Fresh Bulls Begin Grueling Eight-Week Stretch Saturday at UMass
USF GAME NOTES
Follow @USFFootball On Twitter
Like USF Football on Facebook
Â
Â
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, OCT. 1, 2018 – Healed up and fresh off a bye week, head coach
Charlie Strong's 4-0 Bulls are gearing up for the most physically challenging stretch of the season.
Buckle up, Bulls fans because USF will clash with opponents for eight straight weeks, starting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday with a non-conference test at UMass.Â
USF-UMass is the Bulls' first of five road games in the eight-week span that continues with seven straight conference games to end the regular season.
"We're getting ready to hit an eight-week stretch here where we're going to have to go play our best football," said Strong at Monday's weekly press conference. "We're have yet to play our best ball up until this point. We can improve at every position."
While they prepare to reach their potential, the undefeated Bulls are poised to post the program's second straight 5-0 start and sixth in school history. USF also needs one more victory to match the program's best four-year total of 34 wins set from 2006-09. In the midst of the most successful era in USF history (25-4 since 2016), the Bulls can equal the school's top four-year success mark with a much better win percentage this time around (33-9 from 2015-18, 78.5 percent; 34-18 from 2006-09, 65.0 percent).
"The open date came at the right time for us," Strong said. "Now it's going to be a one-game season and we're going to have to play well."
Â
In the process of steadily improving, Strong wants to see the Bulls jump on opponents after rallying past two Power Five foes and edging East Carolina, 20-13, in the conference opener the last time out on Sept. 22.
"We need to start fast. We need to play fast. We need to play physical," Strong said. "We need to win on first down and we need to get in a rhythm, get into a flow of the game."
If trends continue, USF will do just that after averaging 40.6 points per game in the last 13 outings away from Raymond James Stadium. The Bulls have failed to score at least 30 points just once during that span and they've won seven straight games with more than a week to prepare (4-0 under Strong).
Know the Foe
UMass (2-4) opened the season with a 63-15 victory over Duquesne but has lost four of its past five games. Last week, the Minutemen took a 21-14 lead into the second quarter before falling, 58-42, at Ohio.
"I know right now they're struggling, they're 2-4, but they're still a really good, solid football team," Strong said.
Using two quarterbacks, UMass has averaged 45.5 points in the past two games and got a standout performance last week from receiver Andy Isabella. The 5-foot-10 senior set new career bests with 12 catches for 198 yards and hauled in three touchdown receptions from 39, 37 and 55 yards out.
"He really is an outstanding player, we're going to have to cover him," Strong said. "He has really good speed. The thing he does is run unbelievable routes, just precise routes, and they find a way to get him the ball."
Defensively, graduate linebacker Bryton Barr is the nation's leading tackler with 13.7 stops per game. Barr has registered double-digit tackle totals in the past five games and racked up a career-high 21 stops in a 49-31 win over Charlotte on Sept. 22.
Saturday will mark USF's first-ever meeting with UMass and the Bulls' first game in the state of Massachusetts.
Bulls Bits
ROAD WARRIORS: USF has posted an 11-2 record away from Tampa (8-2 in true road games) in the past three seasons, including a pair of bowl victories. This season, the Bulls added to their road warrior reputation with a 25-19 win over Big Ten foe Illinois on Sept. 15 at Soldier Field in Chicago.- BULLS MOSTLY HEALTHY: USF will be looking to win its sixth straight away game against a non-conference opponent with a healthier roster after the bye. "Most of our guys will be back, just not to single anyone out individually," Strong said. "Going into that open week, a lot of guys that had played a lot, I gave them some time off and let our young players really get the work in. This week, we practiced yesterday and most of our guys were back. We have the day off and they'll be ready to go on Tuesday."
- PRODUCTIVE FIRST-YEAR BULL: Quarterback Blake Barnett is producing often in his first run with the Bulls, ranking 15th nationally and third in The American in total offense (304.8 ypg). The Corona, Calif., native also ranks 14th nationally in points responsible for (18.5 ppg) and 23rd in passing yards per game (274.8).
McCANTS CHASING MORE HISTORY: Senior Tyre McCants already owns the USF game record of 227 receiving yards set last year at UCF and more program milestones are on the horizon. The defender-dragging Niceville, Fla., native has 14 career touchdown receptions and needs only three more to tie the school record of 17 set by Andre Davis. With 1,453 career receiving yards, McCants needs 81 more yards to move into a tie for fourth on USF's all-time chart. Davis holds the USF career receiving record with 2,136 yards from 2011-14.
Â
ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
USF posted its second straight 10-win season in 2017 (10-2) by winning its second straight Birmingham Bowl with a 38-34 victory over Texas Tech. USF is one of just 15 teams nationally to win 20-plus games in the last two seasons (21-4) and posted a program-record 20 straight weeks ranked in the top 25, reaching as high as No. 13 in Week 8 of the 2017 season. The Bulls have won five of their last six bowl appearances and made nine (6-3) total bowl appearances in 21 seasons, including a current run of three straight bowls. USF won a program-record 11 games in 2016 (11-2) and has posted 14 winning seasons. The USF program, which first took the field in 1997, reached No. 2 in the rankings in 2007 and has seen 30 players selected in the NFL Draft, 14 named All-American and had 28 first-team all-conference selections.
Â
Follow @USFFootball on Twitter for all the latest information concerning the USF Football program.
- #GoBulls
Â
