The University of South Florida football team announced on Wednesday that it will travel to South Bend, India on September 19 to make Notre Dame Fighting Irish, one of two vacancies to be filled on the Bulls’ 2020 schedule.
IrishIllustrated’s Tim Prister reported the prospect of the game on August 19, just hours after the Irish were forced to stop the practice due to a spearhead in COVID-19 cases on the Notre Dame campus. USF and Notre Dame will meet at Notre Dame Stadium next week after ND’s home opener against Duke.
A new twist was introduced – the Bulls will not only face Fighting Irish in 2020, they will take them twice more. A game in Tampa and a return trip in South Bend are planned on future dates that are not yet known.
“We are very excited for our program and our players to have the opportunity to play Notre Dame in South Bend for a national TV audience in the 2020 season,” said USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly. “It’s not only a great addition for this season, but will bring Notre Dame to play for the first time in Tampa and add the Irish to an excellent lineup of future nonconference opponents that include teams like Alabama, Florida, Louisville , Miami, NC State, Boise State and BYU. “
Notre Dame was added to the ACC one year when the conference announced its planning model. ACC schools will have a ten-game conference plan with one non-conference game added – USF finally completes the final game of the Fighting Irish.
Meanwhile, USF had three vacancies on its schedules after losing games against Bethune-Cookman and Nevada, as well as a season opener in Texas. The Bulls have been planning The Citadel for September 12 at Raymond James Stadium since then and are unlikely to fill the final vacancy on September 5.
That means first-year head coach Jeff Scott will play five home games and six road games, with the schedule of the American Athletic Conference untouched.
“We are really excited about the potential opportunities we have for ourselves,” Scott said Thursday. “Our goal from the start was to open the season, once we found out that a few games might have been canceled, our season was to open with Raymond James going on September 12 and going on the road on September 19.”
Scott also said Thursday that the search for a new opponent of non-conference consisted of 15-18 schools.
USF and Notre Dame once met on the gridiron in one of the most heated games in Bulls history. After two lightning delays, the Bulls finally disrupted the No. 16 Irish, 23-20, in front of an announced crowd of 80,795 at Notre Dame Stadium. Kayvon Webster delivered a paltry 96 yards back to start the game for USF – the Bulls took a 16-0 lead at halftime and held off a 13-point rally fourth quarter as one of the few bright spots in Skip Holtz’s USF term .
The Fighting Irish comes from an 11-2 season in 2019 that resulted in a victory over Camping World Bowl at Iowa State. Notre Dame was 7-0, including wins over USC, Virginia Tech and Navy, last season at home.
