USF Bulls Increase Chances Of Going “Bowling” By Beating The Temple Owls 27-23

On Saturday at Ray Jay, the USF Bulls defeated the Temple Owls 27-23 in a nail biter on Military Appreciation Day. With the victory putting them at 5-5 with two winnable games to play against the UTSA Roadrunners on the road and then back at home against Charlotte, the postseason bowl possibility looks like a reality.

In front of a crowd of 30,938, Quarterback Byrum Brown led the Bulls once again and got the team off to a great start by hitting Sean Atkins on a 40 yard deep ball to setup Brown to take it in untouched from 7 yards out only 1:46 into the game, which was also their fastest score of the year.

The Bulls kept their foot on the gas in the first quarter as the defense had three straight stops leading to two more scores for the Bulls to go up 17-0 late in the first quarter. “I thought how our guys started was incredible,” said first-year coach Alex Golesh,

“I thought offensively to go down and go punch it in relatively quickly, and then the defense to answer the bell, then to score again and the defense answer the bell … now the next part of who we are has to be, how do we keep the gas going?”

Temple got on the board as EJ Warner hit TE Jordan Smith on a beautiful post play with Smith making a nice cut route to deke Daquan Evans for the score to make the game 17-7.

Warner playing in front of his Super Bowl winning father, finished the game 24-47 for 280 yards and 3 costly interceptions including a pick six by defensive end Tramel Logan to give the Bulls the lead at 27-10 with 3:09 to go in the third.

“He came off the field on the sideline and said, ‘I’ve been on the JUGS (passing machine) coach, like you keep preaching,’ ” Golesh said. “It sounds so simple, why is a (defensive) lineman on the JUGS every single day? Because of the one opportunity that might come at him. You talk about process, that’s nothing we make him do.”

Temple’s defense then stepped up and held the Bulls to no points in the final 18 minutes and turned the game into a nail-biter as the Owls trimmed the deficit to 27-23 as Warner hit WR Dante Wright for a 12 yard score. Kicker Camden Price missed the huge extra point preserving a four-point USF lead with 7:03 to play.

Warner threw for 199 yards in the second half but USF was able to run out the clock on the final drive to give USF another conference win to go 3-3 on the season. On the final drive, Brown and the Bulls ran a 14 play drive and were able to drain Temple of the timeouts to secure the big home victory.

There were fantastic performances on the offensive and defensive side of the ball with WR Sean Atkins going for 9 catches and 169 yards giving him the single season team reception record by a Bull surpassing Rodney Adams who had 67 in 2016. Atkins has 69 with two games to go and has been a staple for Brown this season as a first down getting target.

“It’s surreal, man,” said graduate receiver Sean Atkins, a former walk-on who eclipsed USF’s single-season receptions mark with a nine-catch, 169-yard day.

“Meaningful games in November are something special. I haven’t (been) able to be a part of it my whole career here, so just being able to live in the moment right now and just go out every day in practice and know that it’s something we’re playing for, it’s just something special.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Aamaris Brown intercepted Warner twice making highlight type plays to quell the Owls drives. They were the first two picks of the year for Brown and they couldn’t have come at a better time in the season.

USF amassed 451 yards, but was a combined 7 of 20 on third and fourth down, and was flagged 10 times for 70 yards.

Byrum Brown also got his bell rung as his helmet came flying off in the third quarter but only missed one play and was back on the field leading his teammates to victory.

“Week 10 of the season, that should not be happening and it was happening,” Golesh said. “So we’ve got to fix that.”

In the grand scheme of things, the Bulls with Alex Golesh leading the team and Brown behind center, this team is one that the fans can get behind and the future with their upcoming recruiting classes looking solid, The Bulls seem to be back and looking to throw a strike in the post-season.