Bulls two-game win streak snapped as Blazers post 608 yards of offense
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BIRMINGHAM, ALA., OCT. 7, 2023– Riding a two-game win streak, the USF Football team (3-3; 2-1 AAC) ran into some adversity in its quest to return to prominence Saturday at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Ala. as a sparse crowd witnessed UAB UAB (2-4;1-1 AAC) hand the Bulls a 56-35 defeat in USF's second straight conference road game.
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USF will return to the friendly confines of Raymond James Stadium next Saturday for a homecoming clash vs. FAU (2-3; 1-0 AAC) set for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN2.
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Saturday's four-hour and 23-minute contest went sideways from the start as UAB attempted an onside kick on the opening kickoff. The Blazers appeared to have recovered until a review ruled that UAB had made contact prior to the ball reaching ten yards. A re-kick saw USF start on its own 30 and score four plays later when Brown hit a seam up the middle and raced 60 yards for a 7-0 lead. It would be the Bulls last lead of the game.
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UAB wasted little time evening the score when quarterback Jacob Zeno hit Brandon Buckhaulter on a short pass and the wide receiver raced 75 yards to tie the game at 7 just 2:24 into the game. Zeno would finish with 353 yards and four touchdowns passing.
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Brown drove the Bulls to the UAB23, but was intercepted at the 10. The Blazers again struck with a big play as Tejhaun Palmer caught a short pass from Zeno and raced 61 yards for a 14-7 UAB lead. Palmer would finish with 119 yards and two touchdowns.
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On the Bulls first play of the next possession, Brown fumbled on a quarterback run at the USF33. The Blazers used five plays to extend their lead to 21-7 when Jermain Brown Jr. got the edge and went 21 yards for a touchdown. Brown Jr. would run for 116 yards and four touchdowns on the day.
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UAB forced the Bulls to punt and nearly made it a three-touchdown lead, driving to the USF16 before
Braxton Clark picked off Zeno and returned it 35 yards to the USF40.
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Brown drove USF 60 yards and finished out an eventful first quarter with a 14-yard touchdown run to cut the UAB lead to 21-14. USF would get no closer. Brown finished the day with 136 yards and two touchdowns rushing, his third career 100-yard game, and passed for 260 yards and two touchdowns.
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UAB took command scoring 21 unanswered points to lead 35-14 at the half and 42-14 midway through the third quarter.
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UAB stymied the Bulls offense through the second quarter and most of the third as the Blazers built a big lead. Meanwhile, the UAB attack racked up 392 yards in the first half before finishing the game with a season-best 608 yards, the most allowed by USF on the season. The Bulls turned the ball over three times.
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The Bulls kept fighting and after a stop by the USF defense, Brown drove the Bulls 41 yards on seven plays, including a big 23-yard run by the quarterback on third-and-six. USF cut the UAB lead to 42-21 after
Michel Dukes' one-yard plunge but the Blazers responded with a 49-yard touchdown pass on its next possession.
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KEY STATS
• UAB posted 392 yards of offense in the first half and a season-high 608 yards for the game, the most yards USF has allowed on the year.
• UAB logged six touchdowns of 20 yards or longer, including scoring plays of 75, 61, 58, 49, 23, and 21 yards among 11 explosive plays on the day.
• UAB scored a touchdown on five of its seven first-half possessions to take a 35-14 lead to half.
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NOTABLES
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QB Byrum Brown logged the third 100-yard rushing game of his career and second of the season as he ran for a team-high 136 yards and two touchdowns.
• S Logan Berryhill logged a career-high 10 tackles
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LB Jhalyn Shuler posted 10 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack.
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UP NEXT
The Bulls will return to Raymond James Stadium for the first time in three weeks when they take on FAU in a homecoming clash. The game is set for 3:30 p.m. kick on ESPN2.
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Season tickets •Â
Single-game tickets •Â
Group tickets (10+): call 1-800-GoBulls
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ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
The USF football program first took the field in 1997 and completed its 26th season in 2022 while completing construction on a new $22 million Indoor Performance Facility. The Bulls have posted 15 winning seasons, earned 16 All-America selections, including 2021 consensus All-American kick returner Brian Battie, and had 32 first-team all-conference selections. USF has had 30 players selected in the NFL Draft and has made 10 bowl game appearances (going 6-4 in those games), posting a program-record six straight appearances from 2005-2010 and most recently making four straight bowl appearances from 2015-18. The Bulls posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, logging a program-record 11-2 mark in 2016 while finishing both seasons ranked in the Top 25. USF spent a program-record 20 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 during the 2016 and 2017 seasons and reached as high as No. 2 in the national rankings during the 2007 season.
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