There's just something about South Florida quarterback Quinton Flowers and the last five or so minutes of a football game. Flowers was an unstoppable, one-man show amassing more than 600 yards in the Bulls' regular season finale against UCF, but they came up just short in a 49-42 loss in one of college football's best games of the year. 

Well, add one more candidate to the best endings for the 2017 season thanks to Flowers. This time, Flowers and USF came out victorious by scoring 21 fourth-quarter points, including 14 in the final five minutes and a go-ahead touchdown with 16 seconds remaining, in an unexpectedly thrilling 38-34 win over Texas Tech in the Birmingham Bowl. The ending was somewhat reminiscent of last year's Birmingham Bowl in which the Bulls beat South Carolina 46-39 in overtime. 

USF has had a bad habit of starting games slow this season, and Saturday's bowl was no exception. Flowers was just 4-of-14 passing for 52 yards at halftime when the game was a 10-10 defensive struggle. The second half, as has been the case many times this year, was a different story. Flowers finished the game with 311 yards through the air, 106 yards on the ground thanks to several key scrambles and five touchdowns. 

His final two touchdowns were his most clutch, however. The first came on a perfectly thrown ball downfield against a Texas Tech coverage bust. 

The second came on a perfectly time wheel route that got past the Red Raiders' defense. 

Despite giving up the two late scores, Texas Tech's defense actually played incredibly well for about 55 minutes. They capitalized off of two USF turnovers, were excellent in short yardage situations and even stoned the Bulls on three of four fourth-down attempts, including one goal line stop. They also made Flowers uncomfortable in the pocket, as the senior quarterback missed two would-be touchdowns early in the game. 

But Flowers has developed a reputation for being money when the game is on the line for a reason and Saturday was no exception. He was 7-of-9 on passes in the fourth quarter and proved once again he's USF's best offense when improvising and scrambling on his own. 

Who knows what kind of NFL career Flowers will have, if any. What we do know is he was one of the most entertaining shows in college football that got progressively better as his career went along. He will be missed. Not by defensive coordinators so much but by the rest of us for sure. 

And with Flowers' exit, the real challenge officially begins for South Florida coach Charlie Strong. Willie Taggart rebuilt the Bulls from the ground up and Strong inherited an outstanding team ready to win right away. Saturday's victory marked the first consecutive 10-win seasons in this young program's history. But Strong is now losing the program's best impact player, which means it is his responsibility to put his own stamp on the team in an effort to maintain a consistent winner. USF has showed in a short amount of time that there's no shortage of talent to be found. Strong has deep ties to Florida's recruiting landscape. In theory, this should be no problem long term. 

But we've also seen South Florida play poor special teams, a mark of Strong's failed tenure at Texas. We saw them repeatedly attempt to run in between the tackles with little success against Texas Tech, questionable play-calling that also doomed Strong with the Longhorns. When the ball was out of Flowers' hands, rarely did good things happen. 

Strong has won 40 games with Flowers and Teddy Bridgewater as his quarterbacks. He's 23-27 in all other games. Can Strong land his next big-time player and keep up the success? We'll soon find out.