Scout.com: C-USA Conference Roundup

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.

East UAB | UCF | East Carolina | Marshall | Memphis | Southern Miss
West Houston | Rice | SMU | Tulane | Tulsa | UTEP

Conference USA Game of the Week
Tulane 35 ... SE Louisiana 27
It was Matt Forte, Matt Forte, and Matt Forte, as the Tulane back ran 40 times for 303 yards with touchdown runs from 20, 21, 3, 4 and 11 yards out. SE Louisiana scored first on a blocked punt for a score from Donald Frazier, and got two Brian Babin touchdown passes including a 63-yarder to Merrick Lanaux, and a 14-yarder to Byron Ross with less than two minutes to play. Tulane got the onside kick and was able to run the clock out.

Conference USA Player of the Week
Tulane RB Matt Forte ran 40 times for 303 yards and five touchdowns, and caught a pass for nine yards in the 35-27 win over SE Louisiana.

Conference Roundup

East Carolina … With a still-young, developing team, there will be days when nothing works. Against West Virginia, nothing worked, especially on offense. While that was expected, the problem was the play of the defensive line, that was supposed to be one of the team's strengths, and it didn't come through early to slow down, or dictate the action, against the Mountaineer offense. The hope has to be for QB Pat Pinkney to find something out of this game to use as a learning experience for Conference USA play ahead.
Houston … Houston's star back, Anthony Alridge was held in check by Colorado State, but the Cougar defense did its part by stuffing Ram star Kyle Bell for 73 yards on 23 carries. The real find was the play of Case Keenum, who was deadly accurate in place of Blake Joseph. Based on this week, Keenum deserves more playing time with his dual-threat capabilities coming through when the ground game was stuck. That Houston can put up 35 points without Alridge being a major factor shows how strong the team is playing.
Marshall … At the moment, this doesn't appear to be a well-coached team. 13 penalties for 106 yards against Cincinnati, breakdowns in the running game, and few big plays from the defense. The season couldn't have started any worse for the Thundering Herd, but on the plus side, the Conference USA season hasn't started yet. With a win over Memphis next week, things could quickly change. With Tulsa and Southern Miss to follow, beating the Tigers is a must. To do that, the offense has to figure out how to crank out a few long scoring drives.
Memphis … It wasn't just that Memphis got blasted by UCF, it's that it wasn't even a game. The MU passing attack failed to bomb its way back into the game thanks to a great day from the Knight defense, while the Tiger D struggled to hold up against the UCF O line. Watch out for Arkansas State next week. If the Tigers can't figure out how to sell out a little more to make a few key stops, it'll be a long day against the Indian ground attack, if this game was any indication.
Rice … It's hard to get a gauge on just how good the Owls are, or aren't, based on losses to Texas Tech and Texas, but at the moment, nothing is working. The defensive front wasn't in the same stadium as the Longhorn offensive line, failing to generate any pressure, while the offense sputtered and coughed yet again. The game got out of hand so quickly that the offense had to start bombing, and had to ditch the running game. It didn't work. The lines have to play far better for the Owls to have any hope against Southern Miss and Houston over the next few weeks.
Southern Miss … Didn’t Play This Week
SMU … Positive sign time. SMU might have lost to TCU, but the defense came up with its best performance of the year by far, and DeMyron Martin and the running game finally got going. Only cranking out seven points isn't a plus, and there should be more production after holding on to the ball for over 36 minutes, but this wasn't as bad a loss as it might seem. Now the team has to right the ship and come up with a win over UTEP to kick the Conference USA season off right.
Tulane … While it's great for Matt Forte to be able to carry tee workload like he did against SE Louisiana, it has to be a big concern that there wasn't any semblance of a passing game to help out. This was SE Louisiana, not LSU, who the Green Wave gets next week, but Scott Elliott only completed nine of 24 passes for 83 yards with an interception. Tulane can't afford to give away four turnovers, and it it's going to get 300 rushing yards, it has to control the time of possession better than it did on Saturday.
Tulsa … Tulsa had to be perfect against Oklahoma, and wasn't. Forgetting that the offense hit a wall in the second half, and the defense, like about 110 other teams in America would, never had a shot against the Sooner offense, ten penalties and two interceptions helped make it harder to stay alive. If nothing else, QB Paul Smith proved once again what a gamer he is. He made a few brilliant passes against an elite secondary that'll perk up the NFL scouts' attention. This offense is going to light up Conference USA like a Christmas tree.
UAB … Didn’t Play This Week
UCF … UCF certainly established itself as a player in the Conference USA race with a dominant win over Memphis. The offensive line has been fantastic, doing what it needs to for Kevin Smith to crank out big yards and power his way around the goal line. It didn't matter who was at quarterback; the offense produced. Michael Greco was excellent in a rotation completing 11 of 12 passes, but Kyle Israel will still be the main man. Now the key will be to stay sharp against UL Lafayette with a huge date at East Carolina to follow.
UTEP… After the losses to New Mexico State and Texas Tech, and the close call against New Mexico to start the year, UTEP needed a laugher of a blowout win, and Texas Southern was happy to provide it. Marcus Thomas showed off the running pop everyone's been waiting for, mainly because he finally had holes to run through. Trevor Vittatoe threw well, but backup Kyle Wright struggled. If nothing else, this game cemented Vittatoe that much more in the starting job.

Friday, September 21
8:00 PM	Oklahoma 62 ... at Tulsa 21 CFN Prediction: OU 51-23 OU -23.5

Saturday, September 22
12:00 PM	at West Virginia 48 ... East Carolina 7 CFN Prediction: WVU 44-16 WVU -24
3:30 PM	at UCF 56 ... Memphis 20 CFN Prediction: UCF 31-23 UCF -7
4:30 PM	at Houston 38 ... Colorado State 27 CFN Prediction: Houston 36-27 UH -7
7:00 PM	at Texas 58 ... Rice 14 CFN Prediction: Texas 52-13 UT -38.5
7:00 PM	at Tulane 35 ... Southeastern Louisiana 27 CFN Prediction: Tulane 37-23
7:30 PM	at Cincinnati 40 ... Marshall 14 CFN Prediction: Cin. 38-16 UC -7.5
8:30 PM	at TCU 21 ... SMU 7 CFN Prediction: TCU 35-10 TCU -19.5
9:05 PM	Tat UTEP 52 ... Texas Southern 12 CFN Prediction: UTEP 47-10

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