2008 Conference USA Roundup

Conference USA 2008 Game of the Week, Player of the Week, Roundup & Standings

Click on each team for game recaps, thoughts, schedules and more and scroll down for the games, results, players of the week and the conference roundup.

Conference Roundups
- ACC | Big East | Big 12 | Big Ten | C-USA | Ind.
- MAC | M-West | Pac 10 | SEC | Sun Belt | WAC

East  UAB | UCF | East Carolina | Marshall | Memphis | Southern Miss
West  Houston | Rice | SMU | Tulane | Tulsa | UTEP
- Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7
- Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13
 
Conference USA Game of the Week

Rice 56 … Houston 42
James Casey caught three touchdown passes and ran for another as Rice ruined Houston’s Conference USA title dream. The Owls took a 35-14 first half lead on a Casey 23-yard touchdown catch, and then his nine-yard grab helped Rice pull away early in the third. Chase Clement finished with five touchdown passes and an eight yard run, but Houston was able to make things interesting with 634 yards of total offense and five touchdown passes from Case Keenum. But two of the touchdown throws came late in the fourth after the Owls had done their damage, finishing up with a Casey three-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Wardlow.

Conference USA Player of the Week
Rice TE James Casey made 12 catches for 172 yards and three touchdowns, ran five times for 10 yards and a score, he threw a three-yard touchdown pass, and he returned two punts for 18 yards

Standings	Conference			Overall
East	W-L	PF	PA	W-L	PF	PA	STK
E Carolina	6-2	187	156	8-4	282	246	W2
Memphis	4-4	227	209	6-6	339	312	W1
So Miss	4-4	270	190	6-6	368	286	W4
UAB	3-5	178	255	4-8	273	375	W1
UCF	3-5	137	204	4-8	199	289	L1
Marshall	3-5	184	211	4-8	246	332	L4

Standings	Conference			Overall
West	W-L	PF	PA	W-L	PF	PA	STK
Tulsa	7-1	395	247	10-2	592	351	W2
Rice	7-1	353	278	9-3	499	419	W6
Houston	6-2	349	256	7-5	494	374	L1
UTEP	4-4	295	302	5-7	395	444	L2
Tulane	1-7	147	305	2-10	200	414	L8
SMU	0-8	188	297	1-11	256	458	L10

Tuesday, November 25

at East Carolina 53 ... UTEP 21
CFN Prediction: ECU 27-20 ECU -5
- East Carolina | UTEP

Saturday, November 29

UAB 15 ... at UCF 0
CFN Prediction: UCF 28-17  UCF -9
- UAB | UCF

Southern Miss 28 ... at SMU 12
CFN Prediction: So Miss 35-16  So Miss -13.5
- SMU | Southern Miss

Tulsa 38 ... at Marshall 35
CFN Prediction: TU 44-26  Tulsa -16.5
- Tulsa | Marshall

at Memphis 45 ... Tulane 6
CFN Prediction: MU 38-17  MU -13.5
- Tulane | Memphis

at Rice 56 ... Houston 42
CFN Prediction: Rice 45-42  Houston -3
- Houston | Rice

Games of the Week
Aug. 30 - ECU 27- VT 22
Sep. 6 - Rice 42 - Memp 35
Sep 13 - AF 31 - UH 28
Sep 20 -NC St 30 - ECU 24 OT
Sep 27 - UH 41 - ECU 24
Oct 4 - UTEP 40 - USM 37 OT
Oct 11 - UTEP 24  - Tulane 21
Oct 18 - Rice 45 - USM 40
Oct 25 - Memp 36 - USM 30
Nov. 1 - Rice 49 - UTEP 44
Nov. 8 - ECU 19 - Mar 16 OT
Nov. 15 - UH 70 - Tulsa 30
Nov. 22 - UH 42 - UTEP 37
Nov. 29 - Rice 56 - UH 42

Players of the Week
Aug. 30 - Pat Pinkney, ECU
Sep. 6 - Chase Clement, Rice
Sep 13 - Chico Hunter, USM
Sep 20 - David Johnson, Tulsa
Sep 27 - Chase Clement & Jarett Dillard, Rice
Oct 4 - Trevor Vittatoe, UTEP & Damion Fletcher, USM
Oct 11 - Case Keenum, UH
Oct 18 - Chase Clement & Jarett Dillard, Rice
Oct 25 - Curtis Steele, Memp.
Nov. 1 - Austin Davis, USM
Nov. 8 - Trevor Vittatoe, UTEP
Nov. 15 - Case Keenum, UH
Nov. 22 - Tarrion Adams, Tul
Nov. 29 - James Casey, Rice

Conference
Roundup

East Carolina … Give credit to East Carolina for being fully focused going into the Conference USA title game. This could’ve been a game to rest everyone and get ready for Tulsa (although ECU didn’t know it was going to be Tulsa), but instead, the team is now on a roll and playing better than it had all season. Against UTEP, Patrick Pinkney reverted back to his early season form by connecting on all his short-to-midrange passes and doing a good job of getting his receivers involved in stride. After all the ups and downs, a Conference USA title would be a sweet ending.
Houston … With everything on the line, Houston’s defense couldn’t handle the Rice attack. The offense finally woke up, and while the team has been used to getting hot late, it was too late against the Owls. The secondary wasn’t even close, while the pass rush wasn’t able to do enough to disrupt the mobile Case Keenum. Now that the Conference USA title hopes are gone, it’s all about looking good in a bowl to set the tone for next year. However, after all the big things that were done, including the win over Tulsa, this is a bitter end to the regular season.
Marshall … While Marshall’s disappointing season ended on a four-game losing streak, the team showed up for the loss to Tulsa. The defeat was the third this year by three points or less as the offense couldn’t come up with the key late drive to answer the Tulsa scores. Going into next year, the Herd has to find a stronger passing game. Brian Anderson was on against the Golden Hurricane, and the team was in it. When there was nothing through the air, the team struggled to move the ball.
Memphis … Memphis made itself bowl eligible by winning three of its last four games and closing out with its best performance of the year. Using a variety of ways to get the running game moving, the Tigers busted off 379 yards against Tulane helped by Steven Black and the “wild” formation. All the production from the ground attack helped Arkelon Hall, who hit on 10-of-13 passes. Now it’s wait-and-see time for a 13^th game.
Rice … Finishing with a six game winning streak and with the offense running to perfection, how much would the Owls love to have another shot at Tulsa again? That’s not going to happen as the Golden Hurricane will be off to the Conference USA title game, but Chase Clement and the Owls have to be proud of their amazing nine-win season with a chance to win ten. The offense is creative, balanced, and deadly, with James Casey showing why he belonged in the Mackey Award discussion with his tremendous performance against the Cougars. No one will want to deal with this attack in the bowl.
Southern Miss … As disappointing as Southern Miss was over the first half of the season, that’s how good it was over the final four games as the team rolled through the late schedule to bowl eligibility. The defense picked things up big-time after an injury plagued first half of the year, and Austin Davis became more and more a major factor at quarterback. Beating SMU isn’t any big deal, and yeah, UAB and UCF were part of the four-game streak, but USM also shut down East Carolina, and now, if nothing else, the Larry Fedora era has taken a positive turn up going into next year.
SMU … With just 257 yards of offense, with four on the ground against Southern Miss, the SMU offense simply didn’t work as expected. To close with a clunker and with little from the passing attack, this has to only be seen as a stepping-stone season and a learning process. One interesting thing did come out of the game. Justin Willis, the former SMU star quarterback, made 11 catches and actually looked like a real, live receiver. He’s too athletic to keep off the field, but not dependable enough to count on as the starting quarterback.
Tulane … The wheels completely fell off. Thanks to injuries and problems finding anyone to stop the run, Tulane’s bad season ended up being completely miserable losing the last two games by a combined score of 101 to 13. Kevin Moore was able to complete short to medium passes, but he got nothing going deep, while the Tigers got up too quickly for the Green Wave to have a running game. The hope will be to figure out who’s healthy and who’s not going into spring ball, and finding some players to build around. There’s a lot of building to be done after finishing with an eight-game losing streak.
Tulsa … Thanks to the Rice win over Houston, Tulsa is off to the C-USA title game for the third year in a row. This hasn’t been easy over the second half of the year, with the defense disappearing for stretches, but the emergence of Tarrion Adams for the running game, and the continued success of QB David Johnson, has gotten the team over the hump. To end the season on a high note, the run defense has to be far, far better than it was against Marshall. The secondary was able to come up with enough stops to get off the field in key moments, but the D line struggled against the Marshall offensive front.
UAB … Joe Webb might not be up for any honors in Conference USA, but there’s been no more valuable player. He carried this team down a nice backstretch of three wins in the final five games, with one of the losses a close battle to East Carolina. While 4-8 isn’t a nice record, the team showed good fight and decent potential, especially in the way the defense stepped up at times over the second half of the season (the 70-14 loss to Southern Miss aside). Beating UCF in a shutout on the road is a fantastic way to go into the off-season, but it also showed that Webb needs more help around him.
UCF … From Conference USA champions to 4-8 and the worst offense in America. UCF had a mediocre UAB at home for the season finale and did nothing offensively with no passing game and not enough from Brynn Harvey and the running game in the shut out. A win would’ve ended the season on a strange three-game winning streak, but now the coaching staff knows it has to spend the next nine months picking apart the attack and figuring out what works. The team can’t compete in the high-octane league with an offense that comes up with 229.5 yards per game.
UTEP… Just when UTEP needed to come up with a win to be bowl eligible, the defense didn’t show up against an East Carolina team that didn’t need the game, and there were mistakes all over the place with three turnovers and ten penalties. There wasn’t any chance to get the running game going after getting down so quickly, and while Trevor Vittatoe was fine, he didn’t do enough early to make it a game. It’s yet another disappointing finish for a program used to them.