On Saturday evening, South Florida football put the world on notice with an 18-16 win over the Florida Gators on the road to pick up their second straight top 25 win to open up the 2025 season. First, South Florida blew out Boise State in their first game of the season, and on Saturday, the Bulls left fans in the Swamp stunned with a game-winning field goal to cap off what had been a wild, back and forth contest.
With two straight top 25 wins, it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that South Florida itself could be ranked heading into next week, and recently, Bulls head coach Alex Golesh put out a stern warning to the rest of the college football world, while also keeping his own players' egos in check in the process.
“We've got to be able to go handle success,” said Golesh, per Mark Schlabach of ESPN. “We've just got to continue to push forward. This ain't the same old South Florida, my brother.”
Unfortunately for Gators fans, Florida found out the hard way that this 2025 South Florida squad is not to be taken lightly by any means.
An epic start to the season for South Florida
Coming into this season, not many gave South Florida football a chance to do much of anything other than roll over and get blown out by some of their higher ranked opponents. However, the Bulls have made it abundantly clear that they do not share that mindset, first demolishing Boise State to open up the season and put the world on notice, and then beating Florida on the road in what was an epic game down the stretch.
At one point in this game, South Florida was up 15-9 and had all the momentum in the world before the Gators scored a touchdown and took back the lead.
However, in the closing minutes of the game, the Bulls put together a methodical downfield drive, aided by multiple Florida penalties, that ultimately resulted in a chip shot field goal for the win.
Up next, South Florida will look to knock off another highly ranked team when they take on the Miami Hurricanes next week.
