Brewer Shines, USF Survives

USF may have gotten the win, but Tulsa got more positives even in a loss.

Tulsa not only clawed and scratched with USF the whole night, only losing by a touchdown, one player put his name in the history books.

Senior running back D’Angelo Brewer became the American Athletic Conference’s all-time leading rusher on Thursday night. 38 yards later, Brewer broke another record. In the fourth quarter, he became Tulsa’s all-time career rushing leader in Tulsa football history.

Despite Tulsa having no chance of getting into a bowl game this season, they needed to shine some positive light onto their season. Brewer’s two obtained records on Thursday did just that, turning the attention away from the Golden Hurricane’s disastrous season immediately to Brewer.

Brewer came into the game needing just 110 yards to pass USF's Marlon Mack (2014-15) for conference record and 152 yards to move past Tarrion Adams (2005-08) to become Tulsa's all-time leading rusher. He ended the game with 163 yards and now has 3,662 career rushing yards.

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While the Golden Hurricane running back was celebrating the accomplishments, the Golden Hurricane had nothing else left to cheer for against no. 23 USF. Tulsa had a plethora of opportunities to come back and win down the stretch, but the Golden Hurricane were unable to make the plays and gave up their fifth game in which they had an opportunity to win.

Yes, Luke Skipper went down with an injury and that could have very well played a factor into Tulsa’s offense not coming up with the plays they needed. However, Chad President had enough experience at commanding the ship this season and should have been able to do the same on Thursday.

Ryan McDaniel’s blocked punt in the fourth quarter immediately opened an opportunity for the Golden Hurricane, but Tulsa was only able to come up with a field goal with just over four minutes left to play. If Tulsa turns that into a touchdown, the results could have differed and possibly turned into one of the biggest upsets in college football this week.

With one minute to go, Tulsa was forced into a 3rd-and-21 situation. President completed a pass to Brewer for a mere seven yards and forced an offsides penalty on USF. President, however, was forced into an incomplete pass and the game was handed over to USF.

On the USF side, they once again prevailed behind the strong performance from quarterback Quinton Flowers. Flowers threw for two touchdowns and 142 yards and rushed for 119 on a seven yards per carry average to carry the Bulls on Thursday.

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While Tulsa postseasons hopes are finished, USF is just getting started. The Bulls play UCF in their final regular season game, in which the winner will have a spot in the AAC championship game. If USF can win that game and the AAC championship, most likely going up against Memphis, they could be playing in big time bowl game this upcoming December.