2011 Conference USA Football: CUSA Week 10 Football Recap

C-USA Sports Fans

Conference USA Week 10 Recap

WEEK TEN REVIEW

SCORES

Tulsa 24, Central Florida 17

SMU 45, Tulane 24

Rice 41, UTEP 37

Southern Miss 48, East Carolina 28

Houston 56, UAB 13

The big story of week 10 in Conference USA was once again written by the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Coach Bill Blankenship continues to excel in his first season at the helm, rewarding the confidence of the school's administration. The latest conquest for Blankenship's ballclub came on Thursday night in a test of strength against defending league champion Central Florida in Orlando.

Central Florida was desperate entering this game. Coach George O'Leary's Golden Knights were 4-4 on the year, and they had already lost two conference games. UCF needed a win to stay in the C-USA East Division race, just behind white-hot Southern Mississippi; there was plenty of incentive for O'Leary's lads to max out. The Golden Knights' hold on divisional and league titles was down to its last gasp. Tulsa had to deal with the proverbial wounded animal, and it had to do so on the road. This was not an easy assignment for a team playing its first November game under its first-year head coach.

How much more impressive it is, then, that Tulsa was able to pull through. This was a defense-dominated contest in which the Golden Hurricane were able to score only one touchdown in the first three quarters. UCF's defense repeatedly stiffened in the red zone on a night when points came at a premium. UCF nursed a 17-16 lead early in the fourth quarter, and with the pressure of the moment building, everyone in the stadium wondered if Tulsa was up for the challenge. Clearly, the Golden Hurricane were.

Quarterback G.J. Kinne - injured and knocked out of the lineup earlier in the season - played with strength both mental and physical. The veteran ran the ball a lot on improvised scrambles, and he didn't fling the ball downfield in the gunslinging ways of his past. Kinne showed a more patient and disciplined side of his football personality, and those qualities rubbed off on his teammates. Tulsa and Kinne delivered a slow, methodical fourth-quarter touchdown drive which steadily gained small chunks of yardage and nibbled UCF's defense to death. The mixture of Kinne's short passing, a power running game, and Kinne's scrambling gave the Golden Hurricane the diversity they needed to keep the Golden Knights off balance. In the final minutes, the awareness of Kinne's scrambling ability made UCF's defense hesitate. Tulsa hammered out two first downs in the final few minutes, running the ball up the tackles even in passing situations. The Golden Knights were standing at the line of scrimmage while the Golden Hurricane got the pad level they needed, and with that final display of ruggedness, Tulsa sealed a win that was just as impressive as its dismantling of Southern Methodist in late October.

The significance of this win is plain for Tulsa. The ability to avoid a loss in the toughest sustained stretch of the schedule means that the Golden Hurricane are almost certainly assured of a chance to play for the C-USA West Division championship when they face Houston on Thanksgiving weekend. Tulsa and Houston have remained perfect in C-USA up to this point, which means that even if one team stumbles once in the next two weeks, the regular-season finale will decide the division due to a head-to-head tiebreak.

The other big development in C-USA from week 10 was Southern Mississippi's emphatic statement on the road in Greenville, North Carolina. USM brought the hammer to East Carolina to take the outright lead in C-USA East. Coach Larry Fedora's Golden Eagles have soared this season, shrugging off an early-season loss at Marshall by dominating the league ever since. It's becoming increasingly clear that the Marshall loss, rather than leading to what would have been an historically typical tailspin, served as a wake-up call for a renewed band of brothers.