generic USF Bulls Preview 2022: Season Prediction, Breakdown, Key Games, Players
USF Bulls Preview 2022: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the USF season with what you need to know and keys to the season.
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
USF Bulls Preview
Head Coach: Jeff Scott, 3rd year at USF, 3-18
2021 Preview: Overall: 2-10, Conference: 1-7
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
USF Top 10 Players | USF Schedule
USF Bulls Preview 2022
You’ll have to forgive USF if they’re feeling left out of the party.
The Big 12 is dropping the ball on this. It added Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF from the American Athletic Conference for next year – along with BYU – and it’s crazy not to bring aboard a big school in the Tampa market to expand the Florida footprint even more.
It’s easy to forget that expansion is about business and not necessarily about the short-sighted win-loss record, but of course USF would’ve been a bigger consideration for a move if it was rocking and rolling.
It’s not all that long ago when the program was strong, going bowling in 2018 and winning 21 games between 2016 and 2017. There’s no reason why it can’t get back to that level in a hurry.
Head coach Jeff Scott hasn’t been able to right the ship, but he’s been rebuilding. The coaching staff went through some changes, almost everyone is back, and despite a whole slew of transfer portal losses, the depth isn’t all that bad.
Now the wins have to come. The program is too good – and has too much to offer – to be this mediocre.
List
USF Bulls Top 10 Players: College Football Preview 2022
USF Bulls Preview 2022: Offense
The whole idea behind getting Jeff Scott as the head coach was to crank up the offense, but it hasn’t worked so far. The Bulls averaged just 351 yards and 23 points per game with everything being a tad strange.
The running game was a monster at times, the passing game was able to push it down the field a bit, and the pass protection wasn’t that bad, but there were too many times when things fizzled. On the plus side, there’s experience with ten starters back for new offensive coordinator Travis Trickett to work with.
The passing game has to get moving. Timmy McClain showed promise as a freshman, but he only threw five touchdown passes – the team threw six – with seven picks. He ran for four scores, but he wasn’t able to make the attack blow up.
On the way is Gerry Bohanon from Baylor – a big, veteran baller who ran for nine touchdowns and threw for 18 along with 2,200 for the Big 12 champ.
The wide receivers have to make more big plays. Xavier Weaver led the team with 41 catches and averaged a whopping 17.4 yards per catch, and he’s not alone with the top three targets back and helped by the addition of Ajou Ajou coming in from Clemson.
The offensive line wasn’t that bad. Of course it could be tighter in pass protection and at keeping defense out of the backfield, but this is a good-sized group that’s now loaded with depth – especially for the interior – thanks to the transfer portal. Left tackle Donovan Jenkins is a 6-5, 327-pound pro prospect, and 6-3, 309-pound senior Demetris Harris is coming off an All-AAC season.
The backs are in place with everyone of note back. Jaren Mangham was the team’s bright spot with 671 yards and 15 scores, Kelley Joiner was second on the team with 480 yards and showed some flash, and Brian Battle was an all-star kick returner averaging 32.5 yards per pop with three touchdowns.
USF Bulls Preview 2022: Defense
The offense has most of the returning talent, but the defense has veterans, too, with nine starters expected back for new defensive coordinator and longtime coach Bob Shoop.
The D has a ton of work to do after finishing 123rd in the nation allowing 476 yards and 35 points per game. The biggest problem was against the run, so …
The line gets some reworking. Nose tackle is the big hole – the size needs to be there – and that’s where the team literally went heavy in the transfer portal with five new guys coming in to work on the inside. Minnesota’s Rashad Chaney should be the best of the bunch.
Jason Vaughn will get the first look on one end after making 19 tackles, and it’ll be all about the rotation to find more than nine sacks from this D. Again, here’s where the transfer portal plays a role – Missouri’s Jatorian Hansford fits the potential as an edge rusher.
The 1-2 linebacking punch of Antonio Grier and Dwayne Boyles is as strong as any in the AAC. These two have been around for forever, Grier is coming of a team-high 92 tackles, and Boyles is a speedy veteran who can get all over the field and behind the line. The key will be to find a thumper in the middle to let the stars on the outside shine.
The secondary has to bust up more passes. The defense generated ten picks, but Daquan Evans is too good a corner to not do more. Overall this is one of the team’s most experienced areas with plenty of corners to play with. Safeties Vincent Davis and Mekhi LaPointe good tacklers who should combine for well over 150 stops.
Keys To The Season
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
USF Top 10 Players | USF Schedule
USF Bulls: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats NEXT
USF Bulls: Keys To The Season, Top Game, Top Transfer, Fun Stats
USF Bulls: Key To The 2022 Offense
The passing game has to be more efficient and more productive.
The offensive line is in place and the running backs are there to grind it out more, but the Bulls have to come up with a far more productive passing attack.
They were able to get to 222 yards or more in three of the last four games – after only getting to 200 yards once in the first eight games – but the the offense only threw six touchdown passes with 12 picks. Only Georgia Southern came up with fewer touchdown throws.
The touchdowns would be nice, but to start, USF has to be able to just hit passes, especially on third downs. The offense hit more than 60% of its passes just three times and a whole lot more has to happen down the field.
USF Bulls: Key To The 2022 Defense
The pass rush has to show up.
The defense as a whole has to be far stronger, and the run defense has to hold up better after getting gouged for 5.8 yards per carry, but there has to be far more production from a pass rush that wasn’t there.
The Bulls managed two sacks against Houston. That was the only time the defense came up with more than one, registering a mere nine sacks on the season – tied with Vanderbilt for the fewest in the nation – and with just four tackles for loss per game.
USF Bulls: Key Player To The 2022 Season
DT Rashad Cheney, Soph.
And 300-pound Temple transfer Nick Bags, and 285-pound Wake Forest transfer James Ash. The Bulls need defensive tackles, they need someone to sit on the nose, and they need to start gumming things up on the inside to finally stop someone’s running game. They don’t have a slew of massive bodies for the middle, and the opportunity is there for Cheney – and others.
The 6-2, 290-pound transfer from Minnesota made nine tackles in a little bit of time over the last two seasons, but he’s got the size and quickness to be a potential factor – at least that’s the hope.
USF Bulls: Key Transfer
QB Gerry Bohanon, Sr.
Timmy McClain started to grow into the starting quarterback as the season went on. The yards were there, but the overall offensive production wasn’t. He’s likely the main man to beat, but Bohanon is a veteran option who might be too good to keep off the field.
He’s big, can move, and he has been in several big games hitting 61% of his passes for 2,394 yards and 20 touchdowns and seven picks over four years, and he ran for 219 yards and 12 scores.
USF Key Game To The 2022 Season
East Carolina, Oct. 1
If everything goes according the probability, USF will start the season 1-3 with losses to BYU, at Florida, and at Louisville, and with a win over Howard. It has to come up with a win over East Carolina at home to avoid a devastating start.
Lose – the Bulls dropped last year’s game 29-14 – and with a trip to Cincinnati to follow, a 1-5 would be impossible to recover from conceding the tough games over the second half of the season.
USF Bulls: 2021 Fun Stats
– Fumbles: USF 26 (lost 9) – Opponents 16 (lost 7)
– Average Yards Per Carry: Opponents 5.8 – USF 3.9
– Passing TDs: Opponents 26 – USF 6
Offense, Defense Breakdown
Season Prediction, What Will Happen
USF Top 10 Players | USF Schedule
USF Bulls Season Prediction, What Will Happen NEXT
USF Bulls Season Prediction, What Will Happen
USF is in a tough spot.
It’s going to be better in Year Three under Jeff Scott, and it has more than enough experience with 21 expected returning starters to be more consistent, but there aren’t enough layups on the schedule to cooperate.
Of course, by now under Scott the program should be at a level to hang with and beat the better teams in the American Athletic Conference, but there’s too far to go to be merely decent in several areas that were painful sore spots over the last few years.
It doesn’t help to miss Navy, but not having to play Memphis helps. However, it’s going to be a rough run considering USF will likely be the underdog in at least eight games – unless something big kicks in early on.
Set The USF Bulls Regular Season Win Total At … 3.5
BYU, at Florida, at Louisville, at Cincinnati, at Houston. Those should be five losses, and if any of them aren’t, the potential might be there to have a huge breakthrough season.
SMU, at Tulsa, and – despite putting up a good fight in the rivalry showdowns over the last few years – UCF all lean loss. If USF has improved, it has to win at least one of those – two would be fantastic – and Howard, East Carolina, Tulane, at Temple have to almost all be wins.
Bull fans might be ready to start winning again, but a five win season would be great step forward. Anything more would tremendous, and anything under four wins would be a huge disappointment considering the parts in place.
Offense, Defense Breakdown | Keys To The Season
USF Top 10 Players | USF Schedule
