USF football hosted Illinois in a big Week 3 battle for the Bulls. What did we learn from their blowout win over the Big Ten foe?
Just a week after being devastated by Hurricane Irma, the city of Tampa had a nice distraction, if only for a few hours. Friday night’s USF football game against Illinois was the distraction that Tampa needed after a rough week and the Bulls’ big win was the cherry on top.
Although the game was sloppy, seeing penalty flag after penalty flag, the Bulls took care of business in a big way.
South Florida didn’t get going quickly, though. It needed a big second-quarter boost to reach the 23-point mark at halftime and take a two-touchdown lead into the locker room. Lovie Smith wasn’t all too pleased with the effort, but with such a young, inexperienced team on the road, mistakes should have been expected — although not this many.
Charlie Strong is now 3-0 in his first year as USF football coach and he might just have a special team on his hands after all. Here are three takeaways from the Bulls’ win.
3. USF might be national contender, after all
If the Bulls can clean up their penalties, the Bulls might be able to contend with just about anyone in the college football ranks. The game was flat-out sloppy and turned a dominant performance by USF into an “ugly” win.
The scoreboard wasn’t all that ugly, though. This was, however, the Bulls’ best win yet. After a shaky performance in the season-opener against San Jose State and an even shakier showing versus Stony Brook, the Bulls looked overrated and beatable. Not the case on Friday against their first Power Five foe.
Sure, it was just Illinois, but the Fighting Illini are in the Big Ten and had higher expectations this year after a 3-9 campaign a year ago. The Bulls beat Illinois by more points on Friday night than all but three teams (Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin) did in 2016. That’s impressive for a Group of Five program.
Well, Western Michigan also beat the Illini by 24 last season and what happened with that Group of Five team? The Broncos only went on to finish 13-1 and play in the Cotton Bowl.
Are the Bulls finally coming together as a serious threat to make a New Year’s Six bowl? It looks that way.
2. Youth of both teams yielded sloppy play (penalties galore)
Both of these teams are young, and with youth, comes sloppy play. Many teams around the country that know they will be dealing with younger squads preach this type of stuff during film sessions and all offseason. However, it looked like both teams were on the field for the first time this season.
Honestly, this game looked like an offseason scrimmage — that’s how bad the penalty issues were. Some of the calls were poor, but for the most part, both teams played like they didn’t know the rules of the game, and that’s on the coaches.
For each team to improve moving forward, they both need to work on discipline. There shouldn’t be so many false starts, offsides, delays of game, facemasks and targeting calls. Each team dropped the ball, and they know it.
In total, the teams had 31 penalties for a total of 293 yards. South Florida had 16 for 155 yards and Illinois had 15 for 138. Just not the best-looking game of the week, but you better believe both coaches will be drilling on that this week during practice and in the film room. Youth can be frustrating at times, but it’ll pay off in the long run.
1. Quinton Flowers is back
It’s safe to say this now after a rocky start to the season, but Quinton Flowers is back on track, folks. I was starting to worry about the senior quarterback after two so-so performances to begin the 2017 campaign.
In fact, he had 398 passing yards and four touchdowns as well as 137 rushing yards and a score through two games. On Friday night against the Illini, he had 280 passing yards, four touchdowns through the air, 106 rushing yards and another score. A truly impressive game for the preseason Heisman candidate.
The Miami-native played smart all game long and rebounded in a big way after throwing a tough pick in the end zone during the first half. He shook his head, told his teammates “that’s on me” and put together a solid finish to the game. He made Illinois look like nothing more than another Group of Five opponent.
Flowers made some good passes all night long, fitting the ball into tight spaces and he truly looked like the under-the-radar Heisman candidate we were all expecting at the beginning of the year.
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A few more performances like this for the senior quarterback and he will be right back in that race for the coveted trophy. A good showing on a national stage.