Surging Bulls head on road to face desperate Bowling Green
USF is looking to get out to a 4-0 start as they go on the road for the second time this season.
How do you handle overwhelming expectations of winning?
That’s what the South Florida Bulls (3-0) will set out to answer as they travel to Doyt L. Perry Stadium to face the Bowling Green Falcons (0-3).
USF is looking for its eighth 4-0 start in program history. Bowling Green is looking to avoid the ninth 0-4 start in program history.
The Bulls currently stand as a 17.5-point road favorite. Bowling Green is one of just 13 FBS teams without a win in 2026.
However, USF head coach Brian Hartline says the team is not taking any chance to improve its play lightly.
“I think that if we have the team we hope we have for us to achieve our goals, we are so unbelievably far away that it would almost be insane to not notice that,” Hartline said about the team at Tuesday’s press conference. “If we don’t notice that on offense, defense and special teams, we got the wrong guys. But I don’t think we got the wrong guys.”
Setting the stage for South Florida
Hartline’s frustrations stem from USF’s first-half struggles against Delaware State last week.
The Hornets scored all 17 of their points before halftime. They averaged 9.3 yards per play and had seven plays of 15 yards or longer in the first half. Delaware State senior quarterback Ui Ale had 223 first-half passing yards after going into the game averaging 176.7 passing yards in the Hornets’ first three games.
“Too many yards, too much production and too much of anything going on against the defense,” Hartline said about the first-half defensive performance.
USF would go on to hold Delaware State scoreless in the second half and to just 65 total yards. However, the jury is still out on the Bulls’ defense moving forward.
The Bulls currently rank 92nd in the FBS, allowing 226.5 passing yards per game. Their opponents are averaging 11.71 yards per completion. Army and Delaware State both headed into their games against the Bulls boasting a run-heavy offense, but both found success through the air.
A bright spot in USF’s secondary has been sophomore Florida transfer cornerback Teddy Foster. He has only allowed four receptions in three games as one of the Bulls’ outside starting cornerbacks. Foster is one of seven Bulls who have reached double-digit tackles this season.
USF’s leading tackler is senior safety Ayden Jackson, who has 22 tackles, which ranks 13th in the American Conference. Sophomore linebacker Zavier Hamilton leads the Bulls with three tackles for loss and a sack this season.
On offense, the Bulls have boasted one of the nation’s most efficient passing attacks. USF has a 53.1% success rate on passing plays this season.
Junior quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. has the fourth-best passing grade among quarterbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. He’s averaging 213 passing yards per game and completing 66.3% of his passes this season. Both would be career highs for Van Buren Jr.
One of Van Buren Jr.’s favorite targets this season has been senior Ohio State transfer Bryson Rodgers. He has 16 catches for 175 yards this season after having just 11 catches for 125 yards combined in his first three seasons with the Buckeyes.
Rodgers is a Tampa Bay native and described coming home to USF as something out of a “movie script.” Rodgers has had a plethora of family members and even his elementary school teacher show up to the Bulls games at Raymond James Stadium this season.
“Moments like that make me go harder, adds to my why and adds fuel to my fire,” Rodgers said Tuesday.
Setting the stage for Bowling Green
Even with the Bulls feeling somewhat frustrated with their play thus far, it pales in comparison to the frustration swirling around Bowling Green’s nightmarish start to the season.
The Falcons started their season with a disheartening 20-13 loss to FCS Tarleton State. Bowling Green followed up that game by being outscored 111-14 in losses against Nebraska and Iowa State.
“No matter how hard it gets, we’re going to show up and that’s the resiliency of the team,” Bowling Green head coach Eddie George said after their loss against Tarleton State. “I’m just really disappointed in some things.”
George is in the midst of his second season as Falcons head coach. He is in the process of rebuilding Bowling Green’s program following the departure of former head coach Scot Loeffler after the 2024 season. Bowling Green brought in 55 new players this season.
Many will remember George for his playing career. He won the 1995 Heisman Trophy with Ohio State and played nine seasons in the NFL, earning first-team All-Pro honors in 2000.
Hartline mentioned that he has a relationship with George and said that he has a lot of respect for how George is building Bowling Green’s program. George reciprocated the kind words toward Hartline this week, saying it’s “no surprise” that Hartline is having success early.
The stats don’t represent Bowling Green’s 2026 season kindly. The Falcons rank last in the FBS, scoring just nine points per game. They also rank 136th in the country, allowing 43.7 points per game this season.
Bowling Green is led by Division II transfer junior quarterback Jay Kastantin. He has 443 passing yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions this season. In Week 1, he passed for 262 yards and completed 80% of his passes before struggling against Power 4 opponents in Weeks 2 and 3. He was the Northeast-10 Conference Most Valuable Player with Assumption College last season.
Sophomore tight end Jeremiah Scoby is Kastantin’s top target. He has 14 catches for 138 yards this season. He racked up 10 receptions and 102 yards in the Falcons’ season opener. He was the first Falcon to have double-digit receptions in a game since Harold Fannin Jr.
The Falcons’ biggest playmaker on defense is sophomore linebacker Dorian Pringle, who has 32 tackles this season, tied for the ninth most by any player in the country. Bowling Green only has nine tackles for loss, three sacks and three forced turnovers in three games.
Despite an abysmal start to their season, George and the Falcons are determined to get right Saturday against the Bulls.
“Our heads bloody but unbowed,” George said at his midweek press conference. “When looked at the film, it was less about what they did, but more about what we didn’t do in terms of execution.”
Storylines to watch in the game
USF is coming off its strongest rushing performance of the season. The Bulls racked up 290 rushing yards and six touchdowns on the ground. They averaged 9.4 yards per carry.
The Bulls could be poised for another strong game against Bowling Green, which boasts one of the country’s worst rushing defenses. The Falcons’ opponents are averaging 295.7 yards per game on six yards per carry this season.
On the other side, the Bulls’ defense is looking to find a way to get to Kastantin on Saturday. USF only has three sacks on 46 quarterback pressures this season.
However, USF could continue to struggle against a Bowling Green offensive line that has been really good at pass blocking. Falcons quarterbacks have only been sacked once this season, and they have been kept clean on 58.5% of their dropbacks.
The Bulls’ defense will have a great opportunity for a dominating performance. Bowling Green only has two plays this season that have gone over 30 yards, and its offense ranks in the fifth percentile in the country in explosive play rate. The Falcons are averaging just 4.3 yards per play this season.
Saturday’s game will also be Hartline’s first time coaching as a head coach in his home state of Ohio. As he typically does, Hartline dismissed the personal significance of the game.
“We’re going on a business trip and I don’t have any warm and fuzzy feelings about going anywhere,” Hartline said Tuesday. He even said that he didn’t know of any of his extended family’s plans to come to the game.
Homecoming week will culminate Saturday for Bowling Green. The Falcons are 3-3 in their homecoming games this decade.
USF and Bowling Green have one previous meeting, and it came in 2002 when the Bulls trounced the Falcons, who were coached by Urban Meyer.
One team is looking to get off the mat, and one team is looking for a surgical performance on the road.
We’ll find out which will prevail at 5 p.m. Saturday evening on ESPN+.