No. 8 Miami (3-0) at South Florida (2-1), Saturday, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
BetMGM College Football Odds: Miami by 16 1/2.
Series record: Miami, 5-1.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
Miami is seeking to finish what would be a perfect 4-0 record in nonconference games, plus a third win against a Sunshine State opponent already this season. South Florida has a chance to beat a top 10 team for the first time in nearly 17 years — the Bulls are 0-8 in such games since topping then-No. 5 West Virginia 21-13 on Sept. 28, 2007.
KEY MATCHUP
Miami’s ballcarriers vs. South Florida's ballhawks. The Bulls have already shown that they're excellent at knocking footballs loose this season, getting five takeaways off of fumbles in the season's first three games. The Hurricanes know they have to protect the football; wasted possessions are how upsets can happen.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Miami: LT Jalen Rivers is back after a two-game absence with a neck injury, and his experience is going to be needed against South Florida's stout defensive front. He's the key to the blocking scheme that Miami uses to protect QB Cam Ward.
South Florida: Dual-threat QB Byrum Brown won't be the highest-profile player on the field, however he's just as important to the Bulls as Ward is to Miami. The junior was one of just two FBS players to throw for over 3,000 yards while running for 800-plus last season. The other was Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels. Through three games, Brown has thrown 448 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. He's also rushed for a team-leading 254 yards and a pair of scores.
FACTS & FIGURES
Ward is 89 passing yards from 15,000 in his college career, including his time at Incarnate Word and Washington State. ... The teams met six times from 2005 through 2013 but, until now, haven't played since. They'll play at Miami in 2025 and 2028. ... USF scored 23 points in its lone win over Miami, back in 2010. In Miami's five wins over USF, the Bulls averaged 10 points. ... USF has lost 18 consecutive games against Top 25 opponents. The Bulls' last win over a ranked team was on Oct. 28, 2016, a 52-45 win over then-No. 22 Navy. ... Miami has outscored opponents by 133 points so far this season, the third-best differential nationally entering the week behind Tennessee (178) and Ole Miss (159). ... The Bulls (who have already faced Alabama and lost 42-16 after a fourth-quarter collapse) will be one of two teams to already face two top 10 opponents this season. Kent State — which plays No. 10 Penn State on Saturday — is the other.
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Miami running back Ajay Allen (28) reacts after scoring a touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Ball State, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
A mission specialist for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year told the U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday that the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to “make dreams come true.”
Renata Rojas was the latest person to testify who was connected to Titan owner OceanGate. An investigatory panel had previously listened to two days of testimony that raised questions about the company's operations before the doomed mission. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.
Rojas' testimony struck a different tone than some of the earlier witnesses, who described the company as troubled from the top down and focused more on profit than science or safety.
“I was learning a lot and working with amazing people,” Rojas said. “Some of those people are very hardworking individuals that were just trying to make dreams come true.”
Rojas also said she felt the company was sufficiently transparent during the run-up to the Titanic dive. Her testimony was emotional at times, with the Coast Guard panel proposing a brief break at one point so she could collect herself.
Rojas is a member of the Explorers Club, which lost members Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet in the Titan implosion. The club described Rush as “a friend of The Explorers Club” after the implosion.
“I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never at any point felt unsafe by the operation,” Rojas said in testimony Thursday.
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began on Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive.
Investigators also released underwater footage of the submersible wreck. The footage shows the submersible's tail cone and other debris on the ocean floor.
During the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said Tuesday he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Also expected to testify on Thursday is former OceanGate scientific director Steven Ross. The hearing is expected to run through Friday with more witnesses still to come and resume next week.
Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient to get the unconventionally designed craft into the water. The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage of the Titan was found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.
No one on board survived. Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman were the other two people killed in the implosion.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP)
This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP)
In a still from from a video animation provided by the United States Coast Guard an illustration of the Titan submersible, right, is shown near the ocean floor of the Atlantic Ocean, as June 18, 2023 communications between the submersible and the support vessel Polar Prince, not shown, are represented at left. (United States Coast Guard via AP)
This June 2023 image provided by Pelagic Research Services shows remains of the Titan submersible on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. (Pelagic Research Services via AP)
