Miami game gives USF football another chance to shine in the national spotlight

USF football has another opportunity Saturday night to be a top story on Sports Center when 8th-ranked Miami comes to Raymond James Stadium.

Before this nationally televised game on ESPN, commentators will talk about all the things the Hurricanes have going for them at the moment. The prize would be to have those same talking heads spreading the word about the upstart USF Bulls when the game is over.

Golesh, of course, doesn’t look at it that way. He’s in a cocoon with his players and coaches, trying to perfect the process that leads to championships that he is trying to instill in his program.

“I'm so excited to see what Saturday had to look like, but I literally go to bed every night, and I think, man, like, how do we just keep going and building and going? Because I truly, 21 months in, I believe that we are still in a race to get as good as we can, as fast as we can.

“And in college football right now, that's happening at such a rapid pace. And everybody thinks, well, the transfer portal is the solution. I think coaching your players, loving your players, developing your players, recruiting really, really hard, and working really, really hard is still the formula to build a program. You can try to build a really good team and try to do it in a flash as much as you want, but I think there's no sustainability to it. And I was brought here to build a program, and I feel like we're making progress there.”

The Hurricanes are about a 16-point favorite, which would qualify for their closest game of the year so far. They are 3-0 and haven’t been tested, although, to be fair, their schedule hasn’t been very challenging. After walloping Florida 41-17 in The Swamp to open the season, Miami dispatched FAMU and Ball State by a combined score of 118-9.

And, seriously, how much credit do we give Miami for the win in Gainesville? It seemed good at the time, but the Gators are in freefall and might not win another game.

In many ways, this will be Miami’s toughest test to date and one of its hardest all season. There’ll be about 55,000 people in Ray-Jay, and the atmosphere will be electric.

“I think the biggest difference from a year ago for (Miami) defensively is what that front looks like, what it plays like, really active and really, really physical,” USF coach Alex Golesh said.

“Defensively, they fly around, play really fast, really impressive, fun to watch. It is a well-coached unit offensively. The quarterback is making it really go.”

That would be Cam Ward, Miami’s legit Heisman candidate.

“He's really special. I mean, man, he can make every throw. He moves around in the pocket extremely well. You watch, you watch all three games, and it's a really, really confident young man.”

Not just “really” but “really, really.”

Ward is worthy of exclamation marks, though. He was the ACC Preseason Player of the Year and his 11 TD passes through three games leads the nation. Miami averages 405 yards per game through the air.

Southern Mississippi hurt USF through the air last weekend in Hattiesburg without a Heisman-caliber quarterback. And although the Bulls battled Alabama hard for 54 minutes in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide used big passing plays at the end to put daylight between themselves and the visitors from Tampa.

Ward is a step up from ‘Bama quarterback Jalen Milroe. It’s not exactly a state secret what USF must do to slow him down.

“Defensively, it starts with being able to affect the quarterback. Like I said, it's a guy who's started 47 games in college football, and that guy has answers,” Golesh said.

That’s a lot of games.

“Affecting him is where it would start. Stopping the run would be a huge part of it. Try to make it as one-dimensional as you can,” Golesh said.

Playing an in-state rival with the tradition of Miami is a great game for the fans. It has been nearly a decade since USF football stoked this kind of fervor among students and alumni. A win would put the Bulls back in the national spotlight and set them up for the American Athletic Conference games that begin next weekend at Tulane.

If they win, they’ll be talked about on College Game Day.  Writers will compose stories about Golesh's miraculous job resurrecting a program that was about as low as possible when he arrived in late 2022.

Recruits will want to be part of this. And it would send a message to any power conference thinking about expanding that they’d better grab the Bulls while they can.