Despite Blowout Loss to Miami, USF Ranked Just Outside AP Top 25

USF dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll Sunday after its 49-12 loss at Miami, but not too far. The Bulls are still 27th, the highest of any American Conference team.

Read into that what you will. Mostly, you can read into it that as well as the Bulls started the season, they aren’t the No. 5 team in the country.

Very good, yes.

But not No. 5 good.

If USF fans are honest, they would admit that. Considering the schedule the Bulls faced to open the season, winning two out of three was an excellent – even unexpected – achievement.

By the way, this is the first time USF has been 2-1 since 2018.

Miami was a whole lot more impressive on Saturday than the Bulls were disappointing. The Hurricanes look like a potential national champion, while the Bulls can move on from this wipeout because all of their goals remain.

They can reach the American title game.

They can win the American.

And they can qualify for the College Football Playoff.

“Ultimately, my job is to have us more ready to play than that, and I failed tonight. I'll own that, and I'll be better,” Bulls coach Alex Golesh said.

“But as a program, we will be in that situation again, maybe this year, maybe next year. But whenever we are going to be in that situation again, my job is to make sure that we're more ready than we were tonight.”

USF beefed up on both the offensive and defensive lines in the off-season, and that was good enough against Boise State and Florida. However, Miami’s behemoths on the line were at a whole different level than the one the Bulls were on.

The good news is, USF is unlikely to run into road graders like that for the rest of the season.

Miami ran for 205 yards, including 120 by Mark Fletcher.  He also had two touchdowns.

The Bulls countered with just 65 yards on 27 attempts, a 1.5-yard average. Quarterback Byrum Brown was the leading rusher with 23 yards.

Can’t win that way against a team like Miami.

USF would have had to play above its head and would have still needed self-inflicted wounds from the Hurricanes to pull this one off.

As Golesh said following the Bulls’ first two wins, the day after is a time to turn the page and focus on what’s next. South Carolina State comes to Ray-Jay at noon on Saturday, and USF will approach that game with the same intensity it had for the first three.

After that, the American Conference season opens for USF. The Bulls should be in a mix with Tulane, Navy, and Memphis to contend for the championship.

If they pull that off, no one will remember or care what happened against Miami.