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The South Florida Bulls may well have the best resume of any college football team in the country through two weeks, with a pair of top-25 wins over Boise State and Florida.
But USF now finds itself under the microscope ahead of its Week 3 matchup with in-state foe Miami, thanks to a Hurricanes’ media member who uncovered an interesting scheme by the Bulls’ coaching staff.
According to Locked on Canes reporter Alex Donno, USF coach Alex Golesh uses a codeword before extra points that signals players to fake injuries, buying extra time for the Bulls’ defense before they return to the field.
From a USF source. The Bulls have been getting away with this for years.
When Golesh calls “submarine,” someone on the extra point unit fakes an injury to get more time off for their defense.
Sometimes they grab the wrong leg after going down lol. Shameless
I wonder if we… pic.twitter.com/qpChAmIU2l
— Alex Donno (@AlexDonno) September 13, 2025
Donno claims that a USF source told him that the Bulls have been running the scheme for years, and that the codeword for the faux injuries is “submarine.”
USF’s Alleged Fake Injury Scam Skirts New NCAA Rule
While feigning injuries is nothing new in college football, especially in the era of the uptempo, no-huddle offense, it’s a pretty bad look to see the plan laid so bare.
This season, the NCAA introduced a new rule in order to deter teams from faking injuries.
The new rule states teams will be charged with a timeout if a player requires medical attention after the ball is spotted by an official. If the team does not have any timeouts remaining, it will be hit with a five-yard delay of game penalty.
But herein lies the problem. USF players aren’t (allegedly) faking injuries before plays and after the ball is snapped, they’re doing so within the course of the play.
So nothing the players are (allegedly) doing falls afoul of the new rule. This might just be a work of genius from Golesh, even if the advantage is minimal.