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Week 5 Offseason Preview: South Florida Bulls
Welcome to the next installment of offseason look ins. This edition we focus on our first Big East opponent, the South Florida Bulls.
What We Know
Last season, the Bulls finished with an 8-5 record. Sadly for them, all 5 of those losses came in Big East conference play. For the record, the wins were to Tennessee Martin, Central Florida, Kansas, Florida International, NC St, Cuse, Connecticut and Memphis in the St Petersburg Bowl, basically the equivalent of us winning the mythical Carrier Bowl or Saltine Warrior Bowl.
Losses were to Pitt, Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers and West Virginia.
Last year’s game against the Orange was one of those perfect games that epitomized the Greg Robinson Era. The 45-13 beat down had it’s positive moments, like Boonah rushing for over 100 yards in the first half. But mostly it was what you expected from the GRE, poor defense – anyone remember that no coverage TD in the second half – horrible OL play, the 3rd quarter was basically 6 plays for minus 13 yards and an out of touch with reality coach – refresh yourself here.
Spring Developments:
When one thinks about the USF Bulls two players come to mind, QB Matt Grothe and DE George Selvie, the alpha and omega. Grothe, finally a senior, leads the team in rushing and passing. You know the offense is going through him. Selvie is the two time All America sack machine who needs just 14 to match the all time NCAA record for tackles for loss.
The main concern on offense is the line. It was a mess this spring. Three starters must be replaced and the two returnees (Jacob Sims and Zach Hermann) were limited due to injury. If they can manage to block, the WR core is good and deep. Jessie Hester and AJ Love combined to haul in 85 passes. The running game is unsettled. Mike Ford has fallen in the depth charts and is facing steep competition from Moise Plancher and Jamar Taylor. Mike Canales is back as OC and will look to get the scoring up from 27 pts a year ago to the 35 they had in 2007.
On defense, the wealth continues on the DL as the Bulls hauled in arguably the top two prospects in the BE with Juco Jason Pierre-Paul and frosh Ryne Giddins. The unit was 10th overall in yards allowed and the return of Donte Spires at LB gives help to starting MLB Kion Wilson. Expect this unit to be solid again.
Interesting Fact:
Man I thought that our school was offering a great deal on season tickets, with our $100 package. The Bulls manage to one up us to the tune of $50! While they only have 6 home games to our eight, that still works out to just over $8 a game vs $12 to see the Orangemen.
Interesting fact part II (damn, am I turning into Peter King or what?): I figured I might as well check out Coach Levitt’s twitter feed, he has a rabid 722 followers, and with posts like this one I can see why:
All the newcomers reported today. Great group of guys. At the office trying to get work done. Phone doesn’t wring at this hour.
Last I checked, my phone doesn’t “wring” at any hour, unless I accidentally leave it in my cargo shorts!
Interesting Fact #3: Why does this photo show up first when I google usf football images? Not that I’m complaining about a Jenn Sterger siting in my research and I understand she has taken to USF as her second favorite team to rock her “cowgirl” gear, but first pic? Really?
The Chattering Masses:
Some pretty good places to start is of course the Brian Bennett Big East Blog. You can find his USF Spring report here.
More stories about USF in general can be found here.
Why We Can win
Just look at our first half down in Tampa last year. Curtis Brinkley carved up the Bulls for 100 yards of rushing. We actually had them off balance. Just think if we can mix up our running and passing, something we should have more success with given the return of Mikey Williams and hopefully a progressing Greg Paulus/Ryan Nassib. Who knows?
This will be our third straight home game while this will be the third road game for the Bulls. Travel fatigue could be a factor.
Why we can lose
I’ve seen the blueprint of how USF beats Syracuse and I’m sure you have too. Sick Selvie and company on our decrepit offensive line. Run your spread offense and when things break down let your mobile QB scamper for first downs. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The Pick
Ok, so we haven’t played USF well at all since they joined the BE. I get that. I also know that some people think that its time for USF to step up and become one of the elite teams in the conference. I get that too. What interests me is that we’ve been hearing this kind of talk for the last three seasons and every year something sabotages it. Last season it was a disastrous -8 turnover ratio, good for 97th in the NCAA last year.
We are the team sandwiched between a showdown at Florida St and then versus Cincinnati. Could there be a letdown? Could they ignore us all together? This is our homecoming opponent so you never know what DM and Co will have up their sleeve. Still I have to make a pick. My current vibe is that someone is in for a surprise this fall in the Carrier Dome. I don’t know when and I don’t know how but I something is telling me that USF could be ripe for the pickings. Either that or I have just sucked down too much Orange kool-aid. I’m taking the Orangemen in this one – 28-24.
What do you say?
