South Florida Receiving Touchdown Records: The Bulls’ Greatest Receivers

The college football record books are inevitably dominated by players from the blue-blood schools that helped shape and popularize the sport across the United States. Schools like the University of Michigan, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Southern California all have well over a century of college football in the books, putting them in stark contrast with programs like the University of South Florida.

USF's football program played its first season in 1997, and despite the extremely late start, a number of fantastic players have come out of the school, particularly on offense. While the Bulls have historically preferred to rely on the run game, the names atop their all-time receiving touchdowns list have had a huge impact on shaping modern USF football culture, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Johnson managed to become the fourth-ranking member of USF's all-time receiving touchdown list despite playing running back. The focal part of the Bulls' offense throughout his four years on campus, Johnson provided excellent dual-threat play, as evidenced by his 28 career touchdowns -- 16 rushing, 12 receiving. He was a crucial part of USF's offense throughout the mid-2010s, a status that earned him the honorable mention spot on this list.

A look at McCants' stat lines does not do his play justice. While his yardage production was seemingly subpar, McCants' physicality allowed him to become the best short-yardage, third-down option on many of the same USF teams that relied on D'Ernest Johnson to reach those short-yardage situations.

Given the above skill set, McCants naturally excelled in the red zone, becoming the go-to jump ball option for USF legend Quinton Flowers. That role allowed him to score 16 touchdown catches throughout his college career, seven of which came during his junior season, the same campaign in which McCants produced 686 receiving yards, his career-best number.

While Adams and McCants scored the same number of touchdowns, the edge in overall production is certainly in Adams' favor. He started his career with the Bulls during his sophomore season after he transferred from Toledo, but the receiving room was too deep to allow him to see the field consistently. That changed in Adams' junior campaign, when he became a critical part of USF's passing game, notching more than triple the number of receiving yards of any other receiver on the team with 822. Adams also scored nine touchdowns that season, leading the American Athletic Conference.

That level of production continued in 2016 when Adams managed to diversify his game quite a bit, accruing 67 receptions, 20 more than his previous year on campus. Somehow, he ended with the exact same number of receiving yards and five touchdown catches, once again leading the team in both categories. He also added a career-high 23 carries for 231 yards and five rushing TDs. Naturally, Adams' production led to recognition by NFL scouts, with him eventually being selected 170th overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Setting the precedent for both McCants and Adams was Andre Davis. Davis' career in Tampa truly began during his sophomore season, his first as a full-time starter. He proceeded to lead the team in yardage by a wide margin while scoring six touchdowns, becoming one of only two USF pass-catchers to score multiple touchdowns that year. Davis' junior year was his most productive in the yardage department, but he only reached the end zone twice, a deficiency that he would immediately correct during his final year on campus.

Despite only playing eight games thanks to some nagging injuries, Davis managed to put up 594 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. Once again, he was one of two receivers to score multiple touchdowns, and his yardage totals were nearly double that of the next-closest receiver.  Davis was one of the most productive receivers in USF program history, paving the way for the other receivers on this list, and inevitably, the receivers who will overtake him as the program continues to age well.

Looking at the numbers listed above without adequate context is a disservice to the record-holders listed above. As a young program, USF is bound to have a lower threshold for records when compared to the rest of the college football programs around the country. Additionally, the Bulls are known for their affinity for running the football, as shown by the fact that two of the three members of the program's all-time rushing touchdown list are quarterbacks.

Even today, the Bulls rely heavily on the rushing game, exclusively employing dual-threat signal-callers in order to add another element to the offense. As one might expect, that style of offense places a hard ceiling on the statistics wide receivers can accumulate, solely based on the opportunities they receive. Despite that, it is fair to expect the records listed above to be broken in the near future as the Bulls continue to mature as a program.