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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
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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.
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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.
For several years, Memphis has been stuck in a place of mediocre football, but had never been so bad that they could quite justify finding a new coach. In 2009, the dam burst, as the Tigers wobbled through a 2-10 season (beating only UTEP from 1-A, who you may recall handed Houston their first loss), and Tommy West was relieved of his duties.
After the season, Memphis tabbed alumnus Larry Porter to head up the program, and Porter will get a mixed selection of returning players. 7 players on each side have starting experience, but some of that is limited- QB Tyler Bass has started a few games but missed most of two consecutive seasons due to injury, and has competition from four others for the starting job. As for other positions, we will watch to see how helpful experience is when it comes from being on a team that isn’t very good.
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A quick look at coaching statuses around the non-BCS Universe. At the moment, we’re at six openings, with Marshall’s coach resigning yesterday and Akron sneaking one past me over the holiday weekend. Perhaps more importantly, though, is that the axes are falling fast and furious at the big schools, which usually sets off a chain reaction [...]
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
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.
The Memphis Tigers are no stranger to slow starts. Starting in 2005, their 6 game records have been 3-3, 1-5, 2-4, and 3-3 last year after a 0-3 start. In every year except the 1-5 start, they’ve wound up in bowl games. Now, they’re sitting at 2-4 but coming off a win against UTEP and hoping that’s the start of some momentum yet again.
- Wins: D. Their only wins are against 1-AA Tennessee Martin and the erratic UTEP team. Losses to UCF and Middle Tennessee, neither of which looking like a stellar team, hurt. 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
Finally, we come to the conference games. Not every team starts conference play this week, but enough of them do that we’ll finally start to get a feel for how these guys compare to similar competition, instead of 1-AA teams or BCS contenders. Plus, without so many games per conference, I can now bring you a worthwhile weekend preview instead of having to deal with 12 different games at every corner of the country. So without further ado, here’s what to look for in C-USA this weekend: Read Post
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