If South Florida is going to break out this season, then Byrum Brown can’t break down. It’s as simple as that. As Brown goes, so go the Bulls.
The 6-foot-3, 233-pound senior quarterback has the potential to take the team to new heights if he plays up to – or exceeds – the standard he set in 2023. Back then, in his first full season as a starter, Brown threw for 3,292 yards with 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He also led USF with 809 yards rushing and added another 11 TDs running the ball.
That put him on the national radar, and there was some thought that a Power Four conference team in need of a quarterback might snatch him up. But Brown never entered the transfer portal, preferring instead to stick with USF Coach Alex Golesh and help him get the Bulls’ football program turned around.
That proved to be a fateful decision. In USF’s fifth game of the season against Tulane, Brown went down with a broken leg, and that was it for 2024.
Bryce Archie, USF’s combo football-baseball player, stepped in and did a respectable job guiding the Bulls to a second straight bowl, but he was not Brown.
Now, Brown is back for what, if he continues to build on his 2023 year, could be his final season at USF, because he has a chance to take this team places it has never been before and could only dream about in the past. And if that happens, and the big boys come knocking again, Brown, with a possible shot at the NFL looming in the background, might find it hard to turn them down.
But this is no sure thing, even with the multi-talented Brown in control of the offense. Running backs Kelley Joiner and Nay’Quan Wright, the team’s top two rushers a year ago, gone. Sean Atkins, Brown’s go-to receiver, and tight end Payten Singletary, gone. RJ Perry, who started all 13 games at the critical left tackle position, gone.
How their replacements pan out; there are 54 new players on the USF roster vying for spots, will have a lot to do with USF’s – and Brown’s – success. After all, good as he can be, Brown can’t throw the ball to himself.
Keshaun Singleton looks to be the guy stepping into Atkins’ shoes, a diamond in the rough who can add explosiveness to the USF offense. “You put the ball in his vicinity, he’s going to come down with it,” Brown declared while meeting with the media for the first time this year. “That’s pretty much a quarterback’s best friend,” Brown continued. “You put it anywhere he can reach, he’s gonna catch it.”
While Brown is clearly in command of this team on the field, he is more reserved off it, not as outgoing or as accepting of the lime light as many quarterbacks of his stature.
It isn’t that he’s not sure of himself, he has a quiet confidence about him, it just seems that being ‘the guy’, speaking for the team, which many quarterbacks do, is not really his thing.
He understands what’s possible for this team, and he understands he is the trigger man for that, but he also understands what needs to be done to get there. Maybe his injury has something to do with that, because he also understands how quickly a season can get turned upside down.
“You don’t want to look too far ahead,” Brown said (there would seem to be little chance of that since the Bulls open with perennial Group of Five power Boise State).
“You want to be right where your feet are right now, just trying to take it one day at a time,” he added. “You don’t take anything for granted. You come to work each and every day with the same mind set.”
Still, it’s all out there for the taking. If the Bulls beat Boise State, the road to the College Football Playoffs is open. They would then have a shot at being the top-ranked conference champion from the Group of Five, which would get them an automatic bid.
Beating Boise would be no guarantee of that, there would still be a plenty of potential pot holes along the way, but it would be possible. “USF football has been huge,” Brown said, “and we’re only going to continue to do more.” But only if he stays healthy.
