College Football Friday: Arizona heads to El Paso while South Florida hosts Illinois

There are three games on tap for tonight. Two of the three kickoff at 4pm PT while the third kicks off tonight at 7:15pm.

Of the first two games, the more interesting one features Illinois at #22 South Florida. Not only is this game the first to be played in Florida since Hurricane Irma, but it features an undefeated Big Ten team against an undefeated AAC team ranked in the Top 25.

While the Illini are still undefeated, they probably won’t be for long. They barely edged Ball State 24-21 in Week 1 and they beat Western Kentucky 20-7 in Week 2. But, now the schedule starts to get harder.

USF, on the other hand, easily got past their Week Zero opponent San Jose State and then topped FCS school Stoney Brook, 31-17 before having last weekend’s game against UCONN postponed due to Irma. But, Charlie Strong’s team showed resiliency against San Jose State in a comeback win. Look for the Bulls to take this game.

Meanwhile, in the second 4pm game, UMass travels to Philadelphia to play the Temple Owls. While Temple has improved over the past few years, UMass is still one of the worst teams in the FBS. They’ve lost their first three games already to Hawai’i, Coastal Carolina and Old Dominion. While Temple was crushed by Notre Dame in Week 1, the Owls should still win this game easily and, if they don’t, I’m not sure anyone is going to care.

The most interesting game tonight features Arizona at UTEP. Of course, it’s interesting simply because the Bruins will play the Wildcats in about a month. Well, that and #Pac12AfterDark, which will be in play even though it’s an away game for the Sun Devils.

But, all indications are that the Wildcats don’t have much of a team this season and, so far, that’s been the case. While Arizona destroyed Northern Arizona to start the season, last week, they lost to Houston, 19-16. Despite that, they should have little trouble with the Miners, unless #Pac12AfterDark takes over and all hell breaks loose.

This is your Friday Night College Football open thread.


Go Bruins!