Takeaways, highlights, notables, sights, sound bites and learning experiences from USF's 63-36 road victory against the North Texas Mean Green, and a look ahead to Saturday night's American Conference home game against the Florida Atlantic Owls for USF's Homecoming.
The Quick Read
* Halfway home in the regular season, this has been the most fun USF football season in a decade. And to think, it's really just getting started.
* Freshman WR Christian Neptune throwing a touchdown pass? OL Cole Skinner — all 6-foot-5, 325 pounds of him — rumbling in for a 1-yard score? The playbook was opened pretty wide.
* USF ran North Texas out of its building — and sent much of the DATCU Stadium sellout crowd to the exits — with a 28-point third quarter. It included three blitzkrieg touchdown drives: Four plays, 75 yards (one minute, nine seconds); two plays, 15 yards (24 seconds); five plays, 86 yards (one minute, 16 seconds). North Texas entered the game with the nation's 39th-ranked defense giving up 20 ppg, but it couldn't match what the Go-Go-Golesh crew cooked up.
* Injuries are kicking in (as they usually do for most football teams). The Bulls were without RB Cartevious Norton and TE Weston Wolff, then lost WR Chas Nimrod in the third quarter. But you know what? USF now has crazy depth at all of the skill positions, so it's not a crisis.
* Two words for whoever/whatever is responsible for sensibly scheduling USF's Homecoming game against Florida Atlantic under the Saturday night lights with a full-day of run-up and the opportunity to draw the season's largest crowd at Raymond James Stadium — thank you!
* One game at a time, right? But if you haven't at least considered the possibilities of Oct. 25 — USF at unbeaten Memphis — you aren't human.
Game Takeaway
Head coach Alex Golesh didn't like the way it started.
He loved the way it finished.
After a slow beginning, which included an unthinkable three first-quarter turnovers, the No. 24-ranked USF Bulls got on a major roll and dispatched North Texas 63-36 before a sellout crowd at DATCU Stadium in Denton, Texas.
USF (5-1, 2-0 American Conference) was on its heels after a first quarter that included two lost fumbles and an interception by quarterback Byrum Brown. But the defense mostly held North Texas at bay, collecting four turnovers of its own and the special teams adding one, including the first three interceptions of the season of UNT quarterback Drew Mestemaker.
Once USF's offense kicked into gear by forging a halftime tie, then roaring to a 28-point third quarter (en route to an overall 580-yard night), it was over for the Mean Green (5-1, 1-1).
"We just had to settle down and get away from all those self-inflicted wounds,'' Golesh said. "It's hard to win games when you turn it over the way we did. In the second half, you don't turn it over, you don't give up the big plays and you create turnovers. That looked like USF football.
"I thought our defense played on a mission the whole day and played great on the road against an undefeated team. We're a really good football team and we can be really special when we don't kill ourselves (with turnovers). I'm excited to catch our breath, then play a Saturday night Homecoming game (against Florida Atlantic). Hopefully, the entire area will come out and watch us play because our guys (deserve that).''
Brown said he was disappointed by the three first-quarter turnovers, but not discouraged.
"We had to take a next-play mentality,'' Brown said. "Things like that happen in football. It's not what you want. But you've got to keep swinging. We got it straightened out. I know we've been scoring a lot, but it should be more without the mistakes. We could be putting up 70-plus (points). We just have to stay away from the mistakes. And we will.''
Brown rushed 21 times for 82 yards and two touchdowns (runs of 7 and 9 yards), while finishing 22-for-28 passing with 245 yards and three touchdowns. That included scoring tosses of 14 and 63 yards to electrifying freshman wideout Jeremiah Koger who finished with 94 yards on four catches..
Brown's most meaningful touchdown pass was a routine 2-yarder.
Trailing 21-14, Brown was stonewalled for no gain at the Mean Green 2-yard line and USF used its final timeout with five seconds remaining before halftime.
What to do? The easy call was getting points with a chip-shot field goal from Nico Gramatica. But with five seconds on the clock, there was a chance to get more (although one false step could make the clock expire, so there was a risk).
Brown faked a handoff to Nykahi Davenport, then lobbed a throw to wide-open tight end Jonathan Echols in the back of the end zone. USF had not only weathered its mistakes, but it climbed back to all even at halftime.
"We had a great play called,'' Brown said. "We just had to execute it and do our jobs.''
The clock had been at four seconds, but officials put another second on to make it 0:05. That changed Golesh's mindset.
"If it was four (seconds), I probably would've kicked it to be honest with you,'' Golesh said. "You had to get points there. You absolutely had to get points. But at five (seconds), I thought we could (potentially throw it away) and still have a second (to kick a field goal). As it turned out, they blitzed both edges and didn't cover (Echols). So, score one for the good guys.''
USF's 28-point third quarter was a blur, punctuated by Christian Neptune's 29-yard TD pass to Keshaun Singleton, then Fred Gaskin's interception on the ensuing North Texas drive, leading to Sam Franklin's 11-yard scoring run, making it 35-21.
"We always try to get three (turnovers in a game) and tonight we got five,'' Gaskin said. "We knew we had to come out fast in the third quarter and let our playmakers make some plays. It's great to win on the road. We actually feed off all the loud noise. We've been to places like Florida and Miami, so noting is going to faze us. We just have to take care of business.''
The Big Play
Not an obvious choice because plays were made everywhere, but we'll go with WR Christian Neptune's 29-yard touchdown pass to WR Keshaun Singleton, who squeezed past a defender and dove to the right end-zone pylon for a third-quarter score that put USF ahead for good, 28-21.
"Since I was young, I've always been able to throw the rock,'' Neptune said. "It's just a God-given ability. I'm grateful the coaches had confidence in me. And when you have great receivers like Keshaun Singleton, you just throw the ball in his direction and he's going to make a play.''
Game Balls
* SS Fred Gaskin, who had a third-quarter interception — and a 27-yard return — after USF had taken its first lead of the game.
* QB Byrum Brown — responsible for five touchdowns, 327 total yards, 22-for-28 passing. Another night at the office.
* LB Jhalyn Shuler, who had another of his ridiculously versatile performances (eight tackles, one tackle for a loss, one quarterback hurry, a fumble return for a 34-yard touchdown and an extremely important North Texas-momentum snuffing first-quarter interception return for 31 yards).
* All of the runners who contributed to a 306-yard, four-touchdown, 5.4-yard average carry rushing night. That included Brown (21 for 82, two touchdowns), freshman Chase Garnett (six for 74), Alvon Isaac (12 for 64), Sam Franklin (eight for 51, one score), Nykahi Davenport (seven for 36) … and you too, Mr. Skinner (one for 1, one score).
* FS Tavin Ward, who had a career-high 14 tackles and did his normally excellent job of directing USF's back-end defense.
* Freshman WR Jeremiah Koger, who had four catches for 94 yards and two touchdowns.
* DB Cedrick Hawkins, who recovered a North Texas muffed punt return, setting up USF's tying touchdown just before halftime.
* CB Jonas Duclona, who had a sensational diving second-quarter interception near the sideline at the USF 15-yard line.
* Punter Chase Leon, who averaged 44.7 yards on three punts, including three inside-the-20 (and the other was a 45-yarder downed at the North Texas 26-yard line).
Notable Numbers
3 — Number of times that USF began 3-0 in conference play (2016, 2017, 2018). USF is going for No. 4.
7 — Number of times USF has won at least five of its first six games during its 29-season history (1998, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2017, 2018, 2025).
8 — Number of different USF players to catch a touchdown pass this season (three each for Chas Nimrod, Keshaun Singleton and Jeremiah Koger, two for Jonathan Echols and one each for Christian Neptune, Mudia Reuben, Joshua Porter and Evan Dangler). Note: Eight different USF players caught TD passes in all of last season.
9 — Number of times USF has scored 50 or more points in a conference game (five of them were by Golesh-coached teams).
13 — Number of touchdown passes this season by QB Byrum Brown. Halfway through the regular season, Brown is halfway toward matching his single-season program record (26 in 2023).
14 — Number of tackles for free safety Tavin Ward — the most tackles by a USF defensive back since 2014 (also 14 by Jamie Byrd against Houston).
16 — Number of turnovers forced by USF through six games (nine interceptions, seven recovered fumbles). Note: If that pace holds through the regular season, it would be 32 turnovers, third-best in program history.
180 — Number of points that USF has scored in its last three games. It's the highest-scoring three-game swing in program history (previous mark: 161 points during a three-game span in 2011).
209-73 — The margin by which USF has outscored its opponents in the third quarter since the beginning of last season (and it's 86-17 during the third quarter in this season alone).
The List
USF's 580 total yards at North Texas were the 11th-most for the Bulls in a conference game. Five of USF's top 11 came from an Alex Golesh-coached team (boldfaced).
715 — vs. Tulsa (11/23/24)
679 — at Memphis (10/28/16)
653 — at UCF (11/24/17)
646 — vs. UCF (11/27/20)
631 — vs. Charlotte (10/3/25)
629 — vs. Navy (10/28/16)
611 — vs UConn (10/20/18)
602 — at UConn (11/4/17)
597 — vs. Rice (9/23/23)
583 — at Memphis (11/4/23)
580 — at North Texas (10/10/25)
Next Up: Florida Atlantic
Since Florida Atlantic joined the American Conference, it has been a spirited series, including the Onside Kick Game (2023) and the Handshake Game (2024). What's next?
The Owls (3-3, 2-1) are on the upswing after Saturday's 53-33 victory against the UAB Blazers. Quarterback Caden Veltkamp (6-foot-6, 236 pounds), a transfer from Western Kentucky, threw for three touchdowns, while running back Kaden Shields-Dutton ran for three more.
The Owls also have defeated Florida A&M (56-14) and Rice (27-21), while losing against Maryland (39-7), Florida International (38-28) and Memphis (55-26).
After the dismissal of Tom Herman following two seasons, the Owls have turned to head coach Zach Kittley, who had been the offensive coordinator/quarterback coach at Texas Tech, his alma mater. Once upon a time, Kittley was Texas Tech's assistant quarterbacks coach and he worked closely with a guy named Patrick Mahomes.
–#GoBulls–
