South Florida Football vs San Jose State: 3 bold predictions
3. The Quinton Flowers Heisman hype goes too far
There are five games taking place on “Week 0”, the week before most major Power-5 teams begin their season. No. 19 South Florida and No. 14 Stanford are the only ranked teams playing and neither squad faces elite competition. The Cardinal play Rice. The lack of quality games on the docket combined with a thirst for college football will turn Quinton Flowers into the first of many early season Heisman front-runners.
Is Flowers worthy of Heisman consideration? Perhaps. He’s going to wow people with what he can do on the ground against an overmatched San Jose State team. He will account for 500 yards of total offense by himself and will come close to half a dozen touchdowns that he is responsible for.
Outside of Flowers, there isn’t many names that will make any noise on the national stage until Ohio State starts their season on August 31 with College GameDay in attendance. Not only will USF win in dominant fashion, there won’t be another big game to talk about for nearly a week. That means non-stop highlights of Flowers on SportsCenter for days.
To be fair, the South Florida quarterback is extremely talented. He’ll have to earn his way into the national conversation just like everyone else that hopes to be in New York for the Heisman trophy celebration. But Flowers know that playing in the American conference for a team that likely won’t be selected for the College Football Playoff limits his opportunities.
Next: Game by game predictions for South Florida in 2017
It would take a jaw-dropping season from Flowers combined with a lack of commensurate years from other big name quarterbacks around the country? It will be hard for Lamar Jackson to repeat, but the odds of Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Jarrett Stidham and Jalen Hurts all having a down year is slim to none. By the time the first full weekend of college football begins in September Flowers will be championed as a Heisman favorite. Don’t buy the hype, at least not yet.