USF Bulls to Get Back to Winning Ways Against Southern Miss

Sep 12, 20243 min read

USF Bulls | Byrum Brown — ©William McLelland-Imagn Images

The University of South Florida Bulls (1-1) take on the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (1-1) from the Sun Belt Conference on Sept. 14. The game will be in Hattiesburg, Miss. at 6:00 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+. The Bulls are coming off a 42-16 loss to then-No. 4 Alabama on Sept. 7, while the Golden Eagles got their first win of the season, a 35-10 victory against Southeastern Louisiana. The Bulls have opened as 12-point favorites to win the game.

The Game's Ramifications

The last time these two teams met was in 2004. The Golden Eagles won that matchup 27-20. However, that was 20 years ago. USF now is significantly better than USM on paper coming into this game. The Golden Eagles are coming off a 3-9 season in 2023 while the Bulls are in their second year of head coach Alex Golesh's tenure. He has completely turned the program around, highlighted by USF's 7-6 record and a 45-0 win over Syracuse in the Boca Raton Bowl last season. With the Bulls' resurgence, they could compete with anyone in the American Athletic Conference.

South Florida's game with the Alabama Crimson Tide ended up as a blowout from a final score perspective. But for most of that game, the Bulls were within one possession of the Tide. With 6:45 left in the fourth quarter, the Crimson Tide led the Bulls 21-16. The game's tightness changed in the last 6 minutes as Alabama scored 3 touchdowns to put the game away and give it a lopsided win over USF.

For Southern Mississippi, it has had only one meaningful game this year in Week 1. It played the Kentucky Wildcats and was shut out 31-0. In Week 2, it played a "cupcake" in Southeastern Louisiana and won easily. If the Golden Eagles want to win against the Bulls, then they need to play a perfect game and then some in Hattiesburg.

Key Players: USM Golden Eagles

The Golden Eagles are led offensively by former Florida State transfer quarterback Tate Rodemaker. Rodemaker has 305 yards passing so far this season. The USM backfield is split three ways between Kenyon Clay (82 yards), Rodrigues Clark (37 yards) and Ethan Crawford (24 yards). The passing game is led by Larry Simmons., who has six receptions for 109 yards in the team's first two games. However, Rodemaker utilizes his tight ends quite well. Kyirin Heath has 72 yards on 5 catches and fellow tight end Justyn Reid has 62 yards from just 2 receptions. From what it seems, the offense operates alright when they play significantly worse defenses. But when they play bigger, versatile teams like Kentucky, they fail to move the football. This will likely be the case when they play USF.

USM's Tate Rodemaker — ©Carter Skaggs-Imagn Images

Defensively, USM has just one player in double digits when it comes to tackles. That is safety Dylan Lawrence, who has 13 tackles. The next defensive weapon for the Golden Eagles is Chris Jones with 7 tackles this season. If the Golden Eagles are even remotely able to stop the rushing attack of the Bulls, then they would be in more trouble thanks to Byrum Brown and his sure-handed receivers.

Key Players: USF Bulls

The Bulls are led by a four-headed monster which controls their rushing attack. That group is led by quarterback Byrum Brown (282 yards rushing) and running backs Kelley Joiner (103 yards rushing), Nay'Quan Wright (83 yards rushing) and Ta'Ron Keith (52 yards).

USF's Sean Atkins — © Gary Cosby Jr.-Imagn Images

On defense, the Bulls are full of underrated stars. Linebacker Jhalyn Shuler usually leads the defense. Last season, he had a team-high 97 tackles. However, after getting injured in the first game of the season, linebacker Jamie Pettiway has stepped up in a major way in Shuler's absence with 10 tackles in his past 2 games. Linebacker Mac Harris has also taken over leading the team in tackles with 14. It is very possible we could see a similar score to the Bethune-Cookman game when it comes to scoring differentials.

Trends To Watch

Even though this game is in Hattiesburg, the game could get ugly really quick for USM due to USF's running game going against the Golden Eagle defense. Our predictions have the Bulls coming out on top in this one before heading home to face the currently No. 10-ranked Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes in a great matchup in Tampa, Fla.