|
|
We continue working our way across the country looking at games lined up for Saturday & Sunday. CUSA got off to a bad start Thursday night and will be looking to get things stabilized over the weekend. There are a bunch of FCS games lined up, but also a couple more games that could get ugly. All games are on Saturday except the last two, all times eastern, you get the picture by now.
3:30 PM, ESPN- #4 Texas at Rice (Reliant Stadium): Look out, this could get ugly. Rice should be better than last year’s 2-10 team, but this won’t be the time or place to figure out if they are or not. Line: Texas by 30.5. The question with lines like this one is not ‘can’ Texas win by that much, but ‘will they?’ Looking to last year, they won their first two games by 39 and 31, then won their other two C-USA games by 32 and 57. So yes, I’d say Texas will probably cover that line, let’s say 49-10. And that’s way more than I planned to write on this game.
Read Post
Conference USA has been featured in dozens of realignment rumors this summer, yet nothing has come to fruition. First was a rumor that Memphis and/or UCF and/or East Carolina were off to the Big East and it was a done deal. Nothing there. Then, with the MWC/WAC fallout was the rumor that Houston was gone to the Mountain West- nothing so far. There’s word that Louisiana Tech wants to join the league, but no indication that the league has any need for them. So, as of now, Conference USA looks exactly like it has since 2005.
Last year’s conference champs, East Carolina, have a new coach and lost a lot of their team over the offseason and look to be a dark horse at best in 2010. Meanwhile Houston, West division champs a year ago, is fully loaded and looks like they could make a splash nationally, and they assume the mantle of conference favorites. There will be no shortage of teams looking to take the Cougars down a notch, with UCF, Southern Miss, and SMU looking like the prime candidates to take their shot.
Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
At 21st, ECU is my lowest rated defending conference champion. The Pirates had an outstanding 2009 season, running through C-USA at 7-1 and taking Arkansas to overtime in the Liberty Bowl. But 2010 has too many question marks to expect the same performance again.
Head Coach Skip Holtz left for the USF job, and most of their defense is gone too. The offense loses the starting QB and RB, with a 3 way fight for the new quarterback job underway between two freshmen and a sophomore. ECU has always outperformed expectations, but this year may be their biggest challenge in a while. Read Post
We’ve made it through 12 games in 13 weeks and now it’s time to put a bow on the 2009 season in C-USA and the MAC. The MAC preview is coming this afternoon, to get you ready for tonight’s game. The Conference USA Championship Game kicks off at noon Saturday on ESPN2. The Houston Cougars (10-2/6-2) come to Greenville, NC to take on the East Carolina Pirates (8-4/7-1). The Pirates host the game on account of a better record in league play, despite Houston’s better record overall. The teams did not meet in the regular season.
Storylines
Houston’s story has been pretty well documented- wins over Oklahoma State and Texas Tech vaulted them into the top 25, only to lose to UTEP, perhaps the most inconsistent team in the league. They got back on track by beating Mississippi State and only lost once more, on the road at UCF. They come into the weekend ranked 21st and are hoping to see QB Case Keenum get a trip to New York for the Heisman ceremony.
East Carolina has had a lower profile this year than they usually do. Rarely does a year go by without a signature win for the Pirates over one of their regional rivals, but this year they lost to West Virginia, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech. Their only conference loss was on the road at Southern Methodist, a 28-21 affair. Their coach, Skip Holtz, is a rising start and his name has even come across in at least one rumor tied to Notre Dame. Expect to hear the name in conjunction with several jobs as they start to break open at the more mid-level BCS schools. Read Post
Another eventful weekend in C-USA, as we now have the league championship game set, while at least one team saw their bowl hopes go up in smoke and another stumbled across the finish line, lucky that the league has a lot of bowl ties. Read Post
For most of America’s 1-A college football teams, the regular season has come to a close. The conferences with no championship game have a few games here and there over the next few weeks, and four non-BCS teams have appointments with championship games next week. Here are some of the highlights from yesterday’s action:
Troy and TCU [...]
The Mid-Season Report Cards are a subjective look using objective numbers with a look toward the remainder of the season as well. Teams are being reviewed in random order once they reach 6 games.
East Carolina began its season with its usual slate of top 25 non-conference games, like they do nearly every season. Things got off to a shaky start, going 1-2 in the early weeks of the season. Since then, a 2-1 conference record has the season stabilized, but not the results that ECU fans hope for and expect.
- Wins: C. Losses to West Virginia and even in-state rival North Carolina are not a huge surprise, but this weekend’s defeat at the hands of SMU is not what ECU expected. Read Post
Conference USA was dealt a big blow this weekend, by itself. UTEP’s shocking defeat of Houston blew the Cougars right out of the polls, the national picture, and any chance of getting into the BCS money. Out of conference was a 50-50 split, with Tulane upsetting Army and SMU falling to TCU after keeping things close in the early going.
In conference play, Tulsa handled Rice, East Carolina dispatched Marshall is a close game, UCF scored 23 unanswered to drop Memphis to 0-2 in the league, and of course UTEP brought Houston to 4-1 but 0-1 in the conference. Read Post
|
|