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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Vea is out

Had an opportunity to attend the DC alumni gathering and it turned out to be a great time. It was extremely well done and couldn’t have picked a better venue than the 101 Constitution Roof Terrace (across the street from the Capitol). There were over 200 alumni that attended and President Law did a great job providing a state of the university update. She emphasized our new AAU designation and how we’ll continue to climb in academic ranking.

I also had a chance to chat with her for about 10-minutes and she had nothing but great things to say about Coach Golesh and truly feels he’ll be the one to take us to new heights. She’s also hoping we’ll be invited into the ACC and she’s really hoping we can make it to a bowl game this year and the importance of this as a starting point for USF football. Many that work at USF that attended and that I spoke to including President Law feel if USF is able to win the conference next year and make the playoffs that would be huge for our chances for getting into the ACC when FSU, Clemson, NC and most likely one other depart. I’m sure this is obvious to many but this was truly validated this evening. Really enjoyed chatting with her and she’s much different than Genshaft who wasn’t as warm and inviting. Just wanted to pass this along. Go Bulls!

Was voted into the AAC this morning according to Ross Dellenger. Possibly starting next year.

Pro Football Focus (PFF) grades the South Florida Bulls performance against Connecticut.

STORY

The Bulls try to snap a two-game skid in CT where it's cloudy and in the 50's (last I checked). Game time is 3:30 p.m. ET on CBSSN. Please keep all game chatter in this thread.