Editor’s Note: Marc Lawrence’s college football selections can be purchased in his season package. Click to win!
CONFERENCE USA features 12 nationally prominent, tradition-rich members, a combination that enhances programs that are steeped in athletic success and academic prowess. In other words, they are academically refined but pigskin poor. We call them the not-yet-ready-for prime-time-bunch… the CUSA.
Here is my take on the CONFERENCE USA for 2008.
Returning starters are listed alongside each team’s name (returning QB’s designated with an *).
CUSA
ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM - *8 / 9
Team Theme – TRUE LIES
After losing 30 seniors from his 2006 squad, head coach Neil Callaway was forced to play 14 true freshmen last season. The result was a tumultuous two-win season in which the Blazers surrendered season high – or second high – yardage on eight different occasions. The good news (or bad, depending on your perspective) is that UAB returns nine defensive starters to go with eight of the same on offense. The young offensive line allowed just 16 sacks last year, the second lowest in the league. SR QB Joe Webb not only tossed 15 touchdown passes but also caught 30 passes for 459 yards and 3 TD’s. With no less than nine bowl-eligible opponents dotting the schedule, you’d only be lying to yourself if you expect the Blazers to contend for anything other than the cellar in ’08.
PLAY AGAINST: vs. Tulane (11/15)
CENTRAL FLORIDA – 5 / 9
Team Theme – THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE KNIGHT
It’s a cause-and-effect formula that works year in and year out in football, on any level. Namely, good things happen when you hurry the opposing quarterback. Not only does it lead to sacks (and lost yardage) but it also creates turnovers (read: interceptions). Its no coincidence UCF recorded the third best turnaround in the nation last year (from 4-8 to 10-4). The defense had 25.5 sacks to lead the CUSA and also a school record 24 interceptions, third best in the land. The good news for two-time National Coach of the Year George O’Leary is the return of nine starters from last year’s defense, including all four linemen. They’ll need to plug a few holes on offense, however, with the loss of QB Kyle Israel and star RB Kevin Smith. They also need to address a potential malady that developed in Spring Camp of a player dying from reported over-exertion. The heat is on.
PLAY ON: vs. East Carolina (11/2)
EAST CAROLINA - *6 / 9
Team Theme – A PIRATES BOUNTY
When is it that a team has the makings of a dynamo, you ask? Try one that features a roster with more than 50% upper classmen (24 seniors; 29 juniors) that tied or broke 39 individual records the previous season. Utilizing a two-headed quarterback system, head coach Skip Holtz wholeheartedly welcomes the return of signal callers Rob Kass and Patrick Pinkney. Together they put more points and touchdowns on the scoreboard in one season than any other team in ECU history. Losing Chris Johnson, the nation's all-purpose yardage leader last year, certainly hurts as will opening the season in Charlotte against ACC Champ Virginia Tech and following that with a home game against Big East boss West Virginia. After the dust settles, though, a bounty awaits when Pirates set sail against a winnable slate of opposition. Ships ahoy.
PLAY ON: vs. Virginia Tech (8/30)
HOUSTON - *6 / 8
Team Theme – EBONY OR IVORY – IT DOESN’T MATTER
If new coach Kevin Sumlin were white would it have been appropriate for Houston to announce that a Caucasian American was hired to replace former mentor Art Briles? So, then why is it that the shoe fits simply because he’s African American? It doesn’t. What fits is the fact that Sumlin, the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma the last five years, is a good hire. Along with 56 returning lettermen, he'll benefit from having soph QB Case Keenum directing an offense that was outgained in only one game last season. Keenum, the CUSA Freshman of the Year, played in eleven games last season, starting six of them. Interestingly, the 8-5 Cougars were outgained only ONE TIME last season. After getting his feet wet against winning teams in four of the first five games to begin the new campaign, Sumlin will close out against losers in six of seven games to conclude the season. Now that’s what we would call a black-and-white schedule.
PASS
MARSHALL – 8 / 8
Team Theme – PENNY LOAFERS
Mark Snyder knew he was stepping into some mighty big shoes when he inherited the head coaching job from Bob Pruett three years ago. Pruett left an indelible 94-23 mark on the program in his nine years on the sidelines. By our count, no matter how you size it up, Snyder has some catching up to do - and he’d better do it fast. 4-7, 5-7 and 3-9 seasons are not the sort of numbers you bring to the bargaining table when contract extension talks come up. A star player for the Thundering Herd and former defensive coordinator at Ohio State under Jim Tressel, Snyder gets a huge boost on the DL with the return of 2006 CUSA Defensive Player of the Year Albert McClellan and Montel Glasco. Both starters sat out last year with injuries and figure to bolster a soft rush defense.
PLAY ON: as dog vs. Cincinnati (10/3)
MEMPHIS – 7 / 9
Team Theme – GO WEST, YOUNG MAN
The Tigers entered the 2007 season as a “Mission Team” and they delivered. Off a disastrous effort in 2006, and on the heels of three solid winning seasons prior to that, Memphis rebounded with vigor and tied Central Florida for the third-best turnaround (2-10 to 7-5) in the nation last year. Behind 52 letter winners and 16 returning starters in 2008, including an offensive line with four seniors and one junior, Tommy West and Memphis should be able to continue the roll. Rest assured, he will have his team pumped to the max when they take on Arkansas State the last week in September. The Tigers lost to the Warhawks, 35-31, last season after leading 31-6 at the half. Against a schedule that features only four teams with winning records last year, Memphis looks to score early and often this year.
PLAY ON: vs. Arkansas State (9/27)
RICE - *8 / 6
Team Theme – BAIL MAKER
First year coach David Bailiff’s defense failed to make many arrests last season. After finishing the year dead last in total team defense, Bailiff realized a change was needed. And he liked what he saw in the spring game. "At times, I thought the defense showed just how much it has improved. You saw some extremely hard, violent tackles," said Bailiff. The quick-strike offense is led by the best passing tandem in CUSA in QB Chase Clement and WR Jarrett Dillard. Clement, the fifth active QB in TD passes (55), broke 18 school records while Jarrett gained 1,000 yards for the second straight season last year. Remember, this team scored a school record 377 points last year, yet finished 3-9 with that rotten defense. It can only get better.
PLAY ON: as a dog vs. Houston (11/29)
SMU – 5 / 5
Team Theme – PONY EXPRESS
SMU ponied up $10M to lure June Jones and his run-and-shoot offense out of Hawaii. Especially appealing to the magnates who wrote the check is the fact he took a 0-12 Hawaii team to 9-4 in his first year on the island. With eight teams in their final 10 games that were bowlers last year, SMU needs to wins early. Despite the fact QB Justin Willis missed spring camp while on indefinite suspension, Jones is not worried about a potential trouble spot at the most important position on the team. "We'll find a quarterback," Jones said. "There are only two types of quarterbacks: One who gets better during the game and one who gets worse. We'll be fine. The system works." For $2 Million a year, it had better work - and fast.
PASS
SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI – 6 / 4
Team Theme – A NEW HAT IN HATTIESBURG
A tip of the fedora to outgoing coach Jeff Bower at Southern Mississippi. In 18 years as the head coach of the Golden Eagles, Bower compiled a sterling 117-84-1 record, including 14 straight winning seasons and bowl games nine of the last ten years to close out a terrific career. The question we wonder is – why? “I want you to know there is a lot of fight left in Jeff Bower and I am not done yet,” Bower said. Sounds like an involuntary retirement to us. Nonetheless, Larry Fedora, the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State the last three years, steps into a large pair of shoes. He spurned assistant coach overtures from LSU and Alabama to move to Hattiesburg. Larry’s ready to put the lid on the Bower-years.
PLAY ON: vs. Rice (10/18)
TEXAS EL PASO - *5 / 8
Team Theme – THE RIGHT PRICE
We like the way Mike Price thinks. To him, UTEP is not an extension school of Texas. It’s the University of Texas at El Paso and that school will host the University of Texas (at Austin) in its home opener this year. He will also remind his team that despite last year’s 4-7 record they were only eight points from being bowl-eligible. The Achilles heel was its No. 117 ranked defense, one that allowed season high yardage on five occasions. New DC Osia Lewis was hired and will employ a new 3-3-5 defensive scheme. Price thinks QB Trevor Vittatoe (3,101 passing yards as a freshman last year) and WR Jeff Moturi are as good a combination as any in the league. No argument here. More times than not, Price is right.
PLAY AGAINST: as a dog vs. East Carolina (11/29)
TULANE - *8 / 7
Team Theme – WAVE CRASH
Certain stats are a fact of life. Drink too much alcohol - you suffer. Miscalculate your taxes and an IRS man is knocking on your door. In college football, you lose a running back that rushed for over 4,000 the last two seasons and you’re hurting. So it is at Tulane where the Green waves goodbye to star RB Matt Forte, a second round pick by the Chicago Bears this spring. While JR Anthony Scelfo is listed on the charts as the returning QB, the job is up for grabs after Scelfo missed spring camp to play baseball. With four of their final five games on the road against teams that bowled last year, a sixth straight losing season looks inevitable.
PASS
TULSA – 9 / 5
Team Theme – GRAHAM CRACKERS
After winning ten games in his first year as head coach at Tulsa, including CUSA West Division and the GMAC bowl, Todd Graham realizes a repeat performance would be stretching matters, especially with 5,000 yard passer Paul Smith, the leader of the nation’s top-ranked offense last season, graduated. His replacement? The job is up for grabs and the talk about it never ends. "We need to build a statue of him and quit talking about him. It's killing us," said Graham. A bigger concern is finding six new starters for a defense that allowed six different opponents to score at least 40 points last season. "We had the No. 1 offense in the country, but to win a championship, we have to have a championship defense,” contends Graham. We couldn’t agree more.
PLAY AGAINST: as double-digit favorite vs. Rice (10/4)
