30th Anniversary Series: Essential Statistical Achievements
September 20, 2026 | Football
30th Anniversary Series
PART 4: Essential Statistical Achievements
Editor's Note: To commemorate the University of South Florida's 30th football season, GoUSFBulls.com is presenting a 12-part series that covers the sights, sounds, milestones, biggest games, top performers and unforgettable personalities from the program's first three decades.
The installments will appear each Sunday that precedes a South Florida game week.
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When former University of South Florida defensive back J.R. Reed returned to campus two years ago for the spring game, he was approached by a Bulls' fan.
"Man, J.R., that game at Memphis, I'll never forget it โฆ you were awesome,'' the fan said.
Reed responded with a smile, a thank you and a thumbs-up.
"That game at Memphis,'' Reed said a few moments later. "That's what everybody wants to talk about, like it's the only thing I ever did here.''
Reed did plenty for the Bulls. He's the South Florida career interceptions leader (18), while leading the team in picks during three different seasons. He had a 19-tackle game, still the program record. He led the NCAA in kickoff-return average (31.67) during 2003. He was a fourth-round NFL draft pick and played as a rookie in Super Bowl XXXIX.
All great achievements.
But, oh, that game at Memphis.ย
"Just one of those days where everything clicked,'' Reed said.
It was Nov. 29, 2003 at the Liberty Bowl, USF's season finale. It turned out to be Reed's final game with the Bulls, who defeated the Tigers 21-16.
Reed had a career-high three interceptions, including one in the end zone to prevent a Memphis touchdown and another at the USF 21-yard line. He scored on a 45-yard fumble return. He had seven tackles and three passes defended. And with the Bulls trailing 7-0 at halftime, he opened the third quarter with a 96-yard kickoff-return score.
In 29 seasons of South Florida football, there have been tremendous passing, rushing and receiving performances, along with electrifying kickoff and punt returns, plus shutdown defensive efforts.
But no one had an overall performance like J.R. Reed during that game at Memphis.
"We're in the locker room (trailing 7-0) and (receiver) Huey Whittaker is yelling at the offense, saying, 'Let's go! We get the ball first. We've got to start strong and get back into this game,' '' Reed said. "And I was like, 'The offense isn't going to get the ball. I'm going to return the kickoff for a touchdown.'ย
"I said it just like that. In my mind, nothing was going to stop me. Obviously, I couldn't control things. But it worked out. I ended up calling my shot.''
Reed's stunning 96-yard score put the Bulls back in it. With his fumble return TD and interceptions, he won it โฆ and preserved it.
"I've never seen anything like that,'' head coach Jim Leavitt said afterward. "You hear about guys who do it all. J.R Reed did it all.''
It capped an unforgettable weekend for Reed, who met Memphis area relatives from his father's side of the family for the first time. He knew it was final college game. He thought he was done with football โ period โ so he wanted something to remember.
He got that โ and more.
"I wasn't thinking about the NFL,'' Reed said. "It was like closing a chapter in my life. As it turned out, I played some pro ball and that was great.
"I know people talk about that game at Memphis and the stats I had. But you know what meant more to me? Just the attitude of the way we played. I played high-school ball at Hillsborough and you sprinted everywhere on that practice field. If you walked, you got your head taken off. I brought that to USF and we had pride. We played hard. We had a stank attitude. We were mean and we were tough. That means more to me than stats.''ย
Here are other Essential Statistical Achievements โ both team and individual โ that have defined South Florida's football progress:
High Demand (1997) โ South Florida entered its inaugural 1997 year with more than 17,000 season tickets sold. That was believed to be the highest total ever for a Football Championship Subdivision program, ahead of Marshall (13,000) and Montana (8,000).
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Home-Field Advantage (2000-03) โ When the Bulls opened the 2000 season with a 40-0 victory against Jacksonville (Ala.) State University, it was the start of something much bigger. That began a 21-game home-field winning streak for the South Florida at Raymond James Stadium. It lasted until Oct. 10, 2003, when the Bulls fell 13-10 against TCU.
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Maximum Protection (2001) โ During the 35-26 upset win at Pittsburgh on Sept. 8, 2001, South Florida quarterback Marquel Blackwell had 65 pass attempts. The offensive line allowed zero sacks.
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Sooner Shutdown (2002) โ Oklahoma 31, South Florida 14. Sounds like a garden-variety game, but the Bulls put on a defensive show on Sept. 28, 2002 during the program's first nationally televised contest (TBS). The Bulls limited the No. 2-ranked Sooners to 239 total yards. Oklahoma, which finished 12-2 with a No. 5 national ranking and a Rose Bowl victory, averaged 392.6 yards of total offense. "The bottom line is they stopped us,'' Sooners head coach Bob Stoops said. South Florida, which surrendered an 82-yard punt-return score, had three turnovers (two of which set up OU touchdowns).
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Rock-Solid Play (2002) โ When South Florida went 9-2 in 2002, it had a school-record plus-21 turnover margin (Perspective: Last season's national champion, Indiana, was plus-22). The Bulls led the nation in interception ratio (two per game), grabbing 22 interceptions overall, along with 14 fumble recoveries for 36 total turnovers. Meanwhile, the Bulls lost only 10 fumbles and threw just five interceptions. In fact, USF QB Marquel Blackwell went 235 consecutive pass attempts without an interception to close his career.
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He Got Blocked (2005) โ In 2005, Louisville defensive end Elvis Dumervil was a consensus first-team All-American and Big East Conference Player of the Year. He captured the Bronko Nagurski Trophy and the Ted Hendricks Award. He had an NCAA-record 10 forced fumbles and a school-record 20 sacks, including an NCAA-record six in one game (Kentucky). But on Sept. 24, 2005, when the No. 9-ranked Cardinals were upset by South Florida 45-14 at Raymond James Stadium, Dumervil had no sacks and just five tackles. Bulls left tackle Thed Watson obviously played a great game but said it was a team effort.
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Second Best (2007) โ In just its 11th season of football, South Florida (6-0) reached No. 2 (behind No. 1 Ohio State) in the Associated Press poll on Oct. 14, 2007. It was heady stuff for a program that achieved its first-ever national ranking just four weeks earlier. The Bulls went on a three-game losing streak and surrendered that ranking, but finished the regular season at 9-3 to earn a Sun Bowl bid.
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Thrown For A Loss (2007) โ Bulls sophomore DE George Selvie led the Football Bowl Subdivision in tackles for a loss (31.5) in 2007. Selvie, tied for third all-time in the NCAA annals, just missed the then-NCAA record of 32 (Western Michigan's Jason Babin in 2003). The TFL record has advanced to 34.5 by Alabama LB Will Anderson Jr., in 2021. Before TFLs officially became an NCAA statistic (2000), Alabama LB Derrick Thomas had 39 (with 27 sacks) in 1988.
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One Of The Best Ever (2014-17) โ South Florida's Quinton Flowers (2014-17) finished with a career 3,672 rushing yards, good for No. 10 all-time among NCAA FBS quarterbacks. Flowers finished behind Navy's Keenan Reynolds (4,559 yards from 2012-15), Michigan's Denard Robinson (4,495 from 2009-12), West Virginia's Pat White (4,480 from 2005-08), Navy's Malcolm Perry (4,359 from 2016-19) Northern Illinois' Jordan Lynch (4,343 from 2010-13), Missouri's Brad Smith (4,289 from 2002-05), Louisville's Lamar Jackson (4,132 from 2015-17), Nevada's Colin Kaepernick (4,112 from 2007-10) and Indiana's Antwaan Randle El (3,895 from 1998-01).
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Record Streak (2015-17) โ South Florida kicked it into high offensive gear from 2015-17. USF went 24 consecutive games scoring 30 points or more โ from Nov. 14, 2015 to Oct. 21, 2017 โ to set a record for the Associated Press poll era (1936-present) that has since been broken. The streak ended on Oct. 28, 2017 with a 28-24 home defeat against Houston.
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Scoring Machine (2016) โA decade after the season, Coach Willie Taggart's 2016 Bulls (11-2) remain a prolific scoring machine, setting records that will be difficult to surpass. Those Bulls still hold school records for points scored (569), touchdowns (77), total yards (6,650), rushing yards (3,714) and rushing touchdowns (47).
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Imposing Their Will (2017) โ Coach Charlie Strong's first South Florida game didn't start very well on Aug. 26, 2017. The Bulls fell behind San Jose State 16-0. But things changed in a hurry and USF won 42-22. The Bulls ran a school-record 100 plays and had a school-record 74 rushing attempts.
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Fastest In Florida (2018) โ When USF defeated East Carolina 20-13 on Sept. 22, 2018, it was the program's 150th FBS victory. The Bulls reached that milestone faster than any team in Florida college-football history.
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Feeling A Rush (2018) โ Junior RB Andre Hall set South Florida's single-game rushing mark of 275 yards (Nov. 3, 2004 at UAB), then it was tied by freshman RB Marlon Mack (Aug. 30, 2014 vs. Western Carolina). Junior RB Jordan Cronkrite outdid them both with a 23-carry, 302-yard performance at UMass on Oct. 6, 2018. Cronkrite became only the fourth back from a Florida FBS school to hit the 300-yard rushing mark. He joined Florida State's Greg Allen (322 yards vs. Western Carolina in 1981), UCF's Kevin Smith (320 yards vs. UAB in 2007) and Florida's Emmitt Smith (316 yards vs. New Mexico in 1989).
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Double Trouble (2021) โ South Florida became the only FBS program in history to have a pair of players who scored a pair of kickoff-return touchdowns in a single game. On Nov. 6, 2021, sophomore Brian Battie took the opening kickoff back 100 yards, then scored on another 100-yarder nearing halftime of what became a a 54-42 defeat. On Sept. 8, 2018, freshman Terrence Horne Jr., scored on kickoff returns of 98 and 97 yards โ on consecutive returns during the first quarter โ during a 49-38 victory against Georgia Tech.
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Long Distance Calls (2022) โ WR Jimmy Horn became the second South Florida player in history with two career 80-yard-plus scoring plays from scrimmage. He had a 91-yard reception from Gerry Bohanon against East Carolina on Oct. 1, 2022 and an 80-yard catch from Timmy McClain on Nov. 12, 2021. Meanwhile, WR Rodney Adams had an 84-yard touchdown reception (on the game's initial play) from Quinton Flowers against Florida State on Sept. 24, 2016, plus a 92-yard touchdown run with a reverse on Nov. 12, 2016. Want more? They each scored on long kickoff returns โ a 97-yarder by Adams against Navy on October. 31, 2015 and an 89-yarder by Horn against Temple on Nov. 5, 2022.
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Catch Me If You Can (2023) โ WR Naiem Simmons set a state of Florida FBS record for single-game receiving yards with eight catches for 272 yards during a 42-29 win against Rice on Sept. 23, 2023. Simmons had receptions of 53, 51, 42, 49 and 52 yards from QB Byrum Brown. Quite a distinction for a state that has produced four receivers in the College Football Hall of Fame and 21 NFL draft first-round picks at the position.
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Mark Of Consistency (2024) โ WR Sean Atkins closed his South Florida career by catching at least one pass in 31 consecutive games, tying the school record of WR Andre Davis (2011-14).
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Making More History (2025) โ When South Florida QB Byrum Brown rushed for 1,008 yards and passed for 3,158 last season, the Bulls made history. South Florida became only the third FBS program in history to have two different quarterbacks who rushed for 1,000 yards and passed for 2,900 in a single season. Brown joined Quinton Flowers (1,078 rushing and 2,911 passing in 2017). Meanwhile, Oklahoma had Kyler Murray (1,001 rush; 4,361 pass) in 2018 and Jalen Hurts (1,298 rush; 3,851 pass) in 2019. Northern Illinois had Chandler Harnish (1,379 rush; 3,216 pass) in 2011 and Jordan Lynch (1,815 rush; 3,138 pass) in 2012.
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โ#GoBullsโ
Joey Johnston
Athletics Senior Writer
