USF lost 42-16 to Alabama Saturday night with a performance that saw them concede four touchdowns in just the fourth quarter.

Head coach Alex Golesh said the team’s performance in the final quarter got “out of hand.” 

Prior to that, USF kept Alabama (2-0) on its toes for most of the contest. Alabama led USF (1-1) by just one point for a significant portion of the game and gave the ball away to the Bulls on three occasions via fumbles.

“[For] three and a half quarters it was really good,” Golesh said. “We gotta figure out what in the world happened the last six minutes of that game.”

The Bulls lost by a greater margin to Alabama as compared to their clash last year, which ended 17-3. 

Attendance at the Bryant-Denny stadium was the highest ever recorded in Bulls history with 100,077 people in the crowd. The previous highest record in a USF game was 99,235 people when they played Penn State in 2005.

The Bulls started the game on the offensive and looked very much alive. They opened the scoring of the game in the first quarter with a 34-yard field goal from kicker John Cannon, leading Alabama 3-0.

But Alabama shifted the tide just six minutes later with a touchdown from junior quarterback Jalen Milroe.

The USF offense could only manage a field goal in the second quarter. Quarterback Byrum Brown rushed 43 yards in the lead-up to it. 

The Bulls conceded a second touchdown with 3 minutes and 28 seconds left before halftime, bringing the score to 14-6.

Alabama became more careless with the ball beginning in the third quarter, yet South Florida did not capitalize on the opportunities it was given.

USF recovered the ball twice via fumbles from Alabama in the quarter but only took advantage of one occurrence. In one possession, Running back Ta’Ron Keith scored a touchdown, shrinking the Crimson Tide’s lead to one point with a score of 14-13.

Alabama scored its third touchdown around 5 minutes into the fourth quarter with a 16-yard reception by receiver Kobe Prentice. 

The Bulls made it to 4th-and-goal more than halfway into the period, and Golesh made the decision to take home a field goal and make the score 21-16 rather than going for the touchdown. 

The head coach defended this decision by stating that it was the ideal choice to make at that moment in the game.

“I thought you had to go get points there in the drive and make it a one possession game… And I thought it was gonna be hard to chase it with just over five minutes left there,” Golesh said.

Things fell apart for USF in the final six minutes of the game as South Florida struggled to contain the Alabama offense effectively. The Crimson Tide secured another three touchdowns in the span of that time and ended the game 42-16.

Brown’s performance was not his best since becoming the program’s starting quarterback last year. He only completed 15 of his 35 passing attempts and had a total of 103 passing yards against Alabama.

Brown praised the efforts of the USF defense against the Crimson Tide and acknowledged the need for a better performance.

“[The defense] did a tremendous job, we got to execute those opportunities,” Brown said, “I take full blame, I gotta get the offense going.”