Officially, South Florida’s football season ends Christmas Eve with a bowl game in Hawaii. Actually, it ended Saturday, Sept. 28th, with 9:10 left in the third quarter at Tulane. That’s when USF quarterback Byrum Brown went down with a lower leg injury that has kept him sidelined since and pretty much sidelined the Bulls’ offense as well.
Before all this happened, it was expected that Brown would build on his highly successful 2023 season, when he started to attract attention as one of the better quarterbacks in the country. Brown was – and is – pretty much of a do everything kind of guy. In 2023, he threw for 3,292 yards and 26 touchdowns. He also ran for 809 yards, tops on the team, and added another 11 scores.
That led to Brown being nominated for the Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Davie Brian Award and the Johnny Unitas Award. It also got him noticed by a lot of Power Four conference schools, who saw top level talent in a 6-foot-3, 229-pound duel threat quarterback who could be the solution to a lot of problems at a lot of places if he decided to leave South Florida. And while it was not openly talked about around USF, the possibility of Brown moving on after this season was there if he opted to enter the transfer portal.
All that changed at Tulane, but almost immediately after he got hurt, Brown was back on the practice field and his presence at practice fueled intense speculation about his status. Virtually every week during the season, Golesh was asked about his availability. Will he play this week, will he play next week, how about the bowl game?
“I don’t want to overplay it or underplay it,” Golesh said. “He’s been practicing and preparing ever since he got hurt. He has prepared to be the starting quarterback. Byrum is a highly intelligent young man,” Golesh said. “He’s a great communicator. He tells the doctors and the training staff exactly how he feels.”
Because of the way he plays, Brown needs a strong lower body. “I remember having this conversation a year ago when he was banged up,” Golesh continued. “You have to be mentally tough before you can be physically tough and he wants to play, but for Byrum especially, he’s got to feel real good, particularly in his lower body, to go play his game because he creates so much. He’s got to be able to move around.”
In Brown’s absence, Bryce Archie has been running the team and while he has done a respectable job, he is not Brown, so Brown’s return for the bowl game against San Jose State would give the Bulls a definite boost. “Young men are resilient, and every time we’ve had adversity, they’ve adjusted,” Golesh said. “We’ve had to make changes and they believe in Archie, but going back to what they’re used to would certainly be nice. They’d be more than excited to get Byrum back healthy.”
Although he’s had a long layoff, if be does play in the bowl game Golesh doesn’t think that will have much of an impact on Brown’s play, probably because he has continued to practice. “Obviously, he will have to adjust, but we try and create as competitive an atmosphere in practice as we can,” Golesh said.
So, Brown should be ready to play if he is able to play. And will he be able to play? “I’ve said from the beginning I would never put somebody out there that’s not healthy enough to perform,” Golesh commented. So we – and San Jose State – don’t really know Brown’s status, which is probably exactly the way Golesh wants it.