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Box Score EMOJICAP: USF 43, Temple 7

The latest Box Score EMOJICAP answers a simple question: Bull Sharks back?

NCAA Football: Temple at South Florida Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Better late than never with this edition of Box Score EMOJICAP, where we'll look at box score stats from USF's 43-7 bludgeoning of Temple last Thursday.

Let's get into it!

Bull Sharks back?

BULL SHARKS BACK

Well they themselves may not go by the old moniker former defensive coordinator Tom Allen gave to his 2015 defense, but they've sure looked the part in these first four games... and possibly even better.

Here's a laundry list of things they did to the hapless Owl offense:

  • Only yielded 85 yards of offense, by far the fewest yards USF has allowed to an FBS opponent.
  • -4 YARDS RUSHING TOTAL. MINUS. FOUR. Think about what the Temple rushing attack did to these same guys a year ago. The complete opposite.
  • Allowed only 1.5 yards per play.
  • Six takeaways on Thursday. They are tied with Utah for the lead in FBS with 14 on the year.
  • 12 TFLs.
  • Allowed only seven first downs. For a long period of time, Temple had more turnovers than successful attempts at moving the chains.

Given last year's debacle in Philadelphia and the postgame comments afterwards, this was one of the biggest “F you” revenge games from a particular unit in school history. They took last year to heart and laid a beating on the Owl offense.

The amount of penalties that USF has committed through the first four games of the season transcends a simple emoji and gets a Captain Picard facepalm.

The Bulls were called for nine on Thursday, clipping them for 70 yards.

USF is currently the sixth most penalized team in the nation, averaging 9.75 per game for an average of 76.75 yards. Have. To. Clean. It. Up.

Shout out to Emilio Nadelman for being money when his number was called. He tied a school record by going 5-for-5 in field goals and set a single-game kicker scoring record with 19 points.

A couple of streaks Charlie Strong and company extended with their 36-point victory on Thursday:

USF set a program record with their ninth straight win. Their last loss came on October 21, 2016, at the hands of... Temple.

The Bulls also brought their streak of 30+ point games up to 21, the fourth-longest streak in the AP Poll era (since 1936). They are currently two away from tying the record set by Chip Kelly's Oregon teams in 2011-12.

In Bill Connelly's latest batch of S&P+ rankings, USF was the biggest riser this week, jumping from 46th to 27th.

Now that they've played enough games, there's enough data that we can break these stats down meaningfully, something we'll do later this week.

But that can wait because...

STADIUM DOG BACK.

Such a good dog.