[Note: Click on the scores for game stories via the universities' web sites]

Houston 45, #5/6 Oklahoma State 35 (Stillwater; 50,875). The big story of the week. UH jumped ahead 24-7, then fell behind twice, finally going ahead for good when a Bryce Beall snatched a deflected 4^th down pass for a TD. Cougs’ QB Case Keenum earned National Offensive Player of the Week honors for his 32-of-46, 366 yard day.

#9/12 BYU 54, Tulane 3 (New Orleans; 26,224 [officially, though some reports claim little over 5K and this slide show looks kinda bleak). A laugher with little upside for the Green Wave, who failed to break double-digits in first downs while BYU never punted. The Cougars had two running back rush for over 60 yards each and passed for 321. For Tulane, QB Joe Kemp was 14-for-19 and 101 yards.

#14/15 Virginia Tech 52, Marshall 10 (Blacksburg; 66,233). 444 yards rushing for the Hokies, 171 in the 1^st quarter alone. Herd QB Brian Anderson managed an OK outing, completing 15-for-31 for 116. Darius Marshall rushed for over 100. The Herd only mustered 14 return yards on the game via 3 Hokie punts.

#24/25 Kansas 34, UTEP 7 (El Paso; 31,885). The Jayhawks simply manhandled the Miners. UTEP allowed 5 sacks and was shut out until early in the 4^th while Kansas scored in every quarter and piled up 576 yards of offense. Said UTEP head coach Mike Price, “They're a top 25 team, and it doesn't look like we are.”

West Virginia 35, East Carolina 20 (Morgantown; 59,216). WVU's defense kept the Pirates in check, but Mountaineer mistakes--including 2 muffed punts (sound familiar?)--kept ECU in it. ECU was shut out in the second half and their longest scoring drive was 31 yards. WVU QB and Pat White successor Jarrett Brown had a coming-out party, throwing for 334 yards and 4 TDs. Patrick Pinkney was sacked 4 times.

SMU 35, UAB 33 (Birmingham; 18,092). SMU dominated early, then gave up 20 3rd-quarter points to the Blazers before hanging on to win. The story of the game, both good and bad, was the QB play. For the Mustangs, B.L. Mitchell threw for 353 yards and 3 TDs, and for UAB, last week's one-man show Joe Webb threw 4 interceptions. UAB ran the ball well, with Webb rushing for 97 and Mark Ferrell adding 85.

Middle Tennessee 31, Memphis 14 (Murfreesboro; 28,105 [new stadium record]). Tied 7-7 after one quarter, MTSU rattled off 24 unanswered points before allowing Memphis a late TD. The Blue Raiders almost doubled Memphis’ total yards, 436 to 219. Scrub QB Tyler Bass led the final scoring drive for the Tigers, completing 4 of 4 for 33 yards. No one for Memphis rushed for over 50.

Texas Tech 55, Rice 10 (Lubbock; 48,124). The Rice defense held TTU to 14 first half points, but it got ugly from there as the Raiders rolled up 560 yards of offense against the Owls. For Rice, QB John Shepard went 14-for-19 for 109 yards and a TD to Taylor Dupree. Rice won the time of possession by a good 6 minutes, but since when does Texas Tech care about that?

Tulsa 44, New Mexico 10 (Albuquerque; 30,051). Tulsa opened the scoring early following a fumbled UNM punt return (noticing a theme?) and never looked back, leading 17-3 at the half and at one time 44-3. For the Hurricane, QB G.J. Kinne threw for 310 yards and 4 TDs, 2 each to Slick Shelley and Trae Johnson. Kinne also led Tulsa in rushing with 53 yards. New Mexico managed 5 sacks.

[Note: Click on the scores for game stories via the universities' web sites. Memphis-Ole Miss game will be added when available]

Tulsa 37, Tulane 13 (Friday; New Orleans; 27,638 [yeah, right...]). Hurricane cruises after jumping ahead 17-0 in the opening 9 minutes. For Tulsa, Demaris Johnson 252 all-purpose yards including a 66-yard punt return for TD; G.J. Kinne 15-for-20, 211 yards, 1 TD, no INTs.

UCF 28, Samford 24 (Orlando; 34,486). 7-7 at halftime, UCF trailed 24-21 until scoring on a TD pass with just under 6 minutes left in the game. Samford outgained the Knights 286 yards to 282, UCF’s Brynn Harvey 111 yard on 31 carries and 2 TDs.

East Carolina 29, Appalachian State 24 (Greenville; 43,279). 320 yards for the Pirates, with only 58 in the 2^nd half. Appy State had 17 unanswered points in the 4^th quarter. For ECU, Pinkney 12-for-27 for 131 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Dominique Lindsay 111 yards on 15 carries with 1 TD.

Marshall 31, Southern Illinois 28 (Huntington; 24,012). Southern Illinois cut the lead to 3 with 1:40 left, then held Marshall to a 3 and out to get the ball back with 26 seconds left to no avail. The teams combined for 5 turnovers. For MU, Brian Anderson 27-for-36 for 316 yards and 3 TDs. Chuck Walker 10 rec for 119 yards in his debut.

UAB 44, Rice 24 (Birmingham; 14,316). UAB’s Joe Webb set a CUSA QB record with 194 yards rushing, passed for another 221, and had a hand in four TDs. The rest of the team contributed another 98 yards.

Houston 55, Northwestern (La.) St. 7 (Houston; 22,043). 538 yards of offense for UH. Case Keenum 23-for-30 for 359 yards and 4 TDs in a little over a half of work.

SMU 31, Stephen F. Austin 23 (Dallas; 34,749 [a new stadium record as 19 supporters bought and distributed 1,000 tickets each]). Mustangs rally from 9 down in the 4^th. SFA piled up 460 yards of offense, 391 passing. For SMU, Shawnbrey McNeal 158 yards on 19 carries.

Buffalo 23, UTEP 17 (El Paso; 35,213). UTEP fell behind 23-7 and had their comeback fall short. Miners hit with 101 penalty yards. UTEP’s Trevor Vittatoe 27-for-45 passing for 233 yards, Donald Buckram 108 yards rushing. Buffalo averaged 34 yards per kickoff return.

As I’m sure everyone reading this already knows, the AP’s pre-season poll came out Saturday with the obligatory fanfare and ado. Unfortunately, no Conference USA team was even close to cracking the Top 25. Tulsa was the conference’s lone representative in the “Others Receiving Votes” category with 7 total points. In contrast, in the USA Today coaches’ poll, UCF not only joined Tulsa in the ORV, but the Knights finished ahead of them 2 points to 1.

Obviously, this is not a good starting point for CUSA, who has yet place a team in the final Top 25 of either poll since the 2005 reconfiguration, but that’s hardly anything new or worthy of a blog entry. It does, however, fall pretty much in line with where the 2007 polls ended (see previous link), with Tulsa landing 4 points in the AP and 5 in the USAT and UCF picking up 4 points from the coaches.

That last tidbit begs the question: just how much thought goes into these polls, especially when it comes to teams not in the BCS-AQ conferences? Apparently, the coaches who included UCF in their rankings are pretty optimistic about UCF picking up right where they left off despite the Knights losing their top running back—as well as the nation’s—in Kevin Smith, and his understudies having to work behind an offensive line sans 3 of last year’s starters. That’s a lot to overcome and expect to not miss a beat.

In Tulsa’s case, it can be argued that the Golden Hurricane didn’t get the love it deserved in the first place, having finished last season at 10-3 and walloping Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl, but it’s easy to understand the sentiment when Tulsa in turn got almost equally walloped by Oklahoma early in the season and failed to beat UCF in two attempts, including the CUSA Championship game. Less-than-impressive showings vs. 2007’s CUSA dregs didn’t help their case, either, so it really was a stretch to argue them a Top 25 team at the end of last year (especially after UCF’s boredom-inducing loss to Mississippi State in the Liberty Bowl). Nonetheless, it’s hard to explain how Tulsa gets nearly double the votes in the 2008 preseason poll than it did in the final 2007 poll when the ‘Cane is replacing not only its starting QB, but its CUSA Offensive Player of the Year starting QB in Paul Smith (who obviously had to beat out UCF’s Smith for the honor). Granted, for all we know Tulsa’s offense can make any decent QB a record-breaker (it seems like Smith had been there a decade), but still, that’s a big question mark when it comes to Tulsa being better than they were last season.

What FTF really doesn’t understand is the lack of love for East Carolina. Last year, the Pirates finished 7-5 (6-2 in-conference), started the season by playing Virginia Tech within 10 in Blacksburg, and ended it by stunning Top 25 Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl. They’re also easily one of the best-off CUSA teams (if not the best) in terms of returning personnel. While ECU does move into 2008 without Chris Johnson, who led the nation in all-purpose yards last year, the Pirates do return their leading passer and second-leading rusher in QB Patrick Pinkney, their leading receiver in Jamar Bryant, and also have a CUSA All-Freshman performer, Jonathan Williams, poised as the replacement for Johnson. They also return the vast majority of their defense. By all indications, if anyone in CUSA is in a position to make a run at the polls this year, it is East Carolina. That Tulsa and UCF are getting votes (which is reasonable in itself; don’t get me wrong) while the Pirates aren’t shows you just how much the pollsters actually do their “mid major” homework as opposed to just copying-and-pasting the previous season’s final standings and calling it a prediction.