By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

TAMPA, Fla. - If you didn't know better, you'd think the University of South Florida had cloned the University of Cincinnati football team.

Both teams have formidable defenses and utilize spread offenses that have had trouble scoring. Both have a receiver who doubles occasionally as an option quarterback, and both have spent a good part of the season trying to correct penalties and turnovers that they believe have kept them from winning more games.

Oh, and they have the same record.

UC (4-3, 2-2 in Conference USA) takes on the Bulls (4-3, 2-2) at 7:30 tonight at Raymond James Stadium in a nationally televised Halloween game.

UC and USF have never played each other, but figure to see a lot of each other in the coming years. They're expected to receive invitations from the Big East Conference next week.

But for now, both teams are in dire need of a victory to keep alive hopes of winning the C-USA championship.

"It all goes down the tubes if you don't go down to Florida and play a well-played, hard-fought game and come away with a good effort," UC coach Rick Minter said.

The Bearcats, who have lost three of their last four, usually can do the hard-fought part.

It's that well-played aspect that causes them trouble, especially on offense where dropped passes and penalties have done severe damage. They've also had trouble on special teams. Last week, they had a punt blocked, and a high snap on another punt set up an Army touchdown.

"We can't make the kind of errors we made (against Army) and beat South Florida," Minter said.

USF coach Jim Leavitt has been singing the same song. Last week, in a 27-6 loss to Southern Miss, the Bulls, who are in their third season of Division I-A football and their first in C-USA, salvaged only two field goals in four trips into the red zone. They had a field-goal attempt blocked and lost a fumble inside the 5-yard line.

"I thought we did some awfully good things," Leavitt said. "But we did too many bad things to win the game."

This game will feature the top two defenses in the league. USF leads the league and ranks 14th nationally, allowing 292 yards per game. UC is second in the league and 20th nationally with a 309-yard average.

USF quarterback Ronnie Banks has thrown for 1,289 yards, just nine fewer than UC's Gino Guidugli. Huey Whittaker, a 6-5, 225-pound senior wide receiver, has caught 31 passes for 420 yards and two touchdowns. Brian Fisher, like UC's George Murray, shifts to quarterback occasionally.

This is the first time UC has played in Florida since Minter took over as head coach in 1994. The Bearcats have 10 Florida products on their roster who are looking forward to going home.

"If we both want to stay in the league race, this is a championship Friday night for us," Minter said.

E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com