College Football

FSU Football vs. USF: Breaking Down The USF Offense

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:19 p.m. ET

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Sep 17, 2016; Syracuse, NY, USA; South Florida Bulls running back Marlon Mack (5) runs in for a touchdown during the third quarter of a game against the Syracuse Orange at the Carrier Dome. South Florida won the game 45-20. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

FSU football will face a hungry upstart University of South Florida football team on Saturday. We look at what the USF offense brings to the table.

The University of South Florida Bulls are 3-0 on the season, and are 10-4 since losing to FSU football in their second game of the season in 2015.

The offense returns junior quarterback Quinton Flowers and junior running back Marlon Mack. They are averaging right at 50 points per game, and will have the home crowd behind them at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bulls hung with the ‘Noles for a half last season, as the game was tied 7-7 at halftime. However, Dalvin Cook ran all over the USF in the second half as the ‘Noles cruised to a 34-14 win.

Here we’ll take a look at what the Bulls will try to do on offense in 2016.

Sep 12, 2015; Tallahassee, FL, USA; South Florida Bulls quarterback Quinton Flowers (9) looks for a receiver while being pressured by Florida State Seminoles defensive end Josh Sweat (9) at Doak Campbell Stadium. Florida State won 34-14. Mandatory Credit: Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports

Quarterback

As we mentioned, the Bulls are led by junior quarterback Quinton Flowers. He’s a dual threat quarterback, and the most adept description I can come up with is a poor man’s Lamar Jackson.

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Maybe not quite that good. Flowers accounted for 25 percent of the USF rushing attempts this season while throwing for 716 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception.

He’s completing just 54 percent of his passes.

Flowers isn’t as fast as Jackson, but is a load to bring down for a 6’0 quarterback. One of the major differences between Jackson and Flowers is the deep ball.

The USF offense doesn’t attack vertically near as much as Louisville, which should bring a sigh of relief to FSU fans worried about the secondary and blown coverages.

USF has thrown the ball on first down 45 percent of the time, so that’s something to take note of going into Saturday’s game.

How Did USF Attack FSU Last Season

Like Louisville, they’ll run a lot of read option/zone read stuff. Below you’ll see Flowers keep the ball on the read, and you can see the difference in speed between he and Jackson.

As you can see, almost everything is based on the read option/spread concept.

Sep 10, 2016; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminole cheerleaders celebrate a first half score against Charleston Southern at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports

How the ‘Noles Need To Defend USF

The biggest thing other than the obvious of winning on first and second downs is shutting their run game down.

The ‘Noles were able to do that last year for the most part. FSU football held Marlon Mack to 83 yards on 18 carries, and Flowers to 38 yards on 14 carries.

The inaccuracy of Flowers as a passer was apparent as he only completed 12 of 24 passes for 125 yards. Almost all of those yards went to running back D’Ernest Johnson.

However, the two receivers that have emerged for USF this season have been NC State transfer Marquez Valdes-Scantling and senior receiver Rodney Adams.

Valees-Scantling is a huge 6’5 receiver that FSU secondary will need to account for, and Adams is used in the run game on jet sweeps with the ability to take it to the house in open space.

If the ‘Noles can limit the run game, they should be able to get off the field as I don’t think the USF passing game is good enough to consistently move the chains down the field.