Conference USA is now the only league in the country with a leader and a last place team (ECU and Tulsa, respectively), thanks to the Sunday showdown between the two. That game was a great showcase for the league in an otherwise dismal weekend- the conference has yet to beat a FBS team outside of their own.
UCF 38, South Dakota 7- UCF was the only team in Conference USA to hold a team- any division- under 10 points. Next Week: North Carolina State at UCF
Texas 34, Rice 17- Rice gave the Longhorns all they could handle through most of the first half, but Texas pulled away at the end of Q2 and never looked back. (Predicted Texas to win by more than 30.5. 0-1.) Next Week: Rice at North Texas
Mississippi State 49, Memphis 7- Memphis looked as bad as we feared as the Bulldogs ran all over them (Prediction: Mississippi State to cover the 21.5. 1-1). Next Week: Memphis at East Carolina
Houston 68, Texas State 28- Houston was leading 68-14 heading into the fourth, when Texas State added two touchdowns, but that’s still enough to raise an eyebrow about Houston’s defense. Next Week: UTEP at Houston, Friday Night
UTEP 31, Arkansas-Pine Bluff 10- Pine Bluff hung around a while, going to halftime trailing just 14-10, but a pair of unanswered third quarter touchdowns put the game away for UTEP. Next Week: UTEP at Houston, Friday Night.
East Carolina 51, Tulsa 49- This was a spectacular shootout, ending on a hail mary bomb caught for the winning touchdown by ECU. Two things stand out- the last ten drives of the game ended in touchdowns- where are the defenses? C-USA is an offensive league, but it’s won every year by the team who puts up a solid defense (ECU two years running and UCF before that). The other point is that Todd Graham went for two when Tulsa went up 13-7, and failed. Then failed two more times. If he just kicks extra points, Tulsa scores 52 (Predicted: ECU to cover a +7, 2-1). Next Week: Bowling Green at Tulsa, Memphis at East Carolina.
Texas Tech 35, SMU 27- SMU battled back from a 35-14 deficit to give themselves a chance at a game tying touchdown drive, but hard hits on their starting QB (and some questionable roughing non-calls) left them with a backup in trying to convert 3rd and 4th downs from midfield while time ticked away. It wasn’t enough, but it was a valiant effort for the Mustangs. Anyone who switched over when the ECU-Tulsa game ended saw SMU taking it to the Red Raiders (Prediction: SMU would keep it closer than 13.5 points. 3-1 on the weekend for C-USA games ATS). Next Week: UAB at SMU
What We Learned This Week
As usual, not that much from UCF, Houston, UTEP and Tulane, all playing FCS opponents.
UAB has a lot more rebuilding to do than we thought. Losing at home to FAU is a bad sign.
Marshall and Southern Miss might be in trouble, but they did play pretty good BCS league teams, so we’ll give them another week. By that standard, I guess we should give Memphis another week too.
East Carolina and Tulsa beg the question- great offense or terrible defense? Having watched most of the game, I’m inclined to lean toward terrible defense. But it may not matter, because it looks like there’s only one or two decent defenses in the league.
Rice and SMU both had nice moments against quality Big 12 competition. Both will have a chance to turn good moments into good games next week.
Conference USA Power Rankings
For now, this is pretty much “who had the better/worse Week 1. They’ll mean a little more as the weeks go by.
- East Carolina
- UCF
- Houston
- UTEP
- SMU
- Rice
- Tulane
- Tulsa
- Southern Miss
- Marshall
- UAB
- Memphis