Thursday night was a special evening at Raymond James Stadium. It started before the game when Quinton Flowers, Auggie Sanchez, and others were among the players honored for senior night. Those emotions turned into big nights for those Bulls. Sanchez became the school’s all-time leading tackler in the 1st half and Flowers led the way for an offense that ran for nearly 300 yards. It got a little too close for comfort late, but ultimately South Florida got the job done with a 27-20 victory over Tulsa. That victory moved USF to 9-1 overall and sets up the showdown all of us have been waiting for next week. The Bulls will travel east to face the unbeaten UCF Knights with a spot in the AAC title game on the line.
One thing the 1st quarter did not lack was scoring. USF went 3-and-out on their 1st possession and the underdogs pounced. A 58-yard pass on a busted coverage set up Tulsa in great field position. They cashed in when quarterback, Luke Skipper grabbed the lead with a 12-yard touchdown run. The Bulls quieted that Tulsa section rather quickly. The Bulls scored on their next 3 possessions. The longest of those 3 drives was only 3 minutes long. The 1st came on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Quinton Flowers to Tyre McCants. The running backs got in the action on the next drive when Darius Tice busted off a 54-yard touchdown run. Flowers closed out the 1st quarter scoring with his 2nd touchdown pass. This time it was a 35 yarder to Darnell Salomon. Late in the quarter Auggie Sanchez finally got that elusive tackle that made him the program’s all time leader in that category.
The Golden Hurricanes got the better of the action in the 2nd quarter. They added a field goal on their opening drive of the half. The Bulls managed to match that field goal thanks to some video game-esque runs from Flowers. Where Tulsa really made a game of it was the last drive of the half. Luke Skipper got his 2nd rushing touchdown of the game with just 33 seconds left in the half. That run cut the lead to just a touchdown heading into the locker room.
The most impactful moment of the 3rd quarter wasn’t a scoring play. The moment came when Skipper was sacked on a 3rd down play. Skipper was hurt on that play and would have to be replaced by Chad President. Things went from bad to worse on the next play for the Golden Hurricanes. The Bulls’ special teams came up big with a blocked punt to give the offense great field position. The offense couldn’t get anything going, but that field position allowed the Bulls to make it a 2-score game once again thanks to Emilio Nadelman’s 2nd field goal of the game. USF looked like they might put the game out of reach late in the quarter, but Flowers made his first mistake of the game when he was intercepted by Diamon Cannon in the endzone.
The final quarter was mostly a defensive struggle, but then 1 big play changed the dynamic of the game. Tulsa returned the favor and blocked a Jonathan Hernandez punt to give their offense great field position still down 10 points. The offense couldn’t move the ball, but similar to USF in the 3rd quarter, they used the great field position to add 3 points and make it a 1-score game. Tulsa would then force a punt to get the ball back with one last chance to tie the game up. Sanchez, Senat, Nichols, and company held strong and came up with 1 last big stand on senior night to secure the 27-20 victory.
The Bulls will now have the eyes of a national audience on them next friday. USF travels a bit east for the War on I4 against UCF. A bid in the AAC conference title game will be on the line. The kickoff time of 3:30 will give you plenty of time to rest up after a huge Thanksgiving dinner or all night Black Friday shopping.