USF Football Prepares for Street Conflict At Unbeaten North Texas

#24 South Florida (4-1; 1-0 American) at North Texas (5-0; 1-0 American)

Friday, October 10 • 7:30 PM ET • DATCU Stadium (30,100) • Denton, Texas

SURFACE: Artificial, PowerBlade HP

TV: ESPN2: Anish Shroff  (P-by-P), Andre Ware (Analyst) & Paul Carcaterra (Sideline)

RADIO: Q105 FM/Bulls Unlimited Digital

SERIES: USF leads 2-0

IN TAMPA: USF leads 1-0

IN DENTON: USF leads 1-0

LAST TIME: USF 24, UNT 17, in Denton, 10/5/2002

VS AMERICAN: 39-58, received 5 of final 7

AMERICAN ROAD OPENERS: 7-5, misplaced final at Tulane (45-10)

WEEKNIGHT GAMES: 24-34, received final vs. Charlotte

FRIDAY GAMES: 13-19, W final vs Charlotte (54-26) in ’25

VS RANKED: 13-40

SOUTH FLORIDA GAME NOTES

There are loads of potential topics to cowl for the No. 24-ranked USF Bulls (4-1, 1-0) as they put together for Friday evening’s ESPN2 highway showdown in opposition to the North Texas Mean Green (5-0, 1-0) in a pivotal American Conference recreation. 

But for head coach Alex Golesh, whose workforce is coming off a 54-26 house victory in opposition to the Charlotte 49ers, there was a primary precedence. 

Running again Cartevious Norton is OK.

“We’re tremendous, tremendous grateful for that,” Golesh mentioned. 

In the fourth quarter in opposition to Charlotte, Norton was injured on a working play close to the purpose line. He was on the sector for practically quarter-hour as medical workers labored to safe his neck, rigorously place him on a stretcher and get him on a cart. Norton was rushed to Tampa General Hospital and launched on Saturday evening, when he returned to campus.

“Talk about a guy who’s resilient, he walked in here Monday and went to every staff room and every meeting, just to say hello and thank everyone for all the text calls he got,” Golesh said. “I mentioned it after the sport, however watching that (damage to Norton), your ‘Dad hat’ goes on. You’re involved.

“I can think about C-5’s (Norton’s) mother sitting there and questioning what’s going on. That’s the place my coronary heart goes. When each groups have been on a knee, you felt the facility of prayer in that second. I do know I did. Lots of people care about Cartevious, however the energy of prayer is powerful and the person regarded out for him in that second.

“The next step is getting him healthy and there’s a lot that goes into that. We’re supporting him in every way imaginable. But he’s really, really fortunate to be here with us, walking around and hopefully on a quick road to recovery.” 

With Norton unavailable, Golesh mentioned he expects USF’s working again rotation to stay a job by committee with Sam Franklin (186 yards, 7.2-yard common) Alvon Isaac (142, 6.2) and Nykahi Davenport (129, 6.1) getting many of the carries. Golesh mentioned there may very well be alternatives for freshmen Chase Garnett and Tray Krinkle.

“I’d prefer to get to the purpose the place (quarterback) Byrum Brown is not our main rusher,” Golesh mentioned with a smile.

Of course, Golesh does not thoughts his quarterback’s productiveness. Against Charlotte, Brown rushed for 162 yards (his sixth profession 100-yard dashing recreation). But Golesh is striving for backfield steadiness.

“I’m not trying to get Byrum to run it less,” Golesh said. “I simply need any person else to be the main rusher. All of our guys are succesful. We do have a number of weapons on offense and lot of fellows can step up and do some issues.”

USF might want to make use of all of its offensive weapons in opposition to North Texas, which has improved to thirty ninth nationally in whole protection (after rating 127th final season) and forty second in scoring protection (118th final season). The Mean Green has been susceptible on the bottom (ranked 114th in dashing protection, permitting 180.4 yards per recreation).

“North Texas is very sound defensively,” Brown said. “They play aggressive they usually rally to the ball. But if we simply do our job, we’ll be simply positive, proper the place we must be.”

Offensively, the Mean Green is paced by dual-threat redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Mestemaker (6-foot-4, 211 kilos), a former walk-on who hadn’t began a recreation for the reason that ninth grade. Mestemaker leads the American with a 158.4 passing effectivity rating and is among the many prime three Football Bowl Subdivision freshman quarterbacks in landing passes (11 in opposition to zero interceptions).

“He’s a great quarterback,” linebacker Mac Harris said. “He’s younger, however nice.”

Another freshman, working again Caleb Hawkins (6-2, 200), has additionally damaged out with 239 dashing yards whereas catching 4 passes for 92 yards previously two video games in opposition to Army and South Alabama. Hawkins is averaging 8.7 yards per contact this season, which ranks third amongst all FBS working backs.

“They’ve got some weapons we need to account for,” Harris said. “We’ll be prepared for them.”

Meanwhile, North Texas will undoubtedly be prepared for USF.

The Bulls have returned to the nationwide rankings. After rising to No. 18, then taking a defeat at Miami, the Bulls have been skulking round within the receiving votes class. But after a shakeup across the nation, mixed with the win in opposition to Charlotte, the Bulls have re-emerged at No. 24.

Golesh mentioned he does not harp on such issues, however is aware of it is good for this system.

“As we continue to build, these things should be part of the standard and part of the expectation,” Golesh said. “It’s a credit score to our gamers persevering with to plug, week by week. We realized a extremely good lesson three weeks in the past, the place it was extremely overestimated and we have been within the highlight, then we went to Miami and it did not look something like we wished it to appear to be.

“If we realized one thing, I’d let you know that it (rankings) does not matter. It’s a pleasant recognition publicly and an indication of the truth that we’re persevering with to construct. But the one quantity that issues is the one on the very finish. I feel our gamers are mature sufficient and perceive that each one you are concerned about is immediately and what the subsequent factor is. You do not management the rankings they usually don’t have anything to do with us profitable or shedding a recreation.

“I mentioned it once I took the job and I’ll say it once more. This is a prime 20, prime 15, prime 10 program in your entire nation. We knew it might take a second to construct it and we’re attempting to get there as quick as we are able to. But I feel there isn’t any ceiling right here. My job is to constantly get us higher and take us to locations the place we have not been earlier than. I do not know the way lengthy it should take, nevertheless it’s not going to be for a scarcity of effort.”

–#GoBulls–