Memphis 52, USF 41: Bulls Bring the Fireworks, but the Finish Falls Flat

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A wild night, a familiar demand: Get a stop

USF brought plenty of offense to Raymond James Stadium on November 13. Unfortunately, Memphis brought more—and the Bulls never found enough answers to make their comeback stick.

The Tigers took this rivalry meeting 52-41, leaving South Florida with a box score full of production and a result nobody around Tampa Bay wanted. USF piled up 552 total yards, rushed for 281, and watched Luke Kromenhoek deliver through the air and on the ground. That should give a team a chance. It did. It just didn’t buy the stops.

Memphis finished with 581 yards, including 313 passing and 268 rushing. This wasn’t a case of the Bulls getting beaten by one isolated trick. The Tigers had options, and far too many of them worked.

For the full game record, ESPN’s game page has the details. The hometown version? Entertaining football. Aggravating outcome.

How it happened: Buried early, swinging back

Memphis owned the opening quarter, scoring 21 points while USF posted 0. Marcus Stokes got the avalanche moving with a 53-yard touchdown run at 9:23, then found H. Tipton for a 7-yard touchdown before adding an 8-yard scoring run.

That is a brutal way to begin a rivalry game at home. Before the Bulls could make this competitive, they had to make it respectable.

They answered with 17 second-quarter points. N. Gramatica hit a 47-yard field goal, and Kromenhoek connected with Mudia Reuben for touchdowns of 3 and 19 yards. Between those scoring passes, Jaylin Carter punched in a 1-yard touchdown for Memphis.

Reuben’s second score came with 0:49 left in the half. USF hadn’t fixed everything, but it had stopped letting the opening quarter define the entire night.

Then came the third-quarter fireworks. Kromenhoek hit J. Collins Jr. for a 13-yard touchdown at 9:55. Stokes answered with a 12-yard scoring pass to S. Burnside at 9:01. At 8:51, Collins ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run.

Apparently, everybody had somewhere to be.

Player of the night: Kromenhoek did the heavy lifting

For USF, this was a serious workload from Kromenhoek: 22-of-37 passing for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns, plus 30 carries for 146 yards and a touchdown. His 23-yard scoring run at 1:42 of the third quarter helped complete a period in which the Bulls scored 21 points.

That’s not window dressing. That’s the quarterback repeatedly giving his team a way back into the game.

Reuben was the receiving headliner with 6 catches for 98 yards and 2 touchdowns. His scoring connections with Kromenhoek made the second-quarter response possible, while Collins supplied the spectacular third-quarter burst.

The opposing quarterback deserves his credit, too. Stokes threw for 313 yards and 3 touchdowns on 15-of-31 passing, and his opening-quarter touchdown runs immediately put USF in trouble. Hometown pride doesn’t require pretending the other guy wasn’t dangerous.

Stat of the game: Production versus efficiency

The yardage looked competitive. The efficiency tells a harsher story. Memphis averaged 10.1 yards per pass and 7.2 yards per rush, compared with USF’s 7.1 and 5.4.

Here’s the short version:

USF recorded 29 first downs; Memphis had 25.
The Bulls went 5-for-17 on third down and 5-for-8 on fourth down.
Memphis finished 6-for-13 on third down.
Jemyri Davis caught 5 passes for 161 yards and 1 touchdown for the Tigers.

USF’s fourth-down conversions helped keep the offense moving, but that third-down line made the job harder. Memphis also got 2.5 sacks from J’Mond Tapp and 19 tackles from Mike Montgomery. Even in a game packed with offense, those defensive contributions mattered.

The finish: Memphis owned the decisive quarter

The quarter-by-quarter scoring strips away the chaos: USF won the third 21-10, then lost the fourth 14-3. The comeback was real. So was the inability to finish it.

Putting up 41 points is worth recognizing. Allowing 52 is impossible to talk around. The Bulls showed offensive range and resilience, but Memphis delivered the better closing quarter.

We’ll keep following the Bulls through more Pinellas Podcast coverage. This one belongs in the wild category, not the satisfying one.

What's next: Check USF’s official schedule for the upcoming opponent and kickoff details.