Both sidelines look completely different, but the last time these two played it took a fourth-quarter explosion to settle it. Memphis and South Florida meet again with new coaches, new quarterbacks, and one very fresh memory of how badly this one hurt to lose.
Bush’s Picks
MEMUSF
MEMUSF
OverUnder
Best BetSouth Florida
USF gets the nod here mostly because its 2025 floor was simply higher — a 9-4 finish and a top-20 ranking at one point beats Memphis's 8-5 and a bowl blowout. Both teams are breaking in new coaches and new quarterbacks, which muddies things, but Hartline inherited more returning skill-position talent and reportedly the stronger transfer class. Memphis's revenge angle is real, but rebuilding from zero returning starters is a lot to ask on the road.
Memphis
+beat USF with 17 unanswered points last meeting
+new coach Huff won a Sun Belt title at Marshall
+leads all-time series 9-4
−reportedly zero returning starters on 2026 roster
−lost 31-7 in bowl game to close 2025
−unsettled QB battle after top prospect transferred out
South Florida
+finished 9-4 with a No. 18 ranking in 2025
+reportedly landed one of the AAC's top transfer classes
+new coach Hartline came from Ohio State's staff
−lost record-setting dual-threat QB Byrum Brown
−four leading receivers also departed
−first-time head coach with no prior HC experience
Memphis won last year's meeting 34-31 by ripping off 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, snapping USF's AAC unbeaten streak in the process. That result is basically the only thing carrying over into Thursday, November 12. Ryan Silverfield is gone from Memphis, off to Arkansas, and Charles Huff — fresh off a Sun Belt title at Marshall — is running the program now. Alex Golesh left USF for Auburn the same week, handing the Bulls over to Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline. Two rosters, two staffs, two quarterback rooms getting rebuilt from scratch.
USF's issue is obvious: Byrum Brown is gone. He threw for 3,158 yards and ran for 1,008 more in 2025, one of the rare 3,000/1,000 seasons in FBS history, and he followed Golesh to Auburn just like a chunk of the roster did. LSU transfer Michael Van Buren Jr. is the presumed answer, with Luke Kromenhoek — a guy who's already started games at two other Power Four programs — pushing him. Memphis has the same problem in reverse: its most talented young arm, four-star Air Noland-era prospect AJ Hill, also left to follow his coach out the door. Huff brought in Air Noland and Division II standout Marcus Stokes to fight for the job, and reportedly nobody on this Memphis roster started for it last season.
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MEM Memphis
USF South Florida
That's a wild amount of change for a game that already has some bad blood in it. USF still finished the stronger of the two in 2025 — 9-4, a No. 18 national ranking at one point, and a 6-2 mark in AAC play before Memphis ruined the perfect conference run. Memphis limped out at 8-5 and got smoked 31-7 by NC State in the Gasparilla Bowl, a bad final look heading into an offseason that then blew up the whole coaching staff anyway.
Memphis Tigers
Oct 30?vs Army—
Oct 22?vs East Carolina—
Oct 16?@ Tulane—
Oct 9?vs UAB—
Oct 2?@ Charlotte—
Sep 19?vs UT Martin—
Sep 12?@ Boise State—
Sep 5?vs Arkansas State—
Aug 29?@ UNLV—
South Florida Bulls
Nov 6?@ East Carolina—
Oct 30?vs UAB—
Oct 16?vs Kent State—
Oct 8?@ UTSA—
Oct 2?vs Temple—
Sep 25?@ Bowling Green—
Sep 19?vs Delaware State—
Sep 12?@ Army—
Sep 5?vs Florida International—
Recent form.
USF is leaning hard on the transfer portal to paper over its losses at receiver and running back, bringing in UTEP's Kenny Odom and a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in D.J. Crowther and Jason Collins Jr. Hartline's staff also landed Ohio State edge rusher C.J. Hicks and Florida linebacker Grayson Howard, and by most accounts built one of the better transfer classes in the conference this cycle. Memphis countered by raiding Huff's old stops, most notably quarterback Denzel Gardner following him over from Southern Miss. Neither team gets a real tune-up before facing real competition — Memphis opens on the road at UNLV, and this Thursday night trip to Tampa lands deep enough into the season that both quarterback battles should theoretically be settled. Theoretically.
Memphis Tigers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
South Florida Bulls
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
The series has mostly belonged to Memphis — the Tigers lead it 9-4 and had won every meeting from 2019 through 2024 before last year's collapse handed USF the loss. That history, plus the fact that USF still hasn't beaten Memphis since a 2016 shootout, gives this one an edge that a first-year-coach game wouldn't otherwise carry. Whichever quarterback room figures itself out first by mid-November probably wins this game.
