Notre Dame and South Florida have officially announced an agreement on a three-game series the first of which contests will take place in just over three weeks at Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish had been looking for someone to fill the vacated spot on their schedule from the cancelation of the Western Michigan game and will do so with USF in addition to agreeing to two more future games.
South Florida will travel to Notre Dame to take on the Irish on September 19 – at least that is the plan as of now. There are still lingering concerns over whether or not there will even be a season in 2020. Should there be one though, the Irish and Bulls will square off in week two of the Notre Dame’s new schedule. No kickoff times for the 2020 season have been released, including this one, as of yet.
In addition, Notre Dame agreed to one future trip to Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and South Florida will make one future trip to Notre Dame as well. Both of those contests are still TBD as of now and will be announced at a later time.
Notre Dame’s options for filling the spot on its roster that was opened up when the MAC canceled their fall football season were slim. As such, South Florida probably had some leverage in the discussions to get the three-game series even though Brian Kelly said earlier this summer that Notre Dame’s phone was ringing off the hook to replace lost games from Pac-12 and Big-10 cancellations. That was before the MAC also followed suit, however.
Notre Dame and South Florida have only played once before in a game most Notre Dame fans would love to forget. The Bulls traveled to Indiana to kick off the 2011 season for a rain-soaked, lightning delayed contest that saw Notre Dame rack up over 500 yards of offense but score just 20 points before falling to South Florida 23-20 because of turnovers.
That contest was the epitome of the frustrations Notre Dame went through in the early stages of the Brian Kelly era. A lot has changed since then and assuming there is a season, the Bulls will have a much, much different Notre Dame squad in three weeks – assuming both teams are at full strength.
