Big-Arm Bulls: South Florida’s Greatest Single-Season Passers

The first thing that comes to the minds of college football fans when they think of the University of South Florida is likely the rushing game. The Bulls have consistently relied on both their running backs and quarterbacks to carry the offensive load on the ground, using a read-option offense to both confuse and grind down opponents. 

However, that perception of USF often leads fans to forget some excellent passing seasons experienced by the best quarterbacks the program has had in its young history. There are only two quarterbacks who make up this list, with each representing a culture-shaping era of USF football.

Here are the three best passing touchdown performances in South Florida history...

While 24 touchdowns might not seem like a lot, it's quite the achievement, especially in the context of Flowers' 2016 campaign.

Flowers only attempted 331 passes throughout the entire season, while his running backs combined for 285 rushing attempts. Flowers toted the rock an additional 198 times, showing exactly how run-heavy the offense was. Despite the imbalance in the play-calling, Flowers managed to toss for 24 touchdowns and 2,812 yards, only adding in seven interceptions. Those are obviously ridiculously good numbers, and they led to one of USF's best seasons in program history.

Under Flowers' leadership, the Bulls won 11 games, several of which would go down as some of the most exciting games ever played by USF. In a month-long span, the Bulls beat Navy, the University of Memphis, Southern Methodist University, and the rival University of Central Florida, with the first three victories each coming by a single score. None of that would have been possible without Flowers' overall production that led the Bulls to be the fourth-highest scoring offense in the nation. 

Immediately after his fantastic junior season, Flowers put together an even better campaign as a senior.

He only tossed one more touchdown than he did in his third year on campus, but a slightly less efficient rushing attack led to Flowers taking on more responsibility as a passer. He responded well, throwing for more yards, more touchdowns, and fewer interceptions. Additionally, Flowers improved upon his deep ball accuracy, increasingly relying on downfield passes to move the Bulls toward the end zone. 

Another strong showing from Flowers meant another successful season for USF as a team. The Bulls finished as the 21st-ranked team in the nation, scoring wins against Illinois, Tulane, and the University of Connecticut on the way to finishing the campaign with a win over Texas Tech in the Birmingham Bowl.

However, even with Flowers improving in nearly every category, the offense fell to the 10th-best in the nation while the Bulls only managed to win 10 games.

There are endless cases in which an earlier player paves the way for another at his position, a dynamic that accurately describes the relationship between Flowers and Brown. A handful of mediocre signal-callers occupied the position before Brown took over as the full-time starter in 2023. 

He immediately proceeded to put together an all-time campaign from a USF quarterback, tallying 26 touchdowns, 3,292 yards, and an insane 144.3 passer rating. Unlike Flowers, Brown did not have a particularly reliable rushing game to count on, forcing the team to rely on his arm more than they were likely comfortable with.

Even so, he managed to rack up 809 rushing yards, further elevating the Bulls to a couple of wins they would have failed to capture without Brown.

Even with an excellent season from Brown, the Bulls failed to reach the level of success they experienced under Flowers. USF went 7-6 in 2023, a far cry from the rankings they achieved during the Flowers era. The offense also regressed significantly, finishing outside the top 30 teams in the nation in points per game. 

These touchdown numbers are not the most eye-popping statistics, but the context that surrounds them is everything. Aside from the fact that both Flowers and Brown played in run-heavy offensive schemes, the fact that USF is such a young program provides an adequate reason why these statistics seem to be on the lower end.

Programs without a history of success obviously have an enormous amount of trouble attracting high-end recruits away from bigger names, a situation that is amplified by the fact that USF plays in the same state as the University of Florida and Florida State University.

With time, as the Bulls become a better and better program, they will have names on campus that rewrite the record books. This is especially true for quarterback records, as USF is likely to switch to a pro-style offense as they accumulate more talent on the team, allowing for more opportunity to run where Flowers and Brown walked.