Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
By Dominic Feo
Oct. 28, 2016, the University of South Florida football team beat the No. 22 Naval Academy 52-45. USF went on to lose its next 18 games against ranked opponents.
Sept. 28, 2024, star quarterback Byrum Brown injured his leg in a 45-10 loss to Tulane University, he did not start another game that season.
Aug. 28, 2025, with Brown back under center, USF outclassed No. 25 Boise State on offense, defense and special teams in a 34-7 upset.
Boise State’s only score was the game’s first, when quarterback Maddux Madsen threw a six-yard touchdown to wide receiver Chris Marshall with 1:10 minutes to go in the first quarter. USF responded with a 10-play drive, setting up a 52-yard field goal from kicker Nico Gramatica to score the first three of the Bulls 34 unanswered points.
USF took a 10-7 lead on a Brown 23-yard touchdown run with 6:34 left in the half, where the 6’3, 232-pounder made sure to level a Broncos defender in the endzone. Brown’s injury last season cost him some time, but he proved that he has not lost his confidence.
Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
“He was really confident going in,” said head coach Alex Golesh during the post-game press conference. “Give Byrum a lot of credit, because he came over and said, ‘coach, just run me a little bit’ then I watched him put his shoulder down twice.”
“I felt [I was back] as soon as the first snap happened,” Brown said. “I asked him to run me and did and, you know, saw the results.”
The score was a declaration of his return to everyone in Raymond James Stadium. “Just wanted to bring some juice to our sideline, just set the tone,” Brown said.
Brown’s physical running did in fact set the tone, especially for the defense. USF defenders were all over the field, landing big hits, forcing three fumbles from a team that only lost the ball five times in 2024. The defense also got four stops on fourth down, resulting in seven Boise State turnovers.
Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
Over 24 players recorded a tackle, but no one got to the football more than graduate senior linebacker Jhalyn Shuler, who recorded a career-high (14).
“That’s the brand we want to have as a defense. We’re going fly around, we’re going to hit, we’re going to create chaos.” Shuler said.
The only member of the Bulls defense with more tackles than Shuler last season was linebacker Mac Harris, who finished with eight and a forced fumble.
Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
“The mentality for us is we always want to train for a bar fight, that’s what we came to do today.” Harris said.
With 8:18 remaining in the third quarter, USF lined up to punt the ball back to Boise State on fourth down, only there was no punter.
In place of punter Chase Leon was freshmen quarterback Locklan Hewlett. Locklan was asked post-game if he ever envisioned his first snap of collegiate football would look like this.
“Absolutely not,” Hewlett said through a smile.
The Boise State coaches and players did not realize USF lined up its newest quarterback at punter and paid the price.
“I saw [a Boise State special teamer] was squatted, he was about two, three yards off, I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Touchdown’.”
After barely securing the snap, Hewlett uncorked a 45-yard bomb that floated into the waiting arms of receiver Keshaun Singleton. The wideout evaded three special teamers, turned defenders before falling into the endzone to give the Bulls a 17-7 lead.
Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
The mastermind behind the trick play was the special team’s coordinator Chad Creamer.
“It kind of came to me in the middle of the summer like we got this white kind of skinny young quarterback who is going to be third string and looks like our punters,” Creamer joked.
The only person who bet Hewlett would throw the first passing touchdown of USF’s season, was Hewlett himself.
“Lock and Byrum had a little bet going who would throw the first touchdown of the season, Lock won it, so Byrum will get to pay up later.” Creamer said.
For Hewlett, that moxie was not something found overnight. It was developed through days and weeks of training prior to kickoff.
“We worked that play almost every day, so we had confidence in it, I think that’s what it boiled down to,” Hewlett said.
From there, the bottom fell out under Boise State.
USF’s defense kept the Broncos out of the endzone, while Brown and the offense gained yards at will. A failed fourth down conversion by the Broncos put USF on their own 30.
Brown threw a 55-yard dart to receiver Chas Nimrod, which was followed up by a keeper from Brown for his second rushing touchdown.
Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
Nimrod showed off his big-play ability, catching three passes for 96 yards in his first game for South Florida.
A rushing touchdown from running back Cartevious Norton and a 33-yard Gramatica field goal in the fourth quarter made the final score 34-7.
When the game clock hit zero, green fireworks filled the air, goal posts were preemptively put down, the band kept playing and fans rushed to the players at midfield. Two and a half years of culture building culminated in a crowd of players and fans chanting the three letters that bring them all together. U-S-F.
“I told our team after the game, and it’s truly what we talked about since January, you got to have a fourth-and-inches mentality,” Golesh said post-game. “You got to have a grittiness and a toughness to you in everything that you do.”
Whether it was Brown knocking defenders to the floor, or USF’s linebackers delivering pad-shattering hits. USF showed off its new gritty identity for all four quarters.
Photo courtesy of USF Athletics
Most of Golesh’s time at the mic post-game was spoken with conviction and pride for his team, and the approximately 34,000 fans in attendance, but he ended with a pause.
That pause was broken with a quote last spoken by late USF men’s basketball head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim before his team went on to win a conference championship.
“This ain’t the same old south Florida anymore.”
