South Florida
vs.
Temple
College Football Pick
10/21/19
By Jason Green
South Florida is riding high, as they have won three in a row, are 3-0 in AAC play, and their only loss of the season was to Florida State, who was ranked 13th at the time. They have one of the best rushing offenses in the nation and overall they rank 4th averaging 45 ppg.
Temple got over their loss to Memphis with a win in their last Game and they can pull into a tie for 1st in the Conference with a home win this Saturday. While they do not rank in the top 70 in the nation in passing or rushing yards per Game they have a solid defense and they are averaging 32 ppg.
USF won their 3rd in a row in their last Game beating UCONN at home 42-27, but they did not cover the spread giving 20 points. They had covered in their previous 2 Games. Temple narrowly beat UCF in their last Game 26-25 and they covered the spread as a 3.5-point road favorite.
Temple’s main goal in this Game on D is to contain the run facing a Bulls’ rushing attack that ranks 7th in the nation in rushing yards per Game and racked up 316 rushing yards in their last Game. To do that they will have to stop USF duel threat QB Quinton Flowers, who is also the team’s leading rusher and had 157 yards in the win over UCONN. He has rushed for at least 115 yards in 3 of his last 4 Games. He had a decent passing Game against UCONN with 213 yards and 2 TD, but he was also picked off twice.
Temple ranks 54thin the nation in run defense and in their win over UCF in their last Game they only gave up 86 rushing yards.
After passing for 445 yards in the loss to Memphis, Temple QB Phillip Walker only passed for 167 in the win over UCF. He has to avoid the turnover in this Game and in his last 3 Games he does have 5 TD, but also has 5 INT. The main reason they beat UCF is that they rushed for 197 yards. Jahad Thomas rushed for 120 yards in the Game and Ryquell Armsted chimed in for 78 yards.
South Florida only ranks 82nd in the nation in pass defense and 89th in run defense.
USF is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 road Games, 12-4-1 ATS in their last 17 Games overall, and in their last 8 Games the posted total has gone Under 6 times.
Temple is 6-0 ATS in their last 6 Games overall, 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home Games, and in their last 5 Games the posted total has gone Over 4 times.
Jason’s Pick: Temple has covered in their last 6 Games, but that streak will end this Friday night. Flowers will have another big Game, especially on the ground, and the Bulls win and cover the 6.5-point spread.