Following a bye week, South Florida will finish the season with road games at Rutgers and Syracuse before heading home to face suddenly surging Miami and Big East rivals Louisville and West Virginia. Unfortunately, and depending on the severity of an injury, the Bulls will have to play at least one of those games without their leading receiver, Sterling Griffin.
Griffin (pictured, left) sustained a sprained ankle in Saturday’s loss against Cincinnati and will be out “at least a couple of weeks”. Team doctors are waiting on the results of an MRI to give a complete prognosis.
“He definitely has an ankle sprain. One of their concerns is about maybe a break in the bone. He went to that X-ray this morning,” coach Skip Holtz said. “I would say in a best-case scenario, he would be out a couple weeks, and the worst-case scenario, that there would be a break and he would probably be out the rest of the year. But with his ankle right now, he’s very doubtful for the upcoming game.”
Griffin, a sophomore, had 40 receptions this season for nearly 500 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“It’s going to be hard -- to lose a sophomore like that would be a blow, because he’s really been playing well,” Holtz said. “It’s kind of forced guys like Andre Davis, Deonte Welch, Ruben Gonzalez to grow up, forced them to mature and grow up.”
They’ll have to grow up in a hurry. Although just two wins away from becoming bowl eligible, the Bulls have yet to win a Big East game and are currently last in the conference. If Notre Dame goes bowling this year, it’ll likely be to the Champs Sports Bowl because of their contractual tie-in, meaning the Big East is now down a bowl slot.
(Quotes courtesy of St. Petersburg Times)