USF's plan for Saturday's spring game: Festive things off the field and vanilla on it

If you plan to attend USF’s intrasquad game on Saturday to close spring practice, here’s an idea of what to expect.

By the way, if you want to see the game, you have to attend in person. The game will not be televised because it's best to keep the Bulls’ opening opponent – Boise State – as clueless as possible about what the Broncos will face on August 30.

While Boise could record the game if it were on TV, NCAA rules prohibit in-person scouting of future opponents in the regular season, including spring games. It probably wouldn't matter anyway.

“I think at the end of the day, you're going to keep the spring game relatively vanilla. There's no wrinkles that you want to show to anybody,” Bulls coach Alex Golesh said.

“You want to be able to operate, play really fast, tackle really effectively, and not make it a s—t show in any way. But in terms of getting something for the first opponent, I probably overrated it in a lot of ways.”

USF is trying to make the game an occasion at Corbett Stadium. A street fest will start at 4 p.m. outside the stadium, followed by the game at 6 p.m.

There’s a $10 admission charge.

“There's a lot of reasons why you don't put it on TV, right? I think that first year (after Golesh arrived), we put it on TV to try to create an excitement level,” he said.

That was then.

This is now.

“I think you, you don't put those things on TV because you don't want to show anything that you may have changed or grown with personnel-wise,” he said.

So it’ll be a festive night followed by vanilla football where the main goal is to execute well – oh yes – DON’T GET ANYONE HURT!

Golesh was asked what fans should focus on during the game.

“I think what you would want to watch is the offense, how we function in terms of the play to play AND being able to get drive started,” he said.

“Obviously (watch) the tempo, getting the drive started, and the ability to sustain drives because of the run game and the growth of the perimeter. That wide-eyed group has grown so much. There's so much explosiveness, but there's (also) so much I feel like maturity now.”

The backfield is thin right now after Kelley Joiner, Nay`Quan Wright, and Ta`Ron Keith graduated and took their combined 308 rushing attempts, 1,728 yards, and 28 touchdowns with them.

Everyone is eager to see what incoming transfer running back Cartevious Norton can do after transferring from Charlotte. He also played previously at Iowa State. He's joined in the backfield this year by sophomore Alvon Isaac, junior Jaylen Johnson, and sophomore Nykahi Davenport.

That’s it for the running back corps, for now anyway. You can be certain the Bulls are on the lookout for an extra hand or two from the transfer portal.

They picked up help at linebacker, which is another thin position, when Dj McCormick Jr. from UCF announced he is committed to the Bulls.

They also saw defensive tackle Bernard Gooden enter the portal, which could hurt. He ranked 33rd overall in the country by Pro Football Focus and was 24th among 904 Division I defensive tackles against the run.