USF against the world? Brian Hartline loves the challenge the Bulls are about to get

South Florida head coach Brian Hartline said Monday he loves road games because "I I love the us against the world mentality."

Well, buckle up coach and Bulls. Because that's exactly what USF is going to get on Thursday when it travels to San Antonio to meet 4-1 UTSA.

Under head coach Jeff Traylor, the Roadrunners are 35-5 inside the Alamodome, including 25-1 against conference opponents. A Thursday night game on nationally televised on ESPN is sure to hype the crowd up even more, as if the Alamodome isn't loud enough already.

Add the fact that the Bulls are coming off their first loss of the season -- an American Conference loss, no less. Throw in that UTSA believes it is in the mix for a spot in the conference title game, and USF's preparation is condensed because of the short week, well ...

Might as well embrace the "us against the world" idea because that's what the Bulls are about to face. FanDuel Sportsbook installed UTSA as a 6.5-point favorite.

That seems about right.

"They're very successful in their space, but we look forward to the opportunity.," Hartline said. "We look forward to the opportunity to play a good team. They're fast, they're strong, they're physical. Coach has been there for seven, eight years, you know, and he's been really successful being there."

The Roadrunners are led by quarterback Owen McCown. If the last name sounds familiar, it should. His father is Josh McCown, who played for nine different teams during an 18-year NFL career. That included a stop in Tampa Bay in 2014 for a terrible Bucs team that finished 2-14 under Lovie Smith.

His journey also crossed paths with Hartline when both played at Cleveland.

"(Owen) reminds me of his dad. Josh was probably one of my favorite guys I played with. when I was playing in the NFL. I had a lot of respect for Josh. Josh is a heck of an athlete. I'll never forget with him playing basketball, windmilling a basketball," Hartline said.

"Josh is one of the best athletes late in his career that I played with. (Owen) has that bloodline, obviously, He loves ball. and is really productive."

The loss against Temple exposed a lot of things about USF that fans were worried about -- particularly on offense. Heading to the locker room at halftime after scoring only three points, Hartline stopped for the obligatory interview and called the offense a "clown show."

He was much more measured Monday, but the concern is still there.

"We are looking forward to getting back on the field, trying to correct some wrongs, and really looking forward to growing. I mean, they know as much as we want to be undefeated, and we'll want to be undefeated every year, I promise you that," he said.

"But the reality of it is we have to try to get better each and every week as we continue to build. And so we do have goals. All of our goals are still out in front of us, but we do a better job of just taking the practice to the game because the practice effort and execution has been pretty happy with, but it's not quite translating fully to the game yet."

That needs to happen soon. The world is watching.

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