Week 2 PASS/FAIL Report: Conference USA

CONFERENCE USA

 

PASS: Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, Charlotte, Southern Miss

WKU finally found their offensive rhythm this week, but almost let the game get away at home in a 41-38 win over Louisiana Tech. I give the Bulldogs a passing grade as well, because they never gave up in this game, made a game out of it late, and even had a fair chance of stealing a win. Tech will be ok in CUSA play as well progress this season, and this could end up as a rematch at the end of the season.

Charlotte and Southern Miss both had easy FCS games this weekend, and both won. That’s good for the conference overall, but Charlotte has to toughen up their schedule to get a better marking of where they stand,

FAIL: FAU, Middle Tennessee, UTSA, UTEP, North Texas, Old Dominion, Marshall, Rice, FIU

FAU had Miami on the ropes, but let the Canes up, and turnovers were a plague in this loss. If FAU is to surprise some folks in CUSA play, they have to do a better job of protecting the football than this.

It’s hard to beat up on MTSU too badly, as they got beat by Alabama. There’s no shame in that, but no passing grade either.

UTSA had Kansas State in a trap position early on, but the offense never got moving, and the run game ultimately failed in a 30-3 loss. After playing as hard as they did at Arizona, I expected more this week.

UTEP is by far one of the worst teams in the nation right now after giving up 117 points in their first two games this season. There’s no way this team regains their composure and competes in the West Division after this.

North Texas ultimately fell short in their bid to upset SMU this week, but didn’t exactly lay down during the loss. We still don’t know much about the Eagles at this point, so we have to wait another week or two to get a better bearing on them.

I understand that Old Dominion is rebuilding right now, but the Monarchs are slipping by inferior teams so far in 2015, including a narrow 24-10 win over Norfolk State of the MEAC. It’s time to start playing like big boys when you take on teams from the MEAC.

Marshall is in the dog house this week after a terrible performance on the road in a 21-10 loss to Ohio, just a week after beating Purdue. Marshall came out flat (except for Devon Johnson), and Michael Birdsong finished with just 83 passing yards.

Rice had a shot to make some noise against a very vulnerable Texas team, but fell well short, and found themselves down 42-14 at one point. The Owls lost 42-28, and even outgained Texas. This game should have had a much different result, had special teams not been such a disaster in coverage, it could have been that way.

FIU forced Indiana to struggle, but coming off an upset of UCF, the Panthers ran out of gas, and IU pulled away late. Two huge upsets in a row would have done wonders for Ron Turner’s job status.