Joey Johnston Athletics Senior Writer

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USF (3-3; 2-1 American) vs FAU (2-3; 1-0 American)
Saturday, Oct. 14 • 3:30 P.M. •  Raymond James Stadium (65,000) • Tampa, Fla.
SURFACE: Bermuda Grass
TV: ESPN2: Beth Mowins (PxP), Kirk Morrison (Analyst) & Stormy Buonantony (Sideline)
AUDIO: 102.5 FM & HD 2/ TuneIn – Bulls Unlimited
SERIES: USF leads, 3-1
IN TAMPA: USF leads, 2-1
IN BOCA RATON: USF leads, 1-0
LAST TIME: FAU won 28-10 in 2013 in Tampa
VS. AAC: 32-51, 11th season
VS. Florida Schools: 18-18 wins over: FSU, FAU, FIU, Miami, UCF, FAMU
USF GAME NOTES

The USF Bulls are focused on quickly turning things around when they face the Florida Atlantic Owls in Saturday afternoon’s homecoming game at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bulls (3-3, 2-1 AAC) have made strides through the season’s first half, but last week’s 56-35 defeat at UAB represented a step backward. With FAU (2-3, 1-0 AAC) coming off its first-ever AAC victory, a 20-17 home triumph against Tulsa, the Bulls know they must raise their level to get back in the win column.

“In every imaginable way in Birmingham, everything didn’t go our way,” head coach Alex Golesh said. “We turned the ball over. We couldn’t sustain drives. We didn’t tackle well in space and we didn’t stop them when we needed to. There’s a million excuses we could make. We won’t make them.

“The part that was really frustrating was I didn’t think our best players played well, all across the board. Somewhere along the line, we didn’t coach well enough and our process wasn’t right. That’s my fault and I’ll own it. I told the guys the blame will always be distributed among the grown-ups who are getting paid to get it right. That’s our fault, my fault leading it, in not having us as prepared as we needed to be.”

FAU, under first-year head coach Tom Herman, features the nation’s leading pass-catcher, LaJohntay Wester (52 catches for 499 yards), who’s averaging an AAC-leading 99.8 yards per game (13th nationally). Meanwhile, the Owls’ running game was in high gear against Tulsa with Larry McCammon (130 yards) and Kobe Lewis (87) both hitting career-high games.

But as part of Golesh’s process, it’s not so much about the opponent. It’s mostly about USF’s preparation. Bulls players agree: Last week’s effort at UAB was sub-par.

“It’s pretty evident that wasn’t us,” defensive tackle Rashad Cheney said. “I haven’t seen that type of (USF) team since spring ball. That’s what we put on film, but that’s not us. It hurt watching that film. We’re a physical team. We run fast to the ball. But we did the total opposite (against UAB).”

“The mindset is we’ve got a lot to work on,” center Mike Lofton said. “You watch the tape through the last six games, we left a lot (of opportunities) out on the field. I like where we are as a group, but we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s a learning process, but we’ve got to do much better (than the UAB game). That goes for all of us.”

Including quarterback Byrum Brown, USF’s likely Most Valuable Player through the first six games. Against UAB, Brown rushed for 136 yards and two touchdowns, including a 60-yard keeper up the middle for USF’s first score. But Brown (24 of 43 for 260 yards) also threw two interceptions, lost a fumble and took three sacks.

“It’s pretty simple,” Brown said. “I had three turnovers and you can’t do that and win. We’ve got to be better overall and I’ve got to be better. This game showed us what we need to do.”

It could be the proverbial “wake-up call” for a program that had two weeks of good times — a riveting come-from-behind home win against Rice and a resounding victory at Navy that ended USF’s 19-game road losing streak.

“Just like in life, sometimes you need things to wake you up a bit,” Golesh said. “I don’t know that we ever thought we ‘arrived.’ I’m super cautious and super guarded against that (kind of talk). But you’re talking about 18-to-22-year-olds, who are still working on a process and what a game week looks like. I’m just super cautious of people telling us how good we are or how we’re doing things that haven’t been done in a while.

“Man, you’ve just got to reset and play the next one. That’s why I’m never too high or never too low on anything. It’s going to be really interesting to see how we respond.”

Golesh said he has evaluated the UAB result by “questioning everything.”

“But I also question everything after a win,” Golesh said. “How does it happen that your best players didn’t play up to their standard? All of that falls on me. I’m going to continue to plug through it. There’s a ton you can learn from it.”

The Bulls hope to apply those lessons before a rowdy, active homecoming crowd at Ray-Jay. Bulls players said they hope to capitalize on the home-field advantage.

“It’s nice not to travel after two weeks (on the road) because travel does take a toll on your body,” Lofton said. “Just having the fans come out, I really appreciate what they’ve been doing for us so far. But we’ve got to bring our own juice, our own energy. And I feel like the fans will feed into that as well.”

“Man, I think our student section is the best,” tight end Gunnar Greenwald said. “I love seeing everybody all painted up and creating noise. We respond to that and we want to give them a good show out there.”

Establishing a great home-field advantage at Ray-Jay is a priority for Golesh, whose team is 2-1 at home, including a highly competitive 17-3 defeat against an Alabama team that went deep into the fourth quarter. The Tide has since gone on to score more points in wins over Ole Miss (24-10), at Mississippi State (40-17) and at Texas A&M (26-20).

“It’s important to put a good product and an entertaining product out there,” Golesh said. “I think people being in the stands is really important. You saw it against Alabama, where that place was rocking. It was fun. It was awesome.

“I’m super grateful for our students showing up. It looks fun down in that end zone. I keep looking down there and thinking, ‘Man, it would be fun to go drink a beer and hang out down there.’ … After the game, it would be fun … It’s the coolest thing about college football, when it gets dark and those green lights come on (following the third quarter).

“It’s a challenge to our fan base and our students to show up and give us a home-field advantage. I think it’s a fun product. We fly around defensively and put our hats (helmets) on people and offensively we play fast and put balls in the air. I don’t know what’s going on in Tampa this Saturday afternoon, but I don’t imagine you could get a better value than these two teams getting after each other.”

–#GoBulls–