MadIrish Picks: South Florida Bulls vs Notre Dame

South Florida Bulls – September 03, 2011 2:30 CT, NBC at Notre Dame Stadium

Head Coach – Skip Holtz

Career Record: 80-55

• 34-23 in five seasons at UCONN (1994-1998)
• 38-27 in five seasons at East Carolina (2005-2009)
• 8-5 in one season at South Florida (2010)

2010 Season (8-5)

Opponent	W/L	USF	OPP
Stony Brook	W	59	14
at Florida	L	14	38
Western Kentucky	W	24	12
FAU	W	31	3
Syracuse	L	9	13
at West Virginia	L	6	20
at Cincinnati	W	38	30
Rutgers	W	28	27
at Louisville	W (OT)	24	21
Pittsburgh	L	10	17
at Miami	W (OT)	23	20
UCONN	L	16	19
MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL
Clemson	W	31	26

 

SERIES FACTS

This is the first time meeting between these two universities.

STRENGTHS

1. Decent Rushing Defense – The scoring defense overall ranked 22nd nationally, giving up only an average of 20.0 points per game. The run defense gave up 125.5 yards per game and only 8 total rushing TD’s all season long.
2. Field Goal Kicking – Place-kicker Maikon Bonani was named to the Lou Groza Award Watch list. A junior, in his career he is 32 of 42 (76.2%) on FG attempts. He is 49 of 51 on PAT attempts. In 2010 he converted 17 of 21 FG’S and 31 of 32 PAT’s.
3. Holtz Factor – Skip Holtz knows how electrical the stadium, fans and atmosphere will be on game day. Having played at Notre Dame, he gets what it is all about. In his short tenure as a head coach he has already faced big games and come out ahead in a few of them.

WEAKNESSES

1. Aerial Attack – Very anemic last season ranking 101st nationally with 164.5 yards per game average. Only 13 TD passes throughout the regular season. Quarterbacks BJ Daniels (Jr) and Bobby Eveld (Soph) need to improve dramatically.
2. Low Scoring Offense away from home – Other than a 38 point outburst at Cincinnati, the Bulls had an inconsistent scoring attack on the road. In victories at Lousiville and Miami it took overtime periods to score over 20 points in each of those games.
3. Weak 3rd Down Conversion Rate – USF completed 32% of their 3rd downs going 51/161. In order to be more consistent on offense, this rate must be improved. Without improvement, look for more low scoring games especially on the road.

GAME ANALYSIS

The hopes are high in Tampa especially after a successful 1st season for coach Skip Holtz. With this game, the Bulls are hoping that a win on the road in South Bend can propel them to a great season. As with any coach young in his tenure at a new school, I still think Holtz needs a couple of seasons to bring in the type of kids he wants in order to go to the next level. However, that doesn’t mean that he can’t win now as he proved last season.

For coach Brian Kelly, it’s important that his starting QB get off to a good start. If not, then with his stable of QB’s there will be a quick call for change and improvement. I also think that it is imperative that the running game gets somewhat established early in the season. Especially with the games upcoming in the very near future against old time rivals. For this to be a successful season, Notre Dame’s defense needs to be strong and vastly improved. The personnel is there, it just needs to come out of the gate and play like it did late last season.

PREDICTION

Notre Dame will come out fired up for the season home opener. The question is how well and consistent will they play on both sides of the ball. I think Holtz will have his team fired up for this big game for their program. As a result, it may take a quarter and possibly an entire half before the Notre Dame offense flexes its muscle.

NOTRE DAME	31
USF	17

 

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