By Greg Auman, Times Staff Writer
Friday, February 25, 2011
TAMPA — USF will play four of its seven Big East football games this season on weeknights, including two home games to finish the season, against Louisville and West Virginia.
"The first thing that jumps out to me is the exposure," coach Skip Holtz said of the schedule, released Friday by the league. "Two Thursday nights and two Friday nights, so that's an opportunity to get a lot of exposure from those games. Playing West Virginia in the final game, on Saturday you'd be up against the conference championship games, but on that Thursday, we're one of the only games in town."
The finale against West Virginia could have BCS implications, as the Bulls and Mountaineers are expected to be picked among the Big East's preseason favorites. None of the four weeknight games comes after a bye, so the Bulls will have four conference games with less than a week to prepare, but in all four games, USF's opponent has the identical number of days after its previous game.
The two byes give USF distinct advantages in preparation for two key Big East games — the Bulls have 16 days to prepare for UConn and 14 for Rutgers.
From a weather standpoint, USF caught breaks for the second year in a row — the final two league games are at home, and even the last road game is at Syracuse, so the Bulls will be in a dome, making their last northern trip Nov. 5 at Rutgers.
NOTES: Junior linebacker Armando Sanchez, a special-teams standout the past two seasons, will get a look at fullback in the spring. Sanchez, a Northeast High graduate, has 33 tackles in the past two seasons, mostly on kick coverage.