South Florida Football vs. San Jose State: 3 things to watch
South Florida Football and San Jose State will open up the 2017 college football on Saturday. Here’s what you need to know headed into the matchup.
This weekend marks the beginning of what might be the most anticipated USF football season ever. The Bulls’ preseason ranking (19th in the AP Poll) matches the highest mark in program history. USF returns a fringe Heisman candidate in electrifying quarterback Quinton Flowers, and a good chunk of talent from a team that went 11-2 last season. The Bulls will be gunning for an AAC title and the coveted Group of Five New Year’s Six bowl spot.
On the other side, San Jose State is starting fresh after a 4-8 season under former coach Ron Caragher, who’s been replaced by 44-year-old Brent Brennan. He was formerly the wide receivers coach at Oregon State. Brennan will be looking to ride a brand new, up-tempo offense back to bowl eligibility, and he’s got a handful of pieces on offense that could make it work.
We’re probably not looking at an all-time classic here, the Bulls are currently listed as 25-point favorites, but it’s nonetheless one of the more intriguing matchups of college football’s “Week Zero.” Here are three things to keep an close eye on when the Bulls and Spartans square off on Saturday night.
1. How different will the USF offense look under Charlie Strong?
Gone is Willie Taggart, who led the Bulls to a sterling 18-4 record in their last 22 games before taking the Oregon job over the offseason. In his stead comes Charlie Strong, who’s a bit of an enigma in the college football world right now. He was brilliant at Louisville, but struggled mightily at Texas despite tremendous recruiting, and never really settled on any sort of offensive identity.
The good news? Strong doesn’t have to change much about USF’s offense, which was among the nation’s best in 2016. The bad news? He might do it anyway. Strong brought in Sterlin Gilbert to run a version of the Art Briles-style air raid in Tampa. That could see a swap of Taggart’s spread-option looks for downfield passing and power running.
It’s not necessarily a poor fit, and the changes may not be significant, but forcing Flowers into an offense that doesn’t play to his strengths would be a big mistake. We’ll get our first look at how much has changed under Strong and Gilbert when the Bulls take the field in San Jose.