Though last week’s loss to Texas felt like a season-defining game for Alabama, it’s still just Week 3. And the Crimson Tide luckily has a favorable matchup for its first road contest of the season.

No. 10 Alabama will play South Florida in Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium — home of the Buccaneers and the site of UA’s College Football Playoff national title loss to Clemson in 2017. If this year’s Tide (1-1) wants to reach the CFP, it’ll need to go undefeated the rest of the way, and that starts with the Bulls (1-1).

The Tide has questions to answer after the Longhorns bullied Nick Saban’s squad at home. Questions naturally arise at the quarterback position after two turnovers by Jalen Milroe, but Alabama has issues to fix along its offensive line that would impact whoever takes the snap. USF has lost to Western Kentucky and beat Florida A&M.

Former Tennessee offensive coordinator Alex Golesh is in his debut season as USF’s head coach. The Bulls have averaged 31 points in each of its first two games. Redshirt freshman quarterback Byrum Brown has run for four touchdowns and passed for four more, producing 273 yards of offense a game.

Here is what the Tide said about bouncing back and what the Bulls said about potentially upsetting the visitors before Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. broadcast on ABC.

Nick Saban, Alabama head coach

“It’s our first road game. They’ve got some good players. They’ve got a pretty good quarterback. They play hard on defense. So, everyone’s capable. It’s about you playing to you standard, us playing to our standard and trying to play the kind of football that we need to play so that we have a chance to be more successful on a more consistent basis.”

On team’s mindset after Texas loss: “I would be shocked if this team doesn’t respond in a really positive way — to try and get better, to try and do the things they need to do to get fixed. But we have to have better execution. We gotta do simple things better — whether it’s pass protection, blocking, controlling the line of scrimmage, not giving up big plays on defense. Those are the things that are gonna change.”

On USF’s offense: “They play really aggressively on defense, a lot of stunts, a lot of blitzes, a lot of pressures, play hard. Offensively, their system and scheme is very similar to Tennessee, which they spread you out. The quarterback has done a really good job. They’ve got two good runners. They’ve been able to make plays and have balance, run and pass.”

Tyler Booker, Alabama offensive lineman

On team’s mindset: “We’re pissed off. I’m not going to life. Who wants to lose at home? There’s only been two undefeated national championship teams here at the University of Alabama. All of our goals are still attainable. We can still win the SEC West, still win the SEC, and get into the College Football Playoff. This was just a wake-up call for us.”

On advice to center Seth McLaughlin re: low snaps: “I have the ultimate confidence in Seth. We all have bad plays. It’s all about how you respond. Seth has that same mindset. I feel like all offensive linemen have to have that mindset of like, ‘OK, I messed up, next play.’ Whenever I saw Seth, I was just like, ‘Hey, be you. Shake it off. Next play. There’s nothing you can do about it now. Control what you can control. He can’t go back and unflinch the ball, you know what I mean? So what’s the point of drumming him? We got a game to plan.”

Kool-Aid McKinstry, Alabama defensive back

On handling a tempo offense, like USF’s: “When a team’s moving quick it’s just, we have to make sure that we get the call making sure that everybody gets the call so we can all play on one accord. I mean, we practice very fast so it’s not nothing that we’re not used to at all. We have periods where we make sure that we’re going very, very fast in case a team comes out and does that. So we just had to make sure that we’re getting the call and everybody’s on the same page.”

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What the Bulls said about the Tide

South Florida HC Alex Golesh: “I think (USF players) are aware of who we’re playing. They’re aware of who’s favored to win. For us, I don’t know if it’s just another game. There’s gonna be 65,000 people there. In terms of that, in terms of environment and all those things, it should be a really cool game. But challenge? Yeah, I think they’re all a challenge. We’ve won four games in three and a half years.”

On if Texas awoke the Tide like a “sleeping giant:” “Alabama is Alabama, right? They’ve won six national titles in 16 years. Those guys know how to win, they know how to work, they’ve got good football coaches. They’ve got really good players.”

On last year’s Tennessee gameplan used against the Tide: “There’s a lot of people that have come out of the Alabama tree in the SEC. You see their scheme over and over again in the SEC. You’re navigating it and trying to find the right ways to attack it. Last year, we found a way to create some explosives and kept exploiting that, which was cool from a schematic standpoint. We executed at a high clip. We were prepared for that moment. It took us one and a half years of seeing the same scheme and having the right answers for how we were going to attack it. It was really a culmination of a lot that went into that game.”

Senior LB Jhalyn Shuler on embracing opportunity: “It’s extremely important. A lot of people who are just first time seeing myself. I didn’t play much last year. Playing a big team like this on a big stage, you can really help yourself out exposure-wise and see where you’re at against a team like Alabama.”

Grad student OL Donovan Jennings on the Tide’s defensive line: “They’re physical, fast, fly around to the ball. They get hands on you pretty quick. … If we come out and be physical, like I know we can, we’ll be fine.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].