Northern Illinois, in the town of DeKalb, is a blip amid miles of farming country. The South Florida contingent spent Wednesday night in Rockford, a small city about an hour northwest of Chicago and 40 minutes north of DeKalb. Thursday's bus trip to the NIU campus brought the team past acre upon acre of cornstalks and soybeans. Last weekend in DeKalb was the annual Corn Fest, and the opening game of each NIU football season is marked with a Corn Boil celebration. With USF's three remaining road games all in cities -- Pittsburgh, Memphis and Salt Lake City (vs. Utah) -- Northern Illinois is the hands-down winner for remote road trip of the season.

Practice makes perfect

It was rise and shine for a walk-through practice Thursday morning -- in the hotel parking lot. The Bulls, decked out in sweats, went over a few plays in slow motion on the hard-top less than 12 hours before kickoff.

What is this stuff?

Two hours before the game, about 25 USF players wandered around the field at Huskie Stadium, a.k.a. The Doghouse, looking at their feet and scuffing the soles of their shoes. They were testing the FieldTurf, the new playing surface. To prepare for Northern Illinois, last week the Bulls tested the FieldTurf at Tropicana Field.

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