As the South Florida Bulls head into the 2026 season with more buzz than they’ve had in years, and for good reason. Coming off a 9-4 season flirting around the AP top 25 and ultimately falling short of the American Conference Championship.
USF now turns the page on the Alex Golesh era and hands the keys to Brian Hartline, the former Ohio State wide receivers coach who built one of the most decorated position groups in college football history.
With a massive transfer haul and a defensive coordinator in Josh Aldridge who turned ECU into one of the stingiest units in the American Conference, the pieces are in place for something special in Tampa.
With that comes opportunity. New schemes, new starters, new roles. That means somebody is about to introduce themselves to Bull Nation in a big way.
Here are five players due for a breakout season:
Honorable Mention: Alvon Isaac, Running Back
Isaac could have left after 2025. He entered the transfer portal, which told you he wanted more. Then he came back, which told you he believed he was about to get it. The Gainesville native totaled 350 rushing yards last season as the change-of-pace back, flashing game-breaking ability early, including a 49-yard run to open the year against No. 25 Boise State. With Byrum Brown gone and a new offensive system coming in, Isaac is no longer competing for touches behind a dual-threat quarterback who eats into the run game.
The running back room is the most exciting position group on this team, and Isaac is right in the middle of it.
Others in consideration: Michael Williams II, Kade Caton, Mudia Reuben
Jair Murphy, Cornerback
Murphy spent most of 2025 making his name on special teams, and he made it loudly. Blocking two punts in a season is not something that happens by accident. It takes instincts, explosiveness, and a fearless mentality that most players never develop. The Tulsa transfer and Dr. Phillips product brought all of that to Tampa, and in the spring game he showed it can translate to the defensive side of the ball too. Murphy hauled in a diving interception in the endzone, one of the plays of the day, and left no doubt that his best football belongs on the field every snap, not just on special teams.
Under new cornerbacks coach James Rowe, Murphy has the tools and the trust to be a disruptive presence in the secondary. He’s one of the more natural playmakers on this defense. Bull Nation is going to get used to seeing his name.
Jason Collins Jr., Running Back
Collins arrives at USF after three years at Morgan State, and this fall will mark his first taste of FBS football. That kind of jump can be humbling. Nothing about his spring game debut suggested he was even remotely intimidated.
He scored the first touchdown of the day, squeezing through traffic before turning on the jets up the left sideline. It was the kind of run that makes coaches smile and defensive coordinators take notes. At 5’9”, 190 lbs, Collins has the compact, elusive build of a back who makes defenders miss in confined spaces and then punishes them in the open field.
Every season there is a transfer who makes the FCS-to-FBS leap look effortless. Collins has the athleticism, the feel, and the burst to be that player in 2026.
Kenny Odom, Wide Receiver
Let’s be clear about what USF is getting here. Odom is not a project. He is not a developmental piece. He is a two-time All-Conference USA selection who has proven himself at the collegiate level and is now stepping into a program and an offense that can put him in position to take things further.
At UTEP, Odom posted 108 catches for 1,323 yards and 14 touchdowns across two seasons, including 62 receptions in 2025 alone. He has a career-long 76-yard touchdown on his resume and has shown the ability to make plays at every level of the field. He also brings a dimension that goes beyond the stat sheet, logging 13 rushing attempts for 57 yards in 2025, giving coordinators options with him in space.
Now he steps into Brian Hartline’s offense, where receivers are developed with a purpose and the scheme is built around getting them open. Conference USA production does not always translate to the American Conference, but Odom is not the average C-USA receiver. He’s earned everything he has gotten, and there is no reason to think that stops now.
C.J. Hicks, Defensive End
Five-star recruit. No. 7 overall player in the country. National champion. And somehow, most of the college football world still doesn’t really know who C.J. Hicks is.
That changes in 2026.
Hicks spent four seasons at Ohio State surrounded by some of the deepest defensive line talent in the country. He made the most of the opportunities he got, posting 22 tackles and two sacks during the Buckeyes’ national championship run in 2024, but consistent playing time was never going to come in Columbus regardless of what he did. He made the calculated decision to redshirt the 2025 season and save his final year of eligibility for a fresh start somewhere he could be the guy.
That somewhere is Tampa.
At 6’3”, 240 lbs, Hicks was moved from linebacker to defensive end ahead of last season to take advantage of his speed and first-step explosiveness. In the American Conference, that combination is going to cause problems on a weekly basis. The pedigree is real. The athleticism has never been the question. This is the year the stat line finally catches up to the recruiting profile.
Bryson Rodgers, Wide Receiver
Eleven catches. That is the entirety of Bryson Rodgers’ production across three seasons at Ohio State.
It is also the most misleading stat line you will read all offseason.
Rodgers was a four-star recruit who turned down Alabama, LSU, and Florida to play for the Buckeyes. He spent three years in a receiver room that produced six first-round NFL draft picks, learning the craft from Brian Hartline, who is widely considered one of the premier receivers coaches in college football. He was never going to see targets with Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka on the field ahead of him. Nobody was.
Now Rodgers is home. Back in Tampa, at Wiregrass Ranch High School with 1,625 receiving yards and 29 touchdowns across three varsity seasons. Back under Hartline, except this time as a featured weapon rather than the fifth option in an NFL-stacked depth chart.
The 6’2”, 192-pound redshirt junior plays with elite confidence, changes direction with ease, and has spent the last three years being coached by the same man now calling the shots for this offense. He knows this system. He knows this coach. And for the first time in his college career, this system is going to know him.
The production was never the question at Ohio State. The opportunity was. He has it now. All of it.
