South Florida had a real chance to beat Alabama football on Saturday. The Bulls led early, then kept it close until midway through the fourth quarter, at which point the Crimson Tide pulled away for a 42-16 win.

After the game, USF head coach Alex Golesh was disappointed with the late failures.

“The hope was at the end of it, in the fourth quarter, get it there and go win the game,” Golesh said after the game. “We got it there, we couldn’t go win the game. That’s where we are right now as a program. That’s our last step of our growth is to go finish that game”

Golesh made several questionable calls to kick field goals throughout the game. Twice, the Bulls made kicks to make a one-score game a one-score game, not taking the risks to try and pull ahead.

After the game, Golesh was asked whether a decision to kick with 6:45 left in the fourth quarter to make the score 21-16 had contributed to letdown late. The coach got snippy, asking the reporter if they thought it had.

The reporter responded, saying it seemed possible.

“Sure, awesome,” Golesh said. “Well, since I’m the head football coach, I’m telling you, that’s the smart thing to do is kick the field goal to not go down two possessions. It certainly felt that way, right? But I couldn’t tell you without watching the film.”

Saturday’s game made two years in a row where USF gave Alabama a scare but couldn’t pull off the win. The Bulls moved to 1-1 on the season with the loss.

Golesh was clearly frustrated with how the final minutes went.

“Three-and-a-half quarters, it was really good,” Golesh said. “We’ve got to figure out what in the world happened the last six minutes of that game, because what happened the last six minutes of that game was really, really bad. It was garbage. So, three-and-a-half quarters, really good ball. That second half of the fourth quarter, really bad ball. It ends up getting out of hand. It goes from a one-possession game to whatever it ended up being.”

The coach praised his defense for its effort before the breakdown. He said the Bulls proved they could play with anyone for the first three-and-a-half quarters.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

“There are no moral victories,” Golesh said. “Hopefully, you guys have figured out I’m just going to tell the truth, and that’s the truth and that’s real. We’re 1-1 and tonight wasn’t good enough, and we came up here to win the football game.

USF will be back in action Saturday against Southern Miss.