What could have been a win that would have caused a state of euphoria turned out to be a devastating gut punch in a string of heavy blows Tulsa has taken in the last two seasons.

Tulsa couldn’t hold on to a 24-10 fourth quarter lead as No. 23 South Florida scored 15 points over the last 7:10, including a 22-yard field goal by Coby Weiss with two seconds remaining to defeat Tulsa 25-24 on Friday night in front of announced crowd of 16,121 at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

Tulsa (1-5, 0-3 AAC) almost won the game despite quarterback Seth Boomer completing only 6 of 21 passes for 79 yards in his second college game, while former starter Luke Skipper wasn’t suited up due to being injured.

But the key was Tulsa’s strong defense, along with a surprising no turnover performance on offense. That was quite a turnaround for an offense that ranked dead last in the nation in turnovers coming into the game.

Passing statistics, however, don’t tell the story of Boomer, as he made several key plays, mostly with his legs, on drives that produced Tulsa touchdowns. His third down escapes drove Tulsa’s offense.

Boomer rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries, including a 30-yard spectacular scramble. Combined with running backs Shamari Brooks and Javon Thomas, TU ran the ball well for most of the game.

Not helping matters was left guard Tyler Bowling leaving the game due to an injury late in the third quarter. Without Bowling, Tulsa’s running game stagnated in the fourth quarter.

Tulsa had minus three yards rushing in the final quarter, and three yards passing in the quarter. For the game, Brooks finished with 100 yards on 28 carries, while Thomas had 74 yards on 10 carries.

“It’s a huge factor,” Montgomery said of not having Bowling to finish the game. “Tyler, in my mind, is an NFL player. He’s a guy that could do a lot of things to help us in the run game.”

With Tulsa up 24-22 in the last minute over USF (6-0, 2-0), a highly questionable roughing the passer call on defensive end Trevis Gipson advanced the ball from the USF 48-yard-line to the Tulsa 37-yard-line with 20 seconds remaining.

Already in borderline field goal range, USF quarterback Blake Barnett found Tyre McCants for a 32-yard gain down to the 5-yard-line with eight seconds remaining, setting up the final field goal.

“I haven’t seen the play. And I’ve got to be real careful what I say because I’ve been down this road with them before,” Montgomery said of the NCAA and arguing calls by the refs.

The call, where Gibson barely touched Barnett, giving him a slight push, while Barnett looked like he took a somewhat fake dive, was a killer.

“All I know is that is a tough call right there in that situation at that time of the game,” Montgomery said. "If it wasn’t just really, really obvious and it wasn’t, if it wasn’t a true hard roughing, then I don’t think you make that call right there.”

Barnett, a former 5-star Alabama signee who started a game to begin the 2016 for the Crimson Tide, had a rough night for most of the game. Tulsa’s defense gave him fits, as he completed just 17 of 39 passes for 237 yards.

And star running back Jordan Cronkrite, coming off a school and AAC record 302 yard rushing performance at UMass, had a nice night, finishing with 151 yards on 25 carries. But aside from a 66-yard touchdown run that tied the game up 10-10 early in the third quarter, Cronkrite wasn’t a big factor.

Tulsa led 10-3 at halftime, thanks largely to a brilliant early drive where Boomer found Josh Stewart on a 28-yard reception on third-and-11, followed soon after by a 14-yard touchdown reception by Jarion Anderson.

On the drive, Boomer showed why completion percentage may be the most overrated stat in football. On the previous play before his completion to Stewart, Boomer avoided a hoard of pass rushers to dump the ball out of bounds, avoiding a huge loss.

Tulsa went up 24-10 thanks to two drives that were dominated by Tulsa’s offensive line where Brooks scored on two 10-yard touchdown runs, the last coming with a minute left in the third quarter.

Tulsa allowed two fourth quarter touchdowns, the last with 2:09 remaining, but still maintained the lead because Tulsa had stopped both conversion attempts. A blocked PAT attempt by true freshman Jaxon Player had kept the score at 24-16 with 7:10 left, and TU’s Zaven Collins stopped Barnett at the 5-yard line on the two-point conversion attempt to tie the game.

Tulsa ran three running plays on its final possession, where a first down could have run out the clock. After two run plays to Brooks and Boomer netted minus 1 yard, Boomer was pulled in favor of Chad President, who handed the ball off to Brooks for a three-yard loss.

“For me, I wanted the clock to keep running,” Montgomery said of pulling Boomer on third down. “And I wasn’t going to put our redshirt freshman quarterback up in a third and 11 situation and ask him to do something that would have been very, very difficult for him.

“Right there, if you turn it over, short field, all of those things, you’re basically giving them the game.”

Starting at its own 43-yard-line, USF had the ball with 1:03 remaining and no timeouts.

The loss was a continued hard pill to swallow for the TU players.

“We just have to stay together. Losing sucks, and I’m tired of it,” Boomer said. “But as long as we stay together, that’s the most important thing.”