South Florida's postseason hopes were essentially wiped out Saturday as the Bulls fell behind early and could never catch up to Navy, which used a flood of explosive plays in a 41-38 American Conference victory.
The Bulls (7-3, 4-2 in the American) came into the game in control of their destiny. They were ranked 24th by the College Football Playoff committee and projected as the 12th seed in the postseason bracket. But with three losses, that door is likely closed.
With two conference defeats, USF also lost ground for reaching the American championship game.
“To go and play on the road against a really good football team in conference, you’ve got to play great football. At times we did, at times we didn’t,” USF coach Alex Golesh said. “We got outplayed at some critical times.”
The Midshipmen (8-2, 6-1) used chunk plays throughout to maintain control of the contest, then put it away on a pair of runs by backup quarterback Braxton Woodson, playing in relief of a banged up Blake Horvath.
The Bulls rallied with 22 points in the fourth quarter but were never able to keep the Midshipmen's multifaceted triple-option offense under control.
"It hurts in a lot of ways," Golesh said. "That's on me. I own it, and I will certainly be better."
USF fell into a hole early as Navy's offense delivered "a series of explosive plays that we've got to be able to contain," Golesh said.
Alex Tecza, who carried 12 times for 126 yards, opened the scoring with a 76-yard run through the middle of the Bulls' defense. USF answered with a seven-play, 77-yard drive that ended with Nico Gramatica's 22-yard field goal.
Eli Heidenreich then made a one-handed catch on a deep throw from Horvath to move Navy 82 yards to the USF 4-yard line. Brandon Chatman scored on the next play to make 14-3.
The Midshipmen led 24-9 at the half. Helping their cause was stopping a fourth-and-1 handoff to 6-foot-5, 335-pound offensive lineman Cole Skinner at the Navy 31.
"That was a huge critical play in the game," Golesh said.
In the second half, USF tightened the gap to 27-24 on a pair of runs by quarterback Byrum Brown, including a 60-yard dash with 13:59 left in the game.
But Heidenreich's 32-yard catch from Woodson keyed an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive that ended with Woodson's 20-yard scoring run to make it 34-24 with 9:29 left.
On Navy's next possession, Woodson ran 64 yards for the Midshipmen's third play of 60 or more yards to make it 41-30.
"That kind of was the play that put it over the top where you just you needed one more stop to where you can get ahead, and you were just you playing from behind the whole time to where you're down three," Golesh said. "We just couldn't get it done."
On his last run, Woodson ran 9 yards to pick up a crucial first down and virtually seal the win.
"For the most part, I thought we were containing it," Golesh said of Navy's explosiveness. "They're going to keep on you until they find a way to break one."
Brown threw for 327 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 136 yards and two more scores for South Florida. With 2,530 yards in the air and 841 on the ground, the senior moved closer to becoming the 12th player in FBS history to post a 3,000/1,000 season.
Heidenreich caught five passes for 146 yards and became Navy's all-time receiving yards leader.
The CFP gives automatic bids to the five highest-ranked conference champions. If any of those champions falls outside of the top 12, they will be seeded at the bottom of the 12-team bracket. That's where USF found itself going into Saturday.
There are scenarios that could get the Bulls into the postseason, but they would need lots of help. ESPN analytics dropped their chances of reaching the CFP from 46% to 2%.
USF closes against Alabama-Birmingam (3-7, 1-5) away this Saturday and Rice (5-5, 2-4) at home Nov. 29, so the potential for a nine-win season and 6-2 conference mark is there.
"We will be back in this spot as a program again," Golesh said. "We work really hard to play meaningful games in November."
Meantime, Navy's prospects of reaching the American title game and, perhaps even the Group of 5 bid to the CFP, increased significantly. USF's loss also helped the CFP chances for G5s North Texas and Tulane of the American and James Madison of the Sun Belt Conference.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
