By Michael Fergusson
Thursday night football games won’t be appearing in the 2018-2019 USF football schedule.
Overall, the schedule has been met with mixed reviews. While there are only six home games, five are on Saturdays.
The four non-conference teams the Bulls will play are Georgia Tech, Elon, Illinois and UMass.
Elon and Georgia Tech are the first two home games of the season, while UMass and Illinois are away games.
USF will play in-conference opponents East Carolina, UConn, Tulane and UCF at home. Meanwhile, Tulsa, Houston, Cincinnati and Temple will be played away from Raymond James Stadium.
The homecoming game will be Oct. 20 against UConn.
USF shouldn’t have much of a problem with their non-conference games, as Elon, Illinois and UMass don’t really drive fear into the heart of many teams.
Georgia Tech should be the most challenging non-conference team to beat because they run the triple-option, which is difficult to defend and prepare for.
For in-conference games, the toughest team will be rival UCF. The Knights are coming off a 12-0 season and the majority of their offense is returning.
A technical problem with this schedule is that the Bulls only play one home game in all of October.
Also, after the game against East Carolina on Sept. 22, the next home game isn’t for another month.
This hiatus will create excitement for the Bulls to return, but it’s still a month without USF football in the Tampa Bay area.
Most of the home games aren’t on weekdays. The one exception is the game against UCF, which is on Friday, but as seen last season, the game had a primetime television spot on a major network and is ranked as one of the best Black Friday 3:30 p.m. games ABC has had since 2002.
A bittersweet outcome of the schedule is that the Bulls only play back-to-back home games once.
One glaring problem with this schedule is the lack of challenging opponents. Obviously this type of schedule is not going to lead USF to one of the four playoff spots, but it can lead to a New Year’s Six bowl game.
If USF wants to ever be in consideration for a playoff spot, they need to play harder non-conference teams like Iowa and Washington State.
Realistically, USF won’t play teams like Alabama and Clemson because the Bulls can’t compete just yet. Also, the slim risk of losing and looking bad isn’t worth top-tier teams’ time.
Nevertheless, the Bulls can only control how they perform in the 2018 season, so they shouldn’t get sidetracked by who they’re playing.
Header photo: Emily Wunderlich | The Crow’s Nest
