Senior wide receiver posted Bulls' first 1,000-yard receiving season in 2023
 
TAMPA, AUG. 7, 2024 – South Florida football saw its national award watch list tally grow to five on Wednesday when senior wide receiver Sean Atkins (Viera, Fla.) was named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List. The Biletnikoff Award recognizes FBS football's most outstanding receiver at any position and has been awarded since 1994.
 
Atkins, who was a 2023 semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy awarded to the nation's top current or former walk-on college football player, is returning after a record-breaking season in which he became the first Bulls' receiver to post a 1,000-yard season. Atkins set program records with 92 catches for 1,054 yards and added seven touchdown catches, which rank second all-time in a season at USF.
 
Atkins earned Second Team All-AAC honors after posting seven straight games with at least seven catches and two 100-yard receiving games on the year. He posted two catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns in a 45-0 Boca Raton Bowl rout of Syracuse and posted a career-best 10 catches at UTSA and 169 receiving yards in a win over Temple.
 
Atkins was named a preseason All-American by Phil Steele as well as First Team All-AAC by Steel and Athlon Sports and Second Team All-AAC by Lindy's.
 
Ohio State's Marvin Harrison, Jr. won the Biletnikoff Award in 2023.
 
USF returns 19 starters in 2024 (nine on offense, eight on defense, and two specialists) from a team that set 12 team and 16 individual program records while going 7-6 (a program-best six-game turnaround) and claiming a 45-0 Boca Raton Bowl victory over Syracuse in 2023.
 
The Bulls return record-setting starting quarterback Byrum Brown, 85 percent of their rushing yards, 84 percent of their receiving yards and four primary starters on the offensive line. On defense, USF returns nine of its top 11 tacklers led by Shuler, who logged a team-best 97 stops to go with 8.5 tackles for loss in 2023.
 
The Bulls open the season Aug. 31 vs. Bethune-Cookman in Raymond James Stadium before road games at Alabama (Sept. 7) and Southern Mississippi (Sept. 14) and a home clash with Miami (Sept. 21).
 
BULLS ON PRESEASON NATIONAL AWARD WATCH LISTS (5)
Maxwell Award                  Byrum Brown, QB
Walter Camp Award          Byrum Brown, QB
Biletnikoff Award               Sean Atkins, WR
Doak Walker Award          Nay'Quan Wright, RB
Outland Trophy                 Zane Herring, OG
 
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ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
The USF football program first took the field in 1997 and completed its 27th season in 2023 with a program-best six-game turnaround and Boca Raton Bowl victory under first-year head coach Alex Golesh. USF completed construction on a new $22 million Indoor Performance Facility in 2023 and a $340-million on-campus stadium and football operations center is slated for completion by 2027. The Bulls have posted 16 winning seasons, earned 16 All-America selections (including two consensus selections, the last coming in 2021), as well as 32 first-team all-conference honorees. USF has had 30 players selected in the NFL Draft and the Bulls have made 11 bowl game appearances (going 7-4), posting a program-record six straight appearances from 2005-2010 and making four straight bowl appearances from 2015-18. USF 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 campaigns and reached as high as No. 2 in the Associated Press rankings during the 2007 season.
 
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