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Conference
USA Notebook - Escape artist SMU led in the fourth quarter and Reggie Carrington almost sacked Houston quarterback Kevin Kolb for a safety. But Kolb got away and completed a 26-yard pass to Donnie Avery on third-and-19. From there, Houston drove for the go-ahead score. "(Kolb) did a great job of staying up and found the receiver, and it sort of turned the game around," said SMU coach Phil Bennett. Sound familiar? It should. The biggest play of Tulsa's 27-10 loss at Houston son Nov. 4 was Kolb's 53-yard pass to Avery on third-and-29. It set up Kolb to throw the go-ahead scoring pass to Vincent Marshall with five seconds left in the half. There's no escaping that the Cougars are going to Conference USA's championship game. They clinched the West Division with Saturday's 37-27 win over SMU and Tulsa's loss to Rice. A win at 1-9 Memphis this weekend would assure UH of hosting the Dec. 1 title game against the East Division representative -- East Carolina or Southern Mississippi. SMU had its own hopes of winning the division title and the Mustangs were stoked about playing a meaningful November game after eight straight losing seasons. But the Cougars had faster horses. The Mustangs held Kolb to a season-low 147 passing yards, but UH runners Anthony Alridge and Jackie Battle shredded SMU's league-leading rush defense for a combined 361 yards on 28 carries. Alridge, a junior lightning bolt from Denton, Texas, could be C-USA's most dangerous utility player -- he's listed as a receiver in the UH media guide and had never started in the backfield until Saturday. Alridge broke 77-yard TD runs in the first and third quarters and totaled 225 yards on 13 carries. He was C-USA's offensive player of the week. "This guy can fly," said Memphis coach Tommy West. "The two runs he broke the other day, he ran right by everybody. They've got him hemmed up on the sideline and he ran right through them. I wish (the University of Texas) would have signed him. They probably do too." Battle had 136 yards on 15 carries and finished off the Mustangs with a 61-yard run in the fourth quarter. UH coach Art Briles was asked who is faster -- Avery, who leaves defensive backs spinning like tops, or Alridge? "I've been asked that one before, and I'm not jumping in," Briles said with a chuckle. "I don't want them racing. I wouldn't want to see (a hamstring injury)." Closing in: East Carolina stayed atop the East and eliminated Marshall with a 33-20 win in Greenville, N.C. The Pirates will play Houston for the title unless they lose Saturday at red-hot Rice and Southern Miss wins its final two games. The Eagles host Alabama-Birmingham this week and Marshall next. That is the only likely scenario by which Houston might not host the title game. The Cougars have a higher BCS ranking than ECU, the tiebreaker if both teams finish with two losses. Southern Miss could prevent UH from hosting because it gave the Cougars their only conference loss, 31-27 on Oct. 14, and owns the tiebreaker if Houston loses again. But UH isn't likely to lose to a team that has lost eight in a row. Memphis has won three straight over the Cougars, but no longer has three-time all-league MVP DeAngelo Williams. Now, Briles holds the aces -- this year's likely MVP (Kolb) and a weapon equivalent to Williams (Alridge). Mistake prone: Marshall spotted East Carolina a 10-0 lead with a blocked punt and back-to-back first-quarter fumbles. "We knew coming in that the team that made the fewest mistakes would win, and we made the most mistakes," said Marshall coach Mark Snyder. The early deficit forced Marshall to pass more and use junior running back Ahmad Bradshaw less. The league's leading rusher was held to 26 yards on 10 carries. Pirates rising: Senior quarterback James Pinkney threw for 270 yards and a touchdown as East Carolina became bowl eligible for the first time in five years. Now, the Pirates must beat a team streaking toward the same goal. With Saturday's 41-38, double-overtime upset of Tulsa, the Owls have won five out of six for first-year coach Todd Graham. They're ravenous to take part in Rice's first bowl game in 45 years. "They've done a heckuva job," said ECU coach Skip Holtz. "They're 5-5, and if you look at their early season, they lost to Houston by one point and then played UCLA, Texas and Florida. They lost to some pretty good teams and they've come back strong." Holtz called sophomore QB Chase Clement, who accounted for four TDs against Tulsa, "the guy that makes the engine work." Tragedy remembered: Before the ECU-Marshall game, the Pirates unveiled a plaque honoring the 75 Marshall University football players, coaches, administrators and fans killed in a Nov. 14, 1970 plane crash, still considered the most catastrophic airplane accident in American athletic history. The plane was returning from Greenville, where the Thundering Herd had played East Carolina earlier in the day. The plaque will be on permanent display outside the visitor's team entrance at ECU's Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The long-awaited film, "We are Marshall," premieres Dec. 22. It dramatizes the efforts of Coach Jack Lengyel, played by Matthew McConaughey, to rebuild the program. Further reveiw: Central Florida head coach George O'Leary supports using instant replay to correct officiating calls, but not C-USA's current system. A technical adviser in the press box uses a pager to notify the game referee when a play is being reviewed. "I thought we had the best system last year when we had the video on the field and the referee looked at him himself. He's responsible for the game, so I don't think the game should be taken out of his hands," O'Leary said. East Division Conference All Games W L PF PA W L PF PA East Carolina 5 2 171 136 6 4 235 212 So. Miss 4 2 146 105 6 4 241 192 Marshall 3 3 177 159 4 6 255 288 UAB 2 4 135 164 3 7 183 241 C. Florida 2 4 133 179 3 7 192 313 Memphis 0 6 135 214 1 9 223 323 West Division Houston 6 1 252 153 8 3 369 245 Tulsa 4 2 164 118 7 3 285 200 Rice 4 2 206 200 5 5 284 347 SMU 3 3 155 157 5 5 264 239 UTEP 3 3 162 159 5 5 288 288 Tulane 1 5 117 209 3 7 211 353 SATURDAY Houston at Memphis, 1 p.m. Central Florida at Tulane, 1 p.m. East Carolina at Rice, 2 p.m. Tulsa at SMU, 2 p.m. Texas-El Paso at Marshall, 3:30 p.m. UAB at Southern Miss (CSTV), 7 p.m. |
