The home opener for the Bulls proved to be harder than they expected. USF falls 50-21 to BYU in a heavily one-sided game.
USF Drops Season Opener
USF’s Slow Start
Even with a new quarterback under center and a new offensive coordinator on staff, USF struggled to get going on Saturday night against BYU at Raymond James Stadium. USF started the game on defense, and it only took BYU one play from scrimmage to open the scoring. Puka Nacua ran 75 yards from scrimmage for a Cougars touchdown. The Bulls’ struggles didn’t end there as they found themselves down 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Bulls’ offensive and defensive sluggishness continued throughout the first half as BYU quarterback Jaren Hall had a field day. USF couldn’t answer the call for BYU’s good play calling. BYU marched up and down the field throughout the first two quarters. The first half would end with a score of 38-7 in favor of BYU.
An Improved 2nd Half
BYU’s tough play continued throughout the second half adding 12 more points to their total. The Bulls managed to strike twice more on offense completing some nice drives. At that point, the Bulls were too far behind to make this game competitive
The Bulls’ travesty of a first game will be a lesson for everyone on the team. Even though they lost, USF did show some signs of life in the third and fourth quarters. USF quarterback Gerry Bohanon was finally able to connect with Xavier Weaver which helped the Bulls go down the field. Perhaps it gave them something to build off of in the weeks to come.
The Bulls struggling defense
Despite having some key plays throughout the game, the Bulls’ defense proved to be an issue that must be addressed. While it is true, that they were facing a very talented BYU offense, the USF defense was backed into a corner from the beginning and never got out of it.
The USF defense couldn’t stay on pace with BYU’s heavy-tempo offense. The Cougars’ high speed offense propelled them to a quick couple of scores. That forced changes to USF’s defensive strategy right away. BYU did a great job of exploiting the Bulls’ zone coverages. All in all, USF’s defense was slow and will have to get better for the games down the road.
The Light In The Tunnel
USF’s season opener was a very challenging game against a very experienced BYU squad. That being said even, after the loss the Bulls did have some moments of good in the game. Bohanon had his first game under center and even though he struggled, he managed to throw for 17-30 for 172 yards and one interception.
The Bulls also did a much better job on offense and defense in the second half, showing that they made halftime adjustments. The team showed arrays of brightness now and then during the game. The main one came at the start of the 2nd half as Jimmy Horn Jr. took a kickoff return 89 yards for a touchdown. On top of this, Bulls wide receiver, Xavier Weaver continued his excellent play from last season and ended with five catches for 113 yards.
Changes To Make
As the season opener turned out to be a tough one for the Bulls you can see that head coach Jeff Scott will have to make some serious changes to get his team back and ready for the road ahead. The main thing for the Bulls that will be of focus will be making sure that the defense is more prepared coming into the game. The Bulls’ defense made some errors and as Scott said during a postgame press conference, “It got away really quickly.”
The offense on the other hand will have to do a better job of getting started earlier in the game. Bohanon said in a post-game interview about the offense, “We just never really got going.” Gaining a balance for the run and pass game will be at forefront of the Bulls’ mind heading into next week against Howard.
What’s To Come
As the Bulls must swallow this tough pill the next challenge, they have ahead is Howard. Howard who started their season 0-1 won’t be an easy task considering how much USF must work on going into week 2 of the college football season.
Even though Howard isn’t a highly touted football school USF will look to get back on track with a win against the Bison. The Bulls hope for a much better outcome against the Bison considering their weeks ahead of Howard will be much bigger challenges.
Main Image courtesy KSL Sports
