USF outlasts San Jose State in historic 5OT Hawaii Bowl

HONOLULU – ‘Twas the night before Christmas… until it was Christmas Day. 

The University of South Florida football team punctuated an emotionally-taxing season in the Hawaii Bowl on Tuesday night, surviving an FBS Bowl-record quintuple-overtime (5OT) title bout with San Jose State (7-6, 3-4 Mountain West) with 41-39 decision as the Bulls delivered the American Athletic Conference its first victory in three appearances in the bowl located in the islands. While the game began on Christmas Eve on the east coast, a winner would not be decided before Santa Claus had officially started his day of work. 

Kicking off at 3 p.m. HT/8 p.m. ET, the 21st edition of the Hawaii Bowl lasted four hours and 18 minutes and was the first to go to overtime since the 2005 game between Nevada and the University of Central Florida. It was just the third time in total that a Hawaii Bowl needed extra time to decide a winner in total, seeing a triple-overtime game between Hawai’i and Houston in the second year of the Hawaii Bowl’s existence.

Not only was it the longest game in the history of the event, but it was also the second-closest final margin with two points separating the teams. The 2005 overtime game between Nevada and UCF was the tightest among the 21 games, decided by one point in a 49-48 win by the Wolfpack, while the 2024 edition matched the final margin of the 2022 game between Middle Tennessee and San Diego State. 

USF kicker John Cannon was named the Hugh Yoshida Most Valuable Player after he hit three field goals (33, 41, 36), one to send the game to overtime and another to extend the night to a third overtime in a night he contributed 13 points in total from his right leg. Fittingly, wide receiver Sean Atkins led USF with 11 receptions for 104 yards as the former walk-on turned all-time program great finished his career as the Bulls’ all-time leader in both career receiving yards (2,167) and catches (200).

The Bulls (7-6, 4-4 AAC) raced out to a 14-0 lead after a pair of turnovers by San Jose State, seeing the Spartans get points for the first time with 2:09 left in the second quarter as Floyd Chalk IV powered his way into the end zone from three yards out. USF wasted little time responding as Ta’Ron Keith returned the ensuing kickoff 93 yards, tied for the third-longest kickoff return in Hawaii Bowl history and the first run back for a touchdown since San Diego State’s Rashaad Penny did it in 2015, to restore the two-possession lead. 

San Jose State slowly crept back into the game with a quick drive down the field over the final 113 seconds of the opening half, tacking on a 42-yard field goal right before the break to go into the locker room trailing 21-10. It was the first of three field goal makes for San Jose State senior Kyler Halvorsen, a former Hawai’i football specialist and Kaiser high school alum (‘21), in his second straight year playing a bowl game back in the place he used to call home.

Halverson’s second field goal came six minutes into the third quarter, bringing San Jose State back within one possession as the momentum continued to shift. The Spartans forced a three-and-out on the next drive, returning the ball to the offense with a chance to pull even closer in the third. 

The offense obliged, going 85 yards in six plays for a touchdown to pull within a point as junior quarterback Walker Eget connected with tight end Jackson Canaan for a 5-yard touchdown with 3:41 left to play in the third. USF looked to finally respond to the 13 straight points by San Jose State to begin the fourth quarter, driving into the red zone before Noah McNeal-Franklin sacked Bulls’ quarterback Bryce Archie and forced the AAC team to settle for a 33-yard field goal to make it a 24-20 lead with 13 minutes to play. 

The Spartans would go three-and-out after the field goal, giving USF an opportunity to grab some breathing room with just under 12 minutes left in regulation but an Archie interception directly to the chest of McNeal-Franklin set up San Jose State on the Bulls’ two-yard line. Lamar Radcliffe punched it into paydirt on the very next play, giving the Spartans their first lead of the entire night, 27-24, with 11:14 remaining.

The SJSU defense continued to hold, forcing three straight punts to give the offense the ball with a chance to run out the final 1:15 and only two timeouts for USF to use. The defense for the Bulls stood strong, forcing a punt by San Jose State with 53 seconds left to give the team one more chance to tie or take the lead. 

The offense worked to perfection. 

USF started with fantastic field position, beginning the final drive on the 50-yard line and 43 seconds to work with. An excellent effort to bounce off contact and get a first down by Nay’Quan Wright paused the clock momentarily as the chains moved, setting the tone as the Bulls worked 27 yards into field goal range to give Cannon a chance to bank a 41-yard kick off the right upright just before time expired to tie the game, 27-27. 

Both sides traded touchdowns and field goals in the first two overtimes, forcing a two-point conversion contest to decide a winner. After three rounds of one-play drives, USF finally prevailed in the second-longest college football game of the 2024 season with a defensive stop in the fifth overtime, 41-39.

San Jose State QB Walker Eget set a new Hawaii Bowl record with 58 passing attempts, completing a record-tying 33 passes for 280 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in the loss. Matthew Coleman led the Spartans with 119 yards on 12 catches, the fourth-most receptions in a Hawaii Bowl ever. 

Bryce Archie, who stepped into the starting role for USF midway through the year after starter Byrum Brown went down with an injury and helped lead the Bulls to bowl eligibility, completed 24-of-35 passes for 235 yards while tossing an interception. Three different players recorded a rushing touchdown for the AAC representatives, including Kelly Joiner Jr., who finished with 33 yards on the ground and ends his career with the fifth-most rushing yards in program history. 

“That’s all we ever work on, just play the next play,” USF second-year head coach Alex Golesh said of his team’s fight. “These guys are resilient. They’ve been through a lot, they’ve been through a lot this year alone, and they just kept being resilient and I’m proud of them. The outcome could have happened either way and I still would have been really proud of the resiliency to just keep swinging.”