South Florida at Army (Saturday – 12pm ET)
I like the Brian Hartline hire for the Bulls, and understand they still have decent resources to put together a solid program. However, with Alex Golesh moving over to Auburn, and taking all of his offensive weapons with him, USF lost a ton. It showed in the season opener, with South Florida winning 19-9 over FIU.
USF was respected in the market and bet up to a 14.5-point favorite in that game. But the Bulls were extremely lackluster, showing zero explosiveness in the offense. The passing game went 11-of-18 for just 100 yards. They ran 38 times for 108 yards. Yuck.
While Bryant is not an opponent you’d expect to show much resistance against Army, the rushing game was dominant to a ridiculous degree. The Black Knights ripped off 569 rushing yards on 57 carries — 10 yards per carry — with eight touchdowns.
Sure, USF will defense the run better, but I still expect Army to have a ton of success on the ground at home in this matchup. The Bulls were really disappointing on offense, and are in for a tougher task this week on the road.
CFB Pick: Army -3 (-115)