Ahoy from Tampa Bay! Reina Valdés-Kowalski here, writing from a bench on Bayshore Boulevard with my Gasparilla beads still on from last January, because a true Tampa pirate never fully takes them off. I grade every USF game on one scale. Is it Pirate-approved, or does it walk the plank?
This week: a homecoming win that was half treasure and half shipwreck, an honest open week, and a Halloween visit from UAB. Hoist the colors.
Part 1: South Florida 29, Kent State 2
On Oct. 17 at Raymond James Stadium, USF beat Kent State 29-2 in front of an announced homecoming crowd of 31,384, and it snapped a two-game losing streak. The defense? Pirate-approved. The first-half offense? Let's talk.
Here's the treasure. Late in the first quarter, Kent State drove 77 yards in 14 plays, got stopped on downs at the 3, and then tackled D.J. Crowther in the end zone for a safety. So the Golden Flashes led 2-0. Then, in the second quarter, Kent State drove inside our 1 and tried a quarterback sneak on third-and-goal. Dru DeShields mishandled the snap, and defensive end C.J. Hicks scooped it up and ran 96 yards for a touchdown. Per WUSF, that was a school-record fumble return. Ninety-six yards, mateys. That's not a play. That's a voyage.
Nico Gramatica hit a 49-yard field goal with five seconds left in the half for a 10-2 lead. In the third quarter, backup quarterback Luke Kromenhoek capped a 15-play, 73-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown. In the fourth, Michael Van Buren Jr. hit Cameron Seldon for a 36-yard touchdown. Gramatica added a 33-yarder, and the defense got a safety of its own with 11 seconds left.
The defense held Kent State to 228 yards and 1.8 yards per carry, and the Golden Flashes failed on all four of their fourth-down tries. Per WUSF, they had 31 yards of offense in the second half. Michael Williams II had a sack and a half. Van Buren went 22 of 27 for 193 yards.
Now the shipwreck part, and I'll be honest, because pirates keep a true log. Per WUSF, USF had only 107 yards of offense in the first half, and for the fourth straight game, the Bulls didn't score an offensive touchdown before halftime. USF finished with 271 yards and 78 rushing yards on 32 carries, against a Kent State defense that, WUSF noted, came in allowing 379 yards per game. That's not Pirate-approved. That walks the plank.
Overall, USF is 5-2 and 1-2 in the American. The Bulls beat Florida International 19-9, won 28-24 at Army, beat Delaware State 59-17, won 14-6 at Bowling Green, then lost 17-13 to Temple and 31-24 at UTSA before the Kent State win.
The Open Week
USF does not play this Saturday, Oct. 24. It's an open week. Drop anchor, mend the sails and find a first-half offense somewhere in the hold.
And honestly, the timing is good. USF has played seven straight weeks, including a Thursday road trip to UTSA on Oct. 8. A two-week gap gives this crew time to heal up and to look hard at why the offense keeps waking up only after halftime. Four straight games without a first-half offensive touchdown isn't bad luck, mateys. It's a pattern, and patterns can be fixed.
Part 2: UAB at South Florida, Saturday, Oct. 31
Next up: UAB (4-3, 2-1 American) at Raymond James Stadium on Halloween. ESPN lists the kickoff time as to be announced, so I won't guess.
Our Crew
Per ESPN's season numbers, the USF defense allows just 15.1 points per game. That's the treasure chest of this team. Van Buren has thrown for 1,266 yards and six touchdowns, completing 64.2 percent. Crowther leads the run game with 518 yards and seven touchdowns. Bryson Rodgers has 30 catches for 334 yards. USF scores 26.6 points per game.
Their Crew
UAB is coming off a 30-17 overtime win over East Carolina on Oct. 15, a comeback after trailing 14-0. Ryder Burton led a 93-yard drive in the final minutes to tie it, then threw the overtime touchdown, and Delvon Gulley sealed it with an 80-yard interception return. Credit where it's due.
Burton has 1,184 passing yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions, completing 54.5 percent. Rod Robinson II has 436 rushing yards, and CJ Smith has 19 catches for 350 yards. UAB's pass defense is stingy, allowing 126.0 yards per game, so this will be a ground war. And there, UAB is vulnerable: it allows 190.6 rushing yards per game. Crowther, sharpen your cutlass.
UAB's record has some barnacles, too. It lost 42-23 at Illinois, 21-14 at Louisiana and 38-13 at Memphis, and its wins came against UL Monroe, Navy, Samford and ECU, the Samford one being an FCS team. Five interceptions from the starting quarterback. Our defense will be waiting, matey.
The Series
CollegeFootballData.com lists USF ahead 3-2. UAB won 22-19 in Tampa in 2003, USF won 45-20 at Legion Field in 2004, UAB won 56-35 in Birmingham in 2023, USF won 35-25 in Tampa in 2024, and USF won 48-18 at Protective Stadium last season. Two in a row. Let's make it three.
Town Report: Tampa vs. Birmingham
Tampa. Tampa had 403,364 people at the 2020 census, and the Tampa Bay metro area is the second-largest in Florida. Every year since 1904, with a few exceptions, Tampa has held the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, a friendly "invasion" by the crew of the mythical pirate José Gaspar. The crew sails across Tampa Bay on the Jose Gasparilla II, a 137-foot replica pirate ship, with hundreds of boats and a barrage of mini-cannons, and then there's a parade. A whole city that dresses like pirates on purpose. Pirate-approved.
Bayshore Boulevard has a six-mile continuous sidewalk, which Wikipedia calls the longest in the world. Ybor City is a National Historic Landmark district, built around the cigar factories that jump-started Tampa's growth in the 1880s. And our stadium, Raymond James, opened in 1998 with a replica pirate ship in the north end zone. We play college football next to a pirate ship. Beat that.
And the area has earned a nickname lately. After the Buccaneers won a Super Bowl at home and the Lightning won the 2021 Stanley Cup, Wikipedia says the region got called "Champa Bay." Champions, pirates and the world's longest sidewalk. Not bad for one bay.
Birmingham. Birmingham is a historic city, nicknamed "The Magic City" for its rapid industrial growth from 1881 to 1920, and it's home to the Vulcan statue, the largest cast iron statue in the world. I respect a city with a giant iron god on a hill. Truly.
But per Wikipedia, after the 2020 census, Birmingham lost its long-standing status as Alabama's largest city. Huntsville passed it. Huntsville! The Magic City got out-magicked by Huntsville. In Tampa, we didn't lose anything. We just keep adding pirates.
Final Plank
Here's the treasure map for Halloween. Score in the first half, for once. Run Crowther at a run defense that allows 190 yards per game. Let the defense hunt Burton, who's thrown five interceptions. And don't let UAB hang around, because the Blazers proved against ECU that they can come back.
Hoist the colors, Bulls. Pirate-approved.