The University of South Florida and No. 13 University of Florida football teams are undefeated heading into Week 2, but the two schools arrived there in different fashion.
The pair of Sunshine State programs will meet Saturday afternoon in Gainesville, Fla. for the fourth time ever, with Florida having won all three matchups.
The Gators did what they were supposed to Saturday night in the Swamp: Thrash visiting Long Island University thoroughly, which they did 55-0 in a game that featured quarterback DJ Lagway tossing three touchdown passes and backup Tramell Jones Jr. adding two.
Florida held advantages of 28-2 in first downs and 451-86 in total yardage against the FCS school.
On offense, 15 Gators caught passes from Lagway and Jones, and while Eugene Wilson III’s numbers were miniscule — five receptions for minus-4 yards and a TD — the wide receiver was happy to be back after hip surgery.
“Whenever I feel like I’m kind of going into a dark space or a quiet spot, I always just kind of lean on my dad,” Wilson said of his father Eugene Wilson Jr., who won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. “He’s always going to keep my head straight and make sure I ain’t fall in too deep.”
A 5 1/2-point underdog at home last Thursday in its season-opener against then-No. 25 Boise State, USF stunned the Broncos by spotting them a first-quarter touchdown, then steamrolled them with 34 unanswered points in a rousing 34-7 victory.
“It’s a good, really, really good football team, and I’m impressed with the film of week one,” Florida coach Billy Napier said of the cross-state foe. “Obviously, Boise is a very well-established playoff team, and for (USF) to dominate the game and have control of the game from the jump, I thought it was (an) impressive start to the season.”
Senior quarterback Byrum Brown played a strong game, going 16 for 24 for 210 yards and rushing for 43 yards on 14 carries. Tennessee transfer receiver Chas Nimrod had 96 receiving yards while Keshaun Singleton posted 93 and a TD.
While the offensive production difference in yardage was just six — Boise State’s 378, the Bulls’ 372 — the home side limited the Broncos’ vaunted ground game (38 carries for 122 yards, 3.2 per rush) and forced and recovered three fumbles.
A 6-foot-3, 231-pound senior from Raleigh, N.C., Brown went to coach Alex Golesh and asked to carry the ball after a couple of fruitless drives early on.
“I give Byrum a lot of credit, because he came over and said, ‘Coaches, run me a little bit.’ Then I watched him put his shoulder down twice,” said Golesh, who is 15-12 in his third season coaching the Tampa team. “I was like, ‘Man, yeah, he’s got it.’ Got into a groove. I think he felt really good.”
The Bulls will need much more of that effort Saturday in the late afternoon start.
They are 0-3 against the Gators, though the most recent encounter on Sept. 17, 2022, was the tightest.
USF kicker Spencer Shrader missed a game-tying 49-yard field goal with 23 seconds left as the Gators and quarterback Anthony Richardson edged the visiting Bulls 31-28 in what was almost a disastrous second-half collapse for the SEC school.