A look at Conference USA

Conference USA Standings

EAST CONF OVERALL

Southern Miss 2-1 6-1

East Carolina 2-1 3-4

Marshall 2-2 3-5

UCF 1-2 3-4

Memphis 1-3 2-6

UAB 1-3 1-6

WEST CONF OVERALL

Houston 3-0 7-0

Tulsa 3-0 4-3

Southern Methodist 3-1 5-2

UTEP 1-2 4-3

Rice 1-3 2-5

Tulane 1-3 2-6

UAB—After finally getting their first win of the season over a freefalling UCF team, the Blazers could at best get to the middle of the division with games versus division foes Marshall and Memphis coming up in the next three weeks. The Blazers could get to 4 wins with FAU in the season finale being one of the worst teams in D-1 football.

Memphis—So, there is a worse team in D-1 football than Memphis. The Tigers won 33-17 over an inept Tulane squad behind 3 Tulane turnovers. With UCF, UAB and Marshall coming up before a road trip to Southern Miss, at least 2 or maybe 3 are winnable. If things fall right, the Tigers could win 4 games.

UCF—What started out as a season with huge expectations, the Knights have fallen quickly with 4 losses in the last 5 games including a very disappointing loss to previously 0-6 UAB. With Memphis visiting this week, the Knights can try to right the ship before a brutal final 4 games versus Tulsa, Southern Miss, ECU and UTEP. Unless things change in Orlando, the Knights will not god bowling this year.

Marshall—The Thundering Herd is not a very good football team in Conference USA. For some reason, they came up big in week 2 and put the only blemish on Southern Miss’ season. There are winnable games versus UAB and Memphis on left on the schedule and the Thundering Herd could possibly get to 5 wins and surprise me.

East Carolina—At 3-4, it is a strong but not certain possibility that the Pirates can get to 6 wins and a bowl in 2011. The Pirates have a passing offense that gains over 300 yards per game but only 24.4 points per game. The defense is still the Achilles heel giving up 34.1 points per game. The most important stretch of the season is a Southern Miss, UTEP, and UCF 3 game stretch that will decide if the Pirates can get to 6 wins.

Southern Miss—The Golden Eagles are flying high since a perplexing week 2 loss to Marshall with 5 straight wins including a 27-3 mauling of an offensively gifted SMU squad. Southern Miss has a 2 game road trip versus UTEP and ECU coming up with UCF coming right after. At the very least, 8 wins will happen and the Golden Eagles would be disappointed with fewer than 10.

Tulane—The Green Wave have been falling fast since a week three 49-10 win over UAB. In losing the last 5 games, Tulane has only been truly competitive in one of those games (Syracuse). Things could get uglier with trips to ECU, SMU, and Houston coming up in the next three weeks. Any more than 3 wins would be a huge surprise for the Green Wave to end 2011.

Rice—One thing you can say about Rice is that they will challenge themselves with their schedule. At 2-5, the Owls have losses to Texas, Baylor, Southern Miss, and Tulsa which are not bad losses at all. The only game that the Owls let slip through was a 24-20 loss to Marshall. With Houston, UTEP, Northwestern and SMU left on the schedule, a 3 win season may be the fate for the Owls.

UTEP—UTEP is a hard team to figure out with wins over every team they were expected to beat and losses to every team they were expected to lose to. Can they step up and beat a team that is better on paper than them or are they destined to a 6-6 record and a bad bowl loss again in 2011? With Southern Miss, ECU, Tulsa, and UCF being 4 of the 5 teams left on the schedule, that sixth win will not be easy.

SMU—The Mustangs looked ready to take that next step and have a real shot at 10 wins before getting dominated by Southern Miss last week. That ended a 5 game winning streak that included wins over UTEP, TCU and UCF. The trip to Tulsa could be the most important game of the season for the Mustangs with 9 regular season wins a probability if they can find a way past Tulsa.

Tulsa—At 4-3 with their only losses to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Boise State, I may have been too hard on the Golden Hurricanes in my top 10. It is just very hard to really tell how good this team is with all four wins versus teams that have a losing record (Tulane, UNT, UAB, Rice). With SMU, UCF, UTEP, and Houston left on the schedule; the Golden Hurricanes have an opportunity to turn some heads all over the nation.

Houston—It is amazing what one player can do to change a program. Case Keenum was lost early in the 2010 season and the Cougars limped to a 5-7 record and no bowl game. With Keenum, the Cougars are at 7-0 and ranked at 17^th in the country. The next three weeks are very winnable (Rice, UAB, Tulane) before games versus SMU and Tulsa to end the regular season. Those final 2 games will tell whether the Cougars are for real or not.