Sanchez Ascends USF Career Tackles Summit on Senior Night
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, NOV. 20, 2017 –
Auggie Sanchez was a man on a mission to make history on senior night.
Needing four tackles to become USF's career leader, the motoring middle linebacker accomplished the feat by the end of the first quarter of the Bulls' 27-20 win over Tulsa on Nov. 16 at Raymond James Stadium.
By the time he shook hands with fans, Sanchez sported a big smile after matching his career best with 14 tackles to help keep USF in The American championship game mix.
"It means the world to me," he said.
Heading into this week's important War on I-4 clash with UCF, Sanchez stands at the top of USF's career tackles list with 378, 11 more than former NFL linebacker Kawika Mitchell's previous record run of stops from 1999-2002.
Before kickoff, the St. Petersburg native shared emotional moments with his family on the field as one of 23 seniors being honored in USF's regular season home finale. Perhaps playing his final game as a Bull at Ray Jay, Sanchez shattered the tackles record by halftime with 10 stops in the 16
th double-digit tackling game of his super productive career. Sanchez also tied his career high with three of USF's season-high 13 tackles for loss.
"Before the game, I kind of just wanted to get it done, so I could focus on the game itself," he said.
Sanchez made four more tackles in the second half to help the Bulls hold Tulsa to three points after the break. The end result Sanchez cares most about was USF improving to 9-1 this season and 29-8 in the past three years that have been so memorable for the seniors.
"This group itself is such a special group," he said. "We came in here trying to turn around a program and now everyone is kind of seeing the final product."
As a redshirt freshman, Sanchez watched USF go 2-10 in 2013 and 4-8 during his first season as a starting linebacker in 2014. Sanchez turned his game up a notch the next season with 117 tackles during USF's 8-5 campaign and came up one short of USF's season tackles record with 120 last season.
Sanchez's 2016 tackles total helped the Bulls set a school record with 11 victories and the good times have kept rolling this season. Leading the team with 74 tackles, Sanchez continues to be a playmaking machine for 9-1 USF, which can book a trip to the conference championship with a win at UCF on Friday, Nov. 24.
"We really have to go do some good things against them because they're a special team," Sanchez said. "They'll be the best team we play all year."
No matter what happens this Friday, Sanchez can one day look back on his USF career and proudly say he was a program-changing Bull. Aside from his tackles record, Sanchez has been a true team leader in competition, the community and classroom, where he's already earned his college degree.
"This place has been so good to me. USF has been so good to me," Sanchez said. "It's all love here and I really appreciate all the fans and everything that has happened to me at USF."
About USF Football
USF finished the 2016 season ranked No. 19 in the Associated Press poll with a school-record 11 wins following the program's fifth-ever bowl victory in the Birmingham Bowl. The Bulls' 11-2 record marked the fifth-best winning percentage in FBS football in 2016 and one of just 11 teams to reach 11 wins. USF set nearly 40 team and individual records in 2016, including team records for total yards (6,650), rushing yards (3,714), touchdowns (77) and scoring (569). Quarterback Quinton Flowers was named the American Conference Offensive Player of the Year and led a school-record 10 players named to the all-conference team, six of which, including Flowers, returned in 2017.
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