USF Football Flashback: Bulls Drop Heartbreaker at UTSA
October 12, 2026 | Football
Takeaways, highlights, notables, sights, sound bites and learning experiences from South Florida's 31-24 road defeat against the UTSA Roadrunners.ย
The Quick Read
* UTSA (5-1, 2-0) has established itself as the American Conference front-runner, but it's far too early to know how the league will shake out. One thing appears certain: South Florida (4-2, 1-2) must win out to have any shot at title contention and it probably needs some chaos at the top. The league's top two teams advance to the American's title game. In a league where all the teams don't meet, the tiebreakers could decide things.ย
* Best-looking offensive play of the season: QB Michael Van Buren's perfectly thrown 42-yard first-quarter bomb to WR Bryson Rodgers.ย
* South Florida's offense was productive and versatile during a pair of first-quarter touchdown drives and the 12-play, 75-yard march that put the Bulls ahead in the fourth quarter. Not so much efficiency through much of the second half, though. Total plays in the third and early fourth quarters: UTSA 34, USF 10.
* You never refuse a touchdown, but South Florida might have scored its go-ahead TD too quickly in the fourth quarter. Van Buren's 11-yard pass to RB D.J. Crowther put the Bulls up 24-23 with 1:56 remaining. Plenty of time for the Roadrunners to counter. UTSA QB Owen McCown engineered a 10-play, 75-yard game-winning drive. The calm Roadrunners rushed for 70 yards on the drive.
* South Florida's defense surrendered 277 yards rushing โ 174 in the second half alone โ and that's way too much.
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The Big Play
On UTSA's game-winning drive, the Roadrunners faced third-and-5 from their 30-yard line. QB Owen McCown found no one open and took off with a 19-yard scramble. It sparked a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that put UTSA up 31-24 with 15 seconds remaining.
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Game Balls
* QB Michael Van Buren, who was 16-for-29 with 177 yards and two touchdown passes.
* RB D.J. Crowther, who rushed 20 times for 83 yards and a 15-yard score, while also catching a go-ahead 11-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
* WR Bryson Rodgers, who had five receptions for 72 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown for South Florida's longest play of the season.
* P Luke Goater, who averaged 45.8 yards on five punts with two inside the 20.
* DB Tavin Ward, who had a game-high nine tackles.ย
* DB Ayden Jackson, who had eight tackles (one for a loss) and one sack.
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Notable Numbers
0 โ Amount of turnovers in the South Florida-UTSA game.
1 โ Amount of times that South Florida will leave the state of Florida (Nov. 6 at East Carolina) during the remainder of its regular-season schedule.
5 โ Consecutive games without an interception by South Florida's defense. The Bulls had a pair of picks in Game One vs. FIU.ย
5.1 โ Average yards per carry this season for RB D.J. Crowther.
6-10 โ South Florida's record during games in the state of Texas.ย
7 โ Amount of rushing touchdowns by RB D.J. Crowther (half of the team total of 14).
9-15 โ South Florida's all-time record on Thursday night games.
152 โ Consecutive passes thrown by QB Michael Van Buren without an interception. That's the program's longest non-interception streak to begin a season (breaking the record of 132 by Byrum Brown in 2024). Van Buren has a personal non-interception streak of 201 pass attempts dating to last season at LSU.
18,354 โ Attendance at Thursday night's NBA exhibition game in San Antonio with the Spurs and Atlanta Hawks. South Florida-UTSA drew 17,632.
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Quotableย
"We've got to understand that we win with fundamentals and technique, not play calls. We are building, as much as I hate saying that, and we are getting better, but it's just not good enough or fast enough as a group. We look forward to the day when the coin turns. There are a lot of flashes, but (it is) not consistent enough.''
โ Head coach Brian Hartline.
"It's the agony of defeat. We came up short, but we have to wipe it out the window. Nothing we can do about it now. Just move forward.''
โ DB Tavin Ward on his post-game emotions.
"We were trying to end the game with the ball in our hands. We kind of scored too quick there, honestly. It was a good call and I'm glad we went to it. But in that situation, it's put your defense out there and they're trying to do their part. In a perfect world โฆ you'd like to get to a spot where you can burn some time and take care of that clock. Hindsight is always 20/20.''
โ Hartline on South Florida's final touchdown, which allowed UTSA to begin its final drive with 1:56 remaining.ย
"We're not really feeling good right now, but we've got to find ways to just get better throughout the week and just move on. I've got to do a better job executing. We had momentum (in the first half). We've got to do a better job in getting the momentum and keeping momentum throughout the rest of the game. We've got to be better finishers.''
โ QB Michael Van Buren.ย
"I just wish the guys could reap the benefits on game day based on the practice workload they're putting in.''
โ Hartline.ย
"If we have a bunch of guys who are willing to cash in after six games, we kind of have the wrong guys. We have to keep putting the work in. We know the work doesn't guarantee us anything, but that increases our odds of reaching our goal. Without it, we have no shot.''
โ Hartline.
"It was nothing we've never seen, but we've got to finish plays, find our keys within the plays and do the right thing.''
โ Ward on defending elusive UTSA QB Owen McCown.
"26-1 is pretty impressive. They do a great job here.''
โ Hartline on UTSA's record in home conference games under Jeff Traylor.
"How often you win one-score games is a great depiction of who wins this conference. We're not doing that. We have to do a better job of finishing games. I thought we were probably in a spot where that could be one of our strong suits, but that's not showing in the last two weeks.''
โ Hartline.ย
"It's just about bringing all the guys closer together, knowing it's not the end of the world. We've got a whole second half of the season. We've got to get our offense going and our entire team going, so we can finish the second half strong.''
โ Van Buren.ย
"We're all adults in the locker room, so we've got to handle it like adults. We have a goal in the second half of the season, so we just can't throw in the towel now and we won't do that. I wouldn't allow that and none of the leaders in the locker room will allow that.''
โ Ward.
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The List
After winning its first six games playing in a domed stadium, the South Florida Bulls have dropped three of their last four and have an overall 7-3 mark indoors:
11/12/05ย ย ย South Florida 27, Syracuse 0 (Carrier Dome)
11/10/07ย ย ย South Florida 41, Syracuse 10 (Carrier Dome)
12/20/08ย ย ย South Florida 41, Memphis 14 (Tropicana Field-a)
10/3/09ย ย ย ย ย South Florida 34, Syracuse 20 (Carrier Dome)
1/2/10ย ย ย ย ย ย ย South Florida 27, Northern Illinois 3 (Rogers Centre-b)
11/11/11ย ย ย South Florida 37, Syracuse 17 (Carrier Dome)
10/31/13ย ย ย Houston 35, South Florida 23 (Reliant Stadium)
9/17/16ย ย ย ย ย South Florida 45, Syracuse 20 (Carrier Dome)
11/17/23ย ย ย UTSA 49, South Florida 21 (Alamodome)
10/8/26ย ย ย ย ย UTSA 31, South Florida 24 (Alamodome)
a-St. Petersburg Bowl; b-International Bowl
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Next Up: Kent State
The Bulls will face the Mid-American Conference's Kent State Golden Flashes (2-4), a late addition to the 2026 schedule, Saturday night in South Florida's Homecoming game at Raymond James Stadium. Kent State, coming off a 38-7 league defeat against Western Michigan, was also beaten during road games at South Carolina (57-0) and Ohio State (59-3).ย
Kent State, which went 5-7 last season after a two-year record of 1-23, has a standout dual-threat QB in Dru DeShields, who rebounded from two separate ACL injuries in his early career to toss 18 touchdown passes (against only three interceptions) in 2025. This season, DeShields is completing 58.3 percent of his passes with three touchdowns and five interceptions. He has rushed for 183 yards and three scores.
Fun fact: Kent State last won the MAC championship in 1972, when it was defeated by the University of Tampa 21-18 in Orlando's Tangerine Bowl (a forerunner of the Citrus Bowl). Among the Golden Flashes to play that night: Hall of Fame LB Jack Lambert and DB Nick Saban.
โ#GoBullsโ
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Joey Johnston
Athletics Senior Writer
