2017 South Florida Bulls football team

2017 South Florida Bulls football
Birmingham Bowl champion
Birmingham Bowl, W 38–34 vs. Texas Tech
Conference	American Athletic Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 21
AP	No. 21
Record	10–2 (6–2 AAC)
Head coach	Charlie Strong (1st season)
Offensive coordinator	Sterlin Gilbert (1st season)
Offensive scheme	Veer and shoot
Defensive coordinator	Brian Jean-Mary (1st season)
Base defense	3–3–5
Home stadium	Raymond James Stadium
Seasons ← 2016 2018 →

2017 American Athletic Conference football standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
East Division
No. 6 UCF xy$		8	–	0					13	–	0
No. 21 South Florida		6	–	2					10	–	2
Temple		4	–	4					7	–	6
Cincinnati		2	–	6					4	–	8
UConn		2	–	6					3	–	9
East Carolina		2	–	6					3	–	9
West Division
No. 25 Memphis xy		7	–	1					10	–	3
Houston		5	–	3					7	–	5
Navy		4	–	4					7	–	6
SMU		4	–	4					7	–	6
Tulane		3	–	5					5	–	7
Tulsa		1	–	7					2	–	10
Championship: UCF 62, Memphis 55
$ – Conference champion x – Division champion/co-champions y – Championship game participant As of January 9, 2018 Rankings from AP Poll.

The 2017 South Florida Bulls football team represented the University of South Florida (USF) in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. They played their home games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, and were led by first-year head coach Charlie Strong. The Bulls competed as members of the East Division of the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 10–2, 6–2 in AAC play to finish in second place in the East Division. They were invited to the Birmingham Bowl where they defeated Texas Tech.

The coaching vacancy left by Willie Taggart was filled when USF hired Charlie Strong as head coach on December 11, 2016. Strong had been the head coach at the University of Texas before being fired after three seasons.

Sterlin Gilbert was named the new offensive coordinator on January 5, 2017. Gilbert had been Charlie Strong's offensive coordinator at Texas in 2016. USF hired Brian Jean-Mary as the new defensive coordinator on January 8, 2017. Jean-Mary has been on Charlie Strong's coaching staff since Strong started coaching at Louisville in 2010. He was Texas's linebackers coach in 2016.

In late March 2017, senior USF defensive back Hassan Childs was dismissed from the team after being involved in a road rage incident in which he was shot three times. He was charged with aggravated assault and marijuana possession after the incident.

In early May, another USF player was arrested, this time defensive end LaDarrius Jackson, who was charged with assaulting a female in student housing. Judge Margaret Taylor, of Hillsborough County, criticized head coach Charlie Strong's lack of control over his players, saying that she was "ashamed of being an alum." Coach Strong had only been employed at the school for five months at the time of Jackson's arrest and had not recruited either of the players in question. A video of Judge Taylor's comments went viral, and she later recused herself from the case.

In the preseason AAC media poll, the Bulls were picked to finish first in the East Division of the AAC, receiving all 30 first-place votes. They also received 26 of 30 votes as the favorite to win the AAC championship.

South Florida announced their 2017 football schedule on February 9, 2017.

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
August 26	7:30 p.m.	at San Jose State*	No. 19	CEFCU Stadium San Jose, CA	CBSSN	W 42–22	13,377
September 2	4:00 p.m.	Stony Brook*	No. 19	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	ESPN3	W 31–17	26,460
September 15	7:00 p.m.	Illinois*	No. 22	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	ESPN	W 47–23	35,404
September 21	7:30 p.m.	Temple	No. 21	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	ESPN	W 43–7	24,325
September 30	12:00 p.m.	at East Carolina	No. 18	Dowdy–Ficklen Stadium Greenville, NC	CBSSN	W 61–31	34,883
October 14 [a]	7:30 p.m.	Cincinnati	No. 18	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	ESPNU	W 33–3	43,708
October 21	7:00 p.m.	at Tulane	No. 16	Yulman Stadium New Orleans, LA	ESPN2	W 34–28	17,256
October 28 [b]	3:45 p.m.	Houston	No. 17	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	ESPNU	L 24–28	32,316
November 4 [c]	3:30 p.m.	at UConn		Rentschler Field East Hartford, CT	ESPNU	W 37–20	18,430
November 16	8:00 p.m.	Tulsa	No. 23	Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL	ESPN	W 27–20	26,195
November 24	3:30 p.m.	at No. 13 UCF	No. 22	Spectrum Stadium Orlando, FL (War on I–4)	ABC	L 42–49	47,129
December 23	12:00 p.m.	vs. Texas Tech*	No. 23	Legion Field Birmingham, AL (Birmingham Bowl)	ESPN	W 38–34	28,623
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

^{^[a]} The game between UMass and USF was cancelled. The game between Cincinnati and USF was moved from October 28th to October 14th.

^{^[b]} The game between Houston and USF was moved from November 4th to October 28th.

^{^[c]} The game between UConn and USF that was cancelled on September 9th was rescheduled for November 4th.

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 19 Bulls	0	28	7	7	42
Spartans	16	0	0	6	22

	1	2	3	4	Total
Seawolves	7	3	0	7	17
No. 19 Bulls	7	0	10	14	31

	1	2	3	4	Total
Fighting Illini	2	7	0	14	23
No. 22 Bulls	9	14	14	10	47

	1	2	3	4	Total
Owls	0	7	0	0	7
No. 21 Bulls	3	17	13	10	43

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 18 Bulls	21	10	17	13	61
Pirates	10	14	7	0	31

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bearcats	3	0	0	0	3
No. 18 Bulls	3	20	7	3	33

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 16 Bulls	7	13	14	0	34
Green Wave	0	7	7	14	28

	1	2	3	4	Total
Cougars	0	0	14	14	28
No. 17 Bulls	0	7	7	10	24

	1	2	3	4	Total
Bulls	7	10	17	3	37
Huskies	0	7	0	13	20

	1	2	3	4	Total
Golden Hurricane	7	10	0	3	20
No. 23 Bulls	21	3	3	0	27

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 22 Bulls	7	13	14	8	42
No. 13 Knights	21	0	7	21	49

	1	2	3	4	Total
Red Raiders	10	0	14	10	34
No. 23 Bulls	3	7	7	21	38

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked RV = Received votes т = Tied with team above or below

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Final
AP	19	21	22	21	18	18	18	16–T	17	RV	22	23	22	23	23	21
Coaches	21	20	21	17	17	16	15	13	14	23	21	20	19	23	24	21
CFP	Not released									—	—	—	—	—	—	Not released

2017 South Florida Bulls football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 1 Chris Barr Jr RB 2 D'Ernest Johnson Sr WR 3 Darnell Salomon So RB 6 Darius Tice  Sr QB 7 Brett Kean So WR 8 Tyre McCants  Jr QB 9 Quinton Flowers Sr QB 10 Chris Oladokun  Fr WR 11 Marquez Valdes-Scantling  Sr WR 12 Temi Alaka  Sr WR 14 Deangelo Antonie  So QB 16 Mike Dean Fr QB 17 Kyle Trina Fr WR 18 DeVontres Dukes  Fr RB 22 Duran Bell Jr. Fr RB 27 LaDarion McBride Sr RB 31 Elijah Mack  Fr RB 32 Jordan Cronkrite Jr RB 36 Davion Sutton Jr TE 40 Derek Hintze  Fr FB 40 Riley Sheehan So TE 48 Spencer Adkinson Sr TE 49 K. J. Miles  Sr OL 50 Christion Gainer  Fr OL 52 Michael Wiggs  Fr OL 55 Eric Mayes Jr OL 61 Jacob Maxfield Fr OL 64 Demetris Harris Fr OL 66 Matt Nelson  Fr OL 67 Hal Roberson  Fr OL 68 Michael Galati  Jr OL 69 Erik Listoe  So OL 70 Glen Bethel Sr OL 71 Jeremiah Stafford Fr OL 72 Brooks Larkin  So OL 73 Jeremi Hall  Sr OL 74 Cameron Ruff  Sr OL 75 Jean Marcellus Fr OT 77 Marcus Norman  So G 78 William Atterbury So OL 79 Grant Polk  So TE 80 Ryan Hintze Sr WR 80 Trevor Steinke Sr WR 81 Ryeshene Bronson Sr WR 83 Jernard Phillips Fr WR 84 Randall St. Felix Fr TE 85 Elkanah Dillon  Jr WR 86 Stanley Clerveaux  Jr TE 87 Frederick Lloyd Jr. Fr WR 88 Kevaughn Dingle Fr TE 89 Mitchell Wilcox  So TE 97 Nicholas Munera Jr	Defense Pos. # Name Class CB 3 Deatrick Nichols Sr DE 4 Jimmy Bates  Jr DT 10 Deadrin Senat  Sr LB 12 Andre Polk Jr.  Fr CB 13 Tajee Fullwood Sr DB 14 Mike Hampton  Fr DE 15 Vincent Jackson  Jr S 18 Jaymon Thomas Jr CB 19 Ronnie Hoggins Jr S 20 Devin Abraham Sr S 21 Khalid McGee  Jr DB 22 Mekhi LaPointe Fr CB 23 Mazzi Wilkins  Jr DB 24 Nick Roberts Fr DB 25 Bentlee Sanders Fr S 26 Craig Watts  Fr DB 27 Naytron Culpepper Fr DB 28 Donelle Thomas Fr LB 29 Devon Jones-Stewart Sr DB 30 Jeffery Farrar  Jr LB 33 David Small Fr LB 34 Keirston Johnson Fr DE 35 Jabreel Stephens Fr CB 37 Nate Ferguson Jr CB 38 Nick Cuccia So DB 39 Trent Shaw So LB 41 Greg Reaves  So LB 43 Auggie Sanchez  Sr DT 44 Garry Cadet Jr DE 45 Darrien Grant Fr LB 51 Mi'Cario Stanley  Fr LB 53 Danny Thomas Jr LB 54 Nico Sawtelle So LB 55 Josh Black  Jr DE 56 Juwuan Brown  Jr LB 57 A. J. Franco Fr LB 58 Anthony Beko Jr LB 59 Andrew Mims Fr DT 60 Bruce Hector  Sr DT 90 Kevin Kegler Fr DE 91 Frank Johnson Jr DE 92 Marquies Price Jr DT 93 Brandon Boyce Jr DE 94 Kirk Livingstone  So DT 95 Marlon Gonzalez So DT 96 Kevlin Pinkney Jr. Fr DE 98 Mike Love  Sr DE 99 Kevin Bronson  Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 35 Emilio Nadelman  Sr K 38 Marco Salani Fr K 42 Jake Vivonetto Sr P 44 Jonathan Hernandez  Sr LS 46 Zach Deitz So	Head coach Charlie Strong Coordinators/assistant coaches Sterlin Gilbert (offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach) Brian Jean-Mary (assistant head coach / defensive coordinator / linebackers coach) Blue Adams (defensive backs) Justin Burke (Tight Ends / special teams coordinator) Damon Cogdell (defensive ends) Sean Cronin (defensive tackles) Shaun King (running backs) Matt Mattox (offensive line / run game coordinator) Charlie Williams (wide receivers) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster Last update: October 10, 2017

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Deadrin Senat	DT	3	90	Atlanta Falcons
Marquez Valdes-Scantling	WR	5	174	Green Bay Packers

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