USF Bulls: Previewing the 2023 Season

This will be the 26th USF Bulls football season. The program has gone through some tough seasons over the last few years. They welcome a new head coach in Alex Golesh. The Bulls also made an exciting announcement that they will be opening an on-campus stadium in 2026. So, the next couple of years will be the last in Raymond James Stadium. The many things that have been heard are that Golesh is making things positive for the players and staff. The Bulls spring game was cool to see. It featured a different style from most teams. First, there was no score kept. Second, team green was the offense, and team white was the defense. There were many supporters to see the game. USF is coming off a one-win season in 2022. The fans and alumni want to see the team get better.

Coming into the 2023 season they have 13 of the 15 starters returning from last year’s team. There are four on offense, eight on defense, and one on special teams. The season starts in two weeks on September 2nd on the road against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. The experts have come out and said they do not expect the USF Bulls to win very many games. The biggest game as far as opponents is the week three the second home game of the season against the Alabama Crimson Tide. I have heard that Raymond James Stadium is close to being sold out. The fans will be there to support the Bulls and hope to see one of the biggest upsets in college football history. The conference is much easier to win in since UCF Knights, Cincinnati Bearcats, and Houston Cougars left and are now members of the Big 12 conference.

Golesh is the sixth coach for the USF Bulls program. He became the third first-year head coach in the program’s history. Golesh was part of the UCF program before he followed Josh Heupel to the University of Tennessee. There are 50 new players that USF is welcoming including walk-ons. As of right now, there is a quarterback competition going on with Gerry Bohanon, Byrum Brown, Bryce Archie, and Izzy Carter battling for the starter job. Many believe it will come down to Brown and Bohanon. Bohanon got hurt last year and Brown took over and the USF Bulls offense looked good at times. There were many games last year that could have been won and instead of one win, there could have been more. The defense also must do two things better in 2023. That is tackle and get off the field on third downs.

The USF Bulls can win more than one game in 2023. I believe that Alex Golesh has the right guys and hopefully, if given time, he will get his guys to USF. I like what I saw at the spring game. Look for the Bulls to have more of a faster-style offense. That is what Golesh was a part of at UCF and Tennessee. Out of the new 50, he will need some of them to step up and fill the roles that the program lost last year. I think that the new stadium a couple of years away will be a motivation for USF. That will be a recruiting tool that the coaching staff can use. Here’s hoping that USF will win more than one game in 2023.

How do you feel that the USF Bulls will do in 2023? Leave a comment below.

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