You best believe that fall camp is in the air Bulls fans! Even though we have a little under a month until the Bulls kickoff against Bethune-Cookman, SoFloBulls is here to project the Bulls depth chart heading into the 2024 season. Let’s get after it!
Wide Receiver
Call this the “all too familiar” position group on the team and for good reason! Out of the six players that are listed below, five are returners from last season with four seeing substantial playing time. That familiarity will go a long way in a successful passing offense, and we’re excited to see how this group continues to gel this year. If last year told us anything, it’s that there will be A LOT of targets to go around. The question is simple: Who ends up being the top three receivers at the end of the season?
WR-X:
Starter:Â Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen
Backup: Jaden Alexis
The Purdue transfer (Yaseen) finished the 2023 season with 25 receptions and 329 receiving yards in six games before a season-ending injury cut his season in half with the Boilermakers. The injury-bug has bitten Yaseen on several occasions in his collegiate career at Purdue but joins the Bulls ready to put it all together. If he can, I would pencil him as the ‘X’ receiver in this offense as the go-to bigger body WR that this offense needs. Right behind him is Jaden Alexis who finished the 2023 season with 23 receptions, 280 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns for the Bulls. Similar to MBS below, I believe that the ceiling is high for Alexis as a guy who flashed his ability through a handful of games last season. The question for Alexis is will it be a matter of opportunities, health or both that will determine what 2024 looks like for him?
WR-Z:
Starter:Â Naiem Simmons
Backup: Michael Brown-Stephens
Take a bow Naiem! His performance against the Rice Owls last season was nothing less than impressive (totaling 8 catches for 272), both USF record & state of Florida FBS player record for receiving yards in a game. Along with Sean Atkins, mark Simmons down as a guy that I believe will surpass 1,000 receiving yards this year as well with the former Wagner product totaling 637 receiving yards last season. Simmons will look to take the next step in year 2 in the Golesh offense with plenty of opportunities for touches. Behind him (but not too far) is MBS who flashed in several games for the Bulls last season against Navy, UAB, FAU, UConn and Memphis. When healthy and at full strength, there is no reason to believe that MBS will not be active in the receiver rotation on the field. I’m expecting big things from the former Minnesota Gopher this season.
WR-Slot:
Starter:Â Sean Atkins
Backup: JeyQuan Smith
There is really nothing much more to say about Sean Atkins other than his 2023 season with the Bulls was a sign for what the future holds for him and the Bulls offense in 2024. Atkins became the first USF receiver to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards in a season and is also the USF record holder for receptions in a season with 92 in 2023. My question with the slot position is who is up next? I have JeyQuan Smith behind Atkins at the time of this article as I believe what Smith put together in the spring is a sign for things to come for the young man out of Cali. The talent is there for Smith to carry the torch after Atkins and I believe that it is only a matter of time before JeyQuan becomes featured in this offense with the way that slot receivers are utilized on a week to week basis.
Tight End
All bias aside (being the one writing this article), I think I’m most excited to see how the tight end position factors into this offense in 2024. There is talent from top to bottom, not only as blockers in the run game but as receiving threats as well. I can’t speak for Coach AG, but there has to be more meat on the bone for the tight ends to be utilized right? There are four guys that I believe will touch the field often this year, but I’ll narrow it down to two guys for the sake of the article.
Starter: Weston Wolff
Backup: Payten Singletary
Wolff started in 10 out of 13 games last season for the Bulls, totaling 16 receptions for 159 receiving yards on the year. Both Wolff and Greenwald were interchangeable last season as the two were either utilized as receivers or run blockers in the Bulls high-powered offense. Do we see the same this season with Wolff and Singletary? My guess is yes as Wolff and Singletary look to be similar in what they bring to the table at the position. The former Cincinnati Bearcat (Singletary) posted similar receiving numbers as Wolff and was featured as a run blocker for a team that finished fifth in the country in rushing last season. As mentioned earlier, it is very easy to look at Gunnar Greenwald and Jonathan Echols as well being additional pieces to the tight end puzzle.
by Mike Cusimano
Journalist & Recruiting Analyst, SoFloBulls.com | Twitter:Â @micCusiÂ