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The Bearcats will be facing a familar foe on Saturday in the South Florida Bulls. Hopefully we’ll see a different sequence compared to last year when UC won it’s previous two games against Miami (Oh) and Louisville but then laid an egg against a Bulls team that was struggling to find any consistency on offense all season. USF put up 38 points on Cincinnati that night with quarterback B.J. Daniels throwing for almost 300 yards and only 3 incompletions. Like most opponents (Syracuse, WVU), the Bearcats allowed them to breakout from their offensive rut and obliterate the defense on nearly every snap. To add salt to the wound, Zach Collaros was injured near the end of the game and was sidelined for the following week’s matchup with Syracuse (which didn’t end well either).
This time around the Bearcats are facing a similar situation. South Florida’s offense has been dragging its feet the past two weeks, after starting off white hot in nonconference play, scoring only 17 points against Pitt and 10 against UConn. But UC”s defense isn’t anywhere close to how bad it was last season with the best defensive line in the conference. The secondary is still suspect but added pressure up front should create problems for the Bull’s offense to get into a rythme this week. It will definitely be a tall task as the Bulls are playing at home where they have scored about three times as many points as they have on the road. Let’s talk a little more about that offense:
Offense
USF is led by B.J. Daniels. Bearcats fans should be very familar with him as he’s been the Bull’s signal caller for three-straight seasons now. Daniels is a prototypical dual-threat quarterback who is as adept running the ball off the snap as he is throwing it on designed plays. And when those plays breakdown he can easily tuck the ball and run for a good chunk of yards. But his consistency has been a problem throughout his career and those questions about it are creeping up again this season. Like the rest of the Bull’s offense, Daniels was on fire in nonconference play throwing for 8 touchdowns to only 1 interception. Since opening Big East play he has yet to find the endzone through the air and has thrown 2 picks. That should bode well for the Bearcats’ opportunistic defense as long as they contain him in the pocket and force him to make bad decisions.
The bread-and-butter of the Bull’s offense is running the ball so it’s no surprise that they have collectively almost 1,300 yards on the ground versus 1,500 through the air. It’s a very balanced offense when run properly and stopping them not only means corralling B.J. Daniels, who has ran for over 300 yards this season, but also tailbacks Darrell Scott and Demetris Murray. Combined, the three account for almost 85% of South Florida’s rushing yards so bottling them up should be a top priority. It should come naturally to the Bearcats who have held opponents to just 2.15 yards per carry and just 70 yards per game on the ground.
The receiving corp is very young with only 2 seniors on the roster. This includes tight ends. Their leading receiver by far is sophomore Sterling Griffin who has double the amount of receptions of anyone else on the team and almost triple the amount of yards. Overall the Bulls spread the ball around nicely outside of Griffin as five receivers are within 8 receptions of each other and not one receiver on the team has more than 2 touchdowns. It sounds like there are a lot of options there for B.J. Daniels to work with.
Defense
If there’s one thing that stays consistent with South Florida it’s that they will have a great defensive line and this year is no exception. Bulls defensive linemen have accounted for 14.5 sacks this season and a boatload of forced fumbles. Things get even tougher when South Florida starts blitzing as linebackers Michael Lenaris, DeDe Lattimore, and Sam Barrington are very good at what they do, be it knocking a runningback in the mouth or dropping into coverage and picking off the quarterback. In many ways the Bulls’ front seven is even better than Louisville’s so UC’s offensive line shouldn’t take a day off. South Florida’s secondary has yielded 6 yards per attempt which is not too bad for the back four but has not been too opportunistic picking off only 4 passes. They are a fairly young unit with only a senior among the starters, much like the Bearcats and, like UC, should be aided greatly but a strong defensive line.
Special Teams
South Florida’s place kicker is junior Maikon Bonani (fantastic name) but is only hitting about 65% of his field goals. Freshman Marvin Kloss is the man on kickoffs, though. Junior Justin Brockhaus-Kann is the team’s punter average about 39 yards per boot. The Bulls kick return game is very good with wide receiver Lindsey Lamar averaging almost 20 yards per return. On punts, not so much as the Bulls are averaging right around 5 yards per punt. The opposite can be said of the Bulls’ special teams coverage as they seem to do comparably better when punting than when on kickoffs.
Outcome
Cincinnati – 27
South Florida – 21
The Bulls have been very inconsistent this season and had arguably their worst game of the season against UConn last week. Things don’t get much better with the high powered Cincinnati offense rolling into town coupled with a now extremely stout defense. The Bearcats pull this one out but it will be a tough one.