Conference USA Football Week Three Recap - 9/16/06

Southern Miss 37 North Carolina State 17

Last year, N.C. State beat Southern Miss, 21-17. Despite that narrow margin of victory, the Wolfpack thoroughly handled the Golden Eagles in the trenches. USM struggled to run the ball, but NCSU freshman Andre Brown did not. He carried the ball 32 times for 248 yards and two scores. This year Jeff Bower and Southern Miss welcomed Chuck Amato and North Carolina State to Hattiesburg by turning the tables on them. USM dominated the line of scrimmage this time around and piled up 261 yards on the ground.

How convincing was the Golden Eagles win? They did not have to punt once in the game.

NCSU coach Chuck Amato confirmed the butt whippin’ that the Golden Eagles laid on his Wolfpack, stating “it had been a long, long time since they had gotten knocked around like that in the running game.”

USM’s Damion Fletcher carried the ball 28 times for 182 yards and three touchdowns. Golden Eagle QB Jeremy Young shined as well, completing 13 of 19 passes for 181 yards, while also rushing for 58 yards on only 11 carries.

The Golden Eagles are now 2-1.

Tulane 32 - Mississippi State 29

Senior Lester Ricard threw for nearly 300 yards and junior Matt Forte’ ran for 170 as Tulane went into Starkville and won 32-29. The loss dropped Sylvester Croom’s Bulldogs to 0-3, while Tulane improved to 1-1. It was the Green Wave’s first road win over an SEC team since 1989.

Tulane took a commanding 32-7 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs still had plenty of bite left in them. The Green Wave had missed opportunities to make the score 37-7 as they missed a couple PATs and also had a field goal blocked. MSU put up 22 fourth quarter points, but they had their comeback hopes ended after Tulane recovered an onsides kick with just less than two minutes left.

East Carolina 35 - Memphis 20

After not being able to slow down the Memphis offense and quarterback Martin Hankins in the first half, the East Carolina defense stifled the Tigers in the second half. The Pirates had given up 311 yards before halftime, but then held UM to only 81 after the break.

Memphis took a 20-7 lead into the break, but despite only having seven points, the Pirates moved the ball well in the first half. However, they were unable to capitalize on their opportunities and they repeatedly shot themselves in the foot.

The second half was another story. The Pirates came out in the second half with all cannons firing. They came out and set the tone for the half by forcing the Tigers to go three and out. They intercepted Memphis quarterback Martin Hankins four times in the half, while returning two of those for touchdowns.

Offensively, East Carolina established a running game and began to move the ball that much better.

Despite the fact that the Pirates dominated the second half, the Tigers had an opportunity to tie the score at 28 with a little less than three minutes remaining; however, Hankins threw his fifth interception of the game and Kasey Ross returned it 77 yards for an ECU touchdown to essentially put it away. Read more about the Memphis/ECU game.

Tulsa 28 - North Texas 3

The Golden Hurricane played excellent defense throughout versus a North Texas team that has had its struggles offensively. UNT took a 3-0 lead early in the second quarter and would hang onto it until the final play of the half when Tulsa finally got on the board with a four-yard touchdown pass from Paul Smith to Ted Curtis. This play capped a 13-play, 96-yard drive that would give the Hurricane the lead and momentum headed into the locker room up 7-3.

Leading by only four, despite out gaining the Mean Green, 177-51, in total yards in the first half, Tulsa began the second half the same way it finished the first half. The Golden Hurricane went 82 yards in ten plays, making the score 14-3. On their next possession, Tulsa went 70 yards in only six plays, taking a commanding 21-3 lead.

This would be too steep of a hill for a stagnant UNT offense to climb. The Eagles could only muster 89 yards of offense in the game.

Houston 42 - Grambling State 22

UH took care of business at home against Division I-AA Grambling State. The Cougars built a 35-7 halftime advantage before cruising to a 42-22 win.

Grambling State did get on the board first, taking a 7-0 lead slightly over six minutes into the game. However, the Cougars responded with 42 unanswered points, including 28 in the second quarter. On the day, UH had 484 yards of total offense, while senior quarterback Kevin Kolb completed 27 of 31 passes for 297 yards and two touchdowns.

This performance made him the first 10,000-yard passer in Houston history and propelled the Cougars to their first 3-0 start since 1990.

Jackie Battle also ran for three touchdowns for UH.

SMU 45 - Sam Houston State 14

Following a disappointing performance in their 24-6 loss at North Texas, SMU returned home to face I-AA Sam Houston State and get their first win of the season.

After only managing nine points in their first two games at Texas Tech and UNT, the Mustangs up big offensive numbers in this one. They had 443 yards of total offense. Quarterback Justin Willis threw five touchdown passes to five different receivers, while only misfiring on one pass on the night. Willis finished the game 18 of 19 for 248 yards.

Fred Turner ran for 104 yards on only nine carries, and Columbus Givens led the Ponies with 109 receiving yards.

#10 Georgia 34 - UAB 0

UAB’s offense didn’t have any answers for this stingy UGA defense, and the Dawgs recorded their second shutout in as many weeks, beating the Blazers by a score of 34-0 in Athens, “Between The Hedges”.

Freshman quarterback Matt Stafford made his first start and ran the offense effectively, while not committing any turnovers. He was 10 of 17 for 107 yards. The Dawgs only had 271 yards of total offense, but that was all they would need as their defense dominated UAB’s offense. The Blazers were only 2 of 13 on third down.

The Blazers could only manage 68 rushing yards on 37 attempts and that simply won’t get it done when you don’t have an explosive passing attack to pick up the slack.

#8 Texas 52 - Rice 7

The Horns, coming off their 24-7 loss to #1 Ohio State, came into Reliant Stadium and took their frustration out on Todd Graham and his Rice Owls. UT built a 38-0 halftime lead and coasted to an easy 52-7 win in Houston.

The Owls could not slow down Colt McCoy and the Longhorn offense, which racked up 493 yards on the night. Anytime Texas was slowed down, it was by their own mistakes as they were whistled for an astonishing 19 penalties, totaling 148 yards.

Rice quarterback Joel Armstrong had a solid effort, completing 18 of 29 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown, without throwing an interception. The Owls were not able to run the ball at all though, as they had negative rushing yards on the night with minus 12 yards on 20 carries.

South Florida 24 - UCF 17

UCF quarterback Steven Moffett fumbled with 30 seconds remaining in the game when being sacked by USF’s Chris Robinson. The Golden Knights missed out on an opportunity to force overtime, losing by seven to rival USF before the third-largest crowd in UCF history (46,708).

UCF had tied the game at 17 with 7:14 left when Blake Carter scooped up a blocked punt and ran 31 yards for a touchdown.

USF responded immediately, driving 90 yards in nine plays for the go-ahead score. The drive culminated with Matt Grothe hooking up with Ean Randolph for a 27-yard touchdown strike.

Grothe performed well in his first start. The redshirt freshman, who is filling in for the injured Pat Julmiste, completed 21 of 31 passes for 302 yards and three touchdowns.

His counterpart, UCF senior quarterback Steven Moffett, did not complete a good percentage as he only connected on 19 of 44 attempts for 219 yards and a touchdown.

The Golden Knights top receiver Mike Walker had a huge day, catching 12 balls for 133 yards.

Kansas State 23 - Marshall 7

Marshall could only generate 142 yards of offense and got its lone touchdown of the game on a 17-yard blocked punt return, as the Herd fell to the Wildcats in Manhattan by the score of 23-7.

Despite minimal offense, Marshall only trailed 16-7 with a little over four minutes left in the game. However, KSU scored on a 44-yard touchdown pass with 4:15 left, which made a comeback much more difficult for an unproductive Thundering Herd offense.