By: TJ Hartnett

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The 2018 University of South Florida season was essentially the college football equivalent of “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

The Bulls dominated in the first half of the year to the tune of a 7-0 start in which everything seemed to be going right; followed by a swift and painful collapse where everything went wrong as they lost every single one of their last 6 games.

Injuries certainly played a part in the ill fortunes of USF. Starting quarterback Blake Barnett and key linebacker Nico Sawtelle were both bitten by the bug last year.

Barnett’s health in particular is key to the Bulls maintaining a high level of play through the entire season. His passing game in the first half, 8 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 64% completion rate, was basically the opposite of his passing game in the second half.

His numbers for the second half were 8 interceptions, 4 touchdowns, 56% completion rate. We can pretty much interpret that as meaning that with Barnett, so goes USF.

If he can stay healthy in 2019 and stay consistent, he’s got plenty of help on offense. Jordan Cronkrite and Johnny Ford return to run the ball, and Randall St. Felix, Eddie McDoom, and Mitchell Wilcox all serve as excellent targets.

All these pieces will be serving under Valdosta State’s former head coach Kerwin Bell, who moves up from Division II to work as offensive coordinator under head coach Charlie Strong.

On the other side of the gridiron, Sawtelle is just as key to the defense as Bartlett is to the offense. However, to be fair, the defense was giving up 30+ points in their victories prior to Sawtelle’s injury and the subsequent losing streak; at the end of the year they were giving up more than 400 yards and 32 points per game.

Sacks and interceptions are two areas in which USF desperately needs to improve. The division has too much talent at quarterback for the Bulls to hover around “average.”

There’s a lack of physicality that Sawtelle needs to demonstrate for his squad and they need to follow that example.

Let’s take a look at USF’s schedule:

Week 1: vs. Wisconsin (Aug. 30)

Week 2: at Georgia Tech (Sept. 7)

Week 3: vs. South Carolina State (Sept. 14)

Week 4: BYE

Week 5: vs. SMU (Sept. 28)

Week 6: at UConn (Oct. 5)

Week 7: vs. BYU (Oct. 12)

Week 8: at Navy (Oct. 19)

Week 9: at East Carolina (Oct. 26)

Week 10: BYE

Week 11: vs. Temple (Nov. 7)

Week 12: vs. Cincinnati (Nov. 16)

Week 13: vs. Memphis (Nov. 23)

Week 14: at UCF (Nov. 29)

There are a couple of interesting stops on the way to winter for South Florida, starting off the season against the Wisconsin Badgers will be a test for the defense right out of the gate in Week 1.

Georgia Tech is in the midst of rebuilding their program, but they’ll still be looking to compete under new head coach Geoff Collins.

Cincinnati is one of the teams they beat during the win streak but gave up the 30 points doing it. The signs of the upcoming losing streak were starting to show. This season they play them in Week 12, so the stakes may be even higher.

And of course, the rivalry game against UCF.

This is a make-or-break season for Charlie Strong. All eyes were on the Bulls in 2018, in both a positive and a negative way.

They need to come out strong (again) but stay strong in order to prove that those 7 wins weren’t a fluke. The offense, health dependent, will be able to get the job done; the defense will be in the hot seat all season long.