The USF football team returned to a sold-out Raymond James Stadium on Saturday, but the No. 13-ranked Florida Gators jumped to an early first-half lead to put a damper on the day as they left their first meeting with the Bulls in Tampa with a 42-20 victory.
A sellout crowd enjoyed a mild September college football Saturday that saw the Bulls rally in the second half after trailing 35-3 at the break. The teams have two games remaining in the current three-game series with the Bulls playing in Gainesville next year and in 2025.
"Thank you to our fans, that was a great environment today," head coach Jeff Scott said. "It was great to see as much green and gold out there in the stands and then, after a very disappointing first half, to see our fans stay and really support our players and our team. It really gives us some good energy.
"There in the second half, our guys came out and fought. I just told our guys, 'we are going to find out a lot about our team in the second half. We played all the way to the last whistle. Bottomline, there is not going to be one player or one coach that is going to quit and give in."
USF was led defensively by safety Vincent Davis who had eight tackles while linebackers Dwayne Boyles, Antonio Grier and Andrew Mims posted seven each. Quarterback Cade Fortin started the game and played the first half, finishing 12-of-18 for 91 yards and an interception. Freshman Timmy McClain started the second half and finished 4-of-10 for 83 yards and ran for 11. Katravis Marsh also led a late touchdown drive and completed a 14-yard pass to tight end Mitchell Brinkman.
Running back Jaren Mangham scored on touchdown runs of one and two yards for USF while rushing for 29 yards. Xavier Weaver led all Bulls in receiving yards for the second game posting 68 yards on two catches and also adding an electrifying 45-yard punt return late in the game.
With UF leading 35-3 at the half, USF got a spark in the third quarter with a pair of interceptions by safeties Mekhi LaPointe and Brock Nichols, both coming of Gators' quarterback Emory Jones. USF held the Gators scoreless on their first four possessions of the half and six of seven overall after receiving a halftime pep talk from All-Pro Tampa Bay Buccaneer and former Bull Jason Pierre-Paul.
The first interception, by LaPointe, was returned 50 yards to the UF 10, and resulted in a field goal following a fumbled snap by McClain, who replaced starter Fortin to begin the second half.
Following the second interception, returned 38 yards, McClain and the Bulls moved 43 yards for a touchdown on a one-yard plunge by Colorado transfer Mangham to cut the lead to 35-13.
After forcing a turnover on downs on the proceeding Gators possession, the Bulls defense made a strong goal-line stand to start the fourth quarter, stymying Florida at the one. McClain took the field and promptly hit Weaver on a 45-yard strike to midfield, but the dive ultimately stalled.
Gator quarterback Anthony Richardson ripped off an 80-yard touchdown run with 10:29 left to play to make it 41-13. Richards ran for 115 yards and passed for 152 and two touchdowns on the day.
USF added a five-play, 27-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter following Weaver's punt return. The drive was capped by Mangham's two-yard plunge.
I think we are going to look back three, four, five weeks from now and say that the second half of this game is where we started to turn the corner," Scott said. "We had a very difficult opening slate. We knew that going in. We are not apologizing for that but we are recognizing that it is a difficult first two game stretch. I'm not sure how many teams open up against two power-five teams back-to-back to open up the season, but we knew that coming in and I wish we could have played a lot better for those eight quarters than we did, but now we have to learn from it and put it behind us. We've still got 10 games to go in the season and I'm still very optimistic that we can make a lot of improvement and show progress here these last ten games."
The Gators took control with a strong first half that saw them log 373 yards of offense and take a 35-3 lead to the locker room. Florida, initially limited to a three-and-out on their first drive by the Bulls defense, put together a 4-play, 63-yard drive on their second possession to take a 7-0 lead.
USF, led by Fortin making his second start, responded with a 17-play, 75-yard drive culminated by a 25-yard field goal by Spencer Shrader. But the Bulls offense stalled after that as their remaining drives in the half ended on downs, a punt, an interception and two punts.
Meanwhile, the Gators struck quickly on big plays. Richardson connected with Jacob Copeland on a 75-yard touchdown pass, the longest against USF in three seasons, to make it 14-3. On the following drive Emory Jones entered at quarterback and hit Xavier Henderson for a 35-hard touchdown strike. Richardson returned on the following drive to connect with Copeland on a 41-yard touchdown strike and then Jones reentered to cap the scoring in the half with a 33-yard gallop to the end zone. Copeland finished with 175 yards and two touchdowns receiving, part of the Gators 666 yards of offense.
USF returns to Raymond James Stadium next Saturday vs. Florida A&M in a 7:00 p.m. kickoff on ESPN+.
