South Florida has not been good enough, and head coach Jeff Scott knows it hasn't been good enough.
The Bulls are off to a 1-4 start this season, the one win coming against FCS Howard. In 26 games under Scott, the Bulls have won four -- over Howard, Florida A&M and Temple (2021), and The Citadel (2020).
Scott knows the results haven't been good enough, but most of the reasons for his 4-21 mark are factors out of his control. Among them: repeated churn in the head coach's chair, the AD's office and the president's mansion that put USF behind its peers; facility infrastructure that is only now beginning to get to a competitive level in the American; a non-conference schedule, set years ago, that was too difficult for the 2022 Bulls; and a run of injuries that would change the outlook on any team's season.
All quotes via the Tampa Bay Times:
“Nobody likes where we are,” Scott said, “but we’re not going to get to where we want to go just by continuing to push reset.”
“Not making excuses, but it is reality,” Scott said. “If our non-conference schedule, which was determined five years ago … if it was a little bit different than it is right now, we’re 3-2 and everybody’s high-fiving and feeling great.”
“We’re not a good enough team — I don’t know if anybody’s a good enough team — to take 11 starters off your team (and win),” Scott said.
“This is not a program that you can just come in two years and change a few things, and all of a sudden you’re winning 11 games,” Scott said.
South Florida faced BYU, Howard, Florida and Louisville in non-conference play. Oddly, the Bulls' best performance was against Florida; trailing 31-28, USF drove to the UF 19-yard line in the final minute before a bad shotgun snap forced a 49-yard field goal try, which itself was doomed by another bad snap.
South Florida followed that game with a 41-3 defeat to Louisville, and then a 48-28 loss to East Carolina on Saturday.
The Bulls visit No. 24 Cincinnati on Saturday, and will likely be underdogs for their remaining six games.
“So what you get is just kind of trying to pick up the pieces a little bit and put them all in place,” Scott said.