College Football is back with some Friday night action! The Fighting Illini travels down to Tampa Bay to play the South Florida Bulls who are ranked #22nd in the country.
The game kicks off at 7pm Eastern Standard Time. It is being played at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Raymond James Stadium. The Bulls are favored by 17 points and the over/under is 55. Both teams are 2-0 on the season.
No one knew until Tuesday if this game would even happen due to the destruction of Hurricane Irma. But the two teams got the green light and there should be an electric atmosphere tonight for the brave people of Florida after enduring hell for several days.
The South Florida Bulls had last week off since their game was cancelled against Connecticut, due to Irma. That could be looked at in a few different ways. First, that gave them extra time to heal and rest up for the Illini. But second though, their week was full of stress and uncertainty with Irma wreaking havoc on the state of Florida. We won't know until game time to see which factored more into their preparation.
Quarterback Quinton Flowers needs to immediately improve on his average play if he wants to get back into the Heisman discussion. He has all the intangibles but will face a good Illini defense that is coming off a 7 point performance last week. The dual head running backs need to also improve as they try to replace the production that Indianapolis Colts RB, Mack, had last year.
The Illini’s Head Coach, Lovie Smith, is happy to be back in Tampa Bay. He was the head coach for the Bucs before the Illini job. His offense runs through freshman back Mike Epstein. They will need to control the tempo and the clock to keep Quinton Flowers and the explosive Bulls offense off the field. Mike Dudeck is the other big weapon on offense and special teams. He is capable of making a big play in all sorts of ways.
This should be a good game and with all of the uncertainty about the South Florida team over the last week with Irma, I am leaning towards the Illini +17. Who are you betting on tonight and this weekend? Thanks for reading and you can follow me
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