GREENVILLE — There is no gloating from East Carolina’s resilient
defense this week, no reveling in the realization of a titanic turnaround.
The Pirates are simply getting back to work.
After Saturday’s 48-28 Conference USA win over Houston helped atone for
an embarrassing 56-28 loss to Navy a week earlier, ECU has approached this
week’s open date with an eye on self-improvement.
“We’re just going right back to the bare minimum as far as the
structure of this defense and getting better in it,” said defensive coordinator
Brian Mitchell, whose unit riled the fan base by allowing a season-high 563
yards of total offense to the Midshipmen.
Houston:
HOUSTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The University of Houston announced Thursday
cornerback D.J. Hayden was in stable but critical condition following an injury
suffered in practice Tuesday.
Team physician Dr. Walter Lowe issued a statement Thursday that said
the injury suffered by Hayden results in death 95 percent of the time.
Hayden collided with a teammate during the practice session, tearing
the large vein that carries blood from the lower half of the body to the heart.
"This injury has never been seen or reported in association with a
football injury and is more associated with high-speed motor vehicle
injuries," Lowe said in his statement. "The type of injury D.J. had
is 95 percent fatal and we are all very thankful for the coordinate response
from the University of Houston trainers, EMS paramedics, the trauma team at
Memorial Hermann Hospital and operating surgeon Dr. John Holcomb."
Marshall:
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- When you're three wins away from bowl eligibility
with four regular season games to go - as the Marshall football team was
entering Saturday's matchup versus Memphis - victory has no obligation to be
beautiful.
"As long as we get the 'W,' " Herd sophomore quarterback
Rakeem Cato said. "If it's an ugly win, dirty win, happy win, whatever
win, we need to get the win. I don't care if we beat a team 80 to zip or
3-0."
There have been prettier wins than the Thundering Herd's 38-28 win over
the Tigers, a game the Herd (4-5, 3-2 Conference USA) led by as many as 24
before the Tigers (1-8, 1-4) rattled off three consecutive touchdowns to make
Marshall fans sweat. Yet that win provided several benefits for the Herd.
It snapped a three-game home losing streak, the longest since Marshall
lost three straight at Joan C. Edwards Stadium in 2007.
It helped wash some of the sour taste from the previous week's blowout
loss to Central Florida. And it gives Marshall a spark heading into
Saturday's 4:30 p.m. kickoff at
Alabama-Birmingham (CSS/WCHS).
Memphis:
Three Thoughts on Memphis Tiger Football
• It’s not the size of the dog in the fight . . . .
There was much to please a Tiger fan over the last 23 minutes of
Saturday’s loss at Marshall. When the Thundering Herd scored to go up 31-7
midway through the third quarter, most 1-7 football teams would cash in their
chips, check for battle scars, and start preparing for how to spin another
blowout loss. But over a span of seven game minutes — starting at the 1:43 mark
of the third — the Tigers scored three straight touchdowns to make a game of
it. (It should be noted that scoring after a tailback fumbles inside the
one-yard line is not prescribed for such rallies. But for one afternoon, this
was a happy part of the comeback recipe.)
For the first time all season, the Tigers managed to rush for 100 yards
(141) and pass for 200 yards (231) in the same game. Trouble was, Marshall’s
offense was relentlessly efficient behind quarterback Rakeem Cato, averaging
6.1 yards per play and scoring 38 points with only 22:23 of possession time.
(One more reason to ignore time of possession, a stat Memphis dominated last
Saturday.) The game goes into the loss column, like seven before it. But the
comeback suggests there is indeed some fight in the U of M dog.
Rice:
Two down, two to go on the must-win games list for the Rice football
team.
After a 2-6 start to the season, the idea of spending the winter
holidays playing in a bowl game seemed a bit laughable. However, after a 44-17
win over Southern Mississippi and a 49-47 triumph at Tulane Saturday – combined
with two opponents with losing records left on the schedule – a post-season
game now seems realistic.
During postgame interviews Saturday, Rice defensive end Jared Williams
called the final four games a playoff.
“Going into the bye week, knowing that our season would have been over
– that would have been devastating,” he said about the potential of a loss to
Tulane. “These are the playoffs for us.”
Southern Methodist:
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — When Latavius Murray has played well this season,
it has usually meant good things have happened for Central Florida's football
team.
And for the fourth straight week, the path the senior running back
plowed gave way to another dominant performance by the Knights.
Murray rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns and caught another score
as UCF rolled past Southern Methodist 42-17 on Saturday night.
Quarterback Blake Bortles also accounted for three touchdowns — two
through the air and one on the ground — to help the Knights (7-2, 5-0) secure
their fifth straight victory and remain on track to host the Conference USA
championship game.
SMU (4-5, 3-2) fell back under .500 and deeper behind West
Division-leading Tulsa.
Southern Miss :
Ten weeks into the 2012 college football season, Southern Miss has seen
its consistently inconsistent play lead to a steady string of losses.
And 10 weeks into the college football season, USM coaches still are
searching for answers.
“You have to say it’s coaching, because if you don’t think it’s
coaching, what do you do to correct it?” USM Ellis Johnson said during his
weekly news conference Monday. “You’re always looking for answers, but it’s
obviously going to be tough with some of the young players we’ve got in key
positions.”
In a season that’s seen any glimmer of good play deeply overshadowed by
the poor, Johnson and the Golden Eagles (0-9, 0-5 Conference USA) hope to
reverse their fortunes Saturday, when they visit Southern Methodist University
(4-5, 3-2) at 6 p.m. at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas.
Tulane:
During the 1981 Tulane football season, 65,103 fans passed through the
cavernous Louisiana Superdome turnstiles to watch the Green Wave defeat rival
LSU 48-7.
Tulane’s football team had played there for six seasons, and just like
in 2012, the stadium stood only three miles from campus. But unlike in 2012,
the Green Wave easily attracted tens of thousands of fans to its off-campus
playing field.
Through the decades, the Wave fan base has dwindled substantially.
During the last five seasons — from 2008 through the Wave’s Oct. 13 game
against Southern Methodist University — Tulane averaged 5,485 in turnstile
attendance, a number that, until now, has not been released to the public.
Tulsa:
Tulsa had another good chance to beat Arkansas and it slipped away.
With the Razorbacks’ having a struggling year and Tulsa having entered
the game with a seven-game winning streak, TU had another golden opportunity to
beat the Hogs. It had the upper hand most of the game, but could not make the
plays on offense or the stops on defense when it needed and succumbed to a
19-15 loss Saturday before a crowd of 64,451 at Razorback Stadium.
It marked Tulsa’s 18th straight loss to Arkansas since a 9-3 upset of
the Hogs in 1976.
TU (7-2 overall) had rallied from a 10-0 deficit to take a 15-13 lead
in the third quarter after Daniel Schwarz booted a 29-yard field goal with 9:15
left in the period.
UAB:
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—The UAB football team returns to Legion Field this
weekend to host Marshall in its second-to-last home game of the season. The
contest is set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. CT and will be televised on CSS.
On Monday, head coach Garrick McGee was accompanied by freshman
offensive lineman Cameron Blankenship, senior linebacker Santonio Jones, and
freshman defensive end Chris Rabb to speak to the media at the weekly luncheon.
UAB (2-7, 1-4 C-USA) is coming off a 27-19 road victory over Southern
Miss that saw the Blazers come back from a 16-0 halftime deficit. Sophomore
Darrin Reaves rushed for a career-high 223 yards and two touchdowns during the
comeback.
The Thundering Herd (3-5, 2-2 C-USA) will travel to Birmingham after a
54-17 home loss to UCF last week. Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato passed for
298 yards and two touchdowns during the game.
Head Coach Garrick McGee
On the performance at Southern Miss:
“I think we grew up during the game. On defense, I thought that they
understood our game plan, our coaches coached with a lot more enthusiasm, a lot
more intensity, and I think it really reflected in how our players performed.
Offensively, once we made the proper adjustments during the game, we got going
on attacking. I am pleased with our program, but I’m also really pleased with
our fans. We had a really great section of fans that were really loud and
intense throughout the game. I think it was a step forward for our program.”
UCF:
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Central Florida is seeking redemption, to atone
for last season's disappointment.
When the Knights arrived in Dallas last year to play Southern
Methodist, UCF still was barely beginning its Conference USA schedule with
sights on defending its 2010 title.
Instead, the Mustangs put them back on the plane toting a 38-17 setback
that was the start of 2-5 tailspin by the Knights to end the year.
UCF (6-2, 4-0 C-USA) enters Saturday's matchup winners of four straight
and in the driver's seat in the East Division. SMU (4-4, 3-1) needs help the
rest of the way to catch Tulsa in the West, but is also heating up following
convincing wins the past two weeks.
"We want to win the conference championship," Mustangs coach
June Jones said. "We started with the thought of possibly winning the
Baylor game and getting on a roll and maybe be a BCS-buster kind of team...Our
second thought was to do something we have never done before, which is winning
the conference championship.
http://www.greenwichtime.com/sports/article/UCF-seeking-redemption-against-SMU-this-week-4003755.php
UTEP:
Late in the fourth quarter of the Week 3 rout against New Mexico State,
UTEP was in mop-up mode against the Aggies, which meant third-team freshman
quarterback Blaire Sullivan was about to throw the first pass of his collegiate
career.
It was a simple one, a little swing pass in the flat to Ishmael
Harrison. The ball got about halfway there. He missed by double.
"Afterward, I'm laughing with him about it," coach Mike Price
recalled. "I said, 'That was a really bad pass.' He said, 'Yeah, but I
have a lot of room for improvement.' "
Sullivan has played exactly once since then, for six possessions of
what was supposed to be garbage time in a loss to Houston two weeks ago, and
now there wouldn't seem to be any room for him to get better than that.
The freshman, who led the Miners to 28 points against Houston to get
his team within 45-35, will likely get his chance to prove that wrong, however,
when UTEP takes on league leader UCF on Saturday in the Sun Bowl.
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