October 19, 2026 | Football
Takeaways, highlights, notables, sights, sound bites and learning experiences from South Florida's 29-2 homecoming victory against the Kent State Golden Flashes.
The Quick Read
* The South Florida Bulls are 5-2, but even head coach Brian Hartline admits that the offensive performances have been difficult to watch. Hartline said the Bulls need big improvements during the stretch run, but added there will be an emphasis on "enhancements'' (with no drastic "changes" per se) as the bye week unfolds. Regardless of the semantics and terminology, it's clear that the Bulls must produce better results to achieve success in their final five games in the American Conference โwhich has just two teams remaining unbeaten teams and 10 teams that have two losses or less. The Bulls will play five of the one-loss teams ahead of them in the early standings, in which all teams have played three conference games.ย
* Injuries can't be used as an excuse, but they have certainly been a factor in the first seven games, especially on the offensive line. Saturday was the first game on the year that the Bulls started the same offensive line in back-to-back games. The bye week comes at a great time to get healthy.
* QB Michael Van Buren Jr. throws a nice deep ball. He isn't often asked to display a bombs-away approach, but three of his six touchdown passes (38 yards to Joshua Porter against Army, 42 yards to Bryson Rodgers against UTSA and 36 yards to Cameron Seldon against Kent State) were absolute drop-it-in-the-bread-basket beauties. We look forward to seeing more of this weapon in the second half of the season.
* South Florida's defensive pressure still isn't where it needs to be, but it's improving (10 sacks in the past four games). A bigger concern: It's now six straight games without a defensive interception. That's due for a big turnaround.
* With a swirling wind inside Raymond James Stadium, PK Nico Gramatica was a foot wide on a 35-yard field-goal attempt, his first career miss from inside 40 yards. But Gramatica, who hit from 49 and 33 yards, remains a formidable weapon in tight games where field position is at a premium. Just ask the Golden Flashes, who struggled in the kicking game.ย
The Big Play
With Kent State leading 2-0 and facing third-and-goal at the South Florida 1-yard line, QB Dru DeShields lost a fumble on a sneak attempt and the ball rolled backward to the 4-yard line. It was plucked by DE C.J. Hicks, who raced for a 96-yard touchdown return to tie a program record. Moments earlier, former DB Kayvon Webster, who set the program record with a 96-yard fumble return at Notre Dame in 2011, had been introduced to cheers from the homecoming crowd. You can't make this stuff up.
Game Balls
* QB Michael Van Buren Jr., who was 22-for-27 (81%) for 193 yards and one touchdown.
* DE C.J. Hicks, who scored on a 96-yard fumble return.
* WR Cameron Seldon, who had four catches for a career-high 60 yards, including a 36-yard touchdown.
* TE Evan Dangler, an integral blocker in the running game, who had the first three-reception game of his USF career.
* DE Michael Williams II, who tied for the team lead in tackles (five), while getting 1.5 sacks and two tackles for a loss. He leads the team with 4.0 sacks on the year.ย
Notable Numbers
2 โ Games this season where South Florida's defense has not allowed a touchdown.ย
4 โ Number of Division I college football games with a final score of 29-2 since the advent of the forward pass in 1905 (Penn State over Bucknell in 1907, Pittsburgh over Bucknell in 1915, Navy over William & Mary in 1959 and South Florida over Kent State in 2026). The research hat-tip goes to Steve Carney of the South Florida Football Radio Network.ย
6 โ South Florida tight ends had a season-high six catches.
7-2 โ South Florida's all-time record against Mid-American Conference opponents. The Bulls have beaten two on the year.ย
16-14 โ South Florida's all-time record in homecoming games.
29 โ The amount of yards South Florida's defense gave up in the second half.ย
81.4 โ The completion percentage for QB Michael Van Buren Jr. (22-for-27), which was the fourth best single-game performance in program history (minimum of 20 attempts).
80-34 โ Margin by which South Florida is outscoring its opponents in the fourth quarter this season.
179 โ Consecutive pass attempts by Van Buren without an interception. It's the longest streak in program history to start a season and the third-longest non-interception streak overall in 30 seasons of Bulls football. Byrum Brown holds the record at 252. ย
Quotable
"What do we want to improve upon? I mean, there's so much. The amount of penalties and shooting ourselves in the foot. The taking care of the football. The ball was exposed way too often. I thought we were checking those boxes. We check them, then we uncheck them. There's nothing I feel we've done at a high enough level to have that box checked.''
โ Head coach Brian Hartline.
"We come out with a lot of juice a lot of times during the (practice) week, and obviously we haven't shown that on Saturdays. That's on the players more than it's on the coaches. It starts with us because we're the ones on the field. We're the ones who put the stuff on TV and on the field for everyone to watch. It's really on us to start fast.''
โ DE Michael Williams II.
"We are practicing well and it's not translating consistently. That first half (when the Bulls rushed for 3 yards) was abysmal (compared to) the way we practice. It's just something I've got to figure out. I've got to solve that mystery.''
โ Hartline.
"They dropped the ball. We didn't do anything. That was just poor execution by them. So, for us to celebrate that, that's just silly. If we were doing something of note, the ball shouldn't have been down there (at the USF 1-yard line) in the first place. Their inability to execute is not because of us.''
โ Hartline on a goal-line fumble by Kent State QB Dru DeShields, which resulted in a 96-yard fumble-return score by DE C.J. Hicks.
"I was the edge player, so just make sure I'm containing everything. And then once he (QB Dru DeShields) turned and kicked the ball (backward) โฆ I got there and picked it up. Just run as fast as you can. Don't get caught. Don't fall down. I had lots of green grass (in front of me). I passed midfield and I was high-fiving Ayden Jackson. It was just running it into the end zone from there.''
โ DE C.J. Hicks on his second-quarter 96-yard fumble return, his first touchdown since high school.ย
"It's all self-inflicted wounds. If those wounds are happening, it's on the coaching staff. It's on myself. It's on the position coaches. We've got to figure out our consistency level. We have to do a better job of taking practice to the field. โฆ We didn't maximize the day and that's why I'm frustrated. There's too much hard work put in on all facets for us not to maximize the day.''
โ Hartline.
"A win is a win, but the issues are always there. We've got to get better.''
โ WR Cameron Seldon.
"In the first year, you want to win every game possible. But you want to make sure you come out of your first year with a great eval (evaluation), kind of where you're at and where you go from here. We want to really give our guys an opportunity to enhance the second half โ coaches, players, everybody, myself. Make sure we know who's doing what โฆ who's getting better, who has just decided to plateau and is OK with that. We don't want that. So right now, (we are concentrating on) areas of enhancement, not necessarily change.''
โ Hartline.
"Winning is the most important thing. Finding a way to win is what do we try to do every single game. Of course, we want to start fast and we want to have a way cleaner game. But at the end of the day, winning is all that matters.''
โ QB Michael Van Buren Jr.
"I feel best about the way they work at practice. (I like) how much they care. They're willing to do whatever the coaches ask them to do. There's no pushback and they're all in. They want to do everything they can to maximize the season. They want to win for Bulls Nation. They love being a USF Bull. All of that is really, really good. That's why I get more frustrated because I want them to reap all the benefits of that at the highest level.''
โ Hartline on what he likes best about his team.
"Everybody looks at the bye week like it's time off from football, but it's really just time off physically. We're still working. We still have practice. We've got stuff to work on โ offense, defense, special teams, technical stuff. If we want to win the rest of our conference games, we've got different things we need to get figured out.''
โ Williams.ย
The Listย
Since being defeated 49-17 by NC State on Sept. 13, 2014, the South Florida Bulls have won seven consecutive home games against unranked non-conference opponents from the Football Bowl Subdivision.
10/17/26โฆ..South Florida 29, Kent State 2
9/5/26โฆโฆ..South Florida 19, FIU 9
10/12/19โฆ..South Florida 27, BYU 23
9/8/18โฆโฆ..South Florida 49, Georgia Tech 38
9/15/17โฆโฆSouth Florida 47, Illinois 23
9/10/16โฆโฆSouth Florida 48, Northern Illinois 17
10/10/15โฆ..South Florida 45, Syracuse 24
Next Up: Bye Week, Then UAB
The Bulls (5-2, 1-2 American) have their bye week, followed by a Halloween home game against the UAB Blazers. Coach Alex Mortensen's Blazers (4-3, 2-1), who also have a bye week, defeated East Carolina 30-17 in overtime on Thursday night in Birmingham. The Blazers have won three of their last four games this season. USF leads the all-time series 3-2 and won last season 48-18 in Birmingham, Ala.
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โ#GoBullsโ
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Joey Johnston
Athletics Senior Writer
