South Florida needs Miami a lot more than the Hurricanes do the Bulls.
That's quite apparent as the teams play Saturday at Sun Life Stadium. They will meet again next season in Tampa, but it's uncertain if the series will continue after that.
The Bulls sure hope it does. They're in the weakened Big East and are an aspiring program that wants any opportunity it can get to face Miami, Florida and Florida State.
"When you talk about the in-state rivalries, having one of the opportunities to win one of those games starts to put you on a par," said USF coach Skip Holtz. "When you talk about those three schools in the state, they've won conference championships and they've won national championships and that's what we've talked about, some of the goals that we have to build this team to that level. To have the opportunity to win on the field, it can definitely catapult the recruiting battle, which can speed up the process without a doubt."
It's hard to actually call Miami-USF a rivalry. The teams have met only four times, in 2005 and in each of the last three seasons. The Hurricanes hold a 3-1 edge after winning an ugly 6-3 game last year in Tampa.
The Hurricanes are unsure how their future schedules will pan out, so there's no commitment now to continue to play the Bulls. Due to the uncertainty, Miami already has cancelled a home-and-home series with Memphis that had been scheduled for 2014 and 2015.
"It's going to get a little bit cloudy in terms of how we manage (scheduling)," said Hurricanes coach Al Golden. "Are we ultimately going to go to nine games in our conference (from eight in the ACC)? What's the alliance with Notre Dame going to bring? Who's going to play them and when? So I think it's something we have to continue to look at.”
The Irish, who faced Miami this season, will play five future games per season against ACC schools, and the Hurricanes would certainly love to get in on as many as possible with them.
As for the Bulls, they're searching for any type of rivalry games they can get. South Florida played a home-and-home series with Florida State in 2009 and this season. They were at Florida in 2010 and are expected to have another game with the Gators later this decade. But there's no regularity to those meetings.
"I love to call them geographic rivalry games," Holtz said. "We don't have many of these on our schedules here in South Florida and haven't in the past. But to have this rivalry with Miami, which is a bus-ride rivalry, we don't have many of those… The closest school in this league to (USF) is Louisville… But to have this game with Miami now for a number of years has really been beneficial."
Who knows, though, when the Bulls might be back at Sun Life Stadium after Saturday. For that to happen in the near future, they might need to make the Orange Bowl.
Making a bowl of that caliber was a much more reasonable possibility when the Bulls made six straight postseasons from 2005-10. But they slipped to a 5-7 record last year and, at 3-6, have to win their final three games to make a bowl again this season.
But it's not as if the Hurricanes are a lock for a bowl either. At 5-5, they still need to win one of their final two games.
"Our focus is we have an opponent ahead of us and this is a game for us to be bowl eligible," Hurricanes quarterback Stephen Morris said of Saturday's game, which will be televised at 3 p.m. ET on Sun Sports.
The possibility of becoming bowl eligible could help keep the Hurricanes from looking past USF. The biggest game of their season is Nov. 24 at Duke. A victory there would assure Miami of winning the ACC's Coastal Division and advancing to the Dec. 1 ACC Championship Game in Charlotte.
So the Hurricanes (4-3 in the ACC) are in the weird spot Saturday of thinking about winning the Coastal Division, but playing a non-conference game that has no bearing on it.
"If I had my druthers, I'd play all those (non-conference) games early in the year and really down the stretch just focus on (conference play)," Golden admitted.
If they want, the Hurricanes could do some scoreboard watching Saturday. Duke plays at Georgia Tech at 3:30 p.m. in a Coastal elimination game. The winner of that game would get a berth in the ACC Championship Game if Miami loses to the Blue Devils.
As for this weekend's game at Sun Life, it features a pair of teams with some offensive questions. For South Florida it's at quarterback, while for Miami it's at wide receiver.
Since Bulls starter B.J. Daniels' season-ending leg injury in USF's last game, a 13-6 win Nov. 3 over Connecticut, Holtz still hasn't announced whether freshman Matt Floyd will start at quarterback or fellow freshman Bobby Eveld, who had been scheduled to redshirt prior to Daniels' injury.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes will be without suspended Rashawn Scott, their second-leading receiver. Allen Hurns, tied for third on the team in catches, will suit up with a broken hand suffered in last Saturday's 41-40 loss at Virginia.
"I'm not worried about it," Morris said of his depleted receiving corps. "That just means more catches for (other receivers). I feel my guys will be ready. They're pretty excited.”
Time will tell if the Hurricanes are just as excited about playing more future games against the Bulls.
