Byrum Brown threw three touchdown passes and rushed for a score as No. 19 South Florida racked up 522 yards of offense in a 48-13 homecoming victory over Florida Atlantic on Saturday night.
The Bulls scored the final 27 points to turn a 21-13 lead into a blowout.
USF (6-1, 3-0) joins Tulane and Navy as the only teams with an undefeated American Conference record. The Bulls will travel to No. 22 Memphis (6-1, 2-1) next weekend for an important conference game after the Tigers were upset earlier in the day by Alabama-Birmingham.
"As complete for us a game from the beginning to the very end that we've played, just in terms of the ups and downs but just continuing to play and play," Bulls coach Alex Golesh said. "There was so much in terms of mistakes, in terms of nonexecution on really all three sides of the ball. But we just kept answering the bell."
Brown completed 14 of 24 for 256 yards and ran for 111 yards and a touchdown.
American Standings
| School | Conf | All |
|---|---|---|
| Navy | 4-0 | 6-0 |
| USF | 3-0 | 6-1 |
| Tulane | 3-0 | 6-1 |
| Memphis | 2-1 | 6-1 |
| North Texas | 2-1 | 6-1 |
| East Carolina | 2-1 | 4-3 |
| Temple | 2-1 | 4-3 |
| Florida Atlantic | 2-2 | 3-4 |
| Army | 2-3 | 3-4 |
| UTSA | 1-2 | 3-4 |
| Rice | 1-3 | 3-4 |
| UAB | 1-3 | 3-4 |
| Tulsa | 0-4 | 2-5 |
| Charlotte | 0-4 | 1-6 |
"Byron continues to be a force that's really hard to stop," Golesh said. "He's as special of a player as there is in the country."
USF, which got touchdown receptions from Jeremiah Koger, Jonathan Echols and Wyatt Sullivan, has won four straight, and scored more than 40 points in each of those games.
USF's Nykahi Davenport rushed for 71 yards and a touchdown. Koger had four catches for 90 yards.
Owls quarterback Caden Vetkamp completed 35 of 50 for 244 yards with a touchdown pass and an interception. Assad Wassem had eight catches for 56 yards.
USF held Florida Atlantic to minus-4 rushing yards in the first half and 23 yards for the game, most of which came on the final possession with both teams emptying their bench.
“Making a team one dimensional is huge. We made them pass 50 times and I think we had five sacks,” Golesh said. “Defensively we were really resilient; not perfect, but incredibly resilient. We were able to stop the run and make them attack us through the air.”
With six victories, the Bulls become bowl eligible for the third consecutive season, but Golesh has bigger aspirations. USF is likely to move up a few spots in this week's AP Top 25, while remaining in contention for a non-power-conference berth in the College Football Playoff.
“I guess we became bowl eligible tonight and I don’t know if a single guy in that locker room gives a heck about that,” Golesh said. “I said two years ago that’s not the standard here. We’ve got to continue to press forward.”
An announced crowd of 45,169 attended the game at Raymond James Stadium, where the Bulls have won five straight by at least 25 points, going back to last season.
"Man, it was awesome," said Golesh. "We had 200 recruits here, we got three official visitors for them to see that entire lower bowl full. ... And the fans being there makes such a huge difference."
Golesh said the attendance included 11,000 USF students.
It was USF's fifth largest homecoming crowd and the largest since 2009, when 49,388 turned out to see a 34-22 victory over Louisville. The Bulls snapped a five-game homecoming losing streak.
Florida Atlantic (3-4, 2-2) had a two-game win streak snapped.
WUSF's Rick Mayer contributed to this report.
