Gators must beware, this is the Super Bowl for South Florida

Jadan Baugh (13) needs a big game against USF (Photo by Chris Spears)

For the South Florida Bulls, this is their Super Bowl. Sure, they play at Miami next week and they have a really good shot at making the American Conference championship game the first weekend in December. Those games are important, but nothing is more important than sticking it to Big Brother at The Swamp.

If you’re University of South Florida, the University of Florida is Big Brother. They have great academics, enough that they’re members of the American Association of Universities but not that many people actually know that. Okay, FSU people know because USF is in and they aren’t.  Everybody in the country knows that the University of Florida is a member of that prestigious organization. Everybody also knows that Florida is considered one of the public Ivy League universities.

That’s academics, which is a very big deal, but so are athletics. Florida’s three national championships in football are among 49 won by the school in history, 50 if you count the national championship awarded the 1984 football team by the New York Times. Meanwhile, South Florida has the 1985 Division II women’s swimming national championship to its credit.

When you consider the academics, the athletics and then the venue for the game today – The Swamp – the importance of this game to South Florida is perfectly understandable. This is their Super Bowl and the Florida Gators need to take the field today knowing that South Florida is going to play like this is the single most important football game in school history, which it is.

South Florida coach Alex Golesh has put together a very good football team, one very capable of winning the American Conference. Win the American and the Bulls just might be the highest ranked Group of Five team, which would give them one of the 12 slots in the College Football Playoff.

The Gators need to treat the Bulls as if they are a playoff contender, not like their country cousins from 140 miles down I-75. If the Gators take the field focused and treating this like it’s the single most important game they’ll play all year, they’ll be just fine.

Florida will have an advantage in size, physical strength and depth. South Florida has enough talent to give the Gators a good run for the money in the first half, but the Gators should be able to wear down the Bulls in the second half.

The three keys for the Gators are: 1. Establish the run early and keep pounding away at that smaller USF interior line until they start giving up chunk yardage in the second half; 2. Protect the football against a team that forced Boise State into three critical turnovers last week; and 3. Stay in the pass rush lanes and don’t let South Florida QB Byrum Brown break containment, especially on third and long.

The pick: Florida will pull away in the second half to win a game that will look more comfortable than what it really is.

SEC FOOTBALL

Louisiana Tech (1-0) at No. 3 LSU (1-0): LSU is favored by 37.5 points. The question that should be on everybody’s mind is why so few? Louisiana Tech struggled with D1AA Southeastern Louisiana last week in Ruston. They will struggle big time against LSU, whose main goal is to emerge from this game injury-free since the Gators come to town next Saturday night, The pick: LSU

Austin Peay (1-0) at No. 4 Georgia (1-0): Another dial-a-score game at Sanford Stadium that won’t prove anything. Gunner Stockton will look like an all-world QB against the D1AA Governors. We won’t know if he can really play until next week when the Bulldogs travel to Knoxville for their SEC opener. This one will be all but over before the end of the first quarter. The pick: Georgia

San Jose State (0-1) at No. 7 Texas (0-1): After laying an egg in Columbus against the Buckeyes last week, the Longhorns limp on home where they are 36.5-point favorites to whomp up on San Jose State. Quick trivia bit for you. The wave was invented at San Jose State football games by a self-appointed cheerleader known as Crazy George. They will be doing the wave at DKR-Memorial Stadium before the first quarter is done. Nothing like San Jose State to make Arch Manning look like a Division I quarterback. The pick: Texas

South Carolina State (0-1) at No. 10 South Carolina (1-0): It’s a tuneup game before the SEC schedule kicks in next week. The Gamecocks need to get their offense untracked after managing only 328 yards total last week against Virginia Tech. Particularly, the Gamecocks have to get their running game going. They ran for only 119 yards and averaged just 3.21 per carry back on Sunday against Virginia Tech. The guy they want to get going is Utah State transfer Rahsul Faison, who ran for more than 1,100 yards last season. The pick: South Carolina

No. 15 Michigan (1-0) at No. 18 Oklahoma (1-0): Brent Venables really needs to win this game. He’s 3-12 against ranked teams the last three seasons and while OU fans want to believe in him, beating Michigan from the Big Ten would ease a lot of minds. Michigan held New Mexico to 4.5 yards per pass attempt last weekend in the season opener, so this will be a much tougher defense for John Mateer to dissect than the one he faced last week against D1AA Illinois State. Mateer needs to have a big game and the Oklahoma defense has to make life miserable for Michigan’s 5-star freshman QB Bryce Underwood. Oklahoma has to stuff the run while giving Underwood looks he has never seen. Oklahoma is a 5.5-point favorite. The pick: Oklahoma

Utah State (1-0) at No. 19 Texas A&M (1-0): The battle of the Aggies at Kyle Field. The Texas A&M Aggies are 31.5-point favorites to put the kibosh on the Utah State Aggies. This is a decent tuneup game for Texas A&M, which travels to Notre Dame next Saturday. Utah State is better than most teams that come to College Station to take a beating for a paycheck but not good enough to do something drastic like actually win the game.

No. 20 Ole Miss (1-0) at Kentucky (1-0): A year ago, Kentucky stunned the Rebels in Oxford. This one’s in Lexington, where visiting teams tend to lower themselves to Kentucky’s level for some strange reason. The oddsmakers must think it will happen again because Ole Miss is only an 8.5-point favorite over a Kentucky team that will struggle to get to four wins. If Austin Simmons solves the UK pass rush and gets outside containment with any kind of consistency, Ole Miss will win big. If UK keeps him contained white knuckles. The pick: Ole Miss

Louisiana-Monroe (1-0) at No. 21 Alabama (0-1): Bama fans are less than enamored with Kalen DeBoer. Not even the blowout win they’ll get in Tuscaloosa Saturday night will calm the nerves of Tide fans. If Bama doesn’t cover the 34.5-point spread, expect fans and boosters to debate whether or not they should tar and feather DeBoer. If there is one thing watching it’s the quarterback situation. If Ty Simpson isn’t noticeably better from the outset, expect fans to be screaming for one of the backups. The pick: Alabama

East Tennessee State (1-0) at No. 22 Tennessee (1-0): The goal for the Vols is give the starters enough reps to feel like they’ve accomplished something then get them off the field injury-free. Georgia comes to Knoxville next week and that game could go a long way toward determining the rest of the season for the Vols. The pick: Tennessee

No. 12 Arizona State (1-0) at Mississippi State (1-0): This is rather odd. Despite being ranked No. 12 nationally and coming off a playoff season, Arizona State is only a 6.5-point favorite over Mississippi State, everybody’s pick to finish dead last in the Southeastern Conference. The Bulldogs ran for 186 yards against Southern Miss last week, enabling them to play defense with their offense by keeping the defense off the field.  The pick: Arizona State

Kansas (2-0) at Missouri (1-0): The Missouri defense will be tested by Kansas QB Jalon Daniels, who has already thrown for 485 yards and seven TDS while running for another 65. Kansas throws for 261 a game and runs for 246. Missouri has found its QB in Beau Pribula, who passed for 285 yards and two TDs while running for another 65 and two more TDs last week. Missouri will have to establish the run against a KU defense that has allowed 90 total in two games. Missouri is a 6.5-point favorite.  

Arkansas State (1-0) at Arkansas (1-0): In what is likely the last time Arkansas play a game at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, the Razorbacks are favored by 23.5 points over their country cousins from Arky State, which is coached by Butch Jones. Yes, the same Butch Jones who was once the head coach at Tennessee. The Razorbacks better win this one big because it might be November before they’re favored to win another game. The pick: Arkansas

Ball State (0-1) at Auburn (1-0): Auburn has Ball State and South Alabama to figure out a passing game that it’s going to need when the Tigers open their SEC schedule with back-to-backs at Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Jackson Arnold can run the ball. We knew that before he transferred to Auburn from Oklahoma. He’s got to prove he can hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle from close range however. Auburn is a 43.5-point favorite. It probably won’t be that close. The pick: Auburn

Vanderbilt (1-0) at Virginia Tech (0-1): A year ago the Commodores ambushed the Hokies in Nashville. They make the trip to Blacksburg very confident that they can make it two in a row over VaTech and two in a row to start the 2025 season. A year ago Diego Pavia lit up the Hokies. He threw for 275 yards and three touchdowns in the season opener. VaTech couldn’t stop LaNorris Sellers of South Carolina last week. The Hokies are 2.5-point favorites but they will struggle to stop Pavia this week.  The pick: Vanderbilt