Bulls to make third straight bowl appearance, seek second straight 10-win season
Flowers closes on conference career total offense record and several other marks

TAMPA, NOV. 26, 2017 – The USF football team (9-2; 6-2 American) will take a top 25 ranking and a school-record 18 straights weeks in the Top 25 into the program’s third straight bowl appearance.

USF checked in at No. 23 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 23 in the AP Top 25 Poll. USF is joined by No. 12/11 UCF (11-0) and No. 16/14-ranked Memphis (10-1) as American Athletic Conference teams in the Top 25. The entire AP and Coaches polls can be seen here: http://www.espn.com/college-football/rankings.

USF will await the destination of the Bulls’ third straight bowl appearance and ninth overall in 21 seasons of playing football. USF ended its first regular season under head coach Charlie Strong with nine wins, equaling the second-best mark in program history, and will seek its second straight season with double-digit wins in its bowl game.

The Bulls’ offense put up 653 yards at UCF on Friday, marking its second 600-yard game on the year and the fourth-best performance in program history. The output boosted USF’s season yardage total to 5,595 yards, marking the Bulls’ third straight season with 5,500 or more yards and the third-best season in program history.

The offensive explosion was led by quarterback Quinton Flowers (Miami) who shattered USF game records with 605 total yards and 503 passing yards while accounting for five touchdowns and logging his fifth 100-yard rushing game of the year with 102 yards on the ground. It marked the most total yards and the most passing yards posted by an American Athletic Conference Player this season and the second-most total and fourth-most passing yards in conference history.

Flowers became USF’s all-time career total yardage leader with 11,385 yards, placing him just 46 yards shy of the American Athletic Conference career record of 11,431 held by Temple quarterback Philip Walker (2013-16). He also moved his career rushing yards to 3,566, the 12th-most ever by an FBS quarterback and just 44 yards shy of breaking the USF career record held by Marlon Mack.

Flowers now has 2,600 yards passing on the season, after passing for more than 300 yards in three of his last four games, and stands 311 yards shy of the USF season record of 2,911 yards by Matt Grothe in 2008.