We are 104 days away from USF's opening football game with FIU, and you might be wondering how that game is going to go.
If DraftKings is correct, Brian Hartline's Bulls will be successful in his head coaching debut. The line has been established and USF is favored by 12.5 points. Sure, it's way too early for that, except we all know it's never too early when it comes to football.
Bulls fans might look at that line and believe their team should be favored by a lot more than that, but there are too many unknowns at this point for the line to be tilted more in USF's favor.
Start with the fact that the Panthers made significant progress in 2025 under first-year coach Willie Simmons. Before he arrived, FIU was 19-47 over the six previous seasons, including three straight 4-8 finishes. Simmons led the Panthers to a 7-6 finish, including four straight wins to close the regular season.
That earned them a bid to the First Responder Bowl and, well, Coach Simmons probably would prefer that we don't bring that up. They were clobbered 57-20 by UTSA but, hey, at least they were there.
There was some speculation that USF might go after Simmons when Alex Golesh left, but Hartline was the No. 1 choice from the start. The FIU administration didn't take any chances, though. Sensing that other programs might zero in on their guy, Simmons was rewarded with a contract extension to 2029 along with a $100,000 pay bump to $850,000 a year.
USF reportedly is paying the Panthers $500,000 to come to Tampa.
The talent gap between the two teams should be considerable. Of the 41 players who joined the Bulls through the Transfer Portal, 24 of them came from power conference programs. That includes USF's top two quarterbacks -- Michael Van Buren, Jr. and Luke Kromenhoek,
And if their performance in the spring game was any indication, the running backs could be a major strength,
However, the biggest question for Bulls' fans is how quickly Hartline and his staff can turn a team with a massive roster overhaul and new coaches into a well-oiled unit.
Although it's a different sport, we saw that it took a little time for now-former USF men's basketball coach to get his team to fully mesh last year. That was with a roster with only one returning player and, of course, all new coaches.
Hartline said at the end of spring practice he thought things were moving in the right direction.
"I'm really proud when you consider where we were three months ago to where we are now,'' he said. "We have a long way to go. But I think we should do a good job of assessing what we did well. We've got to continue that and then we have to enhance the things we didn't do as well.''Â
You can bet on that.
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