Bulls in Maryland

Travis Failey /RSEN photo

When the South Florida Bulls take on the Maryland Terrapins this weekend in College Park, MD, both teams will be looking for redemption.

The Bulls will be looking to play a complete game.  After holding FSU last weekend to 110 yards in the first half, the Bulls good fortune did not carry over to the 2nd half, where the Seminoles Dalvin Cook scored two touchdowns on runs of 24 and 37 yards.  The Seminoles defense held the Bulls to just one TD in the second half en route to a 34-14 victory.  The loss promoted Coach Willie Taggert to say “We can play with the best of them.   We just have to play 4 quarters.”

The Bulls get back LBs Nigel Harris and Tashon Whitehurst who are returning from a two-game suspension and will provide depth and leadership to a linebacking core that will be missing Auggie Sanchez for the first half of the game.  The Bulls are 2nd in the nation averaging 11 tackles for loss/game.

The Terrapins are looking to redeem themselves after an embarrassing loss to Bowling Green last week.  The Falcons scored 42 points, in the second half, on their way to defeating the Terrapins 48-27.  The Terps have an experienced defense (3 starters with 26 career starts), that will be looking to stop the spread offense which gashed them for 692 yards of total offense last week.  In addition, the Terps have 8 sacks thru their first two games.  The Terps will have a new QB under center at game time as Coach Randy Edsell has decided to replace Perry Hills with 3rd string QB Caleb Rowe, who has not started a game since Oct. 26, 2013 when he started against USF.

For the Bulls to win, they must, as Willie Taggert stated, “…extend drives.”  The Bulls are 5-for-25 on 3rd down conversions, which is tied for last in Division 1.  Look for the Bulls to spread the ball around and get more Wide Receivers involved.

The Bulls offense and aggressive defense will be too much for the Terrapins as the Bulls pull a mild upset and win 28-23.