South Florida (6-2; 3-1 American) vs. UTSA (4-4; 2-2 American)
Thursday, November 6 • 7:30 PM • Raymond James Stadium (65,000) • Tampa, Fla.
SURFACE: Natural, Bermuda Turf Grass
TV: ESPN: Matt Barrie (P-by-P), Tom Luginbill (Analyst) & Harry Lyles Jr. (Sideline)
RADIO: Q105 FM & Bulls Unlimited Digital
SERIES: UTSA leads, 1-0
IN TAMPA: First meeting in Tampa
IN SAN ANTONIO: UTSA leads, 1-0
LAST TIME: UTSA 49, USF 21 in 2023 in San Antonio
VS AMERICAN: 41-59, won 7 of last 10
AMERICAN HOME GAMES: 22-26, won vs. FAU 48-13
GAMES ON ESPN: 13-32, won last vs. Boise State (34-7)
THURSDAY GAMES: 8-14, won last vs. Boise State (34-7)
LAST VS. RANKED: W, 18-16 at #13 Florida, 9/6/25d
SOUTH FLORIDA GAME NOTES
After a heartbreaking Oct. 25 defeat at Memphis, the USF Bulls are rested following a bye week and eager for Thursday night's ESPN clash against the UTSA Roadrunners at Raymond James Stadium.
Head coach Alex Golesh said the Roadrunners would've had USF's full attention anyway, but last Thursday's proceedings — UTSA 48, Tulane 26 — has added considerable intrigue to the matchup.
The Bulls (6-2, 3-1 American Conference) will take on the Roadrunners (4-4, 2-2) knowing that there's a clear path to reaching the league's championship game and contending for a potential spot in the College Football Playoff.
But that likely means sweeping through USF's November slate to emerge from what has become a multi-team battle for supremacy in the American's penthouse (six teams with just one league defeat).
Job No. 1 — Defeating UTSA.
And a big part of that is learning lessons from the loss at Memphis.
"Adversity and going through losses or down moments, that's inevitable in life,'' Golesh said Monday during his weekly news conference. "The response is either your prison or your testimony. You can let it crumble you down and let it lead to another negative. Or you can respond. And when I say it's your testimony, it's your story, who you are as a human being. It's who we are as a team.
"Man, did you learn from that (Memphis defeat)? If you didn't, shame on us. Now it becomes your prison. As you build a program, there are ups and downs and the expectations in front of us are set by us. The expectations are that we are supposed to go win that game because we've shown we can win that game. Now it's crucial that game doesn't become our prison. The challenge to our guys is, 'Man, at the end of the whole thing, what is the story going to be?' Every good story has ups and downs. Now we have a down (moment). You own it. You live with it. And you grow. Now we have a chance to tell our story (against UTSA), how we come out on the other end. The response is what defines you.''
The Bulls took a 31-17 lead into the fourth quarter at Memphis, but the Tigers blitzed USF with a 17-0 advantage in the final frame. USF put itself in position to force overtime, but Nico Gramatica was wide left on a final-play, 52-yard field-goal attempt.
"Obviously, the fourth quarter is something that we all wish we could get back,'' safety Tavin Ward said. "We have to finish games like that. We can't give our opponents the edge like that on us. We just have to stay aggressive.
"There were a couple of busted coverages that we just can't let happen. Miscommunication is where it really started. So, over the last week, we've been taking it upon ourselves to over-communicate and over-emphasize, not letting somebody misunderstand you, so we don't have those busted coverages.''
The Bulls are catching UTSA on the top of its game.
Left-handed quarterback Owen McCown sliced-and-diced through Tulane's defense, completing 31 of 33 passes for 370 yards and four touchdowns — a pair of scores each for David Amador II (10 catches for 113 yards) and Devin McCuin (eight for 96). Meanwhile, UTSA's very capable running game of Robert Henry Jr. (16 rushes for 87 yards) and Will Henderson III (12 for 52, one score) kept the Green Wave guessing as well.
"I feel like everything starts with the quarterback (McCown),'' Golesh said. "He played lights out (against Tulane) and really has all year by completing (67.5) percent of his passes and throwing just four interceptions all year. He doesn't make dumb decisions. The running back (Henry) is truly one of the best in the country. It's an efficient running game, which sets up the RPO (run/pass option) game, which sets up the vertical pass game.
"We were really impressed watching them offensively. They really got it going and it was really, really hard for them to get stopped. It's a huge challenge for our defense.''
Meanwhile, USF has a very capable offense of its own. The Bulls are scoring 40.4 points per game (sixth in the Football Bowl Subdivision) with a total offense average of 487 yards (seventh). The running game, which has produced at least 252 yards over each of the last five games, averages 225.5 (11th) and the passing game is at 261.5 (30th).
Byrum Brown is playing the best football of his USF career by accounting for 18.8 points per game (fourth nationally), while standing as one of just two quarterbacks nationally with at least 17 passing touchdowns and eight rushing scores. Overall, Brown has completed 62.9 percent of his passes for 1,964 yards, while rushing for a team-high 596 (with three 100-yard games).
It's a national platform for the exploits of Brown and the entire USF program. ESPN's Matt Barrie will host the "SportsCenter On Campus'' program from the plaza outside USF's Marshall Student Center on Thursday from 2 to 3 p.m., then he host a special 5 p.m. edition of SportsCenter live from Raymond James Stadium.
"We're excited to get back on the field,'' Golesh said. "It feels like Memphis was a really long time ago. Big picture: We're in November and we're playing incredibly meaningful football right now. I told our guys there are about 20-percent of the teams playing meaningful football right now and we essentially detailed out what separates that 20-percent down to the 1-percent at the very end. It personally took me probably a solid 48 hours to snap out of it (after the Memphis loss), but the best thing you can do is get back on the field and go back to work. We are a resilient group.
"We are beyond fired up to be back in front of our fans. We haven't forgotten that the last time we were at Ray-Jay, there was (45,169) people. That place was rocking. It was electric. And I'd tell our students, our fan base, that it's the expectation again Thursday night to keep that thing rocking under the lights again on national TV. For us, it's the next step on being able to get where we want to go.''
–#GoBulls–
