Conference Teams

Florida State Seminoles 34, UAB Blazers 7
Bowden called this game "boring" and bragged that he didn't have to punt the one play that he did. I suppose FSU has to lick its wounds after last week's loss, but demolishing a middling team in a non-BCS conference isn't exactly awe-inspiring. FSU did give a bunch of tickets away to hurricane victims. Too bad they didn't get to see a contest.

Syracuse Orangemen 19, Cincinnati Bearkats 6
It's hard to say how good Syracuse is going to be this year, since the Orange-no-longer-men got walloped by Purdue in the opening week but rebounded to defeat a hapless Buffalo and now future conference-mate Cincinnati. Cincinnati managed to beat up on Miami of Ohio, but are going to need to prove that they can play with the big boys for their sake as well as the Big East's. Yard-for-yard, Cincinnati played a decent game, but got killed on turnovers.

(AP #25) Memphis Tigers 47, Arkansas State Indians 35
Memphis is one of the best that C*USA has to offer this year, and until the final minutes of the game they were losing against a Sun Belt team. This is either really bad for Memphis (and the C*USA) or, considering SBC Troy's victory over incoming C*USA Marshall, the Sun Belt boosters may not have been smoking crack when they said they aimed to compete with Conference USA. Memphis managed to pull the game together in the last three minutes, soaring ahead with three touchdowns. Despite their win, they may not find themselves ranked next week in the AP poll.

Houston Cougars 35, Army Black Knights 21
Kevin, my father, and my brother made it to this game. Apparently the Coogs look a lot better on paper than they did during the game. Army extends the nation's longest losing streak. Only a touchdown seperates the final score this year compared to Houston's successful year last year, so I still hold out hope that all is not lost.

Outgoing Conference Teams

Texas Tech Red Raiders , TCU Horned Frogs 35
However you do it, overcoming a 21-point deficit to a 35-point victory over TCU is impressive (especially considering the close game with SMU) for Texas Tech. Texas Tech lost against TCU's future conferencemate New Mexico. This may not bode well for TCU's ability to compete with the bigger boys out west. On the other hand, Tech barely beat the SMU team that TCU slaughtered, so I guess we won't know till next year.

South Carolina Gamecocks 34, South Florida Bulls 3
When records are being broken at your expense, it's not a good thing. South Carolina racked up higher numbers in everything except penalties. South Florida was dominated in every respect, racking up twice the passing yardage, twice the rushing yardage, three times the first downs, and 11 times the points.

Incoming Conference Teams

(#3) Georgia Bulldogs 13, Marshall Thunder Herd 3
Marshall managed to hang tough against Ohio State last week, but they couldn't get anything going against Georgia as they slip to 0-3. While losing to Georgia and Ohio State is nothing to be ashamed of, I'll bet they're really, really wishing they'd won the Troy game so that they'd have at least one win on the year.

(#23) Boise State Broncos 47, UTEP Miners 31
UTEP played Boise State closer than Oregon State did. Oregon State gave LSU a challenge. Somewhere in this might possibly maybe suggest that they should be able to beat more than a limp Weber State (the 1 in their 1-2 record). Boise State is kicking themselves for struggling in this one. They probably should be.

Oklahoma State Cowboys 59, SMU Mustangs 7
After an impressive debut against Texas Tech, SMU has returned to form. SMU has a 15-game losing streak and looks set to replace Army as the cellar dweller of the new C*USA. Hopefully they will have better luck in the conference.

Navy Midshipmen 29, Tulsa Golden Hurricane 0
Tulsa had a great year last year. It's not translating into success this year, but they've played a pretty rough schedule. That said, they haven't played anybody close and they will need to prove that last year wasn't a fluke. This is Navy's first shut-out in a decade.

Rice Owls 41, Hawaii Warriors 29
As bad as Houston's year has been so far, at least they haven't lost to a newly minted I-A team and managed to stay within a touchdown of Rice. As I said earlier, Rice is an underacknowledged team. They may contribute more to the new Conference USA than will some of the more highly touted additions.

Unrelated Games

Texas A&M Aggies 27, (#25) Clemson Tigers 6
Clemson lost to unranked Georgia Tech last week. The week before, they scraped by unranked Wake Forest. This week, they lost to an unranked Texas A&M. While A&M is assuredly thrilled about beating a ranked team, I'm not sure a school can do any more to get unranked than Clemson has.

Auburn Tigers 10, LSU Tigers 9
Now that LSU has lost, I can start rooting for them again.