Texas Tech Football vs. USF: 5 bold predictions for Birmingham Bowl
By Zach Bigalke
1. Two of the most penalized teams in the country meet on Saturday
The flags will probably be flying all over the place in Birmingham on Saturday. Two of the most penalized teams in the FBS are squaring off, both with heavy chips on their shoulders. We could see at least two dozen combined penalty flags in this game, helping drive up the score even further than two hot offenses already plan to do to close out their campaigns.
The Bulls, in their first year under new head coach Charlie Strong, finished 128th out of 129 teams in the FBS in terms of penalties per game. Only Oregon, where former head coach Willie Taggart spent a season before bolting back to the Florida State job, averaged more penalties than South Florida this season. The Bulls took 9.1 penalties on average, losing almost 85 yards per game as a result.
Texas Tech wasn’t much better in 2017. The Red Raiders averaged 7.8 penalties per game, ranking 119th out of 129 teams. Kingsbury’s crew incurred just under 75 penalty yards per game as a result of their infractions. This game is going to average a penalty every two to three minutes, with big plays interspersed with bonehead moments by both teams.