For USF football, the trick is to replicate the first 54 minutes over the final six

USF football will travel to Southern Mississippi on Saturday, assuming Hattiesburg escapes the flood waters that are expected to engulf much of the state from Hurricane Francine. The Bulls started as around a 10-point favorite, which sounds about right.

You must be impressed with how USF’s defense flew around at Alabama. The Bulls brought pressure all night from different angles and basically befuddled Alabama’s standout quarterback, Jalen Milroe. If the Bulls can play to that standard the rest of the way, they will be in the race to the end for the American Athletic Conference championship.

Did you see how linebacker Mac Harris was all over the field against ‘Bama? He had seven tackles – three solo, four assists -- and forced a fumble.

“I thought Mac, through the first 54 minutes, played his best football he ever had.” Head coach Alex Golesh said. “(Linebacker) Jamie Pettway was incredibly impressive.

“I thought (cornerback De’Shawn) Rucker was legitimately the best player on the field Saturday night. I say that in all seriousness; that kid was the best football player on the field Saturday night.”

The aim will be for consistency.

Remember, we hailed USF’s defense last year when it held the Crimson Tide to 17 points and followed that with conference wins against Rice and Navy. Smooth sailing, right? But then the Bulls were torched for 56 points each in consecutive games against UAB and Florida Atlantic.

The memory of that stretch is fresh in Golesh’s mind as his team prepares for Southern Mississippi.

What will it be?

The first 54 minutes against Alabama, you couldn’t have asked for more.

And then?

A meltdown that allowed Alabama three touchdowns in the last six minutes to turn a one-score game into a deceiving 42-16 runaway.

“Like the worst crap you ever imagine,” Golesh said. “Makes you sick. You want to throw up. But then, the 54 minutes were really good. We’ve got to replicate the 54 and then finish.”

Do that often enough and the Bulls can win a championship, maybe even qualify for the College Football Playoff. 

By the way, the never-ending rumors about conference realignment are surfacing again. I share this out of a sense of duty.

Radio host Greg Swaim wrote that the Big 12 might expand to 24 teams (should the conference be the Big 12x2) by adding Washington State, Oregon State, and six ACC teams. Florida State and Clemson would be in that group, with four other schools from that conference.  He was a little fuzzy about who those schools might be.

Out of that came a rumor that USF could join Memphis, Tulane, Wazzu, Oregon State, and UConn in a revamped ACC, provided North Carolina and Louisville leave for, oh, wherever.

This is all contingent on FSU and Clemson extracting themselves from the ACC, so we're all just guessing until their legal wranglings conclude.

My head started hurting.

That’s when I went full stop on this stuff. Do you want to know why? 

Because conference clickbait was fine in the summer when things were slow, but we’ve got actual games to discuss now. And if the Bulls can consistently play the last six minutes like the first 54, those rumors will take care of themselves.