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We took a look at the biggest MAC game of the week that goes tonight, so we roll on into the rest of the league’s games, all of which are on Saturday.
12:00 PM- Gardner Webb at Akron: The Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs were 6-5 last season and beat Brevard College last week 28-14. Meanwhile the Zips managed only 3 points in a loss to Syracuse. No line, but this game is on upset watch.
2:00 PM- Eastern Michigan at Miami: Two schools that played much better than expected in week 1 losses face off for the second MAC league game of the weekend. Florida’s offense may have created a lot of their own problems, but Miami gave them fits nonetheless, and EMU’s 27 points against Army ties their best weekends from last year. Line: Miami by 15.5. That’s a ton of points, considering Miami hasn’t won a game by 16 or more points since 2007. I agree that they have the edge here, but maybe by a touchdown. Miami 27, EMU 20.
3:30 PM, ESPNU- Kent State at Boston College: Read Post
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.
We come to our fourth consecutive, and final, Conference USA team in the 2010 previews. The first sign that all was not well at Tulsa in 2009 would have been the Oklahoma game, where the Golden Hurricane got wiped off the field to the tune of 45-0, by an Oklahoma squad that wasn’t that good. They bounced back after a 1-AA win and beat Rice, then gave Boise State one of their best games of the year, falling 28-21. That game tipped off a shocking six game losing streak, broken only by beating Memphis in overtime to end the season.
2010 would be a great year to bounce back, because Tulsa’s going to get another chance in the national spotlight. And they should be primed to do just that, with nine starters back on offense, including QB GJ Kinne. If not for that Keenum fella down in Houston, Tulsa might be back as the favorite in the West. They do have to replace six defensive starters, but this is Conference USA, and defense is but an afterthought.
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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 third of our non-BCS teams that reached 6 games during midweek contests last week, the Tulsa Golden Hurricane were made out to be worthless scrubs while they gave Boise State all they could handle a week ago, mostly due to their blowout loss to now-struggling Oklahoma. But fans of non-BCS teams and conferences know that Tulsa is always dangerous and often very good, and have shown flashes of both this season too. They have a bounceback game tonight at UTEP, so consider this Part 1 of a preview there too.
- Wins: B. The reality of the situation is that Tulsa has played two very good teams, a 1-AA team, a bad team, and two very bad teams. So essentially, Tulsa has done the bare minimum that would be expected of them, but other than playing BSU close, not much more. And so we do have to keep the schedule in mind when we look at the stats. Read Post
The Vegas prognosticators like Boise State by more than a touchdown, but I suspect it will be closer than that. My guess is that Tulsa will keep close all night long, but Boise should probably win this one with both teams scoring in the 20s.
Why yes, that is what I wrote yesterday shortly before kickoff. And [...]
We’re now closing in on 90 minutes from what may be the biggest non-conference, non-BCS game of the year. Boise State is leaving the comfort of the Blue Field for the third time this season, taking on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Both teams rank highly in whatever stat column you look at so we should be [...]
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
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