I once made a joke at work that my little rant about The Way Things Are was just me doing a little Two Minutes Hate. I was met with bewildered stares. Surely, I thought, a reference to a scene in a book we all were required to read in high school was common ground?
So it goes.
Not only is it UTSA HATE WEEK but it is also a huge came for the league. Random twitter accounts are posting scenarios for the league title game. People will be watching because it is an important game for Memphis, FAU, Army, et al.
For the Mean Green, we simply need to win out and not hope and pray. A loss? Well, we’ll be scoreboard watching.
American
Florida Atlantic racked up 563 yards of total offense and earned bowl eligibility for the first time since 2020 in a 60-29 win over UTSA.
East Carolina K Andrew Conrad, in what was his first field goal attempt of the season, nailed a 55-yard FG as time expired to lift ECU to a 20-17 win over South Florida.
Pirates WR Landon Sides caught 14 passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns.
ECU is now one win away from bowl eligibility after the win over USF. The Pirates are looking to reach a bowl game for the fifth time in the last six years.
Tulsa picked up its largest margin of victory in a game since 2012 in a 60-10 victory over Tulane.
The loss was so bad for Tulane the AD issued a statement. Tulane has an entry in the Misery Index.
UAB scored 20 straight points to close the third quarter and start the fourth in the 23-12 victory over Charlotte.
UNT held a 17-14 lead with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter and scored 35 of the next 38 points to remain unbeaten in conference play.
Notable performances:
Leonard Farrow, RB, Florida Atlantic
Farrow rushed 12 times for 126 yards, averaging 10.5 yards per carry, and a touchdown while also catching two passes for 23 yards and added another receiving TD.Caden Veltkamp, QB, Florida Atlantic
Veltkamp completed 17-of-25 passes for 210 yards and four touchdowns in the 60-29 win over UTSA.Easton Messer, WR, Florida Atlantic
Messer caught seven passes for 85 yards and three touchdowns and also threw a 14-yard touchdown pass in the victory over UTSA.Mekhi Anderson, WR, UTSA
Anderson finished with six catches for 77 yards and a touchdown in the loss vs. Florida Atlantic.Landon Sides, WR, East Carolina
Caught 14 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown in the 20-17 win vs. South Florida.Ashton Gray, RB, East Carolina
Gray finished with 101 rushing yards on 18 carries while also catching three passes for 26 yards against USF.Oran Singleton Jr., WR., Tulsa
Singleton caught 13 passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns in the 60-10 victory over Tulane.Baylor Hayes, QB, Tulsa
Hayes completed 26-of-33 passes for 338 yards and four passing touchdowns in the win over Tulane.Rod Robinson II, RB, UAB
Robinson II rushed 14 times for 101 yards and also brought in four receptions for 30 yards in UAB’s 23-12 win over Charlotte.Marlin Dean, DL, UAB
Tallied three sacks, four total tackles and a forced fumble in the 23-13 victory over Charlotte.Jahiem White, RB, UNT
White rushed 21 times for 139 yards and three touchdowns and caught four passes for 31 yards in the 52-23 win over Rice.Jackson Gutierrez, QB, Navy
Gutierrez accounted for six touchdowns in the win going 6-of-11 through the air for 178 yards and a touchdown while rushing 30 times for 180 yards and scoring five more times on the ground.JoJo Bermudez, WR, Temple
Bermudez caught two passes for 55 yards and a touchdown while also returning three punts for 159 yards including a 78-yard touchdown.
Results
WEEK 10 SCHEDULE
Thursday, November 5
Florida Atlantic 60, UTSA 29* (7:30 p.m., ESPN)
Friday, November 6
East Carolina 20, South Florida 17* (7:30 p.m., ESPN2)
Saturday, November 7Tulsa 60, Tulane 10* (12:00 p.m., ESPNU)
UAB 23, Charlotte 12* (3:30 p.m., ESPN+)
Navy 42, Temple 35* (3:30 p.m., CBSSN)
UNT 52, Rice 23* (4:00 p.m., ESPNU)
Air Force 24, Army 21 (6:30 p.m., CBS)
This week:
WEEK 11 SCHEDULE
Thursday, November 12
Memphis at South Florida* (8:00 p.m., ESPN)
Saturday, November 14
East Carolina at Charlotte* (1:00 p.m., ESPN+)
UAB at Temple* (1:00 p.m., ESPN+)
Tulane at Rice* (2:00 p.m., ESPN+)
Florida Atlantic at Tulsa* (3:00 p.m., ESPN+)
UNT at UTSA* (9:00 p.m., ESPN+)
* - American Conference Game
Standings
UNT 5-0
Memphis 4-1
UTSA 4-1 ←North Texas opponent this week
Army 4-2
FAU 3-2 ← North Texas won
UAB 3-2 ← North Texas future opponent
ECU 3-2
USF 2-3
Tulsa 2-3 ← North Texas won
Navy 2-4 ← North Texas won
Charlotte 1-4 ← North Texas won
Temple 1-4
Rice 0-5 ← North Texas won
If there is a concern about North Texas’ performance, it might be becuause NT has feasted on weak opposition. Tulsa showed a flash of goodness, and maybe is underperforming, and the same can be said about Navy (who had to overcome a blown 28-point lead vs Temple). Charlotte and Rice are bad, however.
The counterpoint there is that UTSA barely beat Rice by 2-points, required game-winning drives against USF and Navy, and were thumped by FAU this past week.
They are better at home and should be respected.
Elsewhere
Florida State hired an athletic director.
TxSt AD gives interview with John Canzano about the transition. Quotes from D1.Ticker
Overall, Damphousse projected the move to the Pac-12 will cost an additional $1M annually in travel expenses but emphasized the brand exposure and national relevance heavily outweigh those costs. Notably, Damphousse revealed that Texas State, which enrolls 48K students as the state’s third-largest university, saw out-of-state applications spike 300% and international applications jump 700% following recent athletic success.
On the massive earned media value generated by competitive national broadcasts: “500K people watched that [Boise State] game. ... But then I just got a report this morning on the number of media mentions after the game. 10M social media mentions ... 500M reaches. ... That’s a half a billion people heard about Texas State because of that game. And you just can’t, I can’t buy that kind of advertising reach.”
Michigan fired Jason Beck.
NC State hired Phillip Rivers.
No more APR score as determinant for 5-7 bowl eligible teams.
Dana Holgorson fired by Matt Rhule