TAMPA, Fla. — Hopefully the master schedule in the USF football office is on a dry erase board. There have been multiple changes to the college football calendar over the past two weeks, and that includes game times for the Bulls.
The original Sept. 5 opener at Texas was erased after Texas chose UTEP as its lone non-conference game this season. That left a gap in the schedule that pushed USF's season opener to Sept. 26 at Florida Atlantic.
Thursday night, USF announced a new home opener against The Citadel on Sept. 12.
Now, the Bulls are in talks with Notre Dame about a game on Sept. 19 in South Bend. USF first-year head coach Jeff Scott can't comment on specifics, but he's happy the schedule is filling up.
"This like the game where they buzz it when you say the word. You gotta describe without saying the word, 'buzz,'" Scott joked when asked about specifics of the Notre Dame game. "We’ve literally talked to somewhere between 12 and 14 schools. I would say we thought we had deals done with six or seven of those, and it didn’t work out. I am optimistic that we’re going to be proud of our September schedule."
Scott, a former offensive coordinator at Clemson, said he wants to adopt the same philosophy as his former program and schedule powerhouse teams whenever possible.
"Our players work extremely hard," Scott said after Thursday's scrimmage. "I really think they deserve an opportunity, whenever the schedule allows, to be able to play on some really big, unique stages, against some of the best teams in the country. I’m excited about some of the opportunities we’re going to have here in the future."
Notre Dame football practice was paused this week after a spike of coronavirus cases on campus that included five players testing positive. Scott said there haven't been any positive tests since practice started two and a half weeks ago.
