Byrum Brown accounted for five scores and 24th-ranked South Florida scored four touchdowns over 4½ minutes in a 63-36 blowout of North Texas in an American Conference showdown Friday night.
The Bulls (5-1, 2-0 American) tied it at 21 with 2 seconds left before halftime when Brown threw a 2-yard TD pass to Jonathan Echols to capitalize on a muffed punt. They added three quick scores after halftime, one a 34-yard fumble return by Jhalyn Shuler.
The Mean Green finished with five turnovers, not including the muffed punt. UNT came into game with only three turnovers total and a plus-1.6 turnover margin that was bettered only by Alabama.
UNT redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who never started a varsity game in high school, was 30-for-46 passing for 326 yards and two touchdowns, while also running for a score. He had thrown 11 TD passes without an interception in the first five games before the three picks by the Bulls.
“We came out of the half just rocking, and that’s offense and defense,” USF coach Alex Golesh said. “Defensively, to cause four turnovers against a really good offense, against a really good quarterback that hasn’t turned it over, I thought really intentional by what our guys practiced, what our guys’ mindset was going into the game.”
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The fast-paced Bulls have scored 229 points in their past four games (57.3 per game) this season and have 267 points (53.4 per game) in their last five conference games going back to last season.
Brown completed 22 of 28 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns and ran 21 times for 82 yards and two more scores.
"I thought Byron was super locked in, just super engaged in what was going on," Golesh said "He looked and communicated on the sideline like a veteran quarterback."
It was the second Friday night in a row USF lost two fumbles and threw an interception before halftime and still won by a lopsided score. The Bulls beat Charlotte 54-26 last week.
“Things like that, when you’re playing high-level football, are going to cost you,” Golsesh said. “And the crazy thing is, for the last two weeks, it hasn’t in terms of the wins and losses.”
North Texas (5-1, 1-1) hadn’t gone this deep into a season without a loss since a 5-0 start in 1959, nine years before “Mean” Joe Greene was a unanimous All-American at the school.
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It was the most-hyped game in North Texas history with an announced crowd of 31,386, the first sellout at DATCU Stadium, which opened on the Denton campus in 2011.
USF, which outgained UNT in total yards, 580-423, went ahead to stay with some trickery right after halftime, on receiver Christian Neptune's 29-yard TD pass to Keshaun Singleton after taking a handoff on a sweep.
The Bulls' third interception in the game then set up Sam Franklin's 11-yard TD with 12:35 left in the third quarter, a minute before the big fumble return by Shuler for a 42-21 lead.
The Bulls should remain in the AP Top 25 going into next Saturday’s American Conference game against Florida Atlantic at Raymond James Stadium. Game time is 7:30 p.m., and it’s USF’s homecoming.
