South Florida gets another chance to steady itself Saturday night when it hosts Kent State in the final homecoming game at Raymond James Stadium, with the Bulls trying to avoid a three-game losing streak. South Florida is 4-2 and comes in off back-to-back losses, but the margin has been thin enough to leave the season hanging on a few plays.
That is why this game is drawing attention now. Four of South Florida's six games have been decided by one score, and the last two losses have come by a combined 11 points. For a team that last dropped three straight games in October 2024, the concern is not just the record. It is whether a close season can keep tilting the wrong way before Saturday night ends.
Michael Van Buren Jr. has been at the center of that push, throwing for 1,073 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions this season. His production has still come with uneven stretches, though, as his completion percentage has fallen to 54.2% over the past two games after sitting at 65% in his first four. Bryson Rodgers has been the most reliable target, leading South Florida with 27 catches and 312 receiving yards.
South Florida's offense has been good enough to put up 26.2 points and 334.8 yards per game, and D.J. Crowther has added a ground threat with more than 450 rushing yards on more than 5 yards per carry, plus seven rushing touchdowns. Even so, Brian Hartline has said the group is still searching for cleaner execution, and the numbers back that up. The Bulls are scoring enough to stay in games, but not consistently enough to finish them off.
The defense has done its part more often than not, allowing only 17.3 points per game, yet the two losses still stacked up anyway. South Florida also has not faced an offense ranked inside the top 50 in scoring offense, so Saturday brings a new kind of test against a Kent State team that is 2-4 and on a two-game losing streak of its own. If the Bulls cannot put together a sharper four quarters, the search for answers will stretch past homecoming and into another long week.
