The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll came out on Monday, and once again, USF was omitted. It has been that way since the final poll of the 2017 season, when the Bulls checked in at No. 21.
Preseason polls are mostly hokum, but we talk about them anyway because, for the next couple of weeks, there are no games to discuss.
AP’s poll mirrored what ESPN produced last week. USF will face three Top 25 teams in the first three weeks – Boise State (25), Florida (15), and Miami (10).
The Bulls also get two American Conference teams (Memphis and Navy) that received votes. Tulane from the American also received votes, but the Green Wave isn’t on USF’s schedule.
Add it up: That’s five ranked teams, and four of those games are on the road.
At his regular media briefing on Monday, Bulls coach Alex Golesh was asked how often he looked at the AP poll.
What? That old thing?
“I’ve never looked at the AP poll. I know when somebody's ranked because you obviously know you're playing a ranked opponent,” he said.
“But I don't look at it. I don't know what information I would get out of it.”
The last time USF beat a ranked opponent was on October 28, 2016, when they prevailed 52-45 over No. 22 Navy. Since that game, the Bulls are 0-18 against ranked opponents.
Of course, during much of that stretch, the Bulls were overmatched by nearly everyone. We don’t need to go into details, do we?
Oh, OK … a couple of details.
There was much anticipation for the 2022 season opener at home against No. 25 BYU. The Bulls had played the Cougars tough on the road the year before and seemed ready to rejoin the ranks of respectable football teams.
It didn’t last long, however.
BYU’s Puka Nacua ran a jet sweep untouched for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the game. He added another score about five minutes later, and the Cougars led 28-0 after one quarter.
Splat.
There was a 49-0 dismemberment by No. 19 Wisconsin in 2019.
I give you that history lesson to make this point: I’ll be stunned if the Boise State game is anything like those wipeouts. Boise will be favored, and rightly so, but this USF team is deeper and more skilled than their unfortunate predecessors in those other games.
The Hawaii Bowl win over San Jose State was USF’s first under Golesh over a team with a winning record. The game with Boise gives them an opportunity to break that streak against ranked teams. Oh, and about Alex Golesh and the polls, as he left the media conference he turned to Associate AD for Communications Brian Siegrist and said, “Get me a copy of that AP poll.:
He was kidding.
We think.