The 2017 college football season starts kicks off Saturday night with a nonconference matchup between AAC powerhouse South Florida visiting San Jose State out of the Mountain West Conference at CEFCU Stadium in San Jose, California. As of this writing, the Bulls are 22 point favorites over the Spartans with the total set at 68 1/2. The game is available on CBSC TV and also on Direct TV channel 221.
Both teams feature new first year coaches as Charlie Strong takes over South Florida after Willie Taggert departed for Oregon. This is the first HC job for the Spartans Brent Brennan who was an assistant here for five years from 2005-2010. The last six years he’s been the wide receiver coach at Oregon State. Brennan was a wide out for UCLA from 1993-1996.
Last year, South Florida went 3-1 in nonconference play, crushing Towson, Northern Illinois and Syracuse and played Florida State for a half before falling 55-35 to the Seminoles at Tallahassee. San Jose State was 1-2 in nonconference play losing big at Tulsa and Iowa State sandwiched around a 66-35 beat down of FCS Portland State. Both teams have soft touches in their second game with South Florida hosting Stony Brook while SJSU has Cal Poly on deck.
Charlie Strong was not given enough time to get the job done in Texas but through good timing has inherited a team that was 11-2 last year and has most of its key players back. The Bulls offense is run through senior quarterback Quinton Flowers who has thrown for 47 touchdowns and run for 30 scores the last two years. He faces a defense that allowed better than 6.5 yards per play last year but figures to be much improved.
San Jose State is very positive heading into 2017 with Brennan who has an infectious personality that the players love. His predecessor was an excellent recruiter and the Spartans have a talented bunch back that just needs to be coached up. South Florida will have a significant edge in team speed and will look to get after the SJSU quarterback who was sacked 50 times last year. Again, the Spartans should be improved on the OL with six returning with 125 career starts between them.
South Florida is the much better team but it is always tough to back a team laying three touchdowns in its first game under a new coach after traveling 3000 miles. San Jose State figures to be much improved over last year’s weakness on the offensive line and run defense. The Spartans will look to get off to a good start if even to look crisp and sharp under their new head coach.
There is no chance of the line moving to three touchdowns and we’re not interested in grabbing points with the Spartans. It’s probably best to maybe get a small taste of the total under with the thinking that SJSU won’t hold up its end offensively on this nearly 10 touchdown total.