30th Anniversary Series: Essential Special Teams Plays
September 27, 2026 | Football
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 history. The installments will appear each Sunday that precedes a South Florida game week. Today's Part 5 is South Florida's Essential Special Teams Plays.
Two days earlier, South Florida freshman Maikon Bonani got the news. He would handle full-time place-kicking duties, replacing Delbert Alvarado, when the No. 19-ranked Bulls faced the No. 11 Kansas Jayhawks in an ESPN2 standalone Friday night game on Sept. 12, 2008.
Bonani couldn't have dreamed of a better outcome.
In perhaps the most riveting South Florida game ever played at Ray-Jay, Bonani drilled a 43-yard field goal as time expired, giving the Bulls a 37-34 victory against the Jayhawks.
It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between USF football and Bonani, who was valedictorian at Lake Wales High School, where he became Polk County's top soccer player and his school's No. 1 tennis player. Bonani remains USF's all-time leading scorer (319 points) and also has the program's most career field goals (69).
Bonani's game-winner against Kansas was his career highlight.
Earlier that evening, on his first college field-goal attempt, Bonani experienced his career lowlight. Bonani's 41-yard attempt was wide left. Way wide left.ย
"I just mis-hit it,'' Bonani said. "I don't know if it was anxiety or not.''
But it became a footnote as the Bulls and Jayhawks put on an offensive showcase. South Florida fell behind 20-3 in the second quarter. Then the Bulls produced 31 unanswered points to lead 34-20. Bulls quarterback Matt Grothe (23 of 45 for 338 yards, along with a 28-yard touchdown run) was remarkable. But resolute Kansas, behind brilliant quarterback Todd Reesing (34 of 51, 373 yards), scored two touchdowns and forged a tie.
Reesing made a fatal mistake, though. With the Jayhawks driving for what could have been their own game-winning field-goal attempt, Reesing was intercepted by South Florida's Nate Allen, who returned it 40 yards to KU's 27-yard line with 30 seconds remaining.
The ball was positioned properly. Two seconds remained. Bonani lined up, then the Jayhawks called the obligatory time out. Unfazed, Bonani hit it firmly. It curled just inside the right post. Bedlam ensued as the Ray Jay crowd of 58,755 celebrated wildly.
"I aimed at the right upright because of the wind,'' Bonani said. "I felt a cross wind and tried to aim there and hope it went in. It did. I just went out there and kicked it and gave it a ride.''
Initially, Bonani was crushed by a mob of teammates. Then he was carried on their shoulders. It was that kind of night.
"I've never felt like that before,'' Bonani said.
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Here are South Florida's other Essential Special Teams Plays:
Give Me Liberty (Sept. 19, 1998) โ South Florida's 14th game ever provided a dramatic finish when Bill Gramatica's 44-yard walk-off field goal lifted the visiting Bulls past the Liberty Flames 24-21 in a battle of Division I-AA independents.
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Record-Setter (Nov. 18, 2000) โ In his final South Florida game, Bill Gramatica converted a 63-yard field goal in a 59-0 home win against Austin Peay. Coach Jim Leavitt had joked with Gramatica, saying he'd get him an opportunity to beat the record of his brother, Martin, who hit a 65-yarder at Kansas State. Gramatica said Leavitt briefly considered taking a delay-of-game penalty to make it a 68-yard attempt. Gramatica's left-footed boot from 63 was good with several yards to spare. The next day, Gramatica was invited to the Blue-Gray All-Star Game and also played in the East-West Shrine Game. He said the 63-yarder (still tied for a Football Championship Subdivision record) gave him the exposure that led to him being drafted and playing in the NFL.
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Calling His Shot (Nov. 29, 2003) โ Trailing 7-0 in the halftime locker room, South Florida's offense was eager to get the ball on the second half's opening possession at Memphis. J.R. Reed declared the offense wouldn't get the ball. He announced he would score on a kickoff return. And he did โ going 96 yards for the spark behind a 21-16 victory for the visiting Bulls. Reed, a safety, also returned a fumble for a touchdown and had a program-record three interceptions.
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Return To Glory (Sept. 24, 2005) โ The Bulls had a 17-point halftime lead against No. 9-ranked Louisville in their inaugural Big East Conference game. Still, nothing was certain against the offensively potent Cardinals. But Chad Simpson's 94-yard kickoff return to open the second half put USF up 31-7 and deflated the Cardinals. The Bulls won 45-14.
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One Out Of Four (Sept. 10, 2006) โ Ean Randolph scored on a 76-yard punt return in the second quarter of South Florida's 21-20 home victory against Florida International. That's only part of the story. He could've had three punt-return TDs. First quarter: Randolph scored on a 76-yard punt return, but it was called back by a personal foul. Late second quarter: Randolph scored on a 62-yard punt return, but it was called back by face-masking. The previous week, Randolph's fourth-quarter 70-yard punt-return TD against McNeese State was also negated by penalty. In summary, Randolph had scored on four consecutive punt returns, but three were cancelled by penalty. "I feel bad for Ean,'' Coach Jim Leavitt said. "He could be leading the nation.''
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Fighting Back (Nov. 13, 2010) โ Lindsey Lamar's 100-yard kickoff return just before halftime kept South Florida alive and helped to spark a 24-21 overtime victory at Louisville. The Cardinals had taken a 14-3 lead before Lamar's return.
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Second Chance (Nov. 13, 2010) โ And speaking of that 24-21 win at Louisville, it was South Florida's Maikon Bonani who provided the winning margin on a 37-yard field goal (after Louisville was stopped on fourth-and-inches during its portion of OT). Bonani got redemption after missing a 52-yarder at the end of regulation.
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Block Party (Oct. 5, 2013) โ In the first quarter, South Florida's Mike McFarland blocked a 40-yard field-goal attempt by Cincinnati's Tony Milano. It was scooped up by Nate Godwin, who raced down the left sideline for a 75-yard touchdown. That was the spark behind South Florida's 26-20 home win against the Bearcats (the Bulls won despite not scoring an offensive touchdown). It was the first South Florida victory for Coach Willie Taggart, who had begun his tenure 0-4.
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The Clincher (Sept. 17, 2016) โ After trailing 17-0 in the first quarter, the visiting Bulls roared back to defeat Syracuse 45-20. Early in the fourth quarter, the Bulls put it away on D'Ernest Johnson's 83-yard punt return.
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Back To Back (Sept. 8, 2018) โ Other players had two kickoff-return touchdowns in one game, but no one had ever achieved that in the same quarter. South Florida's Terrence Horne set an NCAA record with kickoff-return touchdowns of 98 and 97 yards in the first quarter, setting the tone for a wild 49-38 home victory against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
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Late-Night Miracle (Oct. 12, 2018) โ The Bulls moved to 6-0 with a riveting 25-24 Friday night win at Tulsa, clinched by the 22-yard walk-off field goal by Coby Weiss. The Bulls trailed by two touchdowns entering the fourth quarter, but Blake Barnett engineered a 15-point rally. Out of timeouts and down to the Tulsa 5-yard line, Barnett clocked it with five seconds remaining, setting up Weiss' game-winner.
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Zero Equals Six (Sept. 12, 2020) โ Practically no one saw it live โ it was the first game of a season with COVID-19 attendance restrictions โ but South Florida's Omarion Dollison tied an NCAA record for the shortest punt return. Matt Campbell, a punter for The Citadel, scooped up his dropped snap in the end zone, but his desperation punt attempt fluttered sideways โฆ right into the waiting hands of Dollison, who tip-toed inside the pylon for a whacky touchdown. Officially, Dollison was credited with a 0-yard punt return. The Bulls prevailed 27-6.
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The Century Club (Nov. 6, 2021) โ South Florida's Brian Battie became the second player in NCAA history with a pair of 100-yard kickoff returns in the same game โ a 100-yarder on the opening kickoff, and another 100-yarder late in the second quarter that provided a halftime lead โ in a wild 54-42 home defeat against No. 20-ranked Houston. Battie, who scored on three kickoff returns in 2021, was named a first-team All-American.
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Not Standing PAT (Sept. 30, 2023) โ With Navy scoring a touchdown just before halftime and poised to tie the game with a successful PAT attempt, the snap went over the holder's head and wound up in the hands of South Florida linebacker Jhalyn Shuler, who raced 80 yards for a score. The return of a botched PAT was worth two points โ the first such play in program history โ and it helped spark the Bulls' 44-30 road victory.
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Happy Return (Dec. 21, 2023) โ With South Florida leading 7-0 at the Boca Raton Bowl, Syracuse lined up for a 47-yard field-goal attempt. But the snap was mishandled and it wound up in the hands of Syracuse place-kicker Brady Denaburg, who tried to run. But USF's Tavin Ward punched it from Denaburg's grasp โฆ into the waiting arms of Aamaris Brown-Bunkley, who scooped it and soared untouched for a 64-yard touchdown. It was 14-0 in the first quarter, but it was already over. Final: USF 45, Syracuse 0.
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Booming Finish (Dec. 24, 2024) โ South Florida trailed by three points at the Hawaii Bowl, when head coach Alex Golesh reluctantly elected to punt on fourth-and-9 deep in Bulls' territory with 2:03 remaining. He hoped for an out-of-bounds punt to preserve time. Instead, the kick was mis-hit by punter Andrew Stokes, but it became a program record-tying 72-yard punt (with a 25-yard roll) that flipped the field. It set in motion a series of circumstances that allowed the Bulls to regain possession and tie San Jose State before winning an epic postseason contest, 41-39, in five overtimes.
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Off The Post (Dec. 24, 2024) โ That Hawaii Bowl was officially put into overtime by place-kicker John Cannon, who made a 41-yard field goal with two seconds remaining in regulation. Cannon kissed it high off the right upright, then the ball trickled through safely. That positioned South Florida to defeat San Jose State 41-39 in five overtimes. Whew!
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Fake Punt (Aug. 28, 2025) โ With South Florida leading Boise State 10-7 in the third quarter and facing a fourth-down situation, the Bulls snuck in true freshman quarterback Locklan Hewlett for punt formation. No one noticed. Hewlett got the snap and delivered a 45-yard touchdown pass to Keshaun Singleton that put the Bulls in command. The host Bulls prevailed 34-7.
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Swamped With Emotion (Sept. 6, 2025) โ Nico Gramatica's 20-yard walk-off field goal capped an 87-yard drive and gave South Florida a monumental 18-16 road victory against the No. 13-ranked Florida Gators. South Florida became the first state school to win road games at each of the state's six other FBS schools (Florida, Florida State, Miami, Central Florida, Florida Atlantic and Florida International).
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โ#30thAnniversaryโ
ยJoey Johnston
Athletics Senior Writer
