Conference USA Week 11 Recap

WEEK ELEVEN REVIEW

SCORES

Houston 73, Tulane 17

Northwestern 28, Rice 6

Tulsa 59, Marshall 17

Navy 24, SMU 17

UAB 41, Memphis 35

Southern Miss 30, UCF 29

UTEP 22, East Carolina 17

The big story of week 11 in Conference USA was Southern Mississippi’s great escape from the clutches of Central Florida. On a day when TCU made national headlines due to its ballsy, late-stage 2-point conversion in a 36-35 win over Boise State, UCF tried to similarly steal a 31-30 road win from the Golden Eagles, who were aiming to clinch Conference USA’s East Division championship.

Central Florida scored on the final play of regulation – a 25-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Blake Bortles to receiver J.J. Worton – to make the score 30-29 in favor of Southern Miss. UCF could have played for overtime, but head coach George O’Leary wanted to end – and decide – the game on one play from the 3. Bortles had a receiver all alone in the back of the end zone and in the middle of the field, but he didn’t seem to pick him up. Bortles wound up throwing a pass that was about 10 yards to the left of his open target and well short of him to boot. The mysterious inability to make what looked like a simple pitch-and-catch connection represented the latest and most painful way for UCF to lose in this 2011 season, which has gone wrong from the very start.

The Golden Knights watched their athletic director, Keith Tribble, leave his post in disgrace this past week after the NCAA leveled several major allegations against the athletic program. Now, they will have to bear the burden of a 4-6 record and the very strong possibility of a bowl-free season. This is the last thing anyone expected heading into a 2011 campaign that figured to be dominated by UCF. The Golden Knights’ defense had shown a substantial measure of backbone, and its offense – powered by fleet-footed quarterback Jeff Godfrey – had revealed the kind of balance and versatility that marks an upper-tier team. Yet, nothing worked right for the Knights this season. Some injuries limited this team – Godfrey included – but Central Florida never developed the cohesiveness last year’s squad managed to cultivate. In the heat of late-game pressure, UCF has not been able to make game-defining plays, and this one-point loss at Southern Miss proved to be no exception. It’s the Golden Eagles, not the Golden Knights, who are rolling into the C-USA Championship Game from the East Division this year. It’s USM, not UCF, which has only one loss and is poised to make a splash in a bowl game. How quickly things do change in the non-BCS conferences from year to year.

Elsewhere in the league, Houston remained unbeaten with a runaway romp over Tulane. The Cougars, due to Boise State’s loss to TCU, now control their path to the Sugar Bowl. If UH can win its next two regular-season games and then take the C-USA title, a 13-0 Cougar club would find itself in the Sugar Bowl in early January.

UAB scored 24 points in the fourth quarter to stun Memphis by six points and add to the Tigers’ woes. UTEP scored an important win, clawing back to the .500 mark by topping East Carolina. If the Miners can upend Tulsa this weekend at the Sun Bowl, they can go bowling once again and claim a successful season under embattled coach Mike Price. SMU, for its part, suffered a discouraging loss to Navy, the latest installment in a disappointing season that has fallen far short of head coach June Jones’s expectations.

WEEK TWELVE PREVIEW

MATCHUPS

Southern Mississippi at UAB

Tulane at Rice

SMU at Houston

UCF at East Carolina

Marshall at Memphis

Tulsa at UTEP

In week 12 of the 2011 college football season, something special will happen in Conference USA: ESPN’s College GameDay program will visit the West Division showdown between SMU and undefeated, No. 11 Houston. The Cougars, as mentioned above, have a chance to reach the Bowl Championship Series – the Sugar Bowl in particular – if they can win their remaining games and post a 13-0 record. UH could become the first Conference USA team to make a BCS bowl. To be quite honest, the Nov. 25 game at Tulsa – the one which will decide the West – is the biggest remaining game on Houston’s schedule, but it goes without saying that the Cougars have to take care of SMU first. The Mustangs limp into this game after losing at home to Navy. SMU figured to have a great team on its hands in 2011, but when starting quarterback Kyle Padron began the season with two interceptions against Texas A&M, he lost hold of the position and, in the process, dramatically detracted from the Ponies’ offensive production. Backup quarterback J.J. McDermott has been serviceable, but far from outstanding. SMU has simply suffered from the lack of an elite trigger man in a pass-happy offensive scheme. Houston is the team whose passing game doesn’t miss… not with decorated quarterback and NCAA record-holder Case Keenum, who has set records for the most passing yards and the most touchdown passes in the sport’s 143-year history. He will get a lot of love from Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit, while Lee Corso will likely don a Cougar head at the end of Saturday’s pregame show. It will be a special scene in Houston: Conference USA finally gets its moment before the national cameras.