#24 South Florida (4-1; 1-0 American) at North Texas (5-0; 1-0 American)
Friday, October 10 • 7:30 PM ET • DATCU Stadium (30,100) • Denton, Texas
SURFACE: Artificial, PowerBlade HP
TV: ESPN2: Anish Shroff (P-by-P), Andre Ware (Analyst) & Paul Carcaterra (Sideline)
RADIO: Q105 FM/Bulls Unlimited Digital
SERIES: USF leads 2-0
IN TAMPA: USF leads 1-0
IN DENTON: USF leads 1-0
LAST TIME: USF 24, UNT 17, in Denton, 10/5/2002
VS AMERICAN: 39-58, won 5 of last 7
AMERICAN ROAD OPENERS: 7-5, lost last at Tulane (45-10)
WEEKNIGHT GAMES: 24-34, won last vs. Charlotte
FRIDAY GAMES: 13-19, W last vs Charlotte (54-26) in '25
VS RANKED: 13-40
SOUTH FLORIDA GAME NOTES
There are plenty of potential subjects to cover for the No. 24-ranked USF Bulls (4-1, 1-0) as they prepare for Friday night's ESPN2 road showdown against the North Texas Mean Green (5-0, 1-0) in a pivotal American Conference game.
But for head coach Alex Golesh, whose team is coming off a 54-26 home victory against the Charlotte 49ers, there was a first priority.
Running back Cartevious Norton is OK.
"We're super, super grateful for that,'' Golesh said.
In the fourth quarter against Charlotte, Norton was injured on a running play near the goal line. He was on the field for nearly 15 minutes as medical staff worked to secure his neck, carefully place him on a stretcher and get him on a cart. Norton was rushed to Tampa General Hospital and released on Saturday night, when he returned to campus.
"Talk about a guy who's resilient, he walked in here Monday and went to every staff room and every meeting, just to say hello and thank everyone for all the text calls he got,'' Golesh said. "I said it after the game, but watching that (injury to Norton), your 'Dad hat' goes on. You're concerned.
"I can imagine C-5's (Norton's) mom sitting there and wondering what is going on. That's where my heart goes. When both teams were on a knee, you felt the power of prayer in that moment. I know I did. A lot of people care about Cartevious, but the power of prayer is strong and the man looked out for him in that moment.
"The next step is getting him healthy and there's a lot that goes into that. We're supporting him in every way imaginable. But he's really, really fortunate to be here with us, walking around and hopefully on a quick road to recovery."
With Norton unavailable, Golesh said he expects USF's running back rotation to remain a job by committee with Sam Franklin (186 yards, 7.2-yard average) Alvon Isaac (142, 6.2) and Nykahi Davenport (129, 6.1) getting most of the carries. Golesh said there could be opportunities for freshmen Chase Garnett and Tray Krinkle.
"I'd like to get to the point where (quarterback) Byrum Brown isn't our leading rusher,'' Golesh said with a smile.
Of course, Golesh doesn't mind his quarterback's productivity. Against Charlotte, Brown rushed for 162 yards (his sixth career 100-yard rushing game). But Golesh is striving for backfield balance.
"I'm not trying to get Byrum to run it less,'' Golesh said. "I just want somebody else to be the leading rusher. All of our guys are capable. We do have a lot of weapons on offense and lot of guys can step up and do some things.''
USF will need to employ all of its offensive weapons against North Texas, which has improved to 39th nationally in total defense (after ranking 127th last season) and 42nd in scoring defense (118th last season). The Mean Green has been vulnerable on the ground (ranked 114th in rushing defense, allowing 180.4 yards per game).
"North Texas is very sound defensively,'' Brown said. "They play aggressive and they rally to the ball. But if we just do our job, we'll be just fine, right where we need to be.''
Offensively, the Mean Green is paced by dual-threat redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker (6-foot-4, 211 pounds), a former walk-on who hadn't started a game since the ninth grade. Mestemaker leads the American with a 158.4 passing efficiency ranking and is among the top three Football Bowl Subdivision freshman quarterbacks in touchdown passes (11 against zero interceptions).
"He's a great quarterback,'' linebacker Mac Harris said. "He's young, but great.''
Another freshman, running back Caleb Hawkins (6-2, 200), has also broken out with 239 rushing yards while catching four passes for 92 yards in the past two games against Army and South Alabama. Hawkins is averaging 8.7 yards per touch this season, which ranks third among all FBS running backs.
"They've got some weapons we need to account for,'' Harris said. "We'll be ready for them.''
Meanwhile, North Texas will undoubtedly be ready for USF.
The Bulls have returned to the national rankings. After rising to No. 18, then taking a defeat at Miami, the Bulls have been skulking around in the receiving votes category. But after a shakeup around the nation, combined with the win against Charlotte, the Bulls have re-emerged at No. 24.
Golesh said he doesn't harp on such things, but knows it's good for the program.
"As we continue to build, these things should be part of the standard and part of the expectation,'' Golesh said. "It's a credit to our players continuing to plug, week by week. We learned a really good lesson three weeks ago, where it was incredibly hyped up and we were in the spotlight, then we went to Miami and it didn't look anything like we wanted it to look like.
"If we learned something, I would tell you that it (rankings) doesn't matter. It's a nice recognition publicly and a sign of the fact that we're continuing to build. But the only number that matters is the one at the very end. I think our players are mature enough and understand that all you worry about is today and what the next thing is. You don't control the rankings and they have nothing to do with us winning or losing a game.
"I said it when I took the job and I'll say it again. This is a top 20, top 15, top 10 program in the entire country. We knew it would take a second to build it and we're trying to get there as fast as we can. But I think there's no ceiling here. My job is to continuously get us better and take us to places where we haven't been before. I don't know how long it's going to take, but it's not going to be for a lack of effort.''
–#GoBulls–
