USF (6-6; 4-4 American) vs San Jose State (7-5; 3-4 MWC)

Tuesday, Dec. 24 • 8:00 P.M. (ET) • Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex (16,909) • Honolulu, HI

SURFACE: Artificial Turf

TV: ESPN: Tiffany Greene (P-by-P) & Jay Walker (Analyst) & Marilyn Payne (Reporter)

AUDIO: 102.5 FM/102.5 HD2 The Strike & Bulls Unlimited (TuneIn)

SERIES: USF leads, 1-0

IN TAMPA: NA

IN SAN JOSE: USF won,

LAST TIME: USF won first-ever meeting

BOWL RECORD: 7-4

LAST BOWL: Won 2023 Boca Raton Bowl

over Syracuse, 45-0

USF GAME NOTES



Keys To the Game: https://gousfbulls.com/news/2024/12/23/football-keys-to-the-game-hawai-i-bowl.aspx


• Bulls seek 8th bowl win in 12th appearance, have scored at least 20 points in 10 straight bowl appearances.

• SR WR Atkins has 30 straight games with a catch (2nd at USF), one shy of tying USF record, 74 yards shy of breaking USF career receiving yards record (2,136).

• SR RB Kelley Joiner 6th on USF career rushing chart (2,178), 29 yards from ranking in Top 5 career rushers at USF.

• USF averaging 486 yards and 39.3 points over last six games, led FBS scoring 201 points in November.

• Alex Golesh posts 13th win, tied for 2nd-most in first two seasons for USF coach, 2nd to lead team to bowls in first two FBS seasons.

• Defense 5th nationally in tackles for loss (8.0), No. 4 in fumbles recovered (12) and No. 12 in turnovers - gaining 10 in last 3 games.

• Bulls winning by average margin of 28.5 ppg in six victories.



BULLS TO MAKE 12th BOWL APPEARANCE IN FIRST TRIP TO HAWAI‘I

South Florida will make its second-straight bowl appearance under second-year head coach Alex Golesh at the Hawai‘i Bowl in Honolulu, Hawai’i. It will mark the first back-to-back bowl appearance in six years, 10th different bowl destination for the Bulls and the sixth different state or province (the Bulls played one bowl in Canada) for USF to compete in a bowl game. The second meeting ever with San Jose State will mark USF’s first-ever game in Hawai‘i and, at nearly 4,700 miles from Tampa, the farthest destination the Bulls have ever played away from home. USF won at San Jose State 42-22 in the first game of the 2017 season in the first meeting between the programs.



BOWLING: The Bulls have won seven of their previous 11 bowl appearances, including three of the last four and a 45-0 victory over Syracuse in the 2023 Boca Raton Bowl. USF’s 12 bowl appearances in its first 24 FBS seasons mark the fourth-most for any program since 1980. San Jose State will mark the first Mountain West Conference opponent for the Bulls in a bowl game. USF is 2-2 all-time vs. the conference.



GOLESH HAS BULLS FINISHING STRONG: The Bulls won four of their last six games to gain bowl eligibility.

• USF saw its yards per game increase from 344.7 in the first six games to 486.5 over the last six while its scoring average increased from 24.6 ppg to 39.3 ppg. Meanwhile, the defense produced 56 tackles for loss compared to 38 in the first six games and 14 turnovers compared to 10.

• USF is 4-3 after Oct. 1 in 2024. The Bulls four wins after Oct. 1 in 2023 were the program’s most since 2017 (5). USF is 8-6 under Golesh after Oct. 1. In five seasons from 2018-22, USF went 7-33 after Oct. 1. Over the five seasons before Golesh’s arrival, USF had totaled 15 wins overall, including 1 the year before his arrival and 4 total from 2020-22.

• USF’s 201 points in November led all of FBS and marked the second-highest scoring month in program history behind October 2016 (207).

The Bulls 347 points in November the last two seasons are the most in FBS, and USF’s 39.9 ppg average in the month ranks 8th in FBS.

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors on Monday approved a blanket waiver granting an additional year of eligibility to former junior college transfers in similar positions to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, opening the door for a wave of college athletes across all sports to spend one more year in college athletics.

According to an NCAA memo, the waiver extends an extra year of eligibility in 2025-26 to athletes who previously "competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years" and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season.


This is insane, but perhaps it means Shuler comes back?

Was expected to end up at USF then got cold feet and just committed to Arkansas State. He didn’t love the city environment and it felt too fast for him. Portal kid from West Alabama who is from outside of Huntsville, Ala.

Jonesboro, Arkansas is definitely the furtherest thing from Tampa.

When does it close? Team heads out tomorrow so visits done until they return after Xmas and then new yrs is a few days later. Are we done? Or does it extend into Jan? I think classes start Jan 6th?

Grew up watching this guy play. One of the best, under appreciated players of his era.

R.I.P. Rickey

I predict USF will handedly beat East Texas by a score of 88-62.

Kobe Knox will have a breakout game with 19 pts and USF will shoot over 60% from the field.


Print It.

The total is set at 145.5. While USF is only 2-8 ATS, this spread is too low against a team ranked #297 in NET. 7 of BCC's 8 losses this year have been by 15 points or more. The Wildcats rank 350th (out of 364) in OER and 224th in DER.

Pick: South Florida -12.5

Over/under 62.5. Monitor the opt outs in this game but if the starting QB situation remains unchanged pound the Spartans.

Anyone have 2 club tickets they aren't using for the BC game? I either need to take my kids or stay home and I'd prefer to go. If you do and want to trade for a future game we can work something out. I'm center court on the aisle 7 rows up.

This ranks us 72nd in the country (excluding service academies and FCS schools) in estimated value, and is based on revenues, alumni base, conference affiliation, estimated NIL spend, school subsidies amongst other things.

Here are a few of the others:

1. Ohio State ($1.3B)
14. Florida ($865M)
24. Florida State ($673M)
31. Miami, FL ($639M)
67. San Diego State ($287M)
70. UCF ($181M)
71. UConn ($178M)
72. Boise State ($176M)
73. East Carolina ($153M)
74. South Florida ($150M)
75. Memphis ($148M)

Here is the latest on where things stand with several targets



The long-time USF commit Sean Poret took an OV to FSU this weekend. The Noles are losing another OL commit any day and I expect they will take Poret here late. He has been taking a lot of visits and seems to be fishing for something in the P4.

JUCO RB Waymond Jordan got to see fans boo and yell F-Gus and all kinds of stuff on his OV. I can't imagine that went well. I'm waiting to hear back from him but given his timeline I like USF's chances to close there.

The Bulls remain very active in trying to close on WR Carl Jenkins. There hasn't been a lot of movement with him and new schools lately. His recruitment has been very odd. He was supposed to take more visits and then those didn't happen and he has really just been to USF and UCF this fall.

CB target Akondrae Chaney and WR target Christian Neptune are two guys I'm keeping a close eye on this week ahead of NSD. They Bulls would like to land both and they have some serious P4 interest, but USF has done a good job there.

I expect LS Alex Nocco to end up in the class as well.

There is one surprise guy at least I can't put out there yet ahead of NSD as well.

Thought I would create one general thread for the upcoming crazy season


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Lot of stuff going on with him right now, he completed his OV to USF and is up at Indiana right now. He left from USF went to the airport an flew up there. FSU is pushing to get the last OV next weekend, the Noles offering is certainly a curveball, but he is third on the pecking order at QB for them behind Justin Fields (UGA commit) and James Foster from Lanier HS in Bama.

USF staff felt like they made up ground with Penix, but as many have said it is an uphill battle.