Conference USA’s schedule is a little more full than the slightly smaller conferences around it. There are, in fact, some really good games on the slate:
12:30 PM
Houston at Mississippi State- Could be a season-defining game for Houston. USM hasn’t shown that they have the offense to score with Houston, so they Cougars have every chance to win this thing. If they do, they’re probably back in the top 25 and can get on with trying to win the conference.
3:30 PM
Navy at Rice- Rices woeful 0-5 start could get worse this week. C-USA is full of unconventional offenses, so Navy’s attack may not throw Rice for as much of a loop as it does to other teams, but this will still be a tough one for the Owls.
Marshall (1-1) at Tulane (0-1)- Tulane’s big win over Army went unnoticed in the chaos of last weekend, but they’re back at 2-2 with at least a little bit of momentum. Marshall should have the talent to beat them, if they can move on from a tough loss to ECU last week.
7:30 PM
Southern Miss at Louisville- Ordinarily, I would say that Southern Miss has at least a decent chance, but word just came out that their backup punter has been killed in some sort of gun accident. While they will want to rally around their lost teammate, such things often make it much harder to concentrate on football, especially just a day after the news breaks. If they channel the emotion into good football, the look out Louisville, but there’s no way to know what team comes out tomorrow night.
8:00 PM
UTEP (1-0) at Memphis (0-2)- Memphis has looked bad all year. So has UTEP, except for that game last week. So there’s no telling which UTEP team comes east, or if Memphis will begin their annual rally that saves the coach’s job yet again.
East Carolina (2-0) at Southern Methodist (1-0)- ECU has all the momentum, riding a two game conference win streak out to Dallas. SMU has had a disappointing run of late, but they’ll be looking to get back on the winning side with a home game against a likely lesser team than they faced at TCU last week. If SMU can turn it into a shootout, I don’t think ECU can keep up, and they might see their first conference loss of the year.
Part 5 of today’s preview marathon will be a bit later this evening, but before kickoff of tonight’s La Tech-Nevada game.
UPDATE: Apparently Southern Mississippi’s punter was injured, not killed. I can’t imagine the mixed messages are helpful for anyone, but hopefully this one is accurate and the young man still has a chance.