The South Florida Bulls are back in the national college football discussion, earning spots Sunday in the Associated Press Top 25 and US LBM Coaches Poll for the first time since 2018.
The Bulls are 18th, in voting by AP's sportswriters poll, and 23rd among the coaches.
The rankings follow an upset 18-16 victory at then-No. 13 Florida on Saturday and a dominant season-opening 34-7 win over No. 25 Boise State the week before.
With the 2-0 start against ranked teams, the Bulls are emerging as the class of the Group of Five conferences, although coach Alex Golesh will point out the season is very young.
“I'd love to be in that conversation in January. I think that would mean something,” Golesh said after the last-second win at Gainesville.
Golesh has preached that rebuilding the program ― which faced five difficult seasons before his arrival in 2023 ― is all about the process. Getting players to buy in has been key.
“I told the guys last week ― and I truly believe this ― there's going to be so many people that are going to tell them how good they are now, how good we are, how good I am. When you're process-driven, you just go right back to work.
“I think when you buy into a process, and you buy into working extremely hard at something without worrying about the end result, I think it allows you to have peace with your daily life.”
This Saturday at 4:30 p.m., the Bulls face another major test as they travel to face Miami, ranked fifth by AP. What was unexpected before the season is that this is now a matchup between two ranked teams. USF has a chance to become the fifth team — and the first since the 1987 Hurricanes — to start a season with three wins over ranked opponents.
Afterward, USF returns home to face South Carolina State, which plays in the Football Championship Subdivision. The team's American Conference schedule follows, beginning Oct. 3 against Charlotte. The Bulls have never won a conference title.
“These last two weeks, there was like great, great games, but we're not worried about that now. We worried about Miami and next week and a week after that,” said junior Keshaun Singleton, whose 66-yard touchdown reception put USF ahead 13-9 in third quarter on Saturday.
USF, which earned 444 points from AP’s panel, is eight spots higher than last week, when it was among teams “also receiving votes.” In the coaches vote, the Bulls jumped 16 spots.
The Bulls have their first AP Top 25 ranking since 2018 under coach Charlie Strong. Jim Leavitt had the 2008 team as high as No. 10, and his 2007 team spent three straight weeks in the top 10 and was No. 2 after a 6-0 start.
“I think there's still so much to play for,” Golesh said. “There's still so much ahead of us that we got to do as a program.”
The AP poll also saw movement at the top.
Ohio State remained No. 1 after a 70-0 rout of Grambling, collecting 57 of 65 first-place votes. Penn State received five, LSU two, and No. 4 Oregon one, flipping spots with Georgia, which fell to No. 6 after a lackluster win over FCS opponent Austin Peay. Miami remained at No. 5.
Rounding out the top 10 were Texas, Notre Dame, Illinois, and Florida State, with the latter two making their first top 10 appearances of the season.
FSU, up four spots to 10th, has its highest ranking since it was No. 10 in the 2024 preseason poll.
Florida dropped out of both Top 25s after Saturday’s loss to the Bulls.
Week 3 AP Top 25
(First-place votes in parentheses)
1. Ohio State (57)
2. Penn State (5)
3. LSU (2)
4. Oregon (1)
5. Miami
6. Georgia
7. Texas
8. Notre Dame
9. Illinois
10. Florida State
11. South Carolina
12. Clemson
13. Oklahoma
14. Iowa State
15. Tennessee
16. Texas A&M
17. Ole Miss
18. USF
19. Alabama
20. Utah
21. Texas Tech
22. Indiana
23. Michigan
24. Auburn
25. Missouri
Week 3 US LBM Coaches Poll
- Ohio State (62)
- Penn State (4)
- Georgia (0)
- LSU (1)
- Oregon (0)
- Miami (FL) (0)
- Texas (0)
- Notre Dame (0)
- Illinois (0)
- South Carolina (0)
- Clemson (0)
- Florida State (0)
- Ole Miss (0)
- Iowa State (0)
- Tennessee (0)
- Oklahoma (0)
- Texas A&M (0)
- Alabama (0)
- Indiana (0)
- Texas Tech (0)
- Utah (0)
- Michigan (0)
- South Florida (0)
- Arizona State (0)
- BYU (0)
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
