South Florida Bulls 2026 Season Preview

Hartline's Deceptive 9 Wins

Brian Hartline takes over a program whose 9-4 finish and 6-2 conference mark hid real structural cracks. The offense needed only 12.1 yards per point against a 14.1 league median, an efficiency rate that rarely holds, while a turnover margin of plus-5 and a 1-2 mark in one-score games both point toward regression rather than a repeat performance. With just 16% production returning, Hartline inherits a roster that overachieved its underlying numbers in 2025, and the American Athletic slate ahead offers little cushion for a team about to look far more ordinary than its record suggested.

Van Buren Inherits a Rocket

South Florida scored at a top-five clip and moved the ball at 488 yards a game in 2025, and the job now belongs to Michael Van Buren Jr., in from LSU with 1,010 yards and 8 touchdowns on his ledger. The offense he takes over ranked 3rd nationally in total yards and 6th in yards per play, built on a 212-yard rushing attack that should keep opposing defenses honest while he settles in. The bigger question sits on defense, where a pass unit allowing 242 yards a game (112th) makes the 33 sacks and 84 tackles for loss look like a group that can pressure but not always cover.

Byrum Brown's 3,158 yards walk out the door with him, but South Florida didn't flinch, going straight to the portal for Michael Van Buren Jr., who arrives from LSU to run Brian Hartline's offense. Van Buren only threw for 1,010 yards there, so the burden shifts to a USF attack that hit 40.5 points and 488 yards per game a year ago, numbers built more on the ground (212 rushing yards per game) than through the air. If Van Buren can just manage that machine rather than replicate Brown's box score, the points per game hardly have to dip at all.

South Florida is rebuilding its backfield from scratch, and the answer came through the portal rather than the returning room. Chase Garnett, Jeremiah Johnson and Tray Kinkle combined for modest 2025 workloads, so the real hope is Dartmouth transfer D.J. Crowther, who ran for 929 yards and 10 touchdowns, alongside Morgan State's Jason Collins Jr. and his 363 yards and 5 scores. With Sam Franklin's 474 yards and Cartevious Norton's production also gone, Crowther projects as the lead back for a Brian Hartline offense that ranked 3rd in total yards but only 13th in rushing yards per game, meaning the ground game finally has to catch up to the passing attack.

Jeremiah Koger's 38 catches and 8 touchdowns are gone, and Brian Hartline rebuilt the room almost entirely through the portal rather than banking on internal growth. Mudia Reuben (36-495-5) is the lone proven holdover, but the headline addition is Kenny Odom, who caught 62 balls for 582 yards at UTEP, alongside Colorado State's Armani Winfield, who brings real juice after 22 catches and 2 scores. That's a near-total transfusion for a passing game that ranked just 18th nationally in yards per game a year ago, betting that Odom and Winfield can turn volume into the explosive plays this group lacked.

Wyatt Sullivan is the clear centerpiece after his 18-catch, 176-yard season, and he inherits an even bigger role now that Jonathan Echols and his 3 touchdowns are gone. Brian Hartline brings in Furman transfer Luke Clyburn, who caught 10 passes for 88 yards last year, plus three-star Oregon transfer Kade Caton, giving the room a proven pass-catcher and a high-upside body to develop behind Sullivan. With an offense that ranked 3rd nationally in total yards, the tight end spot does not need to carry the passing game, just complement it, and Sullivan's steady hands make that a safe bet.

A line that helped average 488 yards and 6.98 yards per play in 2025 is losing 10 of its pieces, including departed starters Derek Bowman, Cole Skinner, Khalil Walker, Mike Lofton and Deonte Bowie, against just 9 bodies back. Brian Hartline is rebuilding the room almost from scratch, leaning on transfers Jaylin Acevedo (Navy) and Ethan Green (Cincinnati) at tackle plus Cash Hudson (Missouri State) and Michael Wooten (Arizona) inside, while high school signee Jordan Harrison joins the interior mix alongside holdovers like James Jenkins and Braden Carter. With more experience out the door than coming back, the run game that produced 212 yards per game figures to take the early hit while the new pieces sort out how they block together.

South Florida's pass rush got its production ripped out this offseason. Josh Celiscar (34 tackles, 3 TFL) and Traevon Mitchell (29 tackles, 6 TFL) are both gone, and neither Michael Williams II nor Levi Smiley, the top returning ends, cracked even two sacks apiece last year. Brian Hartline's staff went to the portal to answer that, landing Shamar Meikle from Oregon State (28 tackles, 6 TFL) and pairing him with West Virginia transfers Asani Redwood and Marshon Oxley, plus Ohio State's C.J. Hicks off the edge. That group has to replicate a line that finished 22nd in tackles for loss and 27th in sacks nationally, but with almost none of that production actually returning, the 2026 front is really a portal reconstruction wearing last year's numbers.

Zavier Hamilton's 37 tackles and 3 TFL were the only real production this group returns, and Brian Hartline's first staff answered that by rebuilding almost the entire room through the portal and high school ranks rather than trusting the leftovers. Sam Robinson arrives from Rutgers with 12 tackles of starting experience, while Michael Harris (Maryland) and Grayson Howard (Florida) bring modest but real snaps to pair with Hamilton in the middle. This defense finished 22nd in tackles for loss and 17th in run-stuff rate a year ago, and how fast a linebacker corps built mostly on newcomers plays downhill will decide whether that identity carries over.

South Florida's secondary got torched for 242 passing yards a game (112th) last season, and the answer under Brian Hartline is almost total turnover at cornerback, where Jonas Duclona, James Chenault, Jarvis Lee and Ben Knox are all gone. Za'Quan Bryan arrives from Minnesota with 37 tackles of starting experience to anchor that room, while Ayden Jackson's 74 tackles and 3.5 TFL from Georgia Southern give the safety spot next to Tavin Ward real teeth. Ward's 60 tackles are the lone proven holdover on the back end, so how fast Bryan and Jackson play like starters determines whether this pass defense climbs out of the bottom third of the country.

Nico Gramatica is the anchor here, coming off a season where he hit 18 of 24 field goals with a 52-yarder in his bag and 113 points, and his return gives South Florida a settled leg while everything around him gets rebuilt. Luke Goater takes over full-time punting duties after Chase Leon's departure leaves 37 punts and a 43.6-yard average to replace, and Goater's own 9-punt sample at 36.2 yards is thin evidence he can match that production. The bigger swing factor is depth: incoming kicker Gaston Gramatica arrives from Cambridge Christian School and shares a name with the incumbent, while Lawson Thorn and long snapper Don Volante III add competition behind Easton Bonnett and Turner McLaughlin, giving Brian Hartline options if Nico Gramatica ever needs a breather.

Van Buren Inherits a Rebuilt Backfield

Byrum Brown's 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns walk out the door, and South Florida hands the offense to Michael Van Buren Jr., who threw for just 1,010 yards at LSU but now runs Brian Hartline's attack outright. The skill talent around him is almost entirely new: D.J. Crowther arrives from Dartmouth off a 929-yard, 10-touchdown season, Kenny Odom brings 62 catches from UTEP, and Armani Winfield adds a four-star pedigree from Colorado State, replacing departed producers like Keshaun Singleton and Jeremiah Koger. With 44 transfers in and the receiving corps almost completely turned over, Van Buren's chemistry with Odom and Crowther's workload will decide whether this offense clicks faster than the modest recruiting class suggests it should.

Michael Van Buren Jr.

Byrum Brown threw for 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns last season, and South Florida is replacing that entirely with Michael Van Buren Jr., the LSU transfer who arrives with only 1,010 yards and 8 touchdowns on his own résumé. Brian Hartline's first year rides on Van Buren clicking fast with Mudia Reuben and Wyatt Sullivan, both back after combining for seven touchdown catches, because a run game leaning on newcomer D.J. Crowther can only carry USF so far if the new quarterback needs time to grow into the job.

Sell the Nine Wins

South Florida covered at home 5-0-1 and beat the number as a home favorite every time out last year, the kind of bettor darling profile that new coach Brian Hartline inherits along with only 10% returning production. That 9-4 mark leaned on an offense that scored efficiently on limited yardage and a turnover margin of +5 that ran hot, both flagged as the least repeatable parts of the season. Add a conference-only yardage margin that undersold the actual 75.0% conference win rate, and the read is clear: 2026 sets up as regression, not a repeat, for a team replacing nearly its entire production base under a first-year staff.