At Monday's practice there was an unexpected, but special, visitor -- five-star wing Karter Knox.


He just happened to be in town and stopped by to watch the team work and to spend time with the coaches and later with his brother.

According to a source, the USF staff had no idea Knox was in town or coming to practice.

Additionally, Knox will return for the Nov. 19 game vs. Northern Iowa. He will begin his official visit to USF Nov. 21.

Louisville will host Knox Dec. 15-17. Knox wanted to start a visit to Kentucky this weekend and attend the Wildcats season opener against New Mexico State on Monday but a dead period begins that day.
So, the Kentucky visit will now be moved to a later date, possibly January.

South Florida returns to American Athletic Conference action at Memphis.

GAME PREVIEW

I attended a men's basketball practice yesterday that was open to season ticket holders. Below are some observations. some good, some bad.

CAAR: Runs a solid practice, commands respect. Most of the time was spent working on set plays. It's CAAR's way or the highway, as when he spoke there were a lot of "yes sir" responses. If a player spoke out of turn the team would run sprints or the player would run the steps to the top of Yuengling and back (looking at you Gerald Jones).

Chris Youngblood: Appears to be the leader of the team. Encourages the others but also not afraid to call someone out if they are screwing up. Clearly will be on the starting unit.

Selton Miguel: Can shoot the lights out. Seems to have lost weight and looks good. Will be interesting to see how he slots in given the guard-heavy team. I could see him starting or being among the first off the bench.

Jose Placer: Good shooter. Lacks quickness but cagey enough to get by at the PG. Not sure how his skills will translate to the higher level. Another close call as given his experience he could start but could also see him giving up minutes if Youngblood can play the PG while, e.g. Miguel or Kobe Knox are playing the SG positiion.

Kasen Jennings: Bummer of the day. His leg is in a cast and he is getting around on wheels pushing off his one good leg. Not sure of the injury but not looking good for him.

Brandon Stroud: Great motor and brings a lot of energy. Will be on the starting unit and given the lack of size will likely have to play at the PF position. A lot to like about him Gets after it on the boards.

Corey Walker: Working hard. I think he will need to play at the C position given the other options. Also seems to have dropped a few pounds. I can see him at the starting C position but he will be challenged a lot given that he plays shorter than his 6'8" height. Will need to stay out of foul trouble.

Kasean Pryor: Athletic, but even more erratic. Honestly, I was disappointed as I hoped for more. I'm not sure I see him having much of a role. Rudimentary stuff like traveling, moving screens. I hope I am wrong.

Kobe Knox: Athletic and working hard to fit in. Youngblood giving him lots of encouragement. I think he will have an important role but likely as 6 or 7 man.

Sam Hines: Mr. Invisible. He just didn't do much, good or bad in the 1.5 hours of practice. He was noticeable only when CAAR called him out for not paying attention and caused the team to run sprints. Maybe he will have a role (by default as much as anything) but you'd never know it from the practice.

Jayden Reid: This kid is listed at 5'10" but you'd swear he's 5'6". Has incredible ball skills and can really shoot it, but you have to worry about him on the defensive end. If CAAR is playing some zone I could see him in the lineup more. You can tell he really loves to play and will be easy to root for him to do well. If he was 6'3" he'd be playing at Duke or Kentucky.

Daniel Tobiloba: A project but has some skills. Is listed at 240 but not very beefy and gets pushed around. Might get a few minutes out of necessity but will be challenged.

Gerald Jones and David Ogunleye: Didn't show much but I suppose could get some very limited minutes just because of size.

Nic Smith and Ammaar Balagam: Smith played a bit and didn't show much (except lots of effort); Balagam didn't hit the court though was in uniform. I don't think you will see them on the court at all.

Possible surprise of the day: I am not certain at all so don't take this as gospel - maybe Russ could confirm or deny - but about halfway through practice my best guess is that Kevin Knox Sr. and Karter Knox (and a young girl) came strolling in from the player's entrance to the court. They sat down on chairs on the court and watched the last 1/2 of practice. An assistant scrambled to get them bottles of water and CAAR gave them some love. I hesitate to mention, but I also hesitate to not mention. Not sure why he would be in Tampa on a Monday afternoon and I also could be wrong. But I think I am right.

Based on what I saw this will be quite a challenging year so I am keeping my expectations in check. CAAR will have to hit the recruiting trail very very hard...

For what's it's worth those are my observations based only on 1.5 hours of practice.

We go 'Behind Enemy Lines' with TigerSportsReport.com for insight on the Memphis Tigers.

STORY

South Florida Coordinators Todd Orlando and Joel Gordon preview Memphis.

VIDEO

Hey guys! Rich Schnyderite here, helping out the Tiger Sports Report aka the Memphis-Rivals site lately. Just wanted to drop by and post our video from Memphis head coach Ryan Silverfield's press conference today.

There is only a couple of USF questions / answers in there, so ENJOY!

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South Florida head coach Alex Golesh previews Memphis. Following Coach Golesh are QB Byrum Brown and DE Tramel Logan.

VIDEO

Committing to South Florida is “definitely a possibility” for five-star prospect Karter Knox.

STORY

FAU 28 Charlotte 16 in 3rd qtr

should be a very winnable game.

Jumbo ATH Jonathan Echols (IMG Academy- Bradenton, FL) remains the top target for the 2024 class. The Tennessee commit has visited USF for games several times and is very close to many current staffers. If they can complete the flip it would be a very nice feather in Golesh's cap for the 2024 class.

RB target D'Marius Rucker (Lakeland, FL) was supposed to announce as was DT Keishawn Mashburn (Munroe Day School- Quincy, FL). I do not expect the Bulls to take Mashburn now. He has not had a good SR season. I changed my forecast for Mashburn to FAMU.

I still expect Rucker to be in the 2024 class. He has delayed his announcement it should've been earlier this month. USF still looks good there.

WR Arkese Parks (Wharton- Tampa, FL) remains a key target, he is versatile enough to play receiver, slot or even running back. That makes him a good target with spots getting tight for HS kids.

ATH Gregory Smith III (Sumner- Riverview, FL) has picked up some steam in his recruitment and FSU may look foolish passing on him at the time. Florida has moved up as the team to beat at the moment. USF is still in the mix along with several other programs.

I would keep an eye on Dinellson Exume (Edison- Miami, FL) the twin brother of current USF DL commit Chenellson Exume. I have a very hard time seeing them going to two different schools and Dinellson told me, "Everything about USF was amazing," about his OV and that his mother was overjoyed and loved every moment of the OV in June. Momma tends to win out when all things are equal.

There are a lot of guys still being pursued that are either committed elsewhere are JUCOs or they are saving spots for key portal additions. The defense needs a boost, especially in the front six and the offensive line and receiver rooms could use a boost as well.

Golesh has planned from the jump to play a lot of guys this year and try to win, but also he wanted to see what they had at some spots especially early in the year on defense and they now have an idea of where they need to target their NIL money and go portaling.

South Florida plays Jacksonville in a closed scrimmage (Oct. 21). No fans or media allowed to watch.

There was a time when nobody could even acknowledge the game was even happening. Hence the "secret scrimmage" term but these games ceased being a secret years ago so I now refer to them as closed scrimmages.

Teams have the option of doing two closed scrimmages, or two open exhibitions, or one closed scrimmage and one open exhibition.

Navy 3-4 (2-2) @ Temple 2-6 (0-4) 2:00 PM ESPN+

FAU 4-4 (3-1) @ UAB 2-6 (1-3) 3:00 PM ESPN+

USF 4-4 (2-2) @ Memphis 6-2 (3-1) 3:00 PM ESPN+

UTSA 5-3 (4-0) @ North Texas 3-5 (1-3) 3:00 PM ESPN+

Tulane 7-1 (4-0) @ ECU 1-7 (0-4) 3:30 PM ESPNU

Charlotte 2-8 (1-3) @ Tulsa 3-5 1-3) 4:00 PM ESPN+

SMU 6-2 (4-0) @ Rice 4-4 (2-2) 7:30 PM ESPNU

Bulls have their hands full with Memphis. I just hope we can stay in the game because the Tigers are loaded on both sides of the ball.

UTSA @ North Texas will be an offensive explosion by both teams. It should be fun to watch.

SMU @ Rice is an old rivalry. The Ponies might have too much for Rice but with JT Daniels you never know.

FAU @ UAB is another interesting game. Tulane @ ECU HaHa zzzzz!!

@Kelly Quinlan @Russ Wood

Any idea where coaches are headed fri night to watch some recruits? Are they hitting up schools during the week?

Nay’Quan Wright is one of the top performers who came to South Florida this season via the transfer portal. Who are some of the others?

STORY

BB is QB1 on the all-freshman team: https://theathletic.com/4975136/2023/10/19/college-football-freshman-all-america-team-midseason/

The big arena of interest on Bull Insider has been conference realignment for as long as I can remember. The Bull Insider brain trust insists that the Bulls have to move up to P5 status or their athletic future is doomed. I disagree.

The perennial top 3 in the AAC left town for the Big 12. They are like Whale shit in the Big 12. Whale shit always lies on the bottom of the Ocean, but these guys lie 7 miles deep (36, 200 feet) in the Mariana Trench. To give you a little perspective on this; Mount Everest is the tallest place on earth at 29,026 feet above sea level. The Mariana Trench is 1.36 miles (7074 feet) deeper than Mount Everest is tall. The trench is 5 times wider than it is deep. No man has walked on the floor of the Mariana trench, but 6 have reached the floor in submersibles. Pretty awesome.

Hapless Houston is the only team with an in conference win so far this season. The Holgerson led Cougs are 3-4 (1-3) home win vs WVU 41-39 (Holgerson’s old team), UCif 3-4 (0-4), Cincy 2-5 (0-4). The combined in conference win total stands 1-11 thus far as compared to their 2022 AAC win totals of Houston 8-5 (5-3) & UCif 9-5 (6-2) and Cincy 9-4 (6-2). The 2022 AAC win total of 16-9 beats the Hell out of the Big 12 2023 win total of 1-11. This proves what we already knew, the P5 is a Hell of a lot stronger than the G5.

Under the 12 team NCAA playoff system it appears there is 1 seat available in the playoffs for G5 teams. The 3 leading candidates for 2023 appear to be Air Force, Tulane and Liberty. I am pulling for the Green Wave but we’ll see.
USF has to do 2 things they have never done, 1. Win a conference championship 2. Be deemed by the selection committee as the top G5 team in the country. As long as those odds are, they are better than how the Bulls would have as a P5 member for a LONG, LONG, LONG TIME!!!

As I perused the G5 conferences I was unable to determine a huge difference from conference to conference.

Maybe the AAC has a slight edge in 2023 with Tulane 6-1 (3-)), SMU 5-2 (3-0) (soon to depart), UTSA 4-3 (3-0), Memphis 5-2 (2-1), FAU 3-4 (2-1) and Rice 4-3 (2-1).

CUSA has Liberty Biberty 8-0 (6-0), Jacksonville St 7-2 (5-1), New Mexico St 6-3 (4-1) and WKU 4-4 (2-2).

MAC is the black & Blue division of G5. Toledo 7-1 (4-0), Miami OH 6-2 (3-1), Ohio 6-1 (3-1), Northern Iowa 4-4 (3-1)

The Mountain West has Air Force 7-0 (4-0), UNLV 6-1 (3-0), Wyoming 5-2 (2-1) and Fresno State 6-1 (2-1).

Sunbelt is awesome in terms of improvement over a very short period of time. JMU 7-0 (4-0), Georgia State 6-1 (3-1), Texas State 5-2 (2-1), Troy 5-2 (2-1) and Georgia Southern 5-2 (2-1).

My point is G5 teams are the most exciting teams in football to watch imo because they have everything stacked against them vs the P5 teams and they fight like hell for 60 minutes. They are well coached and they have very good athletes.
I am tired of the same P5 teams dominating the game every year. Alabama, Clemson. LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington and USC. It’s totally boring. They all have big money, big facilities and no morals. I always pull for the underdog.

Golesh dropped the bat signal. You guys will like this one. I can’t spoil the commit though.

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