The South Florida Bulls are a Division I FBS college football program that plays its home games in Tampa, Florida. The team began playing in 1997, holding its first team meeting under a shade tree as the school had no proper football facilities on campus. Jim Leavitt is the only head coach in the program's history. After competing their first four years as a Division I-AA (now Division I FCS) independent, the Bulls moved to Division I-A, now Division I FBS, in 2001 but remained independent. They joined Conference USA in 2003 until becoming a member of the Big East in 2005.
The Bulls' starting quarterback for the 2007 South Florida Bulls football team is sophomore Matt Grothe, who was awarded the Big East Rookie of the Year award in 2006 after being the most productive freshman in total offense with 258.5 yards per game.
South Florida has earned a lot of press coverage for their upsets of Top 25 ranked teams such as West Virginia (in 2006 and 2007), Louisville (in 2005) and Auburn (in 2007). The 2007 football season marked their first ascent into the AP Poll, first placing at #23, rising to #18 in Week 4, jumping to #6 after the win against West Virginia, rising one more spot to #5 in week 6 after a narrow victory over Florida Atlantic University, and jumping 3 more spots to #2 with 11 first place votes after beating the University of Central Florida by 52 points. After that, Rutgers upset the team in New Jersey
USF won its second ever bowl game with a victory over the ECU Pirates on December 23, 2006 in the Papajohns.com Bowl. The previous year, USF lost to the NC State Wolfpack in the Bulls first-ever bowl game, the 2005 Meineke Car Care Bowl.
USF plays in the largest stadium (65,657), the stadium with the largest student section (12,501).
Big East Foes:
- West Virginia
- Rutgers
- Louisville
- Cincinnati
- Pittsburgh
- Syracuse
- Connecticut
USF plays in the largest stadium (65,657), the stadium with the largest student section (12,501).