South Florida heads to West Point Saturday at 1-0, but there’s still a giant question mark hanging over USF head coach Brian Hartline’s first season leading the Bulls. Can this offense actually get going? 

The defense answered the bell in week one, holding FIU to just nine points and forcing multiple turnovers, but the offense stalled out again and again, finishing with only 208 total yards. 

That puts even more weight on quarterback Michael Van Buren heading into Army. He went 11 of 18 for 100 yards and a touchdown in his USF debut. 

Hartline was quick to point out that even with a few throws he’d probably want back, he took care of the football. Now Van Buren faces his first true road test in the Hartline system, and it comes against an Army team that just throttled Bryant 59 to 3 in their opener, and brings their tricky triple option look on defense.

The highly anticipated opener for USF was a bit lackluster, but this team will have to find its identity and win these games in explosive fashion like in years past. 

Van Buren and this new-look USF offense can find rhythm and take a real step forward. If the offense clicks against a defense playing with a different rhythm and structure, that tells you a lot about where this team’s headed. If it doesn’t, the questions from week one are only going to get louder.