The University of South Florida Bulls had another bad day, losing big to the University of Tulsa, 42-13. The Bulls would use three quarterbacks in their attempts to get the offense moving and to control turnovers, but lapses on defense allowed the game to get out reach with lots of time on the clock.
The Bulls struggled out of the gate, punting on their first possession of the game.
Tulsa fared much better. After the USF punt, they began their first drive of the game on their own 42 yard line. Three plays into the drive, Zach Smith connected with Keylon Stokes for a 21 yard pickup, down to the USF 33 yard line. On the next play Smith found JuanCarlos Santana for a 33 yard touchdown to go up 7-0 early in the first quarter.
On the subsequent kickoff, Terrence Horne returned the kick 34 yards to the USF 41. The first play is a handoff to Johnny Ford for a gain of four yards. The next play goes to Ford, as well, and this time he fumbles, only to be recovered by Tulsa’s Lamar Mullins on the USF 45 yard line.
The Golden Hurricane would start at the USF 45 yard line leading 7-0 with 11:34 to go in the first quarter. Smith attempts to pass the ball on first down, only to be intercepted by Daquan Evans, who returned the pick 31 yards to the USF 46 yard line.
The Bulls would struggle to move the ball on offense and would have to settle for a 39 yard field goal by Jared Sackett. With just under ten minutes to go in the first quarter, USF trailed the Golden Hurricane, 7-3.
Later in the first quarter, USF would have another drive stall, this time on the Tulsa eight yard line. This time Sackett would hit from 25 yards to narrow the deficit to just one, 7-6, with just under seven minutes to go in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Tulsa would build on their lead with a five yard touchdown run by Corey Taylor III and a 27 yard touchdown run by Demeric Prince. The Golden Hurricane took a 21-6 lead into halftime.
USF would finally score their first touchdown of the game early in the third quarter. Noah Johnson would come in for relief of Cade Fortin and connect with Bryce Miller for a 4 yard touchdown. Fortin, who was injured on the drive, had a 33 yard run on the possession, which began on the USF 28 yard line. Miller’s touchdown narrowed the Tulsa lead to 21-13 with 8:43 to go in the third quarter.
Three plays into the subsequent Tulsa drive, Prince took a handoff 62 yards for another Hurricane touchdown, making it a two-score game, 28-13.
Johnson would try to get the Bulls in the end zone again, but he would be intercepted on the next drive. Zaven Collins would come up with the pick-six that gave Tulsa a 35-13 advantage with less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The final score of the game would come courtesy of a one yard touchdown run by Taylor near the end of the third quarter. That play was set up in part by a 35 yard pass from Smith to Sam Crawford Jr. and a 15 yard pass to Josh Stewart.
After the game, head coach, Jeff Scott, met with the media. He was asked about why the decision was made to pull starting quarterback, Jordan McCloud.
“I just felt like we weren’t moving the ball on offense,” said Scott. “I wanted some new energy. I felt like Noah really came in and gave us a spark.”
The injury to Fortin also came up, but Scott didn’t say much about his injury status.
“He was banged up,” said Scott, “and not able to return to the game.”
Cornerback, Nick Roberts, was seen leaving the stadium without pads and before the game was over. Scott was asked what that was about.
“He was not going to play anymore in the game,” said Scott. “After that I was told what happened but I haven’t talked Nick or found out. That will be addressed.”
Scott was also asked why he thought they should put Fortin into the game.
“The biggest thing was the fumble right there,” said Scott. “Fourth quarterback fumble in the past six quarters. So I wanted to put Cade in. I thought he deserved a shot. For the one drive we saw Cade, I thought he did some nice things.”
Tulsa improves to 2-1 on the season with the win. They will host ECU for another Friday night game, next week.
The Bulls have a week off to try and figure out how to right the ship before visiting Memphis on November 7th. They fall to 1-5 on the season, which has become one of the worst in program history. Television and game times are TBA for USF at Memphis.
