South Florida at Southern Miss Pick & Prediction For 9/14/2024

The South Florida Bulls will take on the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on September 14, 2024, with the Bulls favored by 11.5 according to DraftKings Sportsbook. Currently, 22% of spread bets are on the Bulls, while 78% are on the Golden Eagles. The total of 57.5 has 87% of bets on the under and 13% on the over. In this South Florida vs Southern Miss preview, get our thoughts on each team going into this game along with our best bet for this non-conference matchup.

USF Looks to Build On Competitive Game With Alabama

The USF Bulls are 1-1 on the season, picking up a season-opening win against FCS Bethune Cookman before losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide last week. While USF lost that game to Alabama 42-16, the game was much closer than that for the majority, with USF being within a possession in the fourth quarter. Here, the Bulls will look to rebound from that loss with a win in Saturday night's USF vs Southern Miss contest from Hattiesburg.

The defense of USF was phenomenal for the first three quarters of their game against Alabama. They held the Crimson Tide to just 13 points in the first three quarters of the game before allowing four touchdowns in the final 10:04 of the fourth quarter. Here, USF will hope that their defense plays more like it did in the first 50 minutes against Alabama than it did in the final 10 minutes.

Southern Miss Looks For Second Consecutive Win

Southern Miss is also 1-1 so far this season, with one win against an FCS team and one loss against an SEC team. The Golden Eagles opened their season with a loss to Kentucky and got a win over Southeastern Louisiana in their second game of the season. Here, the hosts from Hattiesburg will look to get a second straight win that would move them to 2-1 for the season, though they are double-digit underdogs as they look for that win.

The big question for Southern Miss going into this game is whether they will get enough from quarterback Tate Rodemaker to help them make this game close and potentially win it. Rodemaker has just 305 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions through the first two games of the season. The Florida State transfer will like his chances of success more in this game than he did against Kentucky, but after USF did a good job defensively against Jalen Milroe for three quarters last week, we could see Rodemaker struggle again here.

USF vs Southern Miss Best Bet

USF has proven over the last couple of seasons that it is more than capable of giving Alabama a tough game. Will that translate to a win and a cover this week against Southern Miss? We think so, as we recommend laying the points with a South Florida team that is the better of these two teams on the defensive side of the football.

For more on today's game check out the comprehensive statistics, betting odds, and trends below. Be sure to check out all our free NCAAFB picks here.