USF Motivated Heading Into Birmingham Bowl

[BullFan98]

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/sports/2016/12/28/usf-motivated-heading-birmingham-bowl/95909686/

Excerpt...

When 25th-ranked South Florida faces South Carolina (6-6) in the Birmingham Bowl on Thursday afternoon at Legion Field, the Bulls will have plenty to play for.

For one thing, new head coach Charlie Strong will be evaluating his squad, which will be directed by interim head coach and wide receivers coach T.J. Weist. For another, junior quarterback Quinton Flowers, the American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year, can get a head start trying to impress voters for the 2017 Heisman Trophy.

Flowers was one of five players listed as early 2017 Heisman contenders by the Associated Press earlier this month joining Alabama quarterback Jalen Hurts, USC quarterback Sam Darnold, Texas quarterback Shane Buechele and Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.

The explosive Flowers has accounted for a program-record 37 touchdowns (22 passing, 15 rushing) so far this season and his 1,425 yards rushing are the second most for an FBS quarterback, just 113 behind Heisman winner Lamar Jackson of Louisville. Flowers, Jackson and Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald are the only players in the nation to both pass for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards this season.

“He’s a competitor,” South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said of Flowers. “He’s got a competitive edge about himself that you really appreciate as a coach. He’s got the ‘it’ factor as far as the intangible things that you want a quarterback to have.”