USF (4-5; 2-3 American) vs Temple (3-6; 1-4 American)
Saturday, Nov.11 • 12:00 P.M. • Raymond James Stadium (65,000) • Tampa, Fla.
SURFACE: Natural Bermuda
TV: ESPN+: Ted Emrich & Patrick Murray (Analyst)
AUDIO: 102.5 FM & HD 2/ TuneIn - Bulls Unlimited
SERIES: Temple leads, 6-3
IN TAMPA: USF leads, 3-1
LAST TIME IN TAMPA: 2021, USF won, 34-14
IN PHILADELPHIA: Temple leads, 5-0
LAST TIME: Temple won, 54-28, in Philly in 2022
STREAK: Temple has won one
USF GAME NOTES
For the tailgaters, it's "Breakfast With The Bulls.'' But for the USF football team, it will be business as usual when the Bulls (4-5, 2-3 AAC) face the Temple Owls (3-6, 1-4 AAC) on Saturday at Raymond James Stadium.
After seven consecutive weeks of starting at 3:30 or 4 p.m., USF-Temple kicks off at noon. As a morning practice team, the Bulls should feel right on schedule.
With the Bulls chasing their first postseason opportunity since 2018, they need at least two wins in their last three games to become bowl eligible.
Taking care of Temple is the needed start, but the Owls blasted the Bulls 54-28 last season in Philadelphia, so nothing is assured. Temple, with quarterback E.J. Warner back after missing two games with injuries, broke a five-game losing streak last week in defeating Navy 32-18.
After two road games and a bye week, the Bulls are playing at Ray-Jay for the first time since Oct. 14.
"It will be awesome to be back at home and in front of our fans,'' head coach Alex Golesh said. "Our students have shown up every week, which has been incredible. And I certainly hope they do again (Saturday). Where they are (in the student section), it's rowdy, it's fun and it's what college football is all about.''
Here are the keys to USF rewarding its home fans with a victory against Temple:
Start Fast
The Bulls have faced two-touchdown deficits in the first quarter (or early second quarter) in four of their past five games. Playing from behind has not been an effective strategy.
The net effect: USF led in the fourth quarter during only four minutes (of the 60-minute total) during the past four games. At winning time, the Bulls have spent the past month playing from behind — sometimes way behind.
"Spotting a team 14 points … it's a little bit of a broken record,'' Golesh said. "The fight to come back (against Memphis) was certainly impressive, but then we didn't have the ability to finish at the end. That's really a sign of a lot of things. … You're trying to continuously fix something, then be able to move on to fix something else.
"I'm aware that (starting slow) is an issue. We've continued to change what we're doing and evolve practice-wise to come out and hit the ground running. Man, I feel like I need a new situation portion of my game-plan sheet that's like 14-nothing. We have lived like that (far too long). It's my job to make sure our process allows us to (start more effectively).''
Offensive coordinator Joel Gordon said experience often makes the difference.
"You've got to play a lot of football games to get to the point where you, as an individual, can take the field early and not be jittery,'' Gordon said. "Your eyes need to be right. You need to see what you're doing. You've got to play with confidence from the jump.
"If any of those things aren't in place, there's all kinds of things that can go wrong and you see it at every level of football. When the whistle blows, you've got to be ready. You've got to execute, win your one-on-one matchups and pay attention to detail. We have been lacking in those areas early on and we have addressed that across the board. It's really important. It starts with us as coaches.''
P-U-N-T: Four-Letter Word
With the Bulls not close to playing shutdown defense — being outscored 208-123 and allowing 27 touchdowns during the 1-3 skid — the offense has often been challenged to play near-perfect football in order to keep up.
If USF needs to win a game in the 40's (or 50's as we saw at Memphis last week), every offensive possession must be treated like gold. And unless the field position is incredibly poor, the Bulls should consider a daring approach on fourth-and-achievable.
"I think our attitude as a program is always going to be, 'Let's go be aggressive … let's go get it,' '' Gordon said. "We have been aggressive with our play-calling and we have gone for it quite a bit on fourth down. You have to be smart about it. But if we have a play call we like on fourth down, our expectation is we can make it and we're going to go let our players play.''
Overall, USF is 16-for-36 on fourth-down conversions (44 percent). In the last four games, the Bulls have been 5-for-17 on fourth-down conversions (29 percent) and 1-for-7 during the fourth quarter.
Win The Turnover Battle
The Bulls are sitting at minus-3 in the season-long turnover ratio after getting zero takeaways at Memphis (while suffering an end-zone interception on a deep ball and a mysterious lost fumble by quarterback Byrum Brown when his arm appeared to be moving forward on a pass attempt).
Overall, the Bulls' defense has just six interceptions — and only two in the opponent's last 227 pass attempts. It's probably not coincidental that USF had four takeaways in its 24-21 win at UConn, the lone victory since October began.
"You take it away at the right time, it changes the complexion of the game,'' defensive coordinator Todd Orlando said. "Those one or two plays can be real difference-makers and we need to make those plays.
"What we've learned is when we have the opportunities, we've got to make the plays. You have two or three plays in a game where it's like a 'freak show,' some incredible strip sack, things like that. Then you have the routine plays, the ones that should be up in the 90th percentile. Well, we're down in the 65th or 70th percentile on routine plays and that's not nearly good enough. We have to get them on the ground and we have to take the ball away — no question. That's how you flip the field and change the game.''
Against Memphis, Aamaris Brown-Bunkley and Daquan Evans each had potential interceptions in their hands, but couldn't secure the ball.
"When it's right there for you, you've got make the other team pay,'' Orlando said. "And we haven't been doing that.''
Get In Warner's Grill
Warner, son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, was brilliant against Navy (27-for-33, 402 yards and four touchdowns). He's a very capable pocket passer and USF found that out last season when he passed for 344 yards, which was then a career high.
The Bulls must make Warner uncomfortable and that will be a difficult task. Temple quarterbacks have only been sacked 14 times this season (by contrast, USF quarterbacks have suffered 32 sacks).
USF's sack rate has slowed down with just six in the past five games (after 13 in the three games prior to that).
"Our whole goal is to create havoc in the passing game and we need to do a better job of that,'' defensive lineman Jonathan Ross said. "Overall, we've got to do a better job defensively. It's really just looking in the mirror and figuring out why you're doing this. The goal is to bring back pride to this logo and actually represent this university the way it's supposed to be represented.''
Orlando said there could be some defensive lineup changes against Temple, but wouldn't be specific.
"Just like any part of the workforce,'' Orlando said. "It's dictated by performance and we're trying to find the right people and right groupings to give us the best performance.''
Orlando said USF defensive pressure can set a positive tone, but said the Bulls must pick their spots.
"Warner really distributes the ball well,'' Orlando said. "He's a smart kid. We're going to have to give him some different looks and change it up."
–#GoBulls–
