Just five games into the football season, East Carolina has a chance to
take a stranglehold in Conference USA’s East Division.
With league victories over Southern Miss and UTEP already, the Pirates
(3-2 overall) have a chance to run their record to 3-0 in C-USA play on
Thursday night at Central Florida (2-2, 0-0 C-USA), but they’ll have to strike
a perfect balance between rest and preparation.
“We have to prepare and we have to push them in practice, but at the
same time it’s a fine line because we have to be smart so that they’re healthy
for the game,” third-year ECU head coach Ruffin McNeill said at Monday’s press
conference of the short week, which saw the Pirates break from tradition with a
Monday night practice.
Houston:
You just knew it was going to be a good day for the Houston Cougars.
They led the nation in total offense last season, scoring almost 50
points a game. They were so impressive that their head coach, Kevin Sumlin, was
hired away by Texas A&M, which, you might have noticed, put up 58—FIFTY
EIGHT—points Saturday against Arkansas.
The Cougars have struggled without Sumlin and, of course, quarterback
Case Keenum, college football's all-time leading passer.
With a new head coach, Tony Levine, and quarterback, sophomore David
Piland, the Cougars entered Saturday's game at Reliant Stadium averaging fewer
than half the points they scored last season. They were 0-3 and barely averted
their first shutout in 12 years in a 37-6 loss two weeks ago at UCLA.
Marshall:
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato vowed after
Saturday's loss to Purdue that the rest of college football would soon find out
about receiver Tommy Shuler.
Conference USA definitely knows about him now.
After catching a team-record 19 passes, a total that also tied the
conference record for single-game receptions, the sophomore was named
Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week. He's become a focal point of
Marshall's offense as he finds his niche among seniors like Antavious Wilson
and preseason all-conference pick Aaron Dobson.
At 5-foot-8, he doesn't have the size of Wilson (6-1) or Dobson (6-3).
He admits he doesn't have their downfield speed. He just has a knack for
finding open spaces in defenses and being ready for every Cato throw. It's a
trait he's spent years perfecting.
Memphis:
MEMPHIS — As far as Memphis football coach Justin Fuente is concerned,
whenever a bye week is scheduled is fine. That’s the attitude he said you have
to take with things you don’t control.
After a weekend without a game, Fuente talked Monday about using last
week’s practices to develop skills, pushing players toward their first victory
of the year and beyond.
The running backs are a good example. They have had trouble the past
two games, as Memphis (0-4) has failed each time to reach 75 yards rushing.
“Those guys are young and they’re developing,” Fuente said. “It’s our
job to continue to keep developing them. I’ve seen improvement. I think Coach
(Darrell) Dickey’s done a good job with those guys in bringing them along.
Rice:
Rice football fans frustrated by the Owls' offensive performance in
Saturday's 35-14 loss to Houston have good reason to believe everything will be
normal this week.
Junior quarterback Taylor McHargue is coming back. McHargue (6-1, 210)
missed the game against the Cougars with a shoulder injury. Redshirt freshman
Driphus Jackson made his first start.
Coach David Bailiff said all of the offense's struggles were not due to
Jackson's inexperience. Still, the Owls (1-4, 0-2 Conference USA) expect to
have a spark when they take on Memphis (0-4, 0-0) at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Southern Methodist:
Senior SMU defensive end Margus Hunt has been dubbed the ‘Best Athlete
in DFW’ by The Dallas Morning News this off-season and has looked forward to
leaving his mark at SMU since he began his football career just four years ago.
Hunt had never played football before coming to the Hilltop and it took
a year before the football coaches were able to get him to participate in a
tryout.
“I really didn’t want to leave SMU, I liked the campus [and] I liked
the programs. So we sat down and talked about the possibility with Coach Jones
and we had the tryout in November,” Hunt said in a recent radio interview with
1310 The Ticket.
After coming to SMU from Estonia to train with SMU track and field
coach Dave Wollman, in hopes of bringing back a men’s track and field program
to SMU, Hunt needed a way to stay at SMU and was able to earn a full-ride
scholarship on the football team after his tryout.
Southern Miss:
The Southern Mississippi football team's fall has been swift, from last
season's Conference USA champion to 0-3 in 2012. The Golden Eagles already have
eclipsed their loss total from 2011 and are looking up at everyone in the East
Division.
Their last setback was 42-17 against a surprising Western Kentucky team
that beat Kentucky the week before. All three of Southern Miss' losses have
been by 10 or more points.
First-year Coach Ellis Johnson has experience being a part of a staff
that takes over a program. He's seen cooperation and commitment from the team.
But he's still searching for effective leadership among his players.
"Do we have great, confident, experienced leadership? That's
something I think we're still trying to find," he said. "I really
think that when leadership comes from inside, you have a huge advantage and
it's something you can build and I think it's critical. I'm not trying to avoid
the answer, but I don't have a real good feeling right now where they
are."
Tulane:
Maybe it was the dazed look on the Tulane players' faces. Maybe it was
the sympathetic pats on the shoulder pads that are issued wordlessly by Green
Wave staffers as the players head into the locker room.
Maybe it was simply the final scoreboard – which read Louisiana-Monroe
63, Tulane 10.
But all indications are that the Tulane football program has hit rock
bottom. It carries the longest losing streak in the FBS at 14 games. It has the
worst offense in the nation and finished Saturday's game at the Mercedes-Benz
Superdome with negative rushing yards for the first time since 2009.
Tulsa:
University of Tulsa football coach Bill Blankenship said he viewed the
September schedule - which included three consecutive home dates - as "an
opportunity to gain some traction."
TU did exactly that, prevailing 45-10 over Tulane, 66-16 over Nicholls
State and 27-26 over Fresno State. But the home run has ended and the Golden
Hurricane - starting with Saturday's 2 p.m., non-televised Conference USA
contest at UAB - plays five of its remaining eight regular-season games away
from H.A. Chapman Stadium.
Facing a league opponent for the first time this year, the Blazers are
0-3. TU enters at 3-1 overall, 1-0 in the conference.
UAB:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The UAB football team will play their final
non-conference game of the season Saturday, Oct. 6, when the Blazers welcome
the Southeastern Louisiana Lions to Legion Field. The contest, scheduled for a
2 p.m. CT kickoff, will mark UAB’s Homecoming game in the first meeting between
the two schools.
On Monday, head coach Garrick McGee along with senior linebacker Marvin
Burdette, junior wide receiver Jackie Williams, senior wide receiver Patrick
Hearn and junior defensive tackle Deric Scott addressed the media at the weekly
luncheon.
McGee and the players discussed a variety of topics, including the
recap of last week’s contest against Tulsa and team morale heading into the
week ahead. Also covered were updates on player injuries, and team preparation
for the upcoming Southeastern Louisiana matchup.
UAB (0-4, 0-1, C-USA) enters the game looking for its first win of the
2012 campaign. The Blazers dropped a 49-42 shootout last week against visiting
Tulsa. Southeastern Louisiana travels to Birmingham after defeating Lamar,
31-21, to move to 2-3 on the year and 2-0 in the Southland Conference.
UCF:
UCF starting middle linebacker Terrance Plummer was on track to become
a baseball star.
He pitched, played left field and was a potent designated hitter who
helped lead his team to the USSSA Baseball World Series when he was 12 years
old. He had a bright future in the sport before his uncle, Glen Oliver,
convinced Plummer give Pop Warner football a shot.
And one shot on the football field was all it took to hook Plummer on
football.
"It was odd at first because I really didn't know how to tackle,
but I knew I liked taking people to the ground," Plummer said. "Most
people say you know whether you like it after you give someone your first big
hit. But my first big hit wasn't me making the hit, it was me actually getting
hit.
UTEP:
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The grim statistic frequently pops up when the UTEP
football team's charter plane starts heading east and keeps going.
That will be the case today when a Miners squad that seems on the edge
of a breakthrough, but one that hasn't yet managed it, lines up against East
Carolina, 1,693 miles from the Sun Bowl, in front of 50,000 fans at
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
Eighteen times in its 99-year history UTEP has played a game in the
Eastern time zone. It has lost 17 of those and tied one, back in 1949 at West
Virginia.
So how do the Miners keep from being intimidated by those numbers?
"I had no idea about that," sophomore guard Kyle Brown said
when asked about the 0-17-1 stat.
And how do they reverse it?
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