Bet South Florida Bulls – Transitional Stage Too Much For Bulls To Overcome

2009 South Florida Bulls Betting Recap

Since their 9-4 season in 2007, some online betting players have been waiting to emerge as a player in the Big East, and last year even gave some hope as the Bulls won their first five games of the 2009 campaign, starting off with routs of Wofford, Western Kentucky on the road, and Charleston Southern. The Bulls made a statement with a 17-7 victory at then-No.18 Florida State and a 34-20 win at Syracuse, but then the wheels would fall off with three losses in four games against Cincinnati and at Pittsburgh, both of whom were ranked at the time, followed by a 31-0 humiliation at Rutgers. In that stretch, the Bulls managed to beat No.21 West Virginia as well, but they erased that with the beating at Rutgers two weeks later. The Big East season wrapped up with a home win over Louisville, followed by losses at home to Miami and at UConn, but the Bulls managed to pull it together for a 27-3 demolition of Northern Iowa in the International Bowl, which helped take the sting of another conference disappointment away.

Last year was something of a crash course for frosh pivot B.J. Daniels, who also led the Bulls in rushing, and the South Florida offense was unbalanced as a result as they were 71st in offense, but 38th on the ground. The Bulls were 108th in sacks allowed, but all of that can’t be heaped on the offensive line as Daniels often pulled the ball down when he should have thrown it away. The defense was decent, finishing 24th in that category, and they broke the top 20 in points allowed. However, in their five losses, the Bulls allowed 33.2 points, 13.4 points more than their average.

2010 Preview To Bet South Florida Bulls

The Bulls have a new coach in Skip Holtz, so don’t expect much from their NCAA football betting odds to start the season. Holtz took East Carolina to three straight bowl games for the second time in their history, and now Holtz will inherit an offense with nine starters back, although he’ll want to change schemes. Holtz would like his quarterback to do less running and more passing, so it’ll be interesting to see how Daniels reacts to making reads and hanging in the pocket, rather than having the green light to go at any time. However, there are a lack of receivers and A.J. Love tore his ACL up in the spring, which puts a lot of pressure on Dontavia Bogan. Moise Plancher and Demetris Murray should have bigger roles coming out of the backfield. The defense could be a problem with only four starters back, and they lost a lot up front with Jason Pierre-Paul and George Selvie moving on to the NFL.

While the Bulls have home games against Stony Brook, Western Kentucky and Florida Atlantic to open the season, the second game of the year will be at “the Swamp” at Florida, and that could the Bulls’ confidence for the rest of the season if they get blown out of Gainesville. The Big East schedule starts on October 9th at home against Syracuse, then the Bulls have a tough back-to-back at Cincinnati and West Virginia which could put them behind the eight-ball early in the conference. The Bulls then alternate home and away games for the rest of the year, welcoming Rutgers, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, and visits to Louisville and Miami.

Even with the bowl win, it was a rough season at South Florida last year with the incident that surrounded the firing of Jim Leavitt (he was accused of slapping a player at halftime of the Louisville game). Now with Holtz (son of Notre Dame coaching legend Lou) at the helm, the Bulls may be going through something of a transition. Daniels is going to have to learn to harness his running instincts, but there’s not much at receivers. The defense is missing a lot in both their pass rush and their secondary. There’s just too much going on at South Florida right now to make a proper run at the Big East crown, and it would be a great season if they matched last year’s eight wins.