C-USA Review: Week 6

Wow. What a week in C-USA. Two explosive clashes between division leaders, and every game but one going down to the wire. Let’s check it out.

Game of the Week –

UTEP 48, Tulsa 47 – One week after being unable to step up UAB’s throat, and letting the Blazers back in the game late, Tulsa couldn’t finish off UTEP, and the Miners made them pay. Trevor Vittatoe’s 14-yard touchdown toss to Joe West with just under a minute to go gave UTEP their second straight comeback of more than a touchdown in the fourth quarter. If you liked offense, you were in heaven, with two pretty darn good quarterbacks that don’t get any national love running their squads up and down the field. The Golden Hurricane got a breakout performance from freshman Charles Clay (11 cars, 112 yards), and Paul Smith was good as usual despite a couple of picks (26-43, 383 yards, 2TD, 2INT), but the defense continues to be unable to get key stops. Sitting at 105^th in the nation or worse in rush D, total D and scoring D is not a good place to be with UCF and Houston coming down the pike.

Best of the Rest

East Carolina 52, UCF 38 – The Pirates jumped UCF with a 28 point explosion in the third quarter, and took control of the C-USA East division. ECU might not outgain anyone all year, but they capitalized on the Knights’ awful string of turnovers (five in the third quarter alone), and punched the ball in the end zone over and over, breaking the spirit of a UCF squad that had been rolling. Robert Kass ought to be firmly entrenched now as the Pirate starting QB, with a dynamite 12-23, 201 yard, 3 TD performance. ECU kind of snuck up on me, posting poor results against a brutal non-conference schedule, but if they play like this, they’re the team to beat.

Alabama 30, Houston 24 – Didn’t I warn the Crimson Tide about this Houston squad? In a rare feat of quality prognostication, I called this one almost to the letter (in last week’s column I said ‘Bama 34-26), and the Cougars didn’t disappoint. In fact, Houston got even close than I guessed, having a chance to win on the game’s final play, but being unable to convert a pass to the end zone. Houston fell behind 23-0 in the first, but kept plugging away, thanks to another solid Case Keenum outing, and a defense that was able to lockdown this talented SEC attack for three quarters. Alabama isn’t the most dynamic offensive outfit in the world right now, but holding an SEC squad to 7 points for the last three quarters is an admirable feat. Houston is a bowl team if they stay focused.

Rice 31, Southern Miss 29 – The Owls got their first win of the year in stunning fashion, beating a Golden Eagle squad ravaged by injuries and unable to hang on the football. The injury bug bit So. Miss the hardest at QB, where third string Martevious Young started the game, but broke his ankle on the game’s third play, forcing a return to a badly banged up Stephen Reaves. Reaves battled, but threw four picks and fumbled twice, allowing Rice to stay in the game despite being outgained by almost 200 yards.

Army 20, Tulane 17 – I nailed this one (I said Army 21-17), but couldn’t have possibly predicted how devastating the loss would be for Tulane. The Cadets scored on a tipped pass with no time remaining to send the game to overtime, and Tulane’s Ross Thevenot missed a 34-yard field goal in the extra session, giving Army the win. It’s obvious that Coach Bob Toledo is doing something right at Tulane this year; after last week’s Herculean effort against LSU, Tulane played great on the road for most of the night, and got another 200 yard day from Matt Forte (32 cars, 202 yards, 2 TD). Tulane led the yardage battle 401-240, but hurt itself with 11 penalties for 100 yards. Tulane can win the next two weeks at UAB and SMU if it keeps feeding Forte and stops beating itself.

Memphis 24, Marshall 21 – The Tigers won one for fallen teammate Taylor Bradford, and held off a winless Herd squad that was threatening in Tiger territory with under two minutes to play. With regular starter Martin Hankins out with a hip, junior Will Hudgens made a play for the starting job with an explosive 30-45, 346 yard, 2TD performance in his absence. No matter who’s in there, the Memphis passing attack is really humming, at 25^th nationally. The Tigers are looking like a bunch that could surprise some teams, but they’ve got to get more pressure on opposing QBs.

Ho Hum

Mississippi State 30, UAB 13 – UAB battled, and lead 13-9 midway through the fourth before finally getting worn down and running out of gas. But with eight minutes left, Bulldog RB Anthony Dixon took over, getting two fourth quarter touchdowns on his way to 152 yards total. The Blazers weren’t physical enough to go a full 60 minutes with this underrated SEC outfit, but put up an impressive first half, holding Mississippi State to just 50 yards of total offense before the halftime gun.

Booooooooooooring

If you were bored with the C-USA this week, I don’t know what to tell you.