30th Anniversary Series: Essential Storylines

November 09, 2026 | Football

Editor's Note: To commemorate the University of South Florida's 30th football season, GoUSFBulls.com is presenting a 12-part series that covers the sights, sounds, milestones, biggest games, top performers and unforgettable personalities from the program's history. The installments appear each Sunday that precedes a South Florida game week. Today's Part 9 is South Florida's Essential Storylines.

If you wrote a fictional movie script that mirrored what actually happened on Sept. 26, 2009 at Tallahassee's Doak Campbell Stadium — South Florida Bulls 17, Florida State Seminoles 7 — it would probably be rejected by Hollywood.

The Bulls pulled the upset just one week…