TAMPA, Fla., (Oct. 20, 2023) – South Florida (3-4; 2-2 AAC) looks to right the ship after losing big back-to-back American Athletic Conference games when they travel to Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, CT on Saturday to take on Connecticut (1-5). Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. EST on CBS.
This will be the 18th time these teams will meet on the football field, sixteen of the previous meetings took place when UConn and USF were both members of the Big East and AAC.
The Bulls have won eight in a row versus UConn dating back to 2012, the most recent contest coming in 2019 with USF winning 48-22 in East Hartford, also marking their fourth straight win in Pratt & Whitney Stadium.
South Florida is coming off of a crushing 56-14 homecoming defeat against FAU and will look to make it five in a row in the Huskies backyard.
UConn enters this game after a poorly timed bye week following its first win of the season over Rice, and this team will look to keep the momentum going after the week off.
“Really well coached football team,” said Bulls head coach Alex Golesh in his weekly Tuesday presser, “They’re really, really sound, they play really hard, and we’re gonna have to play harder than them for longer to be able to come out of there with a win.
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This unit struggled to get things going in the first four games of the season, failing to score more than 17 points in a game during that stretch. They have come alive in the last two games, however, scoring 33 points and then 38 points before the bye week.
Huskies redshirt junior quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson stepped in for injured starter Joe Fagnano in week two against Georgia State. He made his first start of the season in the Huskies loss to FIU in week three. On the season, Roberson is completing 60.3 percent (85-141) of his passes for 970-yards, seven and two picks. He will aim to move the ball down the field against the Bulls shaky secondary play that ranks No. 126 nationally in pass yards allowed.
His top targets are sophomore tight end Justin Joly graduate Brett Buckman, and junior Cameron Ross, who each have at least 20 catches, 200 receiving yards and a touchdown this season.
The Bulls run defense needs to bounce back against the No. 96 ranked rush offense nationally after allowing over 200 rushing yards in three straight games.
Look for the linebacker duo of senior Jhalyn Shuler and junior D.J. Gordon, the two leading tacklers for USF, to be heavily involved on Saturday.
UCONN DEFENSE
Senior linebacker Jackson Mitchell captains this Huskies defense, leading the team by far with 55 tackles, while adding a fumble recovery, a touchdown and an interception.
Mitchell and the rest of the UConn front seven that allows just 4.06 yards per carry will look to contain an explosive South Florida rushing attack.
The Huskies have had problems putting pressure on opposing offenses this year, however, managing just eight sacks and 29 tackles for loss through six games, so redshirt freshman quarterback Byrum Brown might have more time than usual on Saturday.
The Bulls could exploit this to get the ball to graduate receiver Sean Atkins, who is averaging 6.1 catches a game and is on track to set the program’s singe season receptions record and could challenge receiving yards record.
Turnovers have also been a problem for South Florida this season, having turned the ball over at least once in every game besides its home win over Florida A&M in week two.
“When we’ve been able to get drives started, we’ve had a lot of success. The turnovers have caught up to us in a huge way in terms of putting the football on the ground,” said Golesh, “When you’re playing from behind it’s really, really hard to be balanced, and to be able to effectively control a game how you want to control a game.”
JACK’S SUMMARY
After a tough couple of weeks, the positivity and energy around this program has quieted a bit as the Bulls fight through growing pains with their first year head coach. However, there is still a ton of talent on this roster and on the coaching staff, and I think they have a good chance to turn things around in East Hartford this weekend.
The key to this game will be to limit mental mistakes like turnovers and penalties that have haunted the Bulls all season. South Florida has also found it challenging to limit defensive pressure, so it will be important to win in the trenches against a unit that has struggled to apply pressure.
My prediction is that South Florida gets out of East Hartford with their second road win of the year, 35-31.
