By: Andrew Silverstein

We've got less than a week now until USF football is in full swing.  The Bulls' first game of the season, and possibly biggest game of their existence, kicks off this upcoming Saturday (September 3) in South Bend, Indiana against college football legends, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

It's been a long road since the Bulls first season 15 years ago as a small, Divison 1 AA team.  Now we're flirting with the BCS top 25, vying for the top spot in the Big East and squaring off against teams including Notre Dame, Miami and West Virginia during the 2011 season. If that's not progress, then we don't know what is.

We'll get to see just how fruitful offseason progress has been for head coach, Skip Holtz and the Bulls during this 3:30 p.m. game against the Irish .  Holtz himself had a short lived career on special teams with the Irish in 1986 and coached under his father, Lou from 1990 to 1993.  The stakes are high for Holtz, not only to start the season on the right foot, but prove a little something to his alma mater.

You can bet a ton of USF students and alumni will be traveling up to Indiana for this sold out game to show their support, but if you can't make it, you can watch the match up at home on NBC or, even better, at a ton of great sports bars across Tampa Bay.

If you're a spur of the moment type and do feel like traveling up to Indiana Saturday, there are resale tickets available through our site here.

After the big game against Notre Dame, the USF Bulls have a nice, three-game home stretch at Raymond James Stadium against Ball State (9/10), Florida A&M (9/17) and UTEP (9/24).  Check out our tips for USF tailgating and parking at Raymond James Stadium.  Individual and season tickets (starting at $65) are still very much available.  Head to the USF football Ticketmaster page here for more info.

Make sure you are ready for the Bulls season by getting your USF gear at the USF Athletics official retailer, Bulls Heaven.