Another week is upon us, the Bearcats took care of business against Army, even if it wasn’t always pretty. That brings them into the week at 2-0 and sitting at No. 15 in both major polls. Up this week is the University of South Florida who already have had a very up and down football season and come into the game at 1-1.
USF should have had a game last weekend, but because of a COVID outbreak after their game with Notre Dame, they had to shut down and postpone their game with Florida Atlantic. With the FAU game postponed it means so far this season USF has a victory against the Citadel 27-6 and an awful loss to Notre Dame 52-0. The Notre Dame Covid outbreak also left a number of South Florida players still sitting out and it is unclear what kind of roster they will even be able to put out on the field Saturday. With that said, lets try and take a look at what UC might be up against.
Quarterback is still a toss up for USF, they would have loved to get that FAU game in to have a better grasp on it before facing the Bearcats defense. I would expect USF to use both the guys they have so far this season. The first of those guys is grad student Noah Johnson. He has only been able to throw for 85 yards with no touchdowns and a 43% completion percentage. He has added 60 yards rushing and a touchdown however so the Cats will have to keep contain when he is on the field. The second option is sophomore Jordan McCloud. McCloud has thrown for 132 yards and a touchdown while completing 63.3% of his passes. Nobody has a good game when you lose 52-0, but McCloud was 8-of-14 in the game and didn’t turn the ball over, he is who I imagine will be the guy to lead the Bulls on Saturday.
The bulk of South Florida’s offense stems from the ground game and the lead back is sophomore Johnny Ford. Ford has yet to get double digit carries in a game this season, but he has still racked up a team high 141 yards while averaging an absurd 9.4 yards a carry. He will be priority number one for the UC defense out of the backfield. After Ford South Florida turns to Kelly Joiner. Joiner leads the team in attempts with 16 and has rushed for 91 yards with a touchdown, while posting his own impressive average of 5.1 yards a pop. The good news for Bearcat fans is last weeks Army game was the most run-based team you will ever come across and Marcus Freeman and company did a masterful job at shutting it down entirely. I don’t expect much of a struggle for UC, but crazier things have happened.
Defensively South Florida has not offered much resistance for opponents, even in their controlling win over the Citadel, they still surrendered over 300 yards of offense. Trying to shore up that defense will be junior defensive back Nick Roberts, who leads the team with 16 tackles and junior linebacker Antonio Grier who has 14 tackles and a sack.
One of the biggest question marks of the season for the Bearcats offense has been can the running game get on track? Good news is if they are ever going to do so this is the week for it. South Florida has given up over 200 yards rushing in both of their games so far this season and they only have one sack on the season. Meaning the big offensive line for the Cats should be able to push around the USF defense and wear them down throughout the game, much like Notre Dame did and finally give a chance for the three-headed monster at running back to get out into space and create big plays. This could go a long way to helping relive some of the pressure of Ridder’s shoulders and maybe allow him to get into a rhythm with the passing game.
Overall, at the time of writing this the Bearcats sit at 22 point favorites, with the way the defense can play and seeing how Notre Dame moved the ball against this team, I would expect UC to still be able to cover that number. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one gets ugly early. Cats win 45-7.
