South Florida Bulls @ Connecticut Huskies Football Preview

The South Florida Bulls had begun to give the rest of the college football community the impression that they had turned the corner. Coach Skip Holtz got his players to perform with wisdom and discipline over the first three weeks of the season. A win at Notre Dame in the 2011 opener shocked most pigskin pundits, who expected the Fighting Irish to roll USF into the ground. Instead, South Florida and quarterback B.J. Daniels minimized their mistakes, allowing Notre Dame to dig its grave with five turnovers. Usually, South Florida was the team that imploded while a less-talented opponent walked away scot-free. When USF used patience and prudence to score an upset in one of college football's most hallowed settings, it was reasonable to think that a program's transformation was in progress.

Then came a Thursday night at Pittsburgh, a night that washed away all the good things the team had done in the first three weeks of the season.

South Florida’s offense has been this program’s Achilles heel in the past, but on Sept. 29 against the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Bulls’ defense got gored. South Florida allowed at least 10 points in all four quarters. It consistently hemorrhaged against a less-than-imposing Pitt offense which had scored just 12 points against Notre Dame the week before. USF conceded 523 total yards to Pittsburgh, but what’s particularly damning is that the Bulls allowed 307 of those yards on the ground. Ray Graham, the star running back for the Panthers, went wild against South Florida, romping for 226 rushing yards on just 26 carries, for an average of just under nine yards per touch. With numbers like that, it wasn’t unreasonable to claim that USF got humiliated. The performance was that bad, and since it was a conference road game, the consequences were that much more profound for the Bulls. It’s going to be hard enough for South Florida to beat West Virginia this season. Losing to Pitt creates the strong and hard-to-shake impression that the Bulls won’t be able to win the Big East in 2011.

The team that won the Big East in 2010 is the team that will oppose South Florida this week, but the Connecticut Huskies don’t look anything like a defending conference champion. The Huskies played West Virginia tough for two and a half quarters last weekend in Morgantown, but just as soon as UConn harbored thoughts of a second straight upset win over WVU, the Mountaineers stepped on the gas pedal, scoring 33 points in the final 23 minutes to record a 43-16 runaway. The Huskies’ utter lack of offensive firepower was exposed; the defense did its job for most of the afternoon, but the utter lack of support from the other side of the ball eventually left UConn defenders tired and worn down. South Florida’s defense is a liability for the Bulls, but UConn’s offense doesn’t figure to be able to exploit it. Unless the Huskies can produce a level of scoring punch they haven’t previously discovered, USF should actually be able to find a get-well tonic for one week.

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer