Could the second half of the season bring needed relief to USF football?

USF’s first half of the season has been a worst-case scenario for the Bulls as far as their record goes. It’s also a reminder that building a football program as low as USF was two years ago doesn’t happen with microwave speed.

We knew they would handle Bethune-Cookman and Southern Mississippi and lose to Alabama. Miami seemed like a chance to make a splash, but quarterback Cam Ward is the real thing and the ‘Canes haven’t gone into their funk of recent seasons – at least not yet.

With a new coach in place, Tulane looked like a winnable game but the Green Wave put that notion to rest quickly. That’s a championship-caliber team I grossly underrated at the start of the season. We also knew Memphis would be a tough out for the Bulls, and it was.

I honestly thought before the season that the Bulls could be 3-3 by now and on their way to winning eight or even nine games. That was my blunder. The first-half schedule, which ESPN rated the eighth-toughest in college football, proved to be too much.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the numbers line up on the Bulls’ side from here on out. Starting with Saturday’s game against UAB, the Bulls’ second-half schedule is ranked 126th among FBS teams. The Bulls are rated ahead of every team remaining on the schedule except Navy.

A winning season and a bowl game remain within reach.

The x-factor is quarterback Byrum Brown’s health. He seems unlikely to play against UAB as he recovers from a left leg injury suffered at Tulane. And they must rediscover a running game that has gone missing for the last three contests.

The fact that we’re having this conversation is a reminder of how bare the cupboard was when Alex Golesh took over last season. The Bulls had some good players and Brown was a revelation, but they’re still thin in the trenches where games at this level are often won or lost.

“You know, to tell you that we're the deepest team in America would be a lie. We're deeper than we were a year ago,” Golesh said.

And they’re not as deep now as they will be next year and beyond. Eventually, they should start beating teams that the odds say they aren't supposed to do.

As Golesh often reminds everyone, he was hired to build a program and not just a team. The next two games will be a measuring stick of his progress toward that goal.

Last year, we remember, the Bulls were trounced in consecutive weeks by UAB and Florida Atlantic. Those teams finished with losing records are headed in that direction again.

If USF loses either of these games – or, heaven forbid, both of them – that would sound the alarm that changes need to be made. Beating two teams they’ll favored against, however, would make them 4-4 overall and 2-2 in the American Athletic Conference.

That might lower the collective blood pressure in Bulls Nation.

After the first half that fans just witnessed, that would be welcome medicine.