If you defeat enough ranked teams in a row, you will eventually become one.
Such is the case for the South Florida Bulls. South Florida faced a gauntlet schedule to open its season with matchups against No. 25 Boise State and No. 13 Florida at the time of the matchups. The Bulls stampeded through both opponents as underdogs, demolishing the Broncos 34-7 in Tampa and knocking off Florida 18-16 in Gainesville on a walk-off Nico Gramatica field goal.
While the decisive victory over the reigning Mountain
West champs didn’t sway the voters enough to warrant a ranking, Saturday’s result in The Swamp certainly did. South Florida checked into Sunday’s Week 3 AP Poll positioned at No. 18, marking the program’s first ranking since 2018.
No. 18 represents the Bulls’ highest ranking since 2017, when the team rattled off 7-straight victories to launch a successful 10-2 campaign. They are the lone ranked team from the American Conference which has Tulane, Memphis, and Navy in the ‘others receiving votes’ column. South Florida dropped both Boise State and Florida from the rankings during their two-week rampage, but the Bulls still boast one of the strongest résumés in the country.
Prior to the last two weeks, USF hadn’t defeated an AP Top 25 team since 2016, but the Bulls took down consecutive ranked opponents for the first time in program history. The last instance of an unranked team starting a season with two ranked wins was 2012 when Oregon State opened with victories over Wisconsin and UCLA.
Although South Florida handled a difficult portion of its schedule, the Bulls face perhaps their greatest test in Week 3. They’ll take another road trip to battle No. 5 Miami (FL) at Hard Rock Stadium, signifying the Bulls’ first ranked vs. ranked matchup since the 2017 War on I-4 vs. UCF.
