Up 27-13 at the half, USF led by 13 with 4:36 to play before the Tigers rallied to their school record 13th straight home victory.
Spencer Shrader made four field goals from 40-plus yards out; quarterback Noah Johnson threw two TD passes in his first start as a Bull.
MEMPHIS, Tenn., NOV. 7, 2020 – Boosted by a 27-point first half, USF pulled ahead by 13 late in the fourth quarter before Memphis handed the Bulls a heartbreaking 34-33 loss with a late touchdown Saturday at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
Spencer Shrader’s fourth field goal from at least 40 yards out spotted USF (1-6, 0-5 in AAC) a 33-20 advantage with 4:36 to play. Senior Brady White threw two touchdown passes down the stretch as Memphis (4-2, 3-2 in AAC) escaped with a school record 13th consecutive home victory.
Shrader (Lithia, Fla.) had a career day in the kicking game, going 4-for-4 on field goal attempts covering distances of 49, 47, 41 and 46 yards. Shrader became the first USF kicker with four field goals in a game since Emilio Nadelman in 2017 and two of the sophomore’s connections helped the Bulls build a 27-13 halftime lead.
USF also got a strong performance from quarterback Noah Johnson (Tampa) who completed 20 of 29 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns as he went the distance in his first start as a Bull.
Running back Kelley Joiner Jr. (Clermont, Fla.) took a Johnson pass 75 yards for a touchdown in the Bulls’ 24-point surge in the second quarter and had a career high 78 receiving yards on three catches. Freshman back Brian Battie (Sarasota) led all rushers with a career high 76 yards on 10 carries (7.6 ypc).
While the offense caught fire early, cornerback Daquan Evans (Orlando) increased his interception streak to three consecutive games and returned his pick of White for a 51-yard touchdown in the second quarter as USF seized a 13-6 lead.
After making the most of a long bye week, USF roared out of the gates with 24 points in the second quarter and built a 27-13 lead by the break. Johnson pair of TD passes and Evans’s pick-six highlighted the Bulls’ highest scoring first half since a 35-point outburst at ECU on Oct. 26, 2019.
USF’s defense stepped up right away when Antonio Grier (Atlanta) stopped Rodrigues Clark at the line of scrimmage as Memphis went for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 34 on the game’s opening drive. Grier finished with a game-high 10 tackles (seven solo) and the Bulls held Memphis to 0-3 on fourth down in the first half with some big stops.
Shrader gave the Bulls an early lead with a career long 49-yard field goal less than three minutes into the action. It marked USF’s longest field goal since Nadelman’s 51-yarder against UConn in 2017.
Memphis responded with a pair of field goals before Shrader split the uprights again from 47 yards to tie things up at 6-6 in the first minute of the second quarter. USF’s offense converted twice on third-down situations with passes by Johnson on the 11-play, 46-yard scoring drive.
USF went ahead on the ensuing drive when Evans jumped a route and returned an interception 51 yards for a touchdown. Now with four career interceptions, Evans had a 52-yard return on his first pick as a Bull against Memphis last season.
Memphis pulled even again with a 65-yard touchdown pass on the next drive, but the explosive Bulls needed just one offensive play to retake the lead. Johnson found Joiner in the seam with 11:24 remaining in the half and 75 yards later it was Joiner’s first career scoring catch on USF’s longest touchdown pass since Chris Oladokun’s 72-yard connection with Ryeshene Bronson at Cincinnati on Nov. 10, 2018.
Trying to answer back quickly, Memphis got stopped again on fourth down at the USF 36 and the Bulls took advantage. Seven plays later, Johnson capped off a 63-yard series with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell Brinkman (Council Bluffs, Iowa) that helped extend the advantage to 27-13 with 3:52 to go in the second quarter.
USF preserved the 14-point lead just before the break by stopping Memphis on fourth down for the third time in the half. This time, the Bulls held strong from their own 3 and forced an incomplete pass in the end zone.
Shrader improved to 3-for-3 on field goal attempts with a 41-yarder late in the third quarter that gave the Bulls a 30-20 lead they took into the fourth.
Freshman Tramel Logan (Miami) made a crucial play by stalling a Memphis drive with a sack deep in Tigers territory near the midpoint of the final quarter. Shrader added his fourth field goal of the day from 46 yards out with 4:36 to play.
Memphis cut its deficit to 33-27 with 3:19 remaining and got the ball back again with 2:23 to play and 76 yards from the end zone. White’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Austin in the corner of the endzone and the extra point gave the Tigers the winning margin with 1:03 remaining.
USF made its final push to get into scoring range late, but Joiner’s potential first-down run on fourth-and-7 from the Bulls’ 26 was called short after an official review.
Key Stats
27 – USF seized the momentum with a 27-point first half and scored 24 points in the second quarter.
14 – Memphis escaped with the win by scoring 14 straight points after USF took a 33-20 lead with 4:36 remaining.
4-for-4 – Spencer Shrader made all four of his field-goal attempts from 49, 47, 41 and 46 yards out.
Notables
· USF’s 27 points before the break marked the program’s highest scoring first half since a 35-point outburst at ECU on Oct. 26, 2019.
· Spencer Shrader set a career high with four made field goals, going 4-for-4 with kicks from 49, 47, 41 and 46 yards out. Shrader is the first USF kicker to make four field goals in a game since Emilio Nadelman in 2017.
· CB Daquan Evans recorded an interception for the third straight game and returned a Brady White pass 51 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter. During his pick streak, Evans has returned intercepted passes for 56, 31 and 51 yards. Evans now has four career interceptions and had a 52-yard return on his first pick as a Bull against Memphis last season.
· Noah Johnson’s 75-yard scoring strike to Kelley Joiner in the second quarter was USF’s longest touchdown pass since Chris Oladokun’s 72-yard connection with Ryeshene Bronson at Cincinnati on Nov. 10, 2018.
Quotable
Head coach Jeff Scott on the Bulls’ all-out effort in the heartbreaking loss:
“I’m obviously not happy with the result, the way that it ended, but I do have to say I’m really proud of our players. I really felt like we played our best game for three-and-a-half quarters. For all the adversity that we’ve already had early in the year, these last two weeks were kind of a gut check for everybody in our locker room to figure out how we’re gonna finish these last four games. I couldn’t have been more proud of how our guys played the first three-and-a-half quarters. Obviously, we’re a little bit thin at a couple positions and our lack of depth kind of caught up with us there at the end. But our guys laid it on the line. (We) scored 27 points in the first half, which is the best we’ve done this year. Spencer Shrader had four field goals over 40 yards that could have been the difference right there. A lot of positives, but at the end of the day we just got out-executed in the fourth quarter. They had a lot to do with that. Their quarterback, a fifth-year senior, we knew it going in, a very talented young man. I think we just got tired at the end, couldn’t get to him and gave him too much time. You do that to a good quarterback like that, it’s gonna be difficult. Hey, this is a time of adversity. I wanted this win for our players so bad because of the uncommon way that they’ve responded to the start to our season… We’re gonna build off the positives that we saw today and we’ll learn from the issues there at the end. Hopefully, we’ll find ourselves in a similar situation and be able to finish it here in one of these last games.”
Up Next
USF wraps up its two-game road trip with another conference test at Houston on Saturday, Nov. 14. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. (TV: ESPN+).
The Bulls return to Raymond James Stadium to host Navy on Saturday, Nov. 21 (kickoff time TBA). Purchase tickets to USF’s Salute to Service game against the Midshipmen HERE or by calling 1-800-Go-Bulls.
About USF Football
The USF football program first took the field in 1997 and completed its 23rd season (20th at the FBS level) in 2019. The Bulls have posted 15 winning seasons, earned 14 All-America selections and 29 first-team all-conference selections and has seen 30 players selected in the NFL Draft. USF has made 10 bowl games appearances (going 6-4 in those games) and posted a program record six straight appearances from 2005-2010. The Bulls most recently made four straight bowl appearances from 2015-18 and posted back-to-back 10-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, logging a program-record 11-2 mark in 2016 while finishing both seasons ranked in the Top 25. USF spent a program record 20 straight weeks ranked in the Top 25 during the 2016 and 2017 seasons and reached as high as No. 2 in the national rankings during the 2007 season.
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