C-USA Roundup - Week 9 Standings & More

Conference USA conference roundup, standings, player and game of the week

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
 
Conference USA Game of the Week

Memphis 36 … Southern Miss 30
With starting QB Arkelon Hall out, Memphis got quirky with a variety of trick plays and the running of Curtis Steele to get the win. Carlos Singleton caught two first half touchdown passes with the first one coming from Brett Toney, who got injured. Fourth-string QB Tyler Bass took over and ran for an 11-yard score, but it was Steele who controlled the game with 178 yards and touchdown runs of 10 and 22 yards in the fourth quarter. Southern Miss took the lead early in the fourth quarter on a 31-yard Damion Fletcher run before Steele score his first touchdown to take the lead for good, USM scored on the final play of the game to make the score look better.

Conference USA Player of the Week
Memphis RB Curtis Steele ran 29 times for 178 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Southern Miss.

	Conference			Overall
East	W-L	PF	PA	W-L	PF	PA	STK
ECU	2-1	82	75	4-3	177	165	W1
Marshall	2-1	72	66	3-4	134	187	L3
Memphis	2-3	130	149	4-5	242	252	W1
UCF	1-2	63	124	2-5	125	209	L2
UAB	1-3	95	144	2-6	190	264	W1
So Miss	0-4	134	155	2-6	232	251	L5

	Conference			Overall
West	W-L	PF	PA	W-L	PF	PA	STK
Tulsa	5-0	271	135	8-0	445	209	W8
Houston	3-0	130	82	4-3	275	200	W3
Rice	4-1	213	182	5-3	321	292	W2
UTEP	3-1	157	148	3-4	220	266	L1
Tulane	1-3	96	121	2-5	139	195	L3
SMU	0-5	140	202	1-8	208	363	L7

Saturday, October 25

Rice 42 ... at Tulane 17
CFN Prediction: Rice 33-30  Tulane -2.5
- Rice | Tulane

at Navy 34 ... SMU 7
CFN Prediction: Navy 37-30  Navy -12.5
- SMU offense doesn't work in the rain

at Memphis 36 ... Southern Miss 30
CFN Prediction: USM 34-27  No Line
- MU & Steele roll | USM keeps stumbling

Sunday, October 26

at Tulsa 49 ... UCF 19
CFN Prediction: Tulsa 55-17  Tulsa -21.5
- UCF stalls in 2nd half | Tulsa O keeps on going

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

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.

Conference
Roundup

East Carolina … Didn’t Play This Week.
Houston … Didn’t Play This Week
Marshall … Didn’t Play This Week
Memphis … Talk about pulling a rabbit out of a hat, the Memphis coaching staff did everything it could possibly do to get the offense moving with a third and fourth string quarterback. The defense didn’t hold up well against the Southern Miss offense, but the offensive line had a great game opening up holes for Curtis Steele as the Tigers finished with 285 yards on the ground. Now with a week off to heal up and get more creative before a winnable game against SMU, a bowl game is still possible with UCF and Tulane to close out.   
Rice … Rice’s offense is a machine right now. Chase Clement is playing as well as any quarterback in America, and that includes Colt McCoy. He did a great job of capitalizing on every Tulane mistake, and every opportunity. Not only did he run well, but he spread the wealth around with eight different receivers getting work. On a nice two-game winning streak, a bowl game is there for the taking with winnable games ahead. It’s asking for too much to think about the Conference USA title, especially being 1.5 games behind Tulsa, but whatever; this is a special season.
Southern Miss … Memphis was down to its fourth string quarterback and it still didn’t matter. The suddenly woeful Southern Miss defense couldn’t slow down a Tiger attack that rolled for over 500 yards. LB Gerald McRath had a nice game, but that was about it. The offense is doing a decent job of tying to keep pace, but this isn’t a team built to make major comebacks. It’s an offense built to maintain leads, and the defense isn’t allowing that to happen.
SMU … This week’s game against Navy was why the June Jones offense sometimes doesn’t work, and sometimes is a detriment. In the rain and wind, the passing game didn’t do anything to keep the chains moving, but the loss wasn’t all on the offense. The defense couldn’t figure out the Midshipman running game couldn’t get off the field. Despite no threat of being thrown on, the defense time and again couldn’t come up with the big stop needed to stop the bleeding. Now there’s a week off before dealing with Memphis and UTEP, two winnable conference games.
Tulane … Tulane got down early against Rice and didn’t have a chance to mount any sort of a comeback with the running game. The passing game did a nice job of cranking out yard in the second half, with Joe Kemp throwing well once the pressure was off, and with Kevin Moore on the bench. The blowout was bad enough, and now there are road dates against LSU, Houston and Tulsa in the next month. To get through, the ground game has to get on track from the opening snap. That might not happen against LSU.
Tulsa … Tulsa did what you’re supposed to do when things are going well. It blew away a bad UCF team even with things weren’t going all that well. David Johnson got the offense moving in the second half, but the miscues in the first half and the problems against UCF’s Brian Watters weren’t a positive. However, everything worked in the second half. This wasn’t a BCS buster performance, but it was still a 30-point blowout on national TV. Next week’s game at Arkansas might be more important for perception, even if the Hogs aren’t very good.
UAB … Didn’t Play This Week
UCF … The secondary and the defense came up with three takeaways against Tulsa, but they needed a lot more to make up for the lack of an offense. 69 of the team’s 187 yards came on the two second quarter touchdown catches from Brian Watters, and there was nothing sharp about the second half. The defense will have to start doing even more until QB Rob Calabrese or RB Brynn Harvey can start making the offense perform on a regular basis.
UTEP… Didn’t Play This Week