by Carter Brantley
Ah, well.
The national spotlight was fun while it lasted.
While the Bulls entered Saturday’s matchup with the Miami Hurricanes as sizable underdogs, there was still a bit of wonder surrounding the team.
After all, they’d been doubted their first 2 games against top-25 opponents, why couldn’t they make it 3 straight?
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, as Miami trounced the Bulls 49-12.
The Hurricanes took an early 14-3 lead in the 1st quarter and never relinquished it, as they controlled the game in the trenches and dominated USF in the way UF was supposed to last week.
UM QB Carson Beck was sacked only once, and the Hurricanes ran for over 200 yards while USF put up a measly 40 yards on the ground.
Without dual threat star Byrum Brown making his usual explosive plays the Bulls were rendered just another American Conference team outclassed by a school with a much bigger NIL budget and brighter stars throughout their roster.
The talent gap was evident across the board, as Beck threw only 5 incompletions for the game and 5 different receivers had 45+ receiving yards.
USF clearly used up all their magic in their first 2 weeks of upsets, but if anyone associated with the Bulls were honest, a 2-1 start to the season is still so beyond what anyone could’ve expected for this team going up against consecutive top-25 opponents.
They’re still well positioned to compete for an American Conference title, and next week will face South Carolina State to allow themselves a bit of a relaxing get-back-on-track game.
After they face off with the Bulldogs at home, they stay at Raymond James to begin conference play on October 3rd against the Charlotte 49ers.
That’s when their season really gets going, as these out of conference matchups were nice but are meaningless in terms of playoff chances unless the Bulls can find a way to win their conference.
With the way they started their season, that is the new expectation; it’s no longer a nice feeling just to make a bowl game.
If USF is to take that next step forward, they’ll need to go from fun spoilers to legit contenders, and that begins by taking home a conference crown.
We’ll see if they have what it takes, or if this was just a silly little blip in the program’s colorful history.
