It’s Referendum Day For USF Football and Head Coach Jeff Scott

USF Football head coach Jeff Scott is in a bad spot today as his Bulls face the Temple Owls at 2 p.m. in Philadelphia on ESPN+. If the Bulls win, fans will say “Well, he’s only beaten Temple.” If the Bulls lose, fans will call for Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly to tarmac the embattled coach.

To paraphrase Vince McMahon, Jeff Screwed Jeff.

Scott is 1-25 against FBS in his USF career. His team hasn’t won an FBS game since October 23, 2021 versus this same Temple team. They’ve trailed by two scores after one quarter nearly 50% of his FBS games to date. At every pivotal point during games, he has seemingly done the wrong thing. The first sign of it was against Temple in 2020 with the two-point play debacle, and right up until last week by settling for a field goal at Houston when everyone in the stadium—except maybe Scott—knew that those three points wouldn’t matter.

On the flip side, he had to navigate a global pandemic, and basically had to restart the program after it was left in flames by former head coach Charlie Strong. By all accounts, he hasn’t lost the locker room. He’s recruiting very well. Two of their highest rated commitments have happened over the last three weeks. Everyone is pulling in the same direction. It just seems like they’re not going anywhere.

Then there are the injuries this season. USF has faced an unusual amount of bad injury luck this year. It’s a legit reason. Except, Scott has used up all of his cache and excuses over the last two seasons. If it’s not one thing, it’s another thing for these Bulls. In addition, he swore up and down that they finally had the depth of a FBS team. Yet, when that depth was tested, he’s trotting out former walk-ons and FCS transfers again.

We said 1-6 before the bye week was a strong possibility due to the sheer strength of the opponents. It’s how we got there that’s most concerning. Getting blown out from the jump versus BYU surely seemed like a sign of things to come. It was brushed off as ‘well, there was a weather delay, etc..’. Blown out at Louisville (well, so many injuries). Blown out vs ECU (We had to move to Boca Raton for the week). It’s excuse after excuse for another wasted 2022 season.

The Bulls better show up and beat Temple today or the next conversation we’re having won’t be as forgiving...