South Florida vs Memphis LIVE, Bulls and Tigers Score Updates in College Football

Raw yardage splits tell you why scouts circled this Thursday slot back in August. Memphis racks up 513.3 yards per game, combining 290.6 through the air with 222.8 on the ground.

South Florida holds opponents to 312.7 yards.

Only Kent State and UAB failed to crack 12 points against Tampa's defense during October, when the Bulls allowed 12 combined points across two home Saturdays. Memphis has scored at least 38 points in four of its past five outings, dipping below that bar only in the 31-17 road defeat at Tulane.

ESPN airs tonight's national telecast live from Raymond James Stadium starting at 8:00 p.m. ET, which is 7:00 p.m. CT in Memphis and 5:00 p.m. PT on the West Coast. Authenticated cable, satellite and ESPN app subscribers can stream the broadcast across mobile and connected TV devices, accompanied by local radio calls in Tampa and West Tennessee.

Stay locked on this VAVEL liveblog from coin toss through the final whistle for drive-by-drive play-by-play, touchdowns, third-down conversion splits, red-zone numbers and full NCAA box score updates.

Oddsmakers list Memphis as a 4-point road favorite (MEM -4) at Raymond James Stadium with an over/under total of 49.5 points, while ESPN's Matchup Predictor assigns the visiting Tigers a 62.7 percent win projection against 37.3 percent for South Florida.

Evening weather in Tampa is tailor-made for fast tempo: 72 degrees Fahrenheit at 8:00 p.m. ET kickoff, gentle 9 mph wind gusts and just a 6 percent rain probability across Hillsborough County.

Dry natural grass, zero crosswind trouble for punters or placekickers.

Ten days off versus five.

Calendar quirks hand Memphis a major recovery edge under the Thursday lights. The Tigers have not strapped on pads for a game since Sunday, Nov. 1, when they hung 49 points on Army in a 49-22 victory following a wild 41-34 overtime win against East Carolina on Oct. 22 and a 31-17 road loss at Tulane on Oct. 16. Earlier in October, Memphis demolished Charlotte 59-8 on Oct. 3 and handled UAB 38-13 on Oct. 10, scoring 204 combined points across those five contests.

South Florida played 60 bruising minutes in Greenville on Saturday night, Nov. 7, losing 20-17 at East Carolina after earlier October conference defeats against Temple (17-13 on Oct. 3) and UTSA (31-24 on Oct. 8). Fresh legs in fourth-quarter pass protection matter enormously on short November weeks, particularly when offensive linemen face 70-snap workloads in warm Florida humidity.

Tight end Hunter Tipton gives Memphis its heaviest mismatch on red-zone snaps.

Tipton paces all Tigers pass-catchers with 495 receiving yards and 5 touchdowns on 35 grabs, averaging 14.1 yards per reception by splitting nickel blitz looks down the hash marks and boxing out smaller safeties at the pylon. Whenever defenses bracket the outside numbers inside the 20-yard line, Stokes goes straight to his big target over the middle off twelve-personnel play-action.

Linebacker Mike Montgomery mirrors that production on defense for Memphis with a team-high 67 tackles, plugging interior cutback lanes from tackle to tackle, while defensive lineman Elijah Kinsler leads the pass rush at 5.5 sacks after wrecking Army's five-man protections eleven days ago. Together, Montgomery and Kinsler anchor a Memphis front seven that must contain USF's read-option keepers near the boundary.

Five touchdowns on 35 catches shows Tipton turns nearly one of every seven grabs into six points.

Glance at the 14-team American Conference table entering Week 12 and zero wiggle room exists near the top.

North Texas paces the standings at 7-2 on the season and an unbeaten 5-0 in conference play, chased immediately by Memphis (7-2, 4-1) and UTSA (7-2, 4-1), with Army sitting fourth at 5-4 and 4-2. Behind that lead pack, UAB (5-4), Florida Atlantic (6-3) and East Carolina (5-4) sit knotted at 3-2 in league play, while Tulsa (5-4) and South Florida (6-3) share 2-3 conference marks ahead of Tulane (4-5, 2-3), Navy (3-6, 2-4), Charlotte (1-8, 1-4), Temple (2-7, 1-4) and winless Rice (1-8, 0-5).

One road stumble in Tampa drops Memphis two games behind North Texas with two November weekends left.

Quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. steers a South Florida offense averaging 25.9 points and 316.2 total yards per game, split between 168.0 passing yards and 148.2 rushing yards. Van Buren sits at 116-of-181 passing (64.1 percent) for 1,273 yards and 6 touchdowns, leaning heavily on wideout Bryson Rodgers, who leads the receiving room with 38 receptions for 395 yards and 3 touchdowns on crisp intermediate outs and third-down comebacks.

D.J. Crowther carries the ground workload.

With 138 totes for 689 yards and 7 touchdowns, Crowther averages 4.99 yards per carry and powers USF's heavy goal-line package inside the 10-yard stripe. Memphis surrenders 187.9 rushing yards, 189.1 passing yards and 377.0 total yards per game alongside 23.6 points allowed, giving Crowther real daylight between the tackles if Tampa controls first-down yardage.

Stopping Stokes is only half the assignment for South Florida's front seven.

Running back Jaylin Carter enters Thursday night with 151 carries for 929 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns, ripping off 6.15 yards per attempt behind a veteran Memphis offensive line that clears 222.8 rushing yards per game. Carter racks up steady yards after contact on counter trey, pin-and-pull sweeps and duo concepts, forcing inside linebackers to trigger downhill before Stokes pulls the football on third-and-medium read options. Defenses that play light six-man boxes to bracket Memphis' receivers get gashed right up the middle for eight-yard chunks.

Seventy-one rushing yards tonight puts Carter past 1,000 for 2026 on Nov. 12.

Six wins already booked South Florida a postseason bowl berth, and Tampa's defensive unit deserves top billing for every single one of those victories. Holding nine FBS opponents to 15.1 points and 312.7 yards per game demands relentless pursuit across all four quarters, anchored up front by defensive end C.J. Hicks with 5 sacks and in the secondary by defensive back Ayden Jackson with a team-best 50 tackles. Opponents gain just 129.3 rushing yards and 183.3 passing yards per game against USF, rarely stringing together ten-play marches without running into a third-and-long blitz.

At Raymond James Stadium, the Bulls stand 4-1.

After consecutive home blowouts over Kent State by 29-2 on Oct. 17 and UAB by 30-10 on Oct. 31, South Florida dropped a 20-17 heartbreaker at East Carolina on Nov. 7 and returns home five days later.

Marcus Stokes has turned the Memphis passing attack into a weekly clinic.

Through nine games in 2026, the Tigers quarterback has completed 179 of 259 throws for a sharp 69.1 percent clip, piling up 2,532 passing yards with 25 touchdowns against only 6 interceptions. Memphis averages 290.6 air yards per contest, dialing up play-action bootlegs, RPO glance routes and deep slot fades off inside zone to punish safeties who creep toward the line of scrimmage on early downs. Even when defenses drop eight into coverage, Stokes checks down cleanly to his backs and averages nearly 9.8 yards per attempt across nine Saturdays.

South Florida allows 183.3 passing yards per game.

Stokes fired touchdowns in bunch formations during the 49-22 rout of Army on Nov. 1 and rarely leaves clean pockets empty-handed.

Welcome to VAVEL's live play-by-play coverage of the South Florida Bulls against the Memphis Tigers in Week 12 of College Football.

Kickoff at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa arrives at 8:00 p.m. ET on ESPN. Memphis rolls into Florida at 7-2 on the season and 4-1 in the American Conference, deadlocked with UTSA in second place one half-game behind 5-0 North Texas, whereas South Florida checks in at 6-3 on the year, 2-3 in conference action and 4-1 on its home grass.

Pure contrast shapes every drive tonight: Memphis hangs 37.6 points and 513.3 total yards per game on defenses, running straight into a Bulls unit yielding just 15.1 points and 312.7 yards per contest.