Two teams shared the spotlight this week: UAB and MTSU. We expect those programs to top the power rankings this week in some order and with good reason. The Blazers had the most impressive win, going on the road to Ruston to pick up a dominating victory. Middle did something similar albeit against a lesser opponent in Marshall, which had QB question marks coming in.
UAB and Middle control their respective fates the rest of the way and are headed for a showdown in the title game. Anything can happen (as we have seen these past two weeks) and so we should not get ahead of ourselves. Still, the division races have a nice little form and we have whittled down the field some.
East Standings
- Middle 2-0, 3-2
- FIU 1-0, 3-2
- Marshall 1-1, 3-2
- FAU 1-1, 3-3
- Charlotte 1-1, 2-3
- WKU 0-1, 1-4
- ODU 0-3, 1-5
West Standings
- UAB 2-0, 4-1
- UTSA 2-0, 3-3
- USM 1-0, 2-2
- LT 1-1, 3-2
- North Texas 1-1, 5-1
- Rice 0-2, 1-5
- UTEP 0-2, 0-6
Games
MTSU 34 Marshall 24
Middle controls their fate out east with the two preseason favorites (according to others, CR had Middle 2nd) behind them. FIU is tough, but not as good as FAU and Marshall, right?
UAB 28 LA Tech 7
In a show of dominance on both sides of the ball, the Blazers shut down J’Mar Smith and ran for 229 on the way to victory. Things started slowly, but in the end the Ice Dragons looked too good on both sides of the ball.
FAU 52 ODU 33
This was a show for Motor Singletary. He became the all-time rushing TD holder, and broke Tim Tebow’s record on a day when Tebow himself was being honored in the Swamp. Beyond that, this was not quite so easy for the Owls, as ODU got feisty in the third quarter. The Owls did look like their 2017 selves and turned it to another gear offensively, however.
UTSA 20 Rice 3
There is something to be said for road victories over division opponents. This win for the Roadrunners makes it three-straight including two over division opponents, having toppled UTEP last week. Yes, this happened against the two worst teams in the league and perhaps the nation, but a win is a win. Right now UTSA is 2-0 headed to a home game against a Louisiana Tech team that endured a tough loss in the Joe. There is upset potential here. Meanwhile, the good form Rice had early is gone. The QB situation is just not helping.
North Texas 27 UTEP 24
Most folks are chalking this up to a bad performance by the Mean Green. It was atypical, but El Paso does strange things to teams from Denton. Beyond that, this marks two straight weeks of solid performances by the Miners. Very quietly, this UTEP squad is making improvements. Ryan Metz threw for 313 and two scores (against two interceptions). Right now, Dan Dimel is a little bit ahead of Mike Bloomgren and CR is feeling pretty wrong about our predictive powers.
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