USF has everything ready for Florida State battle

Going into the biggest game since he arrived at South Florida, Willie Taggart has all his pieces in place for the high noon Saturday showdown against 13th-ranked Florida State.

His team is healthy and has its two best defensive players available, which wasn’t the case last year when Florida State broke up a tight game in the second half and won 34-14 in Tallahassee.

Middle linebacker Auggie Sanchez, the Bulls leading tackler, missed the fourth quarter of last year’s game because of a targeting penalty, and Nigel Harris was suspended for the game. Their presence should make a big difference.

“Auggie is our quarterback on defense. He loves to compete and he loves going out and doing whatever it takes to help his teammates win,” Taggart said. “I call him a war daddy. He is a blue-collar guy who is going to be around the ball all the time.”

Taggart said the key is stopping Dalvin Cook, who ran for 266 yards and three touchdowns against South Florida last year. He has started slowly this season with 228 rushing yards in three games.

“We got to gang tackle him and wrap him up and be very fundamental sound,” Taggart said. “Last year we did a poor job of tackling and he made us pay. We got to get guys to the football and hold on for teammates to come help out.”

Cook broke out in the second half last year to carry the Seminoles (2-1) to victory. Taggart blamed the poor tackling, in part, on the defense being out on the field too long. He hopes his offense will correct that this year, especially since the Florida State defense is reeling after Louisville manhandled the Seminoles 63-20 last week.

The Bulls are 3-0 and a victory surely would get them into the top 25. Taggart tried to downplay the significance of the game earlier in the week, but in less than 24 hours changed his narrative.

“This game is a great opportunity to show the progress we are making,” Taggart said. “You don’t even have to have cable (game is on ABC). You just need some rabbit ears, and you can watch the game. It’s big-time.”

Taggart believes his team is better equipped to handle adversity because of the maturity and confidence it has developed the last two years. The surprising play of an inexperienced offensive line has also buoyed the Bulls hopes.

“Everybody keeps calling this the big one, but it’s just the next game on our schedule. Right now, everything is going as planned and we want to take care of business,” Taggart said. “It’s a great a opportunity on national television to go out and play our best ball game. It would be big for our program. We want to earn respect. We don’t want anyone to give it to us.”

South Florida’s offense has averaged 518.7 yards per game this season. The leader has been quarterback Quinton Flowers, who has completed 41 of 75 passes for 716 yards and seven touchdowns with one interception to go with two rushing touchdowns.

He has the perfect complement in Marlon Mack, who has rushed for 173 yards and 18 touchdowns and is averaging 9.6 yards per attempt.

Mack needs 137 yards to become the Bulls’ career rushing leader, breaking the mark of 2,731 held by Andre Hall.

“He has been our bell cow since he’s been here,” Taggart said. “Since the first game he played here, we all saw signs that he was going to be something special and help lead us to something special.”

South Florida is 3-0 for the first time in the Taggart era and has a chance to start 4-0 for the first time since 2011. The Bulls are averaging 48.1 points over the past seven games, which is the second best average in the FBS over that span. This is South Florida’s first ABC appearance to be televised nationally.

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 10:33 PM with the headline "USF has everything ready for Florida State battle."