USF football picked to finish fourth in AAC preseason media poll

The USF Bulls were picked to finish fourth in the American Athletic Conference preseason media football poll.

As expected, Memphis was picked to finish first, followed by UTSA and Tulane. The Bulls’ first two conference games this season are at Tulane and home against Memphis. They do not play UTSA.

The fourth-place prediction showed how much respect USF earned last year after the Bulls were predicted to finish 13th in the 14-team league.

The Bulls finished 7-6 overall and 4-4 in the conference, which tied them for fifth place. They finished with a 45-0 win over Syracuse in the Boca Raton Bowl.

Much of the excitement about USF centers around head coach Alex Golesh’s up-tempo offense. Quarterback Byrum Brown ran it to near perfection, setting 12 program records as a redshirt freshman.

His 26 touchdown passes set a single-season USF record, and he became the first Bulls quarterback to pass for more than 3,000 yards. Brown also ran for 11 touchdowns and was the AAC’s Offensive Player of the Week twice.

Memphis received 23 of 30 first-place votes.

UTSA had four votes, Tulane had two, and new conference member Army received one first-place vote.