. 10 team in the country. You can say whatever you want. They’re on our schedule. They are playing us at home. We’ve got to go win football games. I’ll own it. We weren’t as good as we had to be tonight to win.”
Nick Saban after the game said he was most proud of how the team competed. Says they didn’t play great but kept answering the bell and was his happy with how team competed.
Up next for the Bulls, their conference schedule kicks in with a home game against Rice at 4pm.
Under a cloudy sky at the Bounce House, the home of the University of Central Florida Knights, the home team did just enough to seal a win over the University Of South Florida Bulls in the War On I4. Aptly labeled as both teams are on either ends of this stretch of highway that bisects the state. With the win the Knights took their fifth straight win in the series.
Photo-Mark Matson
Photo-Mark Matson
The Knights started the game off a with a well-balanced attack on a 57-yard 10 play drive that mixed both passing and running equally. But the South Florida Bulls defense stiffened when it counted, and the drive stalled at the 18-yard line. With a chance to score first, kicker Daniel Obarski missed on a 35-yard field goal attempt.
Photo-Mark Matson
After a series by the South Florida Bulls that netted -1 yard. The Knights were back on the attack and drew first blood with an eight play 63-yard drive that put the Knights up 7 – 0 on a Parker Navarro 3-yard run.
Photo-Mark Matson
Photo-Mark Matson
The South Florida Bills would come right back and tie things up with a twelve play 72-yard drive that would take 6 minutes off the clock and close out the first quarter. The drive was capped off with quarterback Timmy McClain running it in himself. While the drive was successful, the Bulls committed several penalties on it which would be part of their undoing throughout the game. With multiple false starts and ineligible man downfield penalties this squarely put them on their backfoot at all the wrong times.
Photo-Mark Matson
Photo-Mark Matson
With Both teams equally punting twice and missing a field goal attempt in the second quarter it looked like the half would come to an end tied. With the South Florida Bulls punting, Knights punt returner/wide receiver Titus Mokia-Atimalala returned the ball thirty-nine yards to the South Florida Bulls 27-yard line. Quarterback Mikey Keene and the rest of his Knights teammates drove the final twenty-seven yards in six plays and capped it off with a 7-yard completion to wide receiver Brandon Johnson to pull ahead 14 – 7 with just 11 seconds left in the first half.
Photo-Mark Matson
Photo-Mark Matson
The first two series of the second half by the South Florida Bulls were both solid drives. But were both stalled by false start penalties that ultimately netted the team two field goals to draw the to within one point. When the Knights had a chance to respond they did with a well timed ten play 61-yard drive that took up 5:24 of the clock. They drove down to the South Florida Bulls 14-yard line but could only come away with a field goal to put them up 17-14.
Photo-Mark Matson
Photo-Mark Matson
Photo-Mark Matson
With less than three minutes to go and eighty yards to the end zone, the game was put on the shoulders of South Florida Bulls true freshman quarterback Timmy McClain. After a quick completion and a sack, McClain was chased out of the pocket and made a poor throw that was intercepted, but the play was negated by an offsides by the Knights. After the South Florida Bulls made it down to the twenty-six-yard line, McClain used his feet on successive plays to get down to the Knights three-yard line setting up an exciting and improbable finish to the game.
Photo-Mark Matson
But that would be as far as they would get as the Knights defense sacked McClain who went down to his knee and threw the ball which was picked off. As the referees reviewed the final play of the game, they determined that McClain was down negating the interception, but time had expired giving the Knights the win.
Photo-Mark Matson
With the win the Knights finished the season 8-4 with an undefeated record at home as well as getting at least eight wins in the last four out of five seasons. While the South Florida Bulls end the year at 2-7 and 1-7 in AAC play. But McClain has shown flashes of more and this should be an improved team next season
TAMPA, NOV. 3, 2018 – USF dropped consecutive conference games for the first time since the end of the 2014 season with a 41-15 setback against Tulane on Saturday at Raymond James Stadium.
(Photo-Travis Failey)
Tulane (4-5, 3-2 in AAC) took control of the game with 34 straight points after USF (7-2, 3-2 in AAC) started with a 3-0 lead. The Bulls’ nation-leading streak of consecutive 20-plus point games was snapped at 38.
Quarterback Blake Barnett moved closer to USF’s first 3,000-yard passing season, completing 29 of 49 attempts for 332 yards. The junior from Corona, Calif., also led the USF rushing attack with 59 yards and produced his eighth touchdown on the ground this season in the fourth quarter after a career long 39-yard run in the first period of play.
Blake Barnett (Photo-Travis Failey)
Tyre McCants (Niceville, Fla.) moved up to fourth on USF’s career receptions list (119) after registering a game-high nine catches for 85 yards. Stanley Clerveaux (North Miami) matched his career high with five receptions for 50 yards, a new career best.
Tyre McCants (Photo-Travis Failey)
Freshman Johnny Ford also is tied for the team lead with eight rushing touchdowns after a 5-yard score in the third quarter. The Miami native has rushed for at least one touchdown in each of the past three games with six scores during that stretch.
(Photo-Travis Failey)
Tulane headed into halftime with a 27-3 lead after scoring 27 unanswered points, including 20 in the second quarter.
USF started the scoring in the middle of the opening quarter with a 27-yard field goal by Coby Weiss (Gainesville, Fla.). The 65-yard drive was sparked by Barnett’s career long 39-yard run on USF’s first offensive play of the game.
(Photo-Travis Failey)
Following USF’s third turnover of the game, Darius Bradwell’s 73-yard touchdown run helped extend the Green Wave lead to 34-3 with 3:48 remaining in the third quarter. USF answered back about three minutes later with Ford’s eighth rushing touchdown run of the season from 5 yards out.
Johnny Ford (Photo-Travis Failey)
USF’s rally continued with a 1-yard touchdown run by Barnett that cut the deficit to 34-15 with 9:26 remaining. The touchdown was set up by a 31-yard reception by junior Darnell Salomon (Miami), who finished with three catches for 54 yards.
(Photo-Travis Failey)
Redshirt freshman linebacker Andrew Mims (St. Johns, Fla.) recovered a fumble in USF territory on Tulane’s next drive, but the Bulls couldn’t complete their fourth double-digit fourth quarter comeback of the season.
Senior Josh Black (Tampa) led the defensive effort with a career-high 10 tackles, including his team-leading fifth sack of the season. Freshman Dwayne Boyles Jr. (Miami) also set a career high with eight tackles.
Roland Skies for the grab (Photo-Travis Failey)
Key Stats
364 – Tulane rushed for 364 yards on 52 attempts (7.1 ypc).
110 – USF’s rushing yardage total after posting at least 200 yards on the ground in 31 of the previous 37 games.
34 – Tulane took control of the game with 34 unanswered points after USF took a 3-0 lead.
3 – USF turned the ball over three times, including two lost fumbles.
