by Carter Brantley
While it wasn’t always pretty, with some missed throws from Byrum Brown and a missed field goal from Nico Gramatica, USF managed to take care of their side of the street against the FAU Owls Saturday night with a 48-13 victory.
Byrum Brown ran for over 100 yards for the 2nd time this season and got the game off to a good start with a QB draw being taken for 6 to start the game.
USF’s defense made junior QB Caden Veltkamp’s life very difficult, racking up 5 sacks and limiting the air raid offense to 289 passing yards on 58 attempts.
The Bulls even pulled out an impressive onside kick in the 2nd quarter that led to an eventual rushing touchdown for backup right guard Cole Skinner, his 2nd straight game with a score.
FAU kept it close after the 1st half, even pulling to within a touchdown at 21-13 after a prolonged drive to begin the 2nd half pulled them to being down by one possession.
But USF responded in kind, going on a 24-0 run for the rest of the 3rd quarter and into the 4th quarter, punctuated by a 60+ yard touchdown reception from freshman wideout Jeremiah Koger and a touchdown rush from Nykahi Davenport in the final period.
USF managed to put forth a good-enough effort to pull out this homecoming victory in front of a crowd of 45,000+, the biggest homecoming crowd since 2008.
Around the American conference, the Memphis Tigers fell to UAB in a dramatic upset of the undefeated, top-25-ranked Tigers.
The Blazers had recently fired head coach Trent Dilfer, as the program has struggled mightily over the past few years.
Now, before the Bulls have to play arguably their biggest game of the season in Memphis, the Tigers have been knocked down a peg.
If star deep threat wide receiver Chas Nimrod is still out, the Bulls might very well struggle to get much going against the Tigers like they did in the first 3 quarters of this FAU game.
FAU is not near the quality team that Memphis will put out, even after the shocking upset at the hands of UAB.
For now though, USF is in as good of a spot as they’ve ever been in program history.
They’re ranked in the top 20, with an undefeated record in conference play.
There won’t be any relying on any other team to help them into the CFP; if USF can win out and take care of business in the conference championship, a spot in the CFP as one of the highest ranked conference champions is all but promised.
Let’s hope they don’t get too ahead of themselves and they continue to take down their conference opponents.
