Photo by Vanessa Wenzl | The Crow’s Nest.
By Vanessa Wenzl
The Bulls opened with a 1-0 lead in the AAC conference for the University of South Florida’s football team after a 42-29 victory against the Rice Owls at home on Saturday night.
This is the first time the Bulls have won a conference opener game since its 2018 opener against ECU.
“Our process was right enough to win a football game,” head coach Alex Golesh said in the post-game conference.
Process has been Golesh’s goal since his arrival to USF almost one year ago.
Players have expressed how the coach is centered on staying in the moment they play and not the names nor the teams played.
“It’s a nameless faceless opponent,” defensive end Jonathan Ross said when asked about playing Rice’s quarterback J.T. Daniels in the game, “Regardless of who’s back there, I just feel like we got to do what we got to do, and capitalize in those moments.”
The defense may not have shown the same performance from last week’s game against the University of Alabama, but the offense showed skills complimentary to their downfalls.
Byrum Brown rushed a career best with a 435-yard game and two touchdowns against the Owl’s defense.
With two touchdowns, and even a two-point conversion from wide receiver Sean Atkins, redshirt quaterback Brown is what the internet is calling “a hidden gem.”
He is currently second best in the football program’s history, behind Quinton Flower’s 503 yards from 2017.
Records and stats continue to proceed in multiple positions after Saturday’s win.
Wide receiver Naiem Simmons set the record for the state of Florida, with the most receiving yards in a game. Simmons posted his career best with 272 yards. The record was originally set 55 years ago by Ron Sellers of Florida State University in 1968.
“I didn’t really know what was going on because I was just going out there and playing,” Simmons said.
Kicker John Cannon also displayed his skills with two field goals, one included being from the 40-yard line. Cannon currently has a perfect kick ratio of five complete kicks.
Defensive end Lloyd Summerall completed his first career sack for USF and his career best tackles for loss of 1.5.
The Bulls head to play Navy on Saturday, Sept. 30 with kickoff at 3:30 p.m.
