Photo courtesy of Alex Felski | The Crow’s Nest
By Dominic Feo
Five weeks into the college football season, the University of South Florida has not left the state. On Oct. 10, No. 24 USF will travel its farthest regular-season distance to Denton to play North Texas.
USF has only played the Mean Green twice before in 2001 and 2002, both ending in Bulls wins. On paper, 4-1 USF and 5-0 North Texas appears to be a high-profile matchup. Each team’s strength of schedule, however, tells a different story.
The Bulls went 2-1 against three Top 25 teams in its first three weeks, while the only opponent currently ranked on the Mean Green’s schedule, is USF. On Aug. 12, Sports Illustrated ranked USF’s schedule as the 27th toughest in the country. North Texas’s schedule was ranked as the 72nd.
The biggest story of North Texas’s season has been the emergence of redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker. The walk-on was once sixth on the depth chart, but a nearly 400-yard passing performance in the 2024 SERVPRO First Responder Bowl helped Mestemaker win the starting job for this season.
Through five wins, Mestemaker has not thrown an interception, but he is facing a Bulls defense that has forced a turnover in 13-straight games.
North Texas has a staunch passing defense of its own, letting up the least amount of passing yards (679) in the American Conference. If USF is forced to lean on its run game, the offense may not skip a beat.
USF ran for a combined 407 yards against Charlotte on Oct. 3 with star quarterback Byrum Brown accounting for 162 of them. Senior running back Cartevious Norton suffered an upper body injury during the game, so USF will use a rotation of backs in Denton.
That rotation will consist of Alvon Issac, Sam Franklin and Nykahi Davenport, who all saw action against Charlotte.
USF will be entering a DACTU stadium that is sold out for the first time since 2011, due in large part to North Texas cancelling afternoon classes on gameday. Despite the expected turnout, head coach Alex Golesh remains confident that his team is prepared.
“We’ve been battle tested pretty good on the road at this point. We’ve played in tough environments. We’ve executed in tough environments,” said Golesh during an Oct. 3 press conference. “I’m really excited to go into Friday night and see where we are because I think it’ll be an exciting next step for us.”
The game will be nationally televised on ESPN at 7:30 p.m.
