TAMPA (USF) – Following South Florida Football’s second-straight bowl game victory in the Hawai’i Bowl, USF saw six Bulls named to Phil Steele’s American Athletic All-Conference teams.
USF downed San Jose State, 41-39, in a five-overtime thriller on Christmas Eve that stands as the longest game in program history and the Bulls’ eighth bowl game victory in 12 appearances, including back-to-back wins in head coach Alex Golesh’s first two seasons. The Bulls finished 7-6 as Golesh became the first USF head coach to win his first two bowl game appearances.
Phil Steele named USF punter Andrew Stokes to his First Team All-AAC list as Stokes finished the season leading the conference with 27 punts downed inside the 20, just three short of the USF record, and 45.4 average that stands second all-time in the USF record books. Stokes punted 69 times or 3,141 yards, the third-most yardage in a season at USF, and capped his final season with a stellar outing in the Hawai’i Bowl. In the victory over San Jose State, Stokes hit a 72-yard punt that tied as the longest in program history and his 51.0 -yard average on seven punts were a career-best that ranks fourth all-time at USF.
Steele also named defensive tackle Decarius Hawthorne to the Second Team, wide receiver Sean Atkins to the Third Team as a wide receiver and fourth team as a punt returner, linebacker Mac Harris to the Third Team, running back Kelley Joiner Jr. and defensive tackle Bernard Gooden to the Fourth Team.
Hawthorne led USF defensive linemen with 40 tackles and ranked second on the team with 10.5 tackles for loss while adding 2.5 sacks, three quarterback hurries, two pass breakups, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble.
Atkins posted his sixth career 100-yard game in the Hawai’i Bowl (11 catches for 104 yards) as he passed Andre Davis (2,136) for the USF career receiving yardage record. Atkins’ 79 catches for 781 yards on the year rank second and fifth all-time on the USF season charts. Atkins ended his career with a record tying 31-straight games with a reception and USF career records of 200 catches for 2,167 yards. The former walk-on previously set USF season records with 92 catches for 1,054 yards in 2023.
Harris led USF with a career-best 82 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, four sacks and six quarterback hurries while adding two forced fumbles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
Joiner ended his six-year USF career with a breakout season, leading the Bulls with 799 yards rushing and 12 rushing touchdowns, which tied for the fifth-most in a season. He added eight catches for 51 yards and two touchdowns. Joiner ended his career ranked fifth all-time at USF with 2,221 career yards rushing.
Gooden posted 35 tackles and ranked third on the team with 10 tackles for loss while adding 1.5 sacks, four quarterback hurries, two fumble recoveries and two pass break-ups.