Hartline, Bulls hope to start second-half push against UAB
Through seven games, the word sluggish would be appropriate to describe the majority of USF’s play on the football field.
Brian Hartline is hoping that the bye week can lead to a reinvigorated Bulls football team for the stretch run of the 2026 season.
“I think we did a good job of competing all of last week,” Hartline said about the Bulls during the bye week. “We’re looking forward to attacking these last five games with the right mentality.”
It’s Hartline’s first time preparing for a game after a bye week as a head coach. The Bulls were 2-2 following bye weeks under former head coach Alex Golesh.
USF begins a stretch of five consecutive games against American Conference teams to end the season Saturday against the UAB Blazers on Saturday at noon at Raymond James Stadium, with every game having league-wide consequences; two games separate third place in the American Conference from 11th place. USF and UAB are two of the teams firmly planted in that mix.
“We own our own destiny in our opinion,” Hartline said about the American Conference standings. “It comes down to getting better each week, which is what we’ve been saying the last seven weeks. If we didn’t get better since Week 1, we’re never going to be ready for Week 7, 8 and 9. I think we’ve done that. We’ve definitely done a better job of practicing. We’re just waiting for it to fully flip and the execution to be a little better on game day.”
But a conference championship is very much not in USF's control: Right now both UTSA and North Texas sit at 4-0 in American play, with USF at 1-2.
Setting the Stage for USF
The last season at Raymond James Stadium has not been very friendly confines for the Bulls’ offense in 2026.
USF is averaging 20.3 points per game against FBS opponents at Ray Jay. The Bulls are 2-1 at home because their defense is holding opponents to a stifling 9.3 points per game in those contests.
Overall the Bulls’ offense has been relatively dormant this season. USF ranks 84th in the country in scoring, averaging 26.6 points per game. Take away their 59-point outing against Delaware State (FCS), and the Bulls are at a mere 21.2 points per game.
“I think that our fundamentals and technique have lacked in certain huge opportunities to create massive plays in the game,” Hartline said about the Bulls’ offensive struggles so far this season.
He also mentioned that the coaching staff is “minimizing the calls” and making the playsheet more “concise” moving forward.
Early on, the Bulls’ offense hung its hat on playing clean football. USF had one turnover and 11 penalties combined in its first three games of the season. However, recently that hasn’t been the case. The Bulls have posted three turnovers and 25 penalties in their last four games.
Even with the increased number of mistakes, USF junior quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. still hasn’t thrown an interception. Van Buren is one of five quarterbacks with 100 or more passing attempts without an interception this season. He has only four turnover-worthy plays this season.
But Van Buren has also struggled to create explosive plays this season. He ranks 61st in the country with an average depth of target of 8.6 yards. The Bulls’ explosive pass rate ranks in the 2nd percentile. Van Buren ranks 112th among FBS quarterbacks with just six touchdown passes this season.
Van Buren’s favorite target this season has been senior wide receiver Bryson Rogers, who has 30 catches for 334 yards. Junior wide receiver Josh Porter also has 23 catches for 274 yards this year.
The catalyst for the Bulls’ offense has been graduate running back D.J. Crowther, who has 105 carries for 546 yards and seven rushing touchdowns this season. Crowther ranks second in the country in forced missed tackles with 48 this season. Sixty-seven percent of his yardage has come after contact this season.
USF has the American Conference’s top-ranked scoring defense, allowing just 15.1 points per game this season. That is also the 10th-best mark in the FBS.
“Their defense has really excelled this year,” UAB head coach Alex Mortensen said about the Bulls’ defense this week. “They’ve got a lot of really good players over there, and they do a really good job schematically.”
The Bulls boast the conference’s third-best rushing defense, with opponents running for just 144.1 yards per game despite the Bulls playing three of the American’s top six rushing offenses.
USF has thrived at stopping opponents’ runs at or behind the line of scrimmage. The Bulls rank in the 84th percentile in college football at stopping opponents’ rushes at or behind the line of scrimmage. USF ranks 14th in all of college football, averaging 7.1 tackles for loss per game.
The Bulls have six defenders who have recorded three or more tackles for loss this season. Senior defensive lineman Michael Williams II leads the Bulls with 4.5 tackles for loss and four sacks this season.
USF also boasts the conference’s second-best passing defense, allowing opponents to throw for just 181 yards per game. That ranks 25th in the country. The Bulls’ opponents are completing 62.6% of their passes and totaling just 6.5 yards per attempt this season.
Sophomore cornerback Teddy Foster has been stingy on the outside for the Bulls. Opposing passers have a 36.8% completion rate on the 19 times they have targeted Foster. He’s allowed just five yards after the catch all season.
Setting the Stage for UAB
UAB heads into its game at Raymond James Stadium in a much better spot than it was in October of last year.
The Blazers held a 2-4 record when they decided to fire Trent Dilfer and name Alex Mortensen as the team’s interim head coach. Dilfer was 9-21 during his tenure at UAB.
In Mortensen’s first game as head coach, the Blazers pulled off a stunning 31-24 win over No. 22 Memphis. UAB finished the season 2-4 under Mortensen, but the positive momentum he generated for the program led to him being hired to a five-year contract as the full-time head coach.
Now in Mortensen’s first full year in charge, the Blazers are 4-3 and have won two of their first three American Conference games this season, including a 30-17 win over East Carolina before their own bye week last Saturday.
UAB beat the Pirates in dramatic fashion. They trailed by eight points with 1:37 remaining before engineering a 10-play, 93-yard game-tying drive to send the game into overtime. UAB then scored on its opening possession of OT, sniping Pirates quarterback Emory Williams for a walk-off pick-six.
“I thought it was a really great, resilient, tough and gritty effort by our team to finish a game really strong,” Mortensen said about the game at his midweek news conference this week.
The Blazers have played in three other one-score games to go along with their ECU victory, and are 3-1 in close finishes.
UAB has the country’s best passing defense, allowing opponents to throw for just 126 yards per game this season. Their opponents have thrown eight touchdown passes compared with five interceptions by UAB this season.
“They minimize explosives. That’s their philosophy, at least that’s what film shows. We’ve got to execute at a high level. They want to make you have 12-, 13-, 14-play drives,” Hartline said about the Blazers’ defense.
The Blazers’ rushing defense has been less effective. They are allowing opponents to run for 190.6 yards per game this season, the 122nd-worst mark in the country.
UAB’s defense is led by graduate linebacker Marlin Dean, who leads the team with eight tackles for loss and five sacks this season. The former IMG Academy product started his career at Georgia before making stops at three different schools in the last three years before this season at UAB: Butler Community College, Utah State and Georgia State.
The Blazers’ offense ranks 11th in the American Conference, averaging 23.3 points per game this season.
Junior quarterback Ryder Burton has started all seven games for the Blazers. He has 1,184 passing yards, six passing touchdowns and five interceptions this season.
UAB averages 168 rushing yards per game this season. The Blazers are led by the running back tandem of junior Rod Robinson II and senior Bam McReynolds, who have 436 and 335 rushing yards, respectively, this season.
Game Notes
Saturday’s game will be the first time the Bulls have played at Raymond James Stadium during the day in 2026. It’s just their second time playing before 5 p.m. this season.
It will be the first time USF has played on Halloween since 2015, when they lost to Navy 29-17 in Annapolis. The Bulls are 1-2 overall in games played on Halloween in program history.
USF is 3-2 all-time against UAB, and 1-1 against the Blazers at Raymond James Stadium. Their lone win was in 2024 and their loss in the first Conference USA season of 2003. Last year the Bulls dominated the Blazers at Protective Stadium in Birmingham 48-18.
TV is set for ESPNU, with Mark Neely the play-by-play man and Leger Douzable as the analyst.