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.
Arkansas State
| Florida Atlantic
| Florida International
| MTSU
North Texas
| Troy
| UL Lafayette
| UL
Monroe
Sun Belt Game of
the Week
SMU 45 ...
North Texas 31
In a wild game with the two teams
combining for 954 passing yards and
1,147 yards of total offense, North
Texas QB Daniel Meager threw for 601
yards and three touchdowns, with Casey
Fitzgerald catching 18 passes for 327
yards and two touchdowns and Brandon
Jackson catching ten passes for 133
yards and a touchdown ... in a loss.
SMU's Justin Willis was unstoppable with
two touchdown passes and 82 rushing
yards, with a 13-yard touchdown pass to
Zack Sledge breaking a 31-31 tie late in
the fourth quarter. North Texas had one
last shot and was driving, but Bryce
Hudman picked off a Meager pass and took
it 49 yards for a score. The two teams
traded long, quick scoring drives all
game long, with UNT getting touchdown
grabs from 25 and 26 yards out from
Fitzgerald, and SMU getting help from
two James Mapps touchdown runs along
with a one-yard DeMyron Martin dash.
Sun Belt
Player of
the Week
North Texas QB
Daniel Meager completed 46 of 64 passes
for 601 yards and three touchdowns with
three interceptions, and Casey
Fitzgerald caught 18 passes for 327
yards and two touchdown in the loss to
SMU.
Conference Roundup
Arkansas State
… Didn’t Play This Week
FIU … FIU doesn't have the talent
in place to come anywhere near beating a
team like Maryland, so it has to keep
hustling for a full sixty minutes. It
did, and it gave the Terps a rough time.
Wayne Younger struggled to throw the
ball outside of one big play, and the
rushing tandem of Amod Ned and Julian
Reams never got going. The defense is
going to have to carry things on the
road with six away games in the next
seven, and that counts a drive to Miami,
but the offense will have to quickly
find something it can do reasonably
well.
Florida Atlantic … It would've
been nice to have followed up the big
win over Middle Tennessee with a nice
performance against Oklahoma State, but
that was a fired up Cowboy team that
wanted a big game after losing to
Georgia. The Owl offense didn't do
nearly enough to help the defense out,
with few sustained drives and no running
attack to provide any sort of a threat,
but that's going to happen against the
better teams. Now the Owls have to use
the Minnesota game to establish a pass
rush before dealing with pass-happy
North Texas and Kentucky teams over the
next two weeks.
Middle Tennessee … Where the heck
did that come from? After doing next to
nothing against Florida Atlantic, all of
a sudden the Blue Raider offense was
fast, decisive, and very, very good in
the shocking 58-42 loss to Louisville.
Joe Craddock played like a real live
gunslinger, while Phillip Tanner and
DeMarco McNair were phenomenal. Even so,
0-2 is 0-2, and there are now huge,
screaming issues for a defense that
wasn't remotely close to doing anything
right. Now LSU is up. Whoopee.
North Texas … Big picture time.
Yeah, the loss to SMU stinks, and it
would've been nice to get some winning
momentum, but it doesn't really matter.
All that matters right now is that Todd
Dodge's offense ripped off 601 passing
yards and appears to be ready to take
the Sun Belt by storm. There were too
many penalties, some huge turnovers, and
no real running game, but if the offense
can really keep putting up ridiculous
passing numbers, no one in the Sun Belt
has a prayer of keeping pace.
Troy … The Trojan defense has
taken a beating over the first two games
against Arkansas and Florida, and while
that's not a surprise, the real concern,
as it applies to future Sun Belt play,
is the issue with quarterbacks who move.
Granted, Darren McFadden isn't your
normal quarterback, and Tim Tebow is
special, but considering the Sun Belt
quarterbacks run, and Oklahoma State's
mobile Bobby Reid is up next, it's a
trend worth watching. Give the Trojans
credit for not giving up after halftime.
It was never a ball game, but QB Omar
Haugabook certainly made it interesting.
UL Lafayette … The loss to Ohio
has to serve as a motivator for bigger
things ahead. ULL had the Bobcats
beaten, thanks to a great day from QB
Michael Desormeaux and 136 rushing yards
from Tyrell Fenroy, but the defense
couldn't come up with a fourth quarter
stop and the offense failed to generate
points when they were needed most. If
the offense continues to click as well
as it did this week, a ULL has to be
considered the favorite to win the Sun
Belt title. However, the defense needs
to do more in crunch time.
UL Monroe … Clemson, once it got
the offense going, did whatever it
wanted to against ULM, but this is a
great Tiger team that'll make a ton of
noise this year. Even so, ULM still did
a good job of getting the running game,
particularly Calvin Dawson, moving. The
big problem was a passing game that
wasn't there, as Kinsmon Lancaster
couldn't get the ball to his receivers
where they could make plays. Now the
problem will be handling the Texas A&M
running game, but as long as Dawson is
rumbling, it might not be a blowout.
| |
Conference |
Overall |
Home |
Away |
| |
W |
L |
PF |
PA |
W |
L |
PF |
PA |
STR |
W |
L |
W |
L |
|
Florida Atlantic |
1 |
0 |
27 |
14 |
1 |
1 |
33 |
56 |
L1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Arkansas State |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
13 |
21 |
L1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Troy |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
57 |
105 |
L2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
UL
Monroe |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
43 |
84 |
L2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
North Texas |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
41 |
124 |
L2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
UL
Lafayette |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
37 |
59 |
L2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Florida International |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
85 |
L2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Middle Tennessee |
0 |
1 |
14 |
27 |
0 |
2 |
56 |
85 |
L2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Thursday, September 6 |
| 7:00 PM |
at Louisville 58 ... Middle
Tennessee 42
CFN Prediction: Louis.
59-10 UL -39 |
|
Saturday, September 8 |
| 1:00 PM |
at Clemson 49
... UL Monroe 26
CFN Prediction: Clem 45-10
CU -23 |
| 6:00 PM |
at Florida 59 ... Troy 31
CFN Prediction: UF 38-14 UF -27.5 |
| 7:00 PM |
Ohio 31 ... at UL Lafayette
23
CFN Prediction: ULL 27-24
Ohio -4 |
| 7:00 PM |
Memphis at Arkansas State
POSTPONED
CFN Prediction: ASU 24-22 MU -3 |
| 7:00 PM |
Maryland 26 ... at FIU
10
CFN Prediction: UM 35-9
UM -25 |
| 7:05 PM |
at Oklahoma State 42 ... Florida
Atlantic 6
CFN Prediction: OSU 45-14
OSU -23 |
| 8:00 PM |
at SMU 45 ...
North Texas 31
CFN Prediction: SMU 35-16
SMU -17 |
Past
Sun Belt
Games of the
Week
Sept. 1 -
Florida
Atlantic 27 ... Middle
Tennessee 14
Sept. 8 - SMU 45 ...
North Texas 31
Past Sun Belt Players of the Week
Sept. 1 - Florida Atlantic RB Charles Pierre
Sept. 8 - North Texas QB Daniel Meager &
WR Casey Fitzgerald