Conference USA Week 8 Recap

SCORES

UAB 26, Central Florida 24

East Carolina 38, Navy 35

Memphis 33, Tulane 17

Houston 63, Marshall 28

Tulsa 38, Rice 20

Southern Mississippi 27, SMU 3

UTEP 31, Colorado State 17

The big story of week eight in Conference USA was, without question, the emphatic statement made by the Southern Mississippi football team. The Golden Eagles went up against a surging opponent from Southern Methodist, a red-hot team that was coming off a pair of high-value wins against TCU and defending Conference USA champion Central Florida. SMU looked to be the clear favorite in the West Division of C-USA, but after this decisive conquest in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the conversation has been changed. SMU might still be the odds-on choice in the West, but right now, it’s even clearer that Southern Miss is the team to beat in the East Division. Coach Larry Fedora’s program in the Magnolia State had been treading water in his first few years on the job. Southern Miss had not won a single division championship in Fedora’s tenure, but that might be about to change after his defense played not just the best game of the season, but of the past four years. USM throttled SMU’s high-octane passing attack, limiting the Ponies and quarterback J.J. McDermott to just 173 passing yards. SMU was just 4 of 13 on third downs and completed just 16 of 32 passes. Southern Miss plucked two interceptions from an always-harassed McDermott, with one of them being a pick-six that sealed the outcome midway through the fourth quarter. It’s usually Southern Miss’s offense which carries the day, and it’s not as though the Golden Eagles were poor on that side of the ball – they accumulated 453 total yards – but the defense truly stole the show for the home team, which stumbled in September against Marshall but has rebounded magnificently in October.

There’s another very big reason to now view Southern Miss as the favorite in C-USA East: Central Florida just isn’t putting the pieces together. The defending champions of not just the division, but the entire league, are floundering this season. UCF dropped to 1-2 in the league after suffering a stunning 26-24 loss at basement-inhabiting UAB on Thursday night. A chip-shot field goal with 21 seconds left gave the Blazers the massive upset in a game that was not a statistical fluke. UCF really did get outplayed for 60 minutes by Alabama Birmingham’s resilient group, which could have slumped its shoulders with an 0-6 record but decided to bring its best effort to Legion Field. UAB outgained UCF by a considerable margin – 501 yards to 331 – and showed more energy for most of the night. What has to really frost UCF coach George O’Leary is that his team, down 23-14, made a comeback and briefly took a 24-23 lead against an opponent unaccustomed to closing the sale, only to then allow the Blazers’ offense to mount one last successful drive. If UCF had lost to East Carolina or Tulsa, one could see how such an event could happen; the Pirates and the Golden Hurricane have offenses that can cause trouble for opponents if they’re functioning at a high level. UAB’s ambush of UCF, as a 15-point underdog, came completely out of the blue. This giveaway puts UCF behind the eight-ball in the East, highly increasing the likelihood of a new representative in the C-USA Championship Game.

Elsewhere, the stories were mostly good for Conference USA. It’s good for the league that Memphis avoided another winless season in conference play. The Tigers got healthy against a Tulane team that was clearly lamenting the loss of head coach Bob Toledo, who was forced out earlier in the week. Meanwhile, UTEP – thought to be a train wreck early in September – has actually solidified its season to a certain extent. The Miners looked solid in a two-touchdown win over Colorado State. East Carolina imitated UTEP by scoring a non-conference win of its own. ECU quarterback Dominique Davis hit all 26 of his first-half passes, leading the Pirates to a thrilling 38-35 road win at Navy. Conference USA clearly enhanced its national profile in week eight. That’s great news against the backdrop of conference realignment.

WEEK NINE PREVIEW

MATCHUPS

Rice at Houston

UAB at Marshall

Tulane at East Carolina

SMU at Tulsa

Memphis at UCF

Southern Mississippi at UTEP

The most intriguing clash in week nine of the C-USA slate is definitely SMU at Tulsa. SMU is smarting after getting whacked at Southern Miss, and now the Ponies have to remain on the road against a very capable Tulsa side. SMU badly needs this win, because if it loses to the Golden Hurricane in the state of Oklahoma, it will drop two games behind Houston in the loss column in Conference USA’s West Division. SMU could win at Houston and still need one more loss from the Cougars to gain first place. It’s true that within the larger landscape of C-USA, Central Florida is the defending division champion in pronounced trouble. However, SMU will face a hard uphill climb if it can’t solve Tulsa this weekend. Every season has its share of gut-check, get-it-done-at-all-costs moments, and that moment has definitely arrived for head coach June Jones and the rest of the SMU crew.