It's a Victory Rewind of the sights, sound bites, stats, highlights and learning experiences of USF's 44-30 triumph against the Navy Midshipmen, while beginning the look ahead to Saturday afternoon's road game against the UAB Blazers.

The Big Play

It was still a blow-by-blow game when the fourth quarter began. USF led 30-23. Navy faced a third-and-1 at the USF 28-yard line. Midshipmen backup quarterback Blake Horvath, who had a 24-yard run earlier in the drive, tried going up the middle on a keeper, but the ball popped loose, rolled backward and the fumble just laid there for a second or two.

That's when USF senior defensive end Tramel Logan swooped in for the scoop-and-score, a stunning 70-yard play where he raced untouched into the end zone for the touchdown that finally gave the Bulls some breathing room.

"It was an easy scoop-and-score and my eyes got really big, but the first thing you think about is not falling down,'' Logan said. "My responsibility was the edge and they came up to the line in a funky formation, trying to snap it fast. But there was the ball and I had nothing but field in front of me.

"Ask anybody on this team. I've been itching to get in that end zone. I haven't scored since high school. I was so happy. I knew there was nobody chasing me and I had a bunch of celebrations going through my head. But when I got in that end zone, I just dropped the ball down. It was thrilling.''

USF, up by two touchdowns, never relinquished control after the Bulls first fumble return for a touchdowns since 2018 when Vincent Davis do so at UMass.

Game Balls

* Logan had four tackles and the 70-yard touchdown, which was the second-longest fumble return in USF history behind Kayvon Webster's 96-yard score at Notre Dame on Sept. 3, 2011. And it was the first touchdown by a USF defensive player since Antonio Grier's 69-yard interception return against Tulsa on Oct. 16, 2021.

* Wide receiver Sean Atkins had four receptions for a career-high 116 yards, including an 88-yard touchdown, which was the fourth-longest pass play in USF history.

* One day after his 19th birthday, quarterback Byrum Brown was 26-of-34 for 338 yards and three touchdowns. For the season, Brown is completing 61 percent of his passes. He has nine touchdowns and just three interceptions. Brown had more than 100 family and friends in the stands (many wearing the No. 17 USF jersey). Brown's father is originally from Washington D.C.

* Safety Jaelen Stokes, who had seven tackles total in 2022, registered a career-high 10 tackles.

* Linebacker Andrew Mata'afa, the Utah transfer who was making his first start, had 10 tackles and a half-sack (shared with Rashad Cheney).

* Wide receiver Michael Brown-Stephens, a Minnesota transfer, had his first USF touchdown with an acrobatic 15-yard catch in the end zone that put the Bulls up for good, 30-23. Overall, Brown-Stephens had four receptions for 48 yards.

* Linebacker Jhalyn Shuler had seven tackles and a stunning length-of-the-field return of a botched snap during a Navy extra-point attempt that resulted in two points.

Notable Numbers

1 — USF had just one penalty for 12 yards (a personal foul on special teams during the second quarter). That was a remarkable improvement from the first four games, when the Bulls ranked 128th nationally in penalty yardage.

8 — Different receivers that caught a pass from Brown on the day.

10 — Number of different USF players to score a touchdown this season.

21 — Number of states in which USF football has won a game. Add Maryland to the list of Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. (Note: USF also won the International Bowl in Toronto, Canada).

64 — Consecutive pass attempts by Brown without an interception.

2017 — The last season when USF had a three-game winning streak in the American Athletic Conference (and that one was four games with victories against Temple, East Carolina, Cincinnati and Tulane).

Streak-Busting Victory

USF (3-2, 2-0 AAC) continues to shatter the unwanted streaks. The win at Navy broke a 19-game road losing streak (and a 13-game AAC road losing streak) dating to 2019. It also put the Bulls alone atop the AAC standings.

Asked about the big-picture significance, Bulls coach Alex Golesh quickly said, "There is no big picture. What it means is our process was good enough to win a game. We'll celebrate it tonight, then move on quickly. It doesn't mean anything for next week.''

But Saturday night, it meant a lot. In all sports, some of the happiest moments are spent traveling home from a road victory. USF players hadn't experienced that sensation since 2019. This game was particularly fun because the Bulls overcame an early 14-0 deficit and three turnovers.

"Getting on the plane all joyful … we don't want that feeling to stop,'' Logan said.

"This was a long time in coming and I'm happiest for the guys who stayed here and stuck with the program,'' Atkins said. "We have bought into Coach Golesh and the next-play mentality. There's nobody we'd rather have leading the charge than Coach Golesh. He really motivates his players and we're all working together. I just love this team.''

Redemption For Atkins

Atkins has been one of most reliable punt returners in USF history. But after stopping Navy on its first possession, Atkins fumbled the punt return at USF's 18-yard line, setting up Navy's first touchdown.

No one felt lower than Atkins when he jogged to the sideline. A few seconds later, no one felt more confident.

"I think I misjudged it in the wind and I just didn't execute,'' Atkins said. "But whenever the head coach (Golesh) comes up to you after the play and says, 'Next play … we still love you … we still trust you back there,' that definitely locks you back in for sure.''

"We believe in Sean and he responded with one hell of a day,'' Golesh said.

Atkins wound up with four catches for a career-high 116 yards and two touchdowns, including an 88-yarder that he caught in full stride around midfield, then ran in untouched.

"It was awesome,'' Atkins said. "I've never really had the chance to see open field like that before. I looked up and saw myself on the Jumbotron as I was running to the end zone. That was really cool.''

Defense Shows Up

The Bulls limited Navy to just 330 total yards (68 of which came on a touchdown pass where there was a missed assignment) and 3-for-14 on third-down conversions. It was a very effective display while facing a complicated triple-option offense from Navy, which has now incorporated some wrinkles to make it even tougher.

The Bulls did just fine. Navy took advantage of USF mistakes, getting three touchdowns on short fields (drives of 18, 30 and 22 yards).

"I'm really, really proud of the defense,'' Golesh said. "Those guys just kept swinging and swinging and swinging. That's a tough offense to prepare for. Give a ton of credit to Todd (Orlando, defensive coordinator) and the defensive staff with how they got the players ready. So much of the defensive effort was getting off the field on third down. We got what we needed to get done there.''

Behind The Curtain

A few observations on game elements that didn't get the primary headlines:

* Golesh continues to be a fearless play-caller, always confidently playing for the upside and willing to live with the consequences. On USF's first possession, already trailing 7-0, Golesh went for a fourth-and-1 from the USF 30-yard line … and didn't get it when Brown was stuffed on a run attempt. Navy scored four plays later to make it 14-0. The Bulls went for it on three more fourth-down opportunities and converted on all three.

* With USF up by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, logic dictated it was time to slow the pace and run some clock. The Bulls did the opposite, working a quick-rhythm nine-play, 74-yard touchdown drive that required just three minutes, 13 seconds. Brown was 4-for-4 passing with 36 yards and K'wan Powell ran four times for 27 yards before giving way to Michael Dukes, who scored from the 11. It was the most efficient drive of the season — an instructional film for the Go-Go-Golesh approach — and the frustrated Navy defense had to be wheezing under the ferocious assault.

* One week after Naiem Simmons had eight catches for 272 yards, setting a USF record and a state of Florida FBS mark, the Bulls displayed impressive diversity at wide receiver. Khafre Brown had seven catches for 80 yards. Atkins broke out. Brown-Stephens had his first touchdown. Jaden Alexis, a Texas transfer, had two catches for 40 yards and came within a shoestring tackle of escaping for a long score.

Off To Birmingham

Saturday afternoon on ESPN2, the Bulls will travel to the UAB Blazers (1-4, 0-1), a first-year member of the AAC. Historically, though, UAB is a familiar name to Bulls fans.

USF and UAB were charter members of the Sun Belt Conference and developed a fierce men's basketball rivalry. They met just twice in football (2003 and 2004) when the Bulls and Blazers were together in Conference USA.

USF football is unbeaten in Birmingham, Ala., capturing three bowl-game victories and a regular-season 2004 triumph against the Blazers (45-20). But all of those games were played at historic Legion Field. Saturday, USF-UAB will be contested at Protective Stadium, a 47,100-seat downtown venue that opened in 2021 at a cost of $175-million.

UAB is coached by Trent Dilfer, a familiar name to Tampa Bay area sports fans. Dilfer, a quarterback from Fresno State, was a first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1994. He played six seasons with the Bucs, helping them to a 1997 playoff appearance in a Pro Bowl season.

He was injured late in the 1999 season, when rookie Shaun King took over and nearly led the Bucs to Super Bowl 34. The Bucs opted to not re-sign Dilfer, who landed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2000 and won Super Bowl 35 … at Tampa's Raymond James Stadium.

Post-NFL, Dilfer became a broadcaster with the NFL Network and ESPN. After four seasons of high-school head coaching with Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tenn., Dilfer was hired at UAB, his first college coaching job at any level.

–#GoBulls–