Courtesy of Max Steele | The Crow’s Nest
By Max Steele
The ending of Homecoming Week was spoiled when the University of South Florida’s football team faced a 45-31 loss to conference-leading Tulane on a drizzly evening last Saturday.
The Bulls returned to Raymond James Stadium after a 35-day hiatus due to Hurricane Ian, but the home field advantage didn’t matter. Now USF hasn’t won a football game in over five weeks and ranks last in the American Athletic Conference with a 1-6 record.
But the loss wasn’t even the worst of news for the Bulls, as the team’s starting quarterback Gerry Bohanon was injured halfway through the second quarter after landing on his right throwing shoulder following a tackle.
Bohanon, who had a 33-yard rushing touchdown and an 8-yard passing score to wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. prior to his injury, returned to the sideline in a sling after receiving medical attention. Bohanon’s X-ray on his shoulder came back with no signs of broken bones, according to USF Head Coach Jeff Scott, but his expected return to the field has not yet been revealed.
Katravis Marsh, who filled in the USF quarterback position, threw for 150 yards and two touchdowns in the second half — including a 73-yard passing score to Dequan Stanley — but it wasn’t enough to overcome Tulane’s high-scoring offense that pumped out six touchdowns in just three quarters.
Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt threw for 329 passing yards and totaled four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Despite allowing 45 points, the USF defense showed sparks of resilience, led by linebacker and team captain Dwayne Boyles who posted a career-high 15 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. With this performance, Boyles now ranks No. 10 on USF’s all-time career tackles list with a total of 267.
Coach Scott said his team had the opportunities to win the game, but aside from the team’s growing injury list, it was miscues, penalties and mental errors that ultimately cost them the victory.
Scott was frustrated at his team’s loss.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t coach well enough, didn’t play well enough against a good team” Scott said.
Luckily for the Bulls, the team will have its bye this upcoming weekend — which means USF won’t be playing a game — and will have time for its players to recover and restrategize.
“As a staff, we need to use this time to reevaluate what we’re asking our guys to do because there’s definitely not enough clean execution out there,” Scott said. “[We are] going to try to get some of these mistakes cleaned up.”
Whether or not the week of recuperation will pay off will only be revealed when the Bulls play next at Houston on Saturday, Oct. 29.
