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
Tulsa 29 ... SMU 23
Paul Smith connected with Charles Clay for a 51-yard touchdown pass with 43 seconds to play to go 99 yards in 1:13 for a Tulsa win. Smith threw three scoring passes in the second half, and ran for a seven-yard score in the first, to overcome a 20-7 SMU lead. The Mustangs got three Thomas Morstead field goals from 50, 32 and 52 yards away, and two Justin Willis touchdown passes, but couldn't convert drives into points when needed.

Conference USA Player of the Week
UCF RB Kevin Smith ran 43 times for 175 yards and two touchdowns in the 34-17 win over Southern Miss.

Conference Roundup

East Carolina … ECU bounced back nicely from the loss to NC State with a balanced, explosive performance against UAB with a little help from several sources. With 216 rushing yards and 255 through the air, ECU had little trouble moving the ball on a not-that-bad defense. Now the attack has to remain consistent in two road games at Memphis and Marshall before closing out against Tulane. There's no reason ECU should expect anything less than three more wins to close out.
Houston … The offense is humming on all cylinders, getting 540 yards against UAB and 520 against UTEP in the last two weeks. This is looking like a Conference USA favorite, but the defense has to do a better job of slowing down the pass if it's going to get by Tulsa in a few weeks and clinch the West. With C-USA lightweights SMU and Marshall to deal with, the West is over after beating the Miners.
Marshall … Finally, finally the Herd gets a win, but it wasn't exactly perfect. Considering there were 254 rushing yards against Rice, the offense didn't do enough to control the clock. 11 penalties for 119 yards is inexcusable, and the defense had too tough a time slowing down the Owl offense in the final 17 minutes, but a win is a win. There weren't any turnovers and there was good offensive balance. Now the key will be the run defense with a brutal three-game stretch against UCF, East Carolina and Houston ahead.
Memphis … For the second straight week, Martin Hankins bailed out the defense with a big late drive. The defense got ripped apart by Matt Forte and the Tulane running game, but Hankins was able to keep pace with key throw after key throw when the Tigers absolutely needed one. Now in range for bowl eligibility, a win over East Carolina would do wonders. With three of the final four games at home, there's no reason to not finish at least 6-6.
Rice … Rice got into too big a hole early against Marshall and couldn't climb back. Chase Clement had a nice day in the rally, but the defense didn't do enough to stop the Herd running game, especially QB Bernard Morris taking off, and was awful at getting the Herd offense off the field. Now at 1-7 with UTEP up next, the Owls have to figure out some way to slow down the run, and have to do even more to force turnovers to overcome the various problems.
Southern Miss … Southern Miss can't turn the ball over. The Rice game proved that, and now this week's loss to UCF shows just how fragile the team is when it makes mistakes. The defense is almost never able to pick up the slack when the offense makes mistakes, and while the offense is partially to blame for the loss, the defense was the bigger problem. UCF's Kevin Smith rumbled for yard after yard, and the USM D failed to come up with the necessary stop. Now there's no margin left for error in the Conference USA race needing to win out and get some help.
SMU … And now the Phil Bennett era is over. The Mustangs couldn't come up with a close win this year, having their chances in three games in the last four weeks to pull off wins, but they always seemed to find ways to blow it. Giving up a big pass play for a score to lose to Tulsa was the final straw. The offense didn't get better as the year went on with little in the way of consistency and no running game whatsoever. QB Justin Willis is a great piece to build around, but more weapons need to emerge.
Tulane … Tulane ran for 350 yards on Memphis and couldn't seem to control the game. The secondary got ripped apart yet again, and unlike last week against SMU, this time it proved costly with the inability to come up with a final stop at the end of either half. The pass rush never got going, but offensively, Matt Forte got rolling with his fourth straight 200-yard game. The formula should be there for more wins, but the pass defense has to start slowing someone down. It's not going to happen against Tulsa this week.
Tulsa … Tulsa certainly does like to make things interesting. The defense, for the first time in weeks, played well enough to win, but the offense couldn't come up with the early scoring drives to take control in the win over SMU. The second half was all about Paul Smith bombing the team back into the game, and he came up with the type of late game heroics that might turn things around. Consistency will be the key over the final four weeks with three of the final four games on the road.
UAB … UAB was doing a good job all year of battling hard. The team was losing, but things weren't as bad as the defeats seemed. The team was scrapping and staying alive, only to not have enough in the tank when push came to shove. Now the team just doesn't have it. East Carolina and Houston proved over the last two weeks just how far the Blazers have to go. Step one will be finding more from the passing game that got just 128 yards against the Pirates.
UCF … UCF still needs some help, and has work to do, to get past East Carolina in the East, but coming up with a big win at Southern Miss is a great start. Kevin Smith once again showed why he belongs in the discussion with Tulane's Matt Forte for the Conference USA Player of the Year honors by carrying the offense, but it was the defense and its ability to take the ball away that put UCF in control in the first place. Smith kept the things rolling.
UTEP… Two straight tough losses, thanks to defensive meltdowns against East Carolina and Houston, have all but knocked UTEP out of the Conference USA race. There were some major positives in the loss, from Marcus Thomas running wild yet again, to the decent offensive balance, but Trevor Vittatoe was too off throughout the game and wasn't able to come through late despite having two chances to come up with late scoring drives. A bowl bid is still possible, but there's little margin for error with three of the final four games on the road, and the home date with Southern Miss.

Saturday, October 27
3:00 PM	at Tulsa 29 ... SMU 23 CFN Prediction: Tulsa 41-28 Tulsa -14
3:00 PM	Memphis 28 ... at Tulane 27 CFN Prediction: Memphis 35-27 TU -1
3:30 PM	at East Carolina 41 ... UAB 6 CFN Prediction: ECU 33-17 ECU -14.5
4:30 PM	at Marshall 34 ... Rice 21 CFN Prediction: Marshall 33-31 MU -8.5
9:05 PM	Houston 34 ... at UTEP 31 CFN Prediction: Houston 44-36 UH -3.5

Sunday, October 28
8:00 PM	UCF 34 ... at Southern Miss 17 CFN Prediction: USM 28-23 USM -3

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