Friday, 3 a.m.
The USF Bulls entered the football season confident in their ability to change the scoreboard.
No, their side of it.
Alas, things haven't gone well for the Bulls for much of the season. South Florida lost a 17-7 game to Temple, giving up nine sacks and managing only 61 yards rushing. The Bulls averaged just 1.6 yards per carry.
It was the fourth game this season when the Bulls have been held to 10 points or fewer, all of them losses.
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“This is a tough one, a hard one to swallow," said USF coach Charlie Strong. "We had opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them. You look at the first drive, we’re driving the football, then end up turning the ball over. We could’ve got a score there and the defense played well up until right before half, giving up the drive where they scored on us. When the opportunity’s there, you have to take advantage of it, and we didn’t take advantage of it. Playing against a good football team, you can’t go out there and make mistakes - every mistake cost us.”
One of the crushing plays came when Temple's Sam Franklin picked up a fumble and ran it 39 yards for a score.
The Bulls trailed only 14-7 going into the final period, but could not score. Jordan McCould hit 23 of 39 passes for 225 yards to account for most of the Bulls' offense.
South Florida will be a decided underdog in its three remaining games against Cincinnati, Memphis and UCF.
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