South Florida football ended 2016 with the best record in the American Athletic Conference but didn’t win the league. Will the Bulls take the crown in 2017?
A year ago, South Florida lost only twice. The first came at home against Florida State in September, hardly a season-crushing defeat. Then the Bulls fell to Temple midway through an otherwise dominant season, and the Owls took the AAC East as a result. Instead of playing for the conference title against Navy, USF was left out of the New Year’s Six running.
Now that Willie Taggart is coaching in Eugene, though, it falls to Charlie Strong to prepare this team for the pressure of front-runner status in 2017. With a talented roster back in Tampa, the Bulls have a shot at capturing the Group of Five’s automatic spot in a major bowl game.
All they will need to do, of course, is win their conference title. The automatic bid goes to the top-ranked Group of Five champion, and that has cost teams like Boise State and Houston a shot at a prime bowl invitation in the past.
Expectations are high for South Florida in 2017, and rightly so. A veteran team has clear goals, and anything short of meeting them would be a disappointment. With an easily navigable non-conference schedule, USF will also be trying to stay perfect through the regular season. What lies in store for the Bulls in 2017?
Offense
The linchpin of South Florida’s offense, quarterback Quinton Flowers, returns to lead the Bulls once again in 2017. As a junior he threw for 2,800 yards and rushed for another 1,500 yards, leading the Bulls to 11 wins. Even in defeat Flowers was impressive, rushing for over 150 yards against Florida State (but throwing two interceptions) as well as scoring three touchdowns without any turnovers in the loss to Temple.
South Florida also brings back all of their main receiving threats except Rodney Adams. Flowers could top 3,000 yards through the air and 1,500 rushing yards this season as long as new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert doesn’t try to change things too much from what worked so well last season.
Related Story: South Florida Football: Two-deep 2017 depth chart projection
The offensive line has to be retooled a bit after losing two starters from last year’s unit. Redshirt sophomore William Atterbury seems like the likeliest player to plug the hole on the edge left by the departure of left tackle Kofi Amichia. At least Gilbert and Charlie Strong can depend on center Cameron Ruff, a holdover who enters 2017 on the Rimington Award watch list.
How will Strong replace Marlon Mack?
Gilbert might actually benefit from having never worked with Marlon Mack, the three-year starter with the Bulls who is now turning heads in training camp as a fourth-round draft pick entering his rookie season with the Indianapolis Colts.
D’Ernest Johnson looks like the primary candidate to fill the spot in the backfield vacated by Mack. Johnson has done a little bit of everything for the Bulls over the past three seasons as Mack’s understudy, scoring 22 total touchdowns by rush, reception, return and pass. Redshirt senior Darius Tice could also see more carries after returning from an ankle injury that ruined a promising season in 2016.
Flowers will also carry plenty of the rushing load, and the new coaching staff might look to use both backs as much as possible. The short answer, though, is that nobody can replace Mack.
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.
2017 Schedule
| WEEK | DATE | OPPONENT | LOCATION |
| 1 | Aug 26, 2017 | South Florida @ San Jose State | San Jose, CA |
| 1 | Sep 2, 2017 | FCS Stony Brook @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 2 | Sep 9, 2017 | South Florida @ Connecticut | East Hartford, CT |
| 3 | Sep 15, 2017 [FRI] | Illinois @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 4 | Sep 21, 2017 [THU] | Temple @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 5 | Sep 30, 2017 | South Florida @ East Carolina | Greenville, NC |
| 6 | BYE WEEK | ||
| 7 | Oct 14, 2017 | UMass @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 8 | Oct 21, 2017 | South Florida @ Tulane | New Orleans, LA |
| 9 | Oct 28, 2017 | Cincinnati @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 10 | Nov 4, 2017 | Houston @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 11 | BYE WEEK | ||
| 12 | Nov 16, 2017 [THU] | Tulsa @ South Florida | Tampa, FL |
| 13 | Nov 25, 2017 | South Florida @ UCF | Orlando, FL |
What’s in store for South Florida in 2017?
Honestly, South Florida has almost too easy a schedule in 2017. The Bulls open the season a week early on August 26 with a road game at San Jose State. They open at home the following week with FCS Stony Brook.
All of USF’s biggest games are at home, including their lone showdown against a Power Five team. That team is Illinois, which visits Tampa on September 21 for a Friday-night showcase. The Bulls have to play three games in 12 days in late September, with a game at UConn on September 15 and a Thursday-night showdown with Temple at home on September 27.
In conference play, the pressure is going to be on to win them all. They should have no trouble with the Huskies to open the American Athletic Conference season, but along with Temple they also get to play both Houston and Tulsa at home and avoid both Navy and Memphis. In addition to the trip to Connecticut, the Bulls also face East Carolina, Tulane, and UCF on the road.
Next: Ranking the top 50 players in college football in 2017
Prediction: 12-0 (8-0 American)
There is no logical reason why Strong and his staff can’t lead this veteran Bulls team to an undefeated regular season. South Florida will host the AAC championship game at Raymond James Stadium. The Bulls will knock off the West champion for a 13th victory, but their weak overall schedule could backfire if another Group of Five champion also goes undefeated or even carries one loss.
If they fall out of a major bowl invitation, they could fall all the way to Birmingham Bowl where they would play one of the lower-tier SEC schools.