D.J. Crowther ran for three of South Florida's seven rushing touchdowns and the Bulls sped away in the second half to beat Delaware State 59-17 on Saturday night.
The seven rushing touchdowns were one short of the school record of eight set against Kentucky Wesleyan in 1997 - the USF program's first-ever game 30 years ago.
USF is off to its first 3-0 start since 2018.
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South Florida quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. completed 23 of 32 passes for 300 yards and a touchdown.
Crowther and backup quarterback Luke Kromenhoek ran for two touchdowns each in the first half.
Kromenhoek's second TD came from a yard out on the half's last play about a minute after Delaware State had narrowed the score to 21-17 on Ui Ale's 20-yard pass to Jaylin Terzado.
After the Hornets came up just short of converting a fourth-and-7 early in the second half, the Bulls went 61 yards with Crowther scoring on a 39-yard run for a 35-17 lead. That started a run of four second-half TDs on consecutive possessions.
Crowther finished with 101 of USF's 291 rushing yards on 11 carries.
USF's Joshua Porter, had 106 yards receiving on eight catches.
Ale was 16-of-22 for 249 yards and two scores for Delaware State (2-2), a Championship Subdivision team from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
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The Hornets' Nathan Stewart had 102 yards receiving, most of that coming on a catch-and-run 90-yard TD with 4:47 left in the first quarter.
An announced crowd of 32,345 attended at Raymond James Stadium. The game began about 25 minutes late because of inclement weather.
USF travels to play Bowling Green next Saturday at 5 p.m. The Falcons, of the Mid-American Conference, dropped to 0-3 after losing 55-7 to Iowa State on Saturday.
