The University of Central Florida football team is experiencing a
home-grown football revolution.
Former Oviedo quarterback Blake Bortles recorded a career-high two
rushing touchdowns to help defeat Southern Mississippi 38-31 in double overtime
Saturday.
Mount Dora's Jordan Ozerities killed some (certainly not all) early
Golden Eagles momentum when he made his second career interception early in the
third quarter and Dr. Phillips' Shawn Mofitt entered the game 8-for-8 on field
goals before his first miss last night before an announced crowd of 34,514
fans.
And then there's the once overlooked recruiting gem that is Edgewater
graduate Quincy McDuffie. He owns the owns the team's longest receiving
touchdown of the season so far with 64 yards against East Carolina Oct. 4.
College football rosters don't have to resemble their area, of course.
But fans carry an affection for hometown teams that give local kids a chance to
shine.
East Carolina:
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina and East Carolina will play a 2013
football game in Chapel Hill instead of Greenville, helping North Carolina deal
with future scheduling issues.
Minnesota canceled 2013 and 2014 games with North Carolina.
The changes in the North Carolina / East Carolina series mean the teams
meet in 2014 at East Carolina. The teams also will meet in Greenville in either
2016 or 2018.
Minnesota will pay North Carolina a buyout fee of $800,000.
North Carolina is scheduled to open the 2013 season Aug. 29 (a Thursday
night) at South Carolina. Next year’s non-league slate for North Carolina also
will include an Oct. 12 home game against Old Dominion.
Marshall:
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Marshall football fans should see some faces they
haven't seen yet this season when the Thundering Herd visits Southern
Mississippi on Saturday.
The Herd's off week allowed some banged up players to get healthy and
some who were injured for the first half of the season to return to the field,
Coach Doc Holliday said at his Tuesday press conference. The Herd (2-4, 1-1
Conference USA) plays the winless Golden Eagles (0-6, 0-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday
(CBS Sports Network).
Both junior defensive lineman Ken Smith and redshirt junior linebacker
Billy Mitchell have practiced since last week and should be ready for Saturday,
Holliday said.
"They started last week and they'll rotate in there," he
said. "You'll see them take a lot of reps.
Memphis:
University of Memphis football coach Justin Fuente won’t have time to
dwell on last weekend’s 41-7 Conference USA loss at East Carolina, in part,
because this weekend’s opponent is as dangerous.
The U of M (1-5, 1-1 C- USA) returns home to play UCF (4-2, 2-0) in a 7
p.m. game at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. It will be homecoming for the
Tigers.
“We have a tremendous challenge in front of us this week and our kids
are really looking forward to it,” Fuente said. “Central Florida is
accomplished on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/oct/15/university-memphis-football-team-bracing-tough-hom/
UAB:
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - UAB head football coach Garrick McGee promised
that there would be changes for Saturday's 6 p.m. home game against East
Carolina, but that's as far as he went.
McGee said to "figure it out during the game," but after the
Blazers' 1-5 start, he was adamant that the second half of the season would be
different than the first if the changes work.
"Things have to change," McGee said. "There's going to
be a lot of change within our team. There's going to be some change within our
coaching staff with the way we do things. I've watched us lose five games the
same exact way."
Southern Miss:
University of Southern Mississippi students, faculty, staff, alumni and
other supporters will be kicking off homecoming week with an assortment of
activities and events to show their Golden Eagle pride with this year’s
homecoming theme ‘Let the Good Times Soar!”
Homecoming day is Saturday, Oct. 20 when the Southern Miss football
team faces Conference USA East Division opponent Marshall University at 6 p.m.
The campus will be host to a variety of activities, including college and
department reunions, tailgating and recognition of prominent alumni, among many
others. Throughout the week, students can be found decorating floats near the
front entrance of the Hattiesburg campus.
Tulsa:
I got up from my sick bed long enough Thursday to watch Tulsa's prime
time game against Texas-El Paso.
After a less than inspiring first half, the Golden Hurricane finally
got things together and pulled away from an opponent for the first time in a
month.
Tulsa's running game is something special. I've always been a fan of
Trey Watts, but Alex Singleton and Ja'Terian Douglas have given things a
different dimension.
As I mentioned in a blog last week, the emergence of Singleton has
really changed Tulsa's strategy in short-yard situations. The Golden
Hurricane are now 10-of-14 on fourth down conversions this season. It was only
6-of-14 all last season.
Tulane:
Many of the Tulane football players have dedicated this season to Devon
Walker, a teammate who broke his neck in the Sept. 8 Tulsa game and is
currently going through in-patient rehab for the injury. But there hasn't been
much to dedicate, honestly.
The Green Wave (1-5, 1-1 Conference USA) lost its first five games of
the season before snapping a 15-game slide that reached back into last season
with Saturday's 27-26 victory against SMU.
It didn't go unnoticed by the Walker family, Coach Curtis Johnson said
on Tuesday.
Houston:
Getting the ball inside the red zone and failing to get a touchdown can
be a major problem for some teams, but not for the Houston Cougars.
Houston had to settle for field goals when the University of
Alabama-Birmingham defense shut down the Cougars’ offensive drives, but in the
end they prevailed, downing the Blazers 39-17 at Robertson Stadium in Houston.
David Piland continued his offensive assault in the air, completing
32-of-44 passes for 362 yards and one touchdown.
Southern Methodist:
This past college football season ended inauspiciously for SMU running
back Zach Line. Then a junior, Line tore a tendon in his foot Nov. 12 in the
second quarter against Navy. He finished that game, but he was confined to a
walking boot for four months, and then a shoe plate for two more.
He said the rehabilitation process seemed endless; each day spent
recovering was a day he wasn't playing on the field.
Rice:
UTSA suffered their first loss of the season as they fell 34-14 to Rice
in Houston on Saturday afternoon.
Charles Ross was the star for the Owls as he rushed for 117 yards on 16
carries as part of a 301 yard rushing offense while Rice's quarterback, Taylor
McHargue managed 68 yards and two touchdowns from seven carries.
It was a tough afternoon for UTSA as they gave up a season high 483 yards
while only managing season lows with 239 yards and 13 first downs.
Rice had two first quarter field goals from Chris Boswell to make it
6-0 at the end of the first quarter, the first time UTSA trailed since November
12th 2011.
The Owls fooled the Roadrunners in the second to make it 13-0 as Luke
Turner faked a lateral and then threw down field for a 38 yard touchdown
reception for Donte Moore.
UTEP:
The setting, the questions, the answers were all pretty much the same
at UTEP coach Mike Price's weekly news conference.
As has been the case since September, he talked about offensive
struggles undoing a good defensive effort in another loss that was competitive
for a while.
He talked in general terms about making changes with that offense,
moves at quarterback and about how to turn around a slumping season.
The loss last week was 33-11 to Tulsa, and the game this week is
against a 1-5 Tulane team that just won its first game, but the themes were the
same.
"Tulsa is a fine team and we really held them to 26 (offensive)
points, they are averaging 40, but we haven't got it put together on
offense," Price said.
No comments:
Post a Comment