WIth the athletic year winding down at USF, we're taking look at some of the highs and lows of the 2025-26 season for Bulls athletics.
Earlier, we focused on the top three news stories for USF athletics. Then we looked back at the five most memorable games for the green and gold.
Today, we look at the other side of the coin. Here are the five most disappointing games for the Bulls.
The first one is obvious.
Bulls squander fourth-quarter lead at Memphis. The Tigers have long been keyptonite for USF. They have beaten the Bulls five straight times and eight of the last nine meetings. But last October 25, playing at Memphis, it looked like USF was going to break the curse after Sam Franklin ran for a 73-yard touchdown at the end of the third quarter..
That gave the Bulls, who came into the game ranked 18th in the country and undefeated in the American Conference, a 14-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
However, two bad things happened.
The defense, which had played well for three quarters, was scorched when it mattered most. The Tigers had 13 first downs in the final 15 minutes, had 226 total yards, and kept the for about 11 minutes.
The other bad thing was that the Bulls offense stayed in attack mode, but the closest they came to scoring was a 52-yard field goal attempt by Nico Gramatica with three seconds to play.
It was no good, and Memphis secured a 34-31 victory.
The Bulls fell out of the Associated Press poil the following week.
Navy runs over USF -- literally. Incredibly, even after the loss at Memphis the Bulls could still make the College Football Playoff if they won their final three regular seasons games and the conference championship.
That quest started on November 15 at Navy.
Heading into the game, USF knew it had to control the Midshipmen's lethal ground attack. But knowing that and actually doing it are two different things, as the Bulls ruefully discovered in Navy's 41-38 victory..
Navy carved up the Bulls' rush defense for 338 total yards and four touchdowns, including two in the fourth by backup quarterback Braxton Woodson on runs of 20 and 64 yards. It was enough to negate an outstanding performance by USF's Byrum Brown, who threw for 327 yards and two TDs while rushing for 136 yards and two more scores.
Women's lacrosse routed in conference title game.By any stretch, the second season of lacrosse at USF was a rollicking success. The Bulls won 12 games and were the regular-seasoh conference champions.
USF entered the conference tournament championship game ranked 14th in RPI, but the Bulls had to beat James Madison to take a bid to the NCAA tournament out of the selection committee's hands.
The Bulls had beaten the Dukes in the regular season, and the game started well when Sofia Chepenik put them up 1-0 exactly one minute into the game. But after falling behind 2-1, JMU scored five straight goals to take a lead it would never relinquish.
Still, the game was within reach midway through the second as the Bulls trailed by three, but the Dukes scored the next six goals and pulled away to a dominating 17-7 victory.
Even with that loss, the Bulls were still 17th in RPI. No team rated that high had ever been left out of the NCAA tournament since the field was expanded.
But, well, you know what happened. The committee overlooked everything USF had accomplished this season and left the Bulls out of the field.
The case is clear: USF women's lacrosse belongs in the NCAA Tournament đź”˝https://t.co/KfGX9FZKiB
— USF Women's Lacrosse (@USFWLAX) May 2, 2026
Women's basketball gets doubled up (and then some). USF traditionally plays a challenging non-conference schedule designed to toughen the Bulls up for conference play. In 2025, USF played three teams that had been in the Final Four the previous season.
The slate included UCLA (which won the national title this season), UConn (the defending national champ), and South Carolina.
UCLA beat the Bulls by 33 points. UConn won by 34.
That's not good, of course, but it's about what you'd expect those teams to do.
But those two losses looked like nailbiters compared to the 103-44 faceplant USF took at home against the Gamecocks. Making things worse (as if they could be), the game was on national television via ESPN2.
"I really don't know what to say. We played this tough schedule. We played UCLA, we played UConn, we played Vandy, and now we played South Carolina. This was the first game I thought that we sort of got frustrated and gave up a little bit," USF interim head coach Michele Woods-Baxter said afterward.
The Gamecocks, with only nine healthy players, outscored USF 51-19 in the second half.
The Bulls regrouped and finished with 20 wins, but CEO of Athletics Rob Higgins went outside the program and hired Alabama's Kristy Curry as the new head coach instead of elevating Woods-Baxter.
Baseball falters in a must-win game.
The Bulls were in desperation mode as they visited Tulane for their final road trip of the season. They needed to take at least two out of three to maintain a reasonable path to qualify for the conference tournament.
After splitting the first two games, USF fell behind early against the Green Wave in Sunday's pivotal contest. The Bulls were down by three entering the top of the seventh but rallied to tie the score.
Looking good, right?
Wrong.
Tulane answered with a pair of three-run innings and took a 9-5 win.
The loss proved as crushing as it was predicted to be when USF missed qualifying for the tournament by one game.
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