ESPN’s SP+ predicts final score of Florida vs. South Florida in Week 2
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ESPN’s SP+ has predicted the final score of Florida‘s Week 2 home matchup against South Florida.
The game will kick off at 4:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network, with the Gators looking to get to 2-0 after last week’s demolition of Long Island University.
ESPN’s SP+ is now available for the Week 2 matchups and that model is projecting Florida to defeat South Florida 39-19.
Here’s that prediction along with the rest of the Week 2 slate:
The 13th-ranked Gators are being put on “upset alert” by college football analyst Josh Pate, with South Florida coming off a monster Week 1 upset of then-No. 25 Boise State. The Bulls beat down the Broncos, 34-7, in a Thursday night game in Tampa, so not only does South Florida coming into this Saturday’s contest with a lot of confidence, it also has a few extra days of rest.
Florida’s rout of Long Island was last Saturday, so USF will have those 2 extra days of rest. The Gators will also be trying to avoid looking past this game, with their next 2 games being a primetime, national TV showdown at LSU on Sept. 13 followed by another showdown matchup at Miami on Sept. 20. Both LSU and Miami are ranked in the top 5 and coming off huge wins in Week 1, so the Gators will have their work cut out for them the next few weeks, but first things first and that’s Saturday’s in-state battle with the Bulls.
The Gators will be hosting USF for the 3rd time in program history, and it’ll be their 4th meeting all-time, with UF carrying a perfect 3-0 series record into the game. The most recent matchup between the programs is a 31-28 UF victory on Sept. 17, 2022, in what was Billy Napier‘s 2nd win as Florida head coach.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
