South Florida Football: 2017 Bulls season preview, predictions
By Zach Bigalke
Defense
Charlie Strong also brought along Brian Jean-Mary as his defensive coordinator. Jean-Mary was Strong’s linebackers coach at both Texas and Louisville before that. He won’t do much to rock the boat given the personnel that has been accrued over the past few years in Tampa. The 3-3-5 operated by the Bulls in 2016 will probably remain in place, at least through this season.
A veteran front three and a deep defensive line behind them serves as a great building block. Given Jean-Mary’s background as a linebackers coach, he must be excited to see what his new group can do on the field. Senior middle linebacker Auggie Sanchez, one of the nation’s active leaders in career tackles, could thrive this year in the new system.
The biggest questions might come against opponents that like to run the football. In their only two losses last year, South Florida gave up 478 rushing yards to Florida State and 319 rushing yards to Temple. Between them, the Seminoles and Owls dropped 10 rushing touchdowns on the Bulls. The job of the new coaching staff will be to reduce the big plays on the ground in big games.
Will the secondary wake up with a change of coaches?
That said, the coaching staff will also need to work on improving the defensive backfield. Over the course of 13 games, South Florida gave up more yardage through the air than all but six other FBS programs. The Bulls made up for their deficiencies by averaging at least one interception per game.
This year the unit loses Nate Godwin, which means other players will need to step up at one cornerback position. The other side will be patrolled by Deatrick Nichols, who was the team leader in pass breakups last year. The five-man backfield is likely to remain in place, with Khalid McGee playing the Striker role in the safety group.
If South Florida is going to contend in the AAC and among the Group of Five, they will need all levels of the defense to play more consistently in 2017 in all phases of the game. Getting burned by opponents’ passing attacks is the most critical place to start.