Who:                    Temple Owls vs. #21 USF Bulls
What:                  College football game
When:                 Thursday, September 21
st
, 2017 at 7:30 PM EDT
Where:                Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL
Why:                    American Athletic Conference game

Thursday night, the #21 ranked University of South Florida Bulls will host the Temple University Owls to begin American Athletic Conference play.  The game has special meaning for the Bulls, who were denied the conference championship when the Owls handed them their only conference loss of the season.  USF will look to tie the all-time record, which Temple leads 2-1, and remain undefeated.

The Bulls are 3-0, but don’t have a signature win under their belts, as yet.  Temple was destroyed by Notre Dame in their first game of the season, 49-16.  Since then, they’ve beaten Villanova and UMass by three and seven points, respectively.

USF Offense
After starting off slow in games against San Jose State and Stony Brook, the USF offense got back to old form against Illinois, on whom they easily put up 47 points.  They’re currently 29
th in scoring offense, averaging 40 points per game, just a few points off of last season’s top four offense.  The offense is fairly balanced, averaging 281 yards per game rushing and 241 passing yards per game.  While they’re ranked just 60th in passing yards per game, they’re 13th in rushing offense and 14th
in total offense per game, averaging more than 522 yards.

Leading that high powered offense is senior quarterback, Quinton Flowers.  Flowers, a true dual-threat quarterback, has averaged 226 passing yards per game with 8 touchdowns and two interceptions through three games.  He’s second on the team in rushing, averaging 81 yards per game on the ground while running for two touchdowns this year. 

Flowers is joined in the running game by fellow seniors, Darius Tice and D’Ernest Johnson, who average 85 and 71 yards per game, respectively.  Tice has racked up four touchdowns thus far. 

On the receiving end of Flowers’ passes are senior receiver, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and junior receiver, Tyre McCants.  Each have two touchdowns on the season, with Valdes-Scantling tallying 202 yards receiving and McCants registering 131.  Sophomore receiver, Deangelo Antoine, had a breakout performance in their last game against Illinois, going for 93 yards on four catches with one touchdown.

Temple Defense
The Owls are 83
rd in scoring defense, allowing nearly 28 points per game, a number somewhat skewed by the 49 given up to the Irish.  They allowed 13 points to Villanova and 21 points to UMass.  They rank 119th
in total defense, allowing nearly 490 yards per game. 

Junior defensive back, Delvon Randall, leads the team with 28 tackles, which ranks him 36th, nationally.  Sophomore linebacker, Chapelle Russell, is second on the team with 21.  Just one Owl, senior defensive back, Mike Jones, has an interception.  Freshman lineman, Quincy Roche, has managed four sacks, one of which came at Notre Dame.  The other three were against UMass.  Roche is in a three-way tie for fourth in total sacks, nationally.

Temple Offense
Averaging just over 20 points per game and ranking 110
th in the country, the Temple offense is not what would be called high-powered.  They rank 117th for rushing offense and 48th
in passing offense.  The Owls definitely lean on sophomore quarterback, Logan Marchi’s arm, passing for 255 yards per game versus about 94 total rushing yards per game by the entire team. 

Senior receiver, Keith Kirkwood, has been Marchi’s favorite target this season, with 185 yards on 12 receptions with two touchdowns.  Sophomore receiver, Isaiah Wright is averaging nearly as many yards, 60, as Kirkwood, on three fewer catches.    

The ground game is led by junior running back, Ryquell Armstead, who is averaging 59 yards per game with no touchdowns this season.  While their running game has not been a factor through three games, Armstead ran for 210 yards and two touchdowns against the Bulls in Temple’s 46-30 victory in 2016.

USF Defense

Concluding the 2016 season, USF ranked just 92nd in scoring defense and 41st in total defense.  Three games into 2017, the Bulls are 47th on scoring defense, allowing just under 21 points per game and 41st in total defense, allowing 323 yards per game.  The overall improvements in ranking are just beginning to illustrate the improvements made since new head coach, Charlie Strong, took the reins. 

Last season, then-junior linebacker, Auggie Sanchez led the team with 117 total tackles, averaging nine per game.  Second place averaged three less tackles, per game.  This season they are spreading the load. Sanchez has been displaced by junior defensive back, Ronnie Hoggins, and sophomore linebacker, Nico Sawtelle, who have 18 tackles each.  Sanchez is in the third spot, with 16 tackles. 

One of the areas of most significant improvement has been on turnovers.  In 2016, the Bulls ranked a respectable 14th in turnover margin, taking 26 turnovers for the 17 lost.  Their 15 interceptions ranked them 22nd in the nation.  This season, they already have racked up 8 interceptions, more than half of last year’s total, and rank 2nd in the country in the category.  They improved their turnover margin in the process, giving up just 2 turnovers for the 8 gained, the third best total in the country.

Senior defensive back, Devin Abraham, and junior defensive back, Mazzi Wilkins, each have two of those interceptions.  Hoggins and Sawtelle join senior defensive back, Tajee Fullwood, and freshman linebacker, Keirston Johnson, with one interception.  The team total of eight interceptions projects to improve the season total by more than 50% over last year. 

Sack leaders for the team are sophomore linebacker, Greg Reaves, and senior lineman, Bruce Hector, who each have a pair of sacks.  The USF defense ranks 14th against the run, keeping opponents to less than 90 yards per game, rushing.

Expectations
The game looks like a paper mismatch.  USF is scoring twice as many points per game and could give Temple all of the offense that they have averaged and the game is still a blowout.  The Owls are allowing 488 yards per game and the Bulls are averaging 522.  Assuming that Temple makes their average in defensive containment, that’s 93% of what USF is averaging.  Allowing Temple their offense and defensive averages, the score is somewhere in the neighborhood of 37-20 favoring the Bulls.  Expect this game to be close about halfway through the second quarter.  After that, USF gets redemption for the conference title that got away, last year.  The Bulls 20 game streak with at least 30 points is the longest in the country.

Summary
USF is currently a 19.5 point average, with the over / under set at 63.  ESPN, who is televising the game nationally, predicts there is an 87.4% chance of a USF victory.  Kickoff is at 7:30 PM EDT.

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